Do you want the enemy to flee? You must do this as well.

Shawn A. Akers

For many believers, James 4:7 can be a very uplifting scripture. To know the enemy “must flee” when you resist him is a comforting thought.

That scripture, however, comes with a pre-existing condition—one that many Christ followers might miss. The entire scripture reads, “Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, MEV).

Submit yourselves to God. The Greek word for submit is hupotasso, which means “to arrange in order under.” It is a military term, and in the military, there is a strong sense of submission to anyone of higher rank.

It is this part of James 4:7 that might become lost on some.

Submission to God means yielding to His authority and will. It means a commitment to Him and to His control. It means following Him at any cost.

God rewards those who love Him and submit to Him. In Deuteronomy 11:13-14, He told the Israelites, “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil” (MEV).

He goes on to say in verses 22-23, “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves” (MEV).

In other words, submit completely to God and He WILL give you the desires of your heart—including a fleeing enemy. Make it your mission today to surrender everything to Him.