632 The Spiritual Man
stand. If one continues to exert the pressure the evil spirits will
depart.
During the battle it is positively essential that the believer stand on
Romans 6.11, acknowledging himself as one with the Lord: the
Lord’s death is his death. Such faith releases him from the authority
of the evil spirits since they can have no power over the dead. This
position must be firmly taken. In conjunction with such a stand as
this there must be the use of God’s Word against all the lies of the
enemy, because at this juncture the adversary will lie to the saint by
suggesting that he has fallen beyond any hope of restoration. If he
listens to this guile he will surely tumble into the greatest peril of all.
He should remind himself that Calvary has destroyed Satan and his
evil hosts already (Heb. 2.14; Col. 2.14-15). The work of salvation is
finished that all may experience deliverance out of the powers of
darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1.13).
Suffering for the sake of recovering ground assures a person of that
which the enemy is afraid of, and how urgent that the ground be
recovered. Consequently, whenever the wicked powers inflict new
and greater afflictions upon the believer, let him perceive that these
are from the enemy and then let him refuse and disregard them,
neither worrying nor talking about them.
If the Christian patiently endures temporary discomforts and
courageously exercises his volition to recapture surrendered territory,
he shall find himself progressively being freed. Little by little as the
ground is refused to the enemy and restored to the believer the
degree of penetration will correspondingly decrease. If he does not
cede any new ground to the enemy the latter’s power to harass him
shall diminish as the ground dwindles. While it may require some
time before he is set free completely, even so he is now on. the road
to liberation. He begins to be conscious of himself, his need for food,
his appearance, and other such elements of awareness which were
relinquished through the enemy’s attack. But he must not
misconstrue these to be a retrogression in his spiritual life. On the