The Fever That Drives the Infection Away

In 1868, German physician Carl Wunderlich published a landmark study establishing 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit as the baseline for human body temperature. What he also documented was something doctors had observed for centuries: when harmful bacteria invade, the hypothalamus deliberately raises that temperature. The resulting fever feels miserable — aching muscles, chills, bone-deep fatigue. But the body knows exactly what it is doing. Most dangerous bacteria thrive at normal body temperature. Push to 101 or 102 degrees, and their reproductive enzymes malfunction. White blood cells multiply faster in the heat. The invaders find themselves in an environment they simply cannot survive.

James 4:7 describes a strikingly similar defense for the soul: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." The body doesn't defeat infection by ignoring it or fighting on the bacteria's terms. It submits to its own God-given design — even when that submission feels deeply uncomfortable — and creates conditions the enemy cannot tolerate.

Submission to God works the same way. When we align our wills with the Almighty through prayer, obedience, and honest surrender, we change our spiritual environment. The devil doesn't flee because we are strong enough to frighten him. He flees because a life fully submitted to God is territory he cannot hold.