Note: When
we are walking in fear, we are anticipating the plans of the devil will
succeed. When we are walking in faith, we are anticipating God’s plan to
succeed.
The first principle
in any warfare is to know who your enemy is and of what they are capable. And the
most powerful enemy is one that is there that you do not think is there.
If you have
an enemy that you do not believe exists but he is there, then he may have already
won.
Essentially
there are 3 enemies that we all face: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
·
The
world is the world system, its values, and principles that all disregard God.
·
The
flesh. This is your flesh and is our fallen nature due to sin.
And those two
enemies wouldn't even have a foothold or power without a third enemy, which is
the devil.
The devil
uses both our flesh and the world to attack us.
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places.
John Phillips: “Our
enemies are not people. We must see beyond people. Satan may use people to
persecute us, lie to us, cheat us, hurt us, or even kill us. But our real enemy
lurks in the shadows of the unseen world, moving people as pawns on the chessboard
of time. As long as we see people as enemies and wrestle against them, we will
spend our strength in vain.”
The more we
know the tactics of any enemy, the better able we are to prepare a defense so
that we may remain unmoved. Scripture details many examples of our enemy’s
strategies.
Ø Our Enemy: The Great Deceiver
Revelation 12:9 refers to him: “He who deceives the whole world.”
He does this
by camouflaging and counterfeiting, by trying to imitate the work of God and he
often does it very effectively.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV) “whose minds the god of
this age has blinded, who do not believe.”
The devil is
a liar and a deceiver. He uses the same tactics he used in the Garden when he
tempted Adam and Eve to disobey the commands of God.
Satan came
to Adam and Eve and called into question God’s command regarding the eating of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17).
He misquoted
God, Gen 3:1 “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of
the garden’?”
Eve
corrected that misquote, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but
God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Satan tried
again, telling them they would not actually die—that God had lied in an effort
to keep them from becoming as wise as God Himself (Genesis 3:4-5). He deceived
them!
Satan
operates by pointing out the things we don’t have.
The devil
doesn’t remind you of all the blessings you do have or the wonderful
promises of God.
He makes you
think if you had this or that you would be complete.
The devil
wants nothing more than for you to worship anything other than God.
Ø Our Enemy is The Great Divider:
Satan’s
purpose is to divide and conquer. He wants to split marriages, split
friendships, sow division through racism, and politics, etc...
Satan has
always been a divider.
·
Revelation
12 tells us when he was cast out of heaven, he even divided the angels as he
took a 3rd of them with him.
·
In
Genesis 4 he instigated division in the first family, pitting Cain against
Abel.
What the
devil has done throughout the Bible is what he wants to do with every person.
That is to separate us from God and separate us from each other.
He is the
opposite of Christ who said, (Mark
12:30-31) “love the Lord your God and love your neighbor”.
The devil
does not know the meaning of unity and has no concept of it. His entire
strategy is one of causing division.
He is the
great deceiver, the great divider, and the great destroyer.
Ø Our Enemy: The Great Destroyer
In the Book
of Job when God allowed satan access to the life of Job, what did he do?
What did satan
do when he was given free rein on Job and his family?
·
He
destroyed everything.
·
He
destroyed his servants, his livestock, his children, his family
·
satan
is the destroyer!
With the Bible,
we have been handed a playbook for how satan operates. The New Testament warns
us to “watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6), to “gird up the loins of your
mind, be sober” (1 Peter 1:13), and “be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Lions roar
to establish their identity, presence, and dominance. But when it comes to the
attack, they creep silently through the tall grass or lie patiently in wait for
hours, until they are within striking distance of their prey.
Lions are
nocturnal and do most of their hunting under the cover of darkness, and they
don’t pounce until they have separated their prey from the protection of the
herd.
Lions roar
when they’re walking around, but when they attack, it’s always a surprise to
the one being pursued.
As believers
we should not think because satan is not roaring and drawing attention to
himself that he is not there. He has roared throughout history. His presence is
known even if not seen.
It is when
we are wounded and alone that we become especially vulnerable to the enemy’s
attacks. Satan chooses his timing and knows when we are our most vulnerable.
He knows
exactly how to attack us, when to attack us, and he knows all our weakest
points. That is how he operates.
Satan’s only
plan for our life is to try to destroy us. He wants to destroy our influence and
the impact we make for the Kingdom of God.
Ø We Have Assurance Against satan’s
Attacks
Because we
know that satan will try to attack us in secret and in scheming ways, we have
no reason not to be prepared.
(We
Defend Ourselves)
Ephesians 6:13-17 (NKJV) Therefore take up the whole armor of
God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with
truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and
having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above
all, taking the shield of faith with which, you will be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take
the helmet of salvation.
These first
5 pieces of armor are all defensive pieces. These armaments defend us against
our spiritual attacks.
(Our
Offensive Weapons)
Ø We Fight our Enemy With Prayer:
Ephesians 6:18 (NLT) You must pray at all times as the Holy Spirit leads you
to pray. Pray for the things that are needed. You must watch and keep on
praying. Remember to pray for all Christians.
Prayer is
more powerful than we may realize. When we pray, we’re entering the throne room
of God and stepping onto the battlefield.
Over and
over in Scripture we see proof of answered prayer.
Elijah prayed fervently seven times
for God to end the drought plaguing Israel, and on the seventh time God sent
rain. (1 Kings 18:41-45)
James tells
us, “The prayer of faith will save the sick,” and “The effective, fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5: 15, 16)
·
If
we’re not seeing answers to our prayers, maybe it’s because we’re giving up too
soon.
·
If
we don’t believe our prayers are effective against our enemy, then they
probably won’t be. If we don’t believe, how will our faith ever grow.
·
Faith
comes before a prayer is answered or before an individual has
received what he or she has requested from God.
Prayer takes
discipline and it requires persistence and perseverance. An un-prayed prayer is
an unanswered prayer.
We need to
pray every day in advance that satan would have no place in our lives. He
operates by attacking our weaknesses first.
In prayer we
need to acknowledge the areas we struggle with and our vulnerabilities.
We must
submit these things to Christ before the devil uses them against us because he
comes to deceive, he comes to divide, and he comes to destroy you.
Ø We Fight our Enemy with God’s Word
(Sword of the Spirit):
The only
piece of armor that is offensive is the sword of the Spirit (God’s Word). God’s
Word commands us, tells us how, and is our most powerful weapon.
In Matthew 4, Jesus demonstrates this when Satan tempts him in the wilderness. Weak and
vulnerable, the Son of God takes up this weapon with the words “It. Is.
Written.”
·
Matthew 4:3-4 “If
you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.’
·
Matthew
4:6-7 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For
it is written:
“‘He will command his angels
concerning you,
and
they will lift you up in their hands,
so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do
not put the Lord your God to the test.’
·
Matthew 4: 8-10 Again, the devil
took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,”
he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to
him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the
Lord your God and serve him only.’
Three times Jesus
repeats “it is written,” quoting Scripture in the aftermath of temptations, fighting
satan’s lies with truth. And then the enemy left.
Jesus
responded to temptation from the devil by doing the same thing we can do. He
quoted scripture.
“Take that devil, “IT IS WRITTEN.”
God’s book
is enough. Jesus overcame temptation, not with special voices or some
supernatural sign but by remembering and quoting scripture. We have to read it,
rehearse it, receive it, and recite it.
Closing: God’s word is an essential weapon in
the same way prayer is essential in our ongoing warfare remembering:
1 John 4:4 But
you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those
people because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives
in the world.
Takeaways:
1.
Know that satan’s plan for your life is to deceive you, divide you,
and to destroy you. Don’t live in fear. Fear is expecting the devil to move,
and it is our faith that is expecting God to move.
2.
Be prepared every day. Putting on the belt of truth, the
breastplate of righteousness, shod your feet, grab your shield of
faith, your helmet of salvation, and the sword of the truth.
3. You Pray! You enter into the throne room of God and step onto the battlefield. You take on the fight in advance and you pray!
