For the power of the Word to be fully activated in your life, you must use it like a mirror. You must look into it, see who it says you are and - despite all natural appearances to the contrary - you must believe it! And once you believe it, you must act on it!

That is vital to your breakthrough. James 1:22-25 puts it this way:

But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception...]. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.

But he who looks carefully into the faultless law of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing....
(James 1:22-25)

I'll never forget when I first learned the truth of that scripture. I had been battling depression for many months. It was the end of February and I almost had the victory.

Throughout that illness, there had been times when darkness would come over me in an overwhelming way. At those times, I could hear a host of demons coming toward me and I knew when they reached me the torment was going to be so great I could hardly bear it.

I wasn't demon possessed, but I was demon obsessed and oppressed. When they attacked me in that way it felt as though they were pecking my brains out. They would scream inside my head with the loudest screams you ever heard. Immediately I would go into a trance and lay stiff as a board in my bed, unable to move.

In the early days of my fight of faith, I would hear the voice of God at those times. He would say, "Praise Me."

I felt so unable to do that, sometimes I would just put the pillow over my head. But then God would speak to me again. "Lift your hands and praise Me!"

Do you know why He told me to do that? Because of what it says in Psalm 8:2. "Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have established strength (or praise, as Jesus put it in Matthew 21:15) because of Your foes, that You might silence the enemy and the avenger."

Praise stills the enemy!

So I would try it. I was so weak it would take every ounce of my strength pushing as hard as I could to lift my arms and say, "Praise You, Lord." But I did it and I found that by the time I said "Praise You" 25 times, the devil always left!

For seven months, that's all I knew to get me through those horrible attacks. Then one day, the Lord began saying something new to me. It seemed to me a very strange thing to say at the time. When those demon powers would try to come rushing in on me, He would tell me, "Ye are mighty. Isn't that true?"

I can tell you, I didn't feel mighty. There I was, a little, puny woman, lying in the bed wanting to pull the covers over my head. I seemed the very picture of weakness. Yet over and over, the Lord would speak to my heart and say, "Ye are mighty. Isn't that true?"

He wanted me to agree with Him but I just couldn't. As I was meditating that scripture passage in James one day, however, suddenly I realized what I was doing wrong. I realized that I had been looking in the Bible, reading that I was mighty in the Lord, reading that I was an overcomer and more than a conqueror.

But when I shut the book and walked away from that mirror of the Word, I would forget what kind of person I was in Jesus. I would forget that I was mighty!

Once I understood that, I saw what the Lord was trying to get me to do. He was wanting me to believe and act like I was mighty—regardless of my feelings.

When I got that revelation, it was all over for the devil. I determined that every time he sent that demon hoard my way, I was going to leap to my feet, grab my Bible and act like the "Mighty Man" I was. I determined I was going to quote the Word and put that devil under my feet. I was going to make him pay for every moment he spent in my presence.

I did it too. And do you know what? It wasn't long before he quit coming. It wasn't long before he fled in total defeat!

Cut the Devil to Shreds
Maybe you aren't facing exactly the situation I was facing. Maybe today, you're fighting the battle of faith on a different front. Maybe the devil is trying to steal your finances or your marriage, your physical health or your children.

I know one thing for sure, he is trying to steal something from you because he is a thief by nature; and the Bible tells us the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10).

He'll do it too, if you're not mighty. He'll take everything you'll let him have. He'll put you in bondage then he'll keep you there, if you don't resist him.

So start resisting him today! Get the Word of God and begin to meditate on it. Speak it. Pray it. Think on it. Act it out if necessary. Do whatever you need to do to get that Word rooted solidly in your heart.

Then rise up, take that Sword of the Spirit and cut the devil to threads with it. You may feel like running for cover. You may feel like hiding under the bed. But don't do that.

Instead, remember, Ye are mighty!

Believe it. Act on it. For it is the truth and the truth will make you free!

Source: Dare To Be Free by Lynne Hammond
Excerpt permission granted by Mac Hammond Ministries