Ephesians 3:14-19 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
Tthat ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
The next point in Paul’s list that can, really, only be effectively dealt with by the grace of God, is stated Ephesians 4:27. The King James Version gives it as: Neither give place to the devil. It’s interesting to note that the word translated place—in the Greek New Testament its tópos—means “a limited spot.” That means not even a tiny place, even some spot hidden back in the corner of our soul.
It’s interesting to note that Martin Luther, the great Reformation leader, gave the word diábolos—which we have translated as devil in the above verse—the meaning of “slander.” The word diábolos occurs in the Greek New Testament a total of thirty-eight times, thirty-five of these with reference to the devil himself. The word literally means “a treacherous informer” or “someone who strikes another with accusation and slander.”
We can see that the word diábolos gives us a pretty good picture of who the devil is. He has many personalities, any of which he is looking to deposit on some tiny spot in the spirits of believers. A tendency to slander someone else gives him a good landing spot.
Taking knowledge of this point in his character, we can see that his slander can work in two ways. One is that he will take any ground available to him to bring accusation against the one in whom he gains the ground. The other is that he will use that one to bring slander and accusation against someone else. We’re ready to take all ground from him!
DEAR LORD, please search—my being, my spirit, my emotions, my mind, my will, my conscience—and find any place I’ve given ground to the enemy. I look to the power of Your grace, and of the redemption, to bring me deliverance. I ask this, as in all my praying, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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