Tag Archives: enemy

Battling The Loser

Bible Study, , ,

BATTLING THE LOSER

“Then some Jews from Antioch and Iconium caught up with them and turned the fickle crowd against them. They beat Paul unconscious, dragged him outside the town and left him for dead. But as the disciples gathered around him, he came to and got up. He went back into town and the next day left with Barnabas for Derbe.” Acts 14:19-20 (The Message).

A close shave for Paul, but all in a day’s work! It seems that this interlude did not put him off. He had a calling and a commission which he would not renege on, no matter what it cost him. Put yourself in his shoes. How much more would you have stomached from your fellow-Jews before you packed up and went home? Not Paul! There was a determination in his spirit that refused to be beaten down by the enemy.

Why was Paul able to write the letters he did, which have been the strength and support of millions of people down through the generations? He was drawing from the wealth of his own experience, hammered out in real-life situations, to build up the believers who had been won through many a hard-fought battle.

Who was the enemy? Not people, as he had come to realise, because people are deceived into believing what is not true if their minds are not fortified by the truth. These Jews who hounded him from city to city were just like their leaders back in Jerusalem who perceived that Jesus was a blasphemer and not the Son of God as He claimed to be; so they killed Him.

They refused to believe that God was kind enough to send His Son to rescue mankind from the results of their rebellion. Their religion was a self-help affair that put their God under obligation to them. It was a hard pill to swallow to change their thinking to believe that they were helpless to do anything about their plight and to put their trust in someone who had been executed for blasphemy against God and treason against Rome.

Paul knew what spiritual warfare was. He had been in the conflict from birth, on the wrong side, believing that his way was right and trying to exterminate the enemy by killing those who opposed him. He had to learn that the real enemy was not people but the one who was deceiving and using people to do his dirty work – the devil and his demons.

He changed allegiance when he was confronted by the living Jesus on the Damascus road. Just as fanatical as he was for his religion as a young Pharisee, so committed was he to the Jesus he had once persecuted. Paul had to learn that he touched Jesus every time he touched one of Jesus’ people. He also learned that every time a person touched him, it was the enemy of Jesus behind that person, actively opposing the work of Jesus in him.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 (NIV).

Where do these forces most powerfully operate? In the minds and hearts of people, of course! Satan, the counterfeiter, knows that, to get people to act for him, he must control them through what they believe. Influence them to believe lies and they will do exactly what he wants — sow conflict and chaos wherever they are.

Through the Word and the Holy Spirit, God is constantly offering us the knowledge of the truth. When we believe the truth that He is here, He is good and He is in charge, we have no need to fight people. All we need to do is to stand firm on the truth of who God is and what He has said. No need to “pull down strongholds” except in our own minds, to identify “spirits”, or to do anything to defeat the devil. Jesus did that on the cross.

We have one instruction which takes care of the devil and his lies – “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 (NIV). Paul had no need to oppose or fear the people who had attacked him. They were not the enemy. He could quite safely go back into town because he had overcome the enemy within, the hatred and revenge that would have destroyed his peace and put him at enmity with the Spirit of God in him.

This is War

Christian Life, , , ,

THIS IS WAR

“‘When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he’s beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered.

“This is war and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.'” Luke 11:21-23 (The Message).

The reaction of the crowd to Jesus when He drove a dumb spirit from a man gave Him the opportunity to warn them that their bigoted opinion of His mercy and their antagonism towards Him put them in a dangerous position – there is no neutral ground when it comes to Him. They could not stand on the side-lines and voice their skeptical and caustic comments and expect to be part of a kingdom that was based on love and trust.

What was His little story about the strong man intended to convey? Was He talking about His mission on earth? Was He telling them to watch out because they were backing the wrong side? Satan thought he was strong enough to guard his territory but he was powerless against one who was stronger than he and who had the authority to evict him and reoccupy the territory that He owned in the first place. The very weapons he thought were invincible, would be his undoing,

What is the weapon Satan thinks will enable him to get what he wants – the allegiance and worship of the people God made for Himself? His most effective weapon is deception, the lies he has woven around whom he is and what he does. He is the father of lies. He dupes people into believing that they can live without God, do exactly as they please and then have an afterlife of bliss and pleasure without Him breathing down their necks. What a terrible lie!

How does Jesus unmask the deceiver and take away his weapons? With the truth! The cross is the clearest demonstration and declaration of the truth. What does it say? That God is in charge, that God is just and that rebellion against Him is punishable by death. It also says that God is loving and merciful and He paid the price for our rebellion by taking our penalty on Himself. Satan’s weapon of lies is powerless to cover up the truth.

In relation to this universal conflict between lies and truth, no-one can be neutral. This is war to the death and whoever does not believe THE truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came in the flesh to reveal the Father and to take the place of sinners in order to ransom them and set them free from their debt, is an enemy and doomed to the fate awaiting the devil and his demons.

That is exactly what the devil is aiming for, that he can take as many people as he can down with him. There is only one way out of his trap – to believe and receive the truth. Not to side with Jesus is automatically to side with the enemy and to side with the enemy is to choose destruction. God gives every person what he chooses.