ROMANS 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Many people are still unaware of this, yet the New Testament makes it clear that all Christians have power against the devil thanks to God. Therefore, it is our duty to use that power to cast out the devil.
Here are a few verses that illustrate that.
LUKE 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
MARK 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
EPHESIANS 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
JAMES 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
However, Romans 16:20 (see above) seems to convey a different message in the New Testament. It seems to imply that we should wait for God to deal with the devil on our behalf rather than taking action on our own. This verse made me confused for a very long time since it seemed to violate the rest of the New Testament's teaching.
So who is now in charge of managing the devil? Has that duty really been entrusted to believers? Should we instead look to God and expect Him to act?
Should we act with the power Jesus gave us, or should we wait for God to prevent the devil from working in our lives?
I eventually spotted it one day. Romans 16:20 does not imply that God will take action against the devil on his own. Satan will be crushed UNDER YOUR FEET as God works through you. Your feet will be the ones doing the crushing. God's power will be at work within you, but it will be your own feet. In other words, you have to do something. The demon must be confronted and stepped on.
Romans 16:20 appears to suggest that God would resist the devil, which would be in direct opposition to all the previous verses. But once you understand that God is using the believer to subdue the demon, there is no contradiction. In other words, the power to subdue the demon belongs to God, but the believer must do so.
Believers need to use their power and battle the demon. We cannot wait for God to perform the command He gave us.
SAY THIS: The devil is under my feet as part of God's plan.
