Know thine enemy, a quote from the book, The Art of War dating back to the 5th Century B.C. It is a tactic that many a general has employed for millennium since. Knowing ones enemy takes the surprise out of their attacks and helps you build a good defense but also helps you look into an effective offense so when the time is right, you can defeat them.
Knowing our enemy as Christians, is vital to help us in the daily war we participate in. Most people right now would say, right on, get rid of those Democrats and get Trump back in there. He'll straighten them out. Others would target the media or Hollywood or this or that, basically anything that upsets their delicate sensibilities. When I was that age, if I had holes in my pants I'd get smacked by my father for ruining a good pair of jeans. When I was their age, nobody ran around with colored hair. Sound familiar.
Often we target the outward physical realm. What we see and hear, what we touch and taste to guide us in our discernment of the world we live in. We look at someone's taste in clothes or fashion, we hear their harsh words, we judge their behavior yet this is all fruit of what is underneath. Jesus said, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and likewise a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, meaning, the heart of someone bears fruit according to how their heart is. How is the heart motivated? Depends on where you are living.
Sound confusing? Let's break it down into chewable parts. The heart of man is not the muscle that beats within his chest. Again if we must change the way we understand how God works and our underlying issues. The heart is a combination of the mind, soul and spirit that is in us. These three things form one cohesive structure sometimes know as a persons personality or character. The heart of man, during the fall, was corrupted by the enemy. For the first time our minds thought of something different than trust. Our feelings which dwell in our soul moved from happiness and joy to dread and condemnation. Our spirit went from knowing God to being disconnected from Him. It was as though we were ripped from our womb and sent into a harsh cruel world. Therefore, the heart of man knew no good from that time until the Law. The Law came to show us of our depravity, yet in our depraved state we took it and ran with the notion of Law equals life. If someone takes a filthy dirt caked shirt and threw it in a washer with other clean shirts with no soap, wouldn't all the shirts come out dirty. Hence, the issue with the Law. With filthy intensions we tried to fulfill something we couldn't do and we ended up corrupting the very Law that was sent to point out our corruption. Then there was Jesus, the only one who could guide us into the light and show us how to do it.
With sayings like you must die to live and you must be last to be first, His words opened up a whole new world and it sent our corrupted heart into a battle ground. Now, it's up to us to decide. For the first time since the fall of man we had a choice to make, stay in corruption that is so deep it confuses the wearer of it into thinking it is normal or follow the light and be one with God again. Yet the enemy has had much time to create ways to trap us in our corrupted state.
Pride is one of the most powerful tool the enemy has in its arsenal. Pride got us kicked out of the garden and come to think of it, the devil got kicked out of Heaven for the same thing. Pride flies in the face of God as it will try and make us think we are higher and mightier than He. Pride made the Israelites crucify Jesus. Pride kept King Saul from being like David. Pride caused Samson to lose his vision. Pride can even make a Christian think he's righteous. Pride is one of the sneakiest tactics the enemy uses. It makes us feel powerful and mighty even though it's a false sense of it. Pride can ruin relationships quicker than anything and the enemy knows it. When one is full of pride, he never relies on God or anyone else for help or advice. They think they know everything they need to know to live and if they don't know it, they'll learn how to do it. Pride destroys, watch out and if you just said in your mind, I don't have pride, you failed. Saying you don't have pride is pride.
Worry/doubt is the opposite of pride yet just as deadly. Worry and doubt is the lack of confidence in yourself and most would think that is good. However, when someone worries, they often think they aren't worth God's time. Worry and doubt are in partnership with dread, fear, anxiety and anything that creates depression, loneliness and separation. The heart of a worrier tends to believe they aren't able to be loved. The enemy whisper constant claims of doubt in their ear and reinforces the ideas that God doesn't love them. They live in darkness and surround themselves with negativity.
The enemy knows those well and uses them constantly and in every variation and combination known. If someone is gifted with intellect, athleticism or riches, basically anything they can be proud of, then there's the voices telling you that you deserve it. You worked hard for it. You, you, you. If someone is poor, constantly facing hardships and setbacks, the voices say; your not worthy, you don't matter, your not loved. Inevitably, thousands of scenarios play out daily as we will listen to those voices and swing back and forth from one extreme to the other.
The enemy uses others to cause doubt and pride too. You ever seen a mom who celebrates their kids way too much. You know, the ones that over inflate the child's ego and pride. Then when they grow up, move out and life happens, the pendulum swings the other way and what once was pride is now doubt and self condemnation. There's also the kid that had the Father that never said I love you, let alone displayed it. You know the father that had the father that never loved him. The voices take over and self loathing, distancing and maybe even suicide could happen.
All this from the enemy taking a situation and compounding it so much that our hearts are manipulated into believing it. Even when truth is presented to them, they are so entrenched, they can't except the truth as truth. Instead they violently appose the truth calling it a lie because they have lived in a lie so long, it's become their truth and they'll defend it. The enemy is always there and always watching for the right moment to strike. They will pick ever so slightly at you that you'll never know it's them. They'll hound you and constantly work on you till you cave in to what they have suggested.
We are not without hope. To know thine enemy is to know that they are stronger and more clever than you. To know them is to try and not defeat them in your own power. They'll laugh at you and keep coming. Yet we know the one who can defeat them and we can have faith in Him to do so. As I have already stated many times over. With faith in God and Jesus living in us, we do not need to worry about trying to defeat the enemy as they will always flee in His presence. They will still look for that one moment of weakness, that one moment where we think we can handle something in our own power and then they will draw you out and lead you away.
A specific scenario could be where you worried for a moment about an upcoming big decision. That worry is the one small crack where you stepped out of faith in God to handle it and they have you like a fish on a hook. The more you fight to get off the hook the more they reel you in until your exhausted and they have you fully turned away from faith and now your in full doubt spiraling even further. Now when this happens, when doubt or worry comes to mind for that moment and they start to reel you in, just remember the truth. Don't condemn yourself for being caught, don't fall for their lies about you or about God's love for you. Just say your sorry for doubting or worrying and go right back to walking in faith in Him. It works. He loves us all and doesn't want us to be apart from Him yet it is fully up to us to maintain our faith in Him.
One last thing, we must remain neutral in how we wage war. Switzerland had always remained neutral throughout two World Wars. They never got involved in the conflicts that surrounded them. Did they have a preference, most likely but they didn't engage the enemy. They let the allies, with much bigger armies take care of the situation and they always promoted peace. With us, the war is waged in the spiritual realm and we should not get involved. Yes the enemy wants us involved as they want us as dead as they are but if we stand in perfect peace knowing that God has you under His protection and you walk in faith in that truth, then no harm will come to you.
Now we know that this is all in the mind, heart, soul and spirit and that yes we must still deal with physical everyday issues yet a time will come when God will give us a body that is eternal, incorruptible and perfect. This is the reward for those who overcome the world and the enemy through faith in Him.
It's a daily walk, a daily war but it is winnable in Him. Praise the Lord for that.
To God be the Glory!
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