“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” Romans 16:20 (HCSB)
So, it is the God of peace who crushes Satan, under our feet! This is important to acknowledge. It is not God the mighty warrior, or the Sovereign Lord, or the Almighty One who will do this crushing under His powerful right arm! No, it is the God of peace!
A person will often train in fighting so that they won’t have to fight. We are called into such training, as the enemy does not want us prepared to engage him, and crush him under our feet. And this simply illustrates how awesome our God is! He does the crushing under our feet. This means that we are to battle from a place of peace. We must be in alignment with the head, for our feet to have crushing power. Since the enemy’s primary battle is in our minds, we must take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
We are told that instead of being anxious about anything, we are to turn it into prayer with thanksgiving. We are told that when we do this, the peace of God that is beyond our understanding will guard our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:6-7). Paul goes on to tell us that if we fix our thoughts on good, true, noble, pure things, the God of peace will be with us (Philippians 4:8-9). Before He can crush Satan underneath our feet, He needs to be with us. And the implication here is that if we focus on the wrong things the God of peace won’t be with us. Ouch! In other words, what we think about and fill our minds with, and meditate upon really matters! Of course, God doesn’t leave us, but His peace definitely does, and we are meant to fight from a place of peace. That’s why we are instructed as warriors to put on the shoes of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15).
Here’s the thing, it is not only anxious thoughts that we are to take captive and cast at Jesus’ feet with petitions and thanksgiving. But we are also to cast fear, stress, worries, depression and all of Satan’s works at Jesus feet! And Isaiah promises that God will keep us in perfect peace as we fix our minds on Him, and that requires us to trust Him with all those things (Isaiah 24:3).
All this to say, we cannot fight this spiritual battle from any other foundation but peace. And when we lack His peace we are out of alignment with the God of peace, making us vulnerable to the devil’s schemes, deception and traps. When we are at peace, God can crush Satan underneath our feet!!!
Right now, do a peace assessment. Is there any place in your life where you don’t have peace? If there is, confess it, bring it to Jesus’ feet with thanksgiving. Submit this area to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Remember, any place where you don’t have peace is a potential open door for the enemy. Ask God to show you every door that is open, even if it is just a crack. Then lay it before the Lord and ask Him to close it. Ask Him to make your home a place of peace, where people literally comment on it when they walk in. Jesus ministers from this place of peace. And ask God to do this in your church, in your pastor and leaders. Ask Him to do this peace invasion across our city. Then the God of peace will indeed crush Satan underneath the Church in Athens!
