Understanding the Enemy!

[Behold]

The "tactic" of the enemy is only one .

Its to capture your focus and keep it off the Lord, off of serving God, and if possible, confuse you theologically and keep you there.

See, if the Devil has your focus, then he has your mind.  If he has your mind, he has your time.   If he has your time, he is controlling your life.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Behold

[PraisingGod4ever]

I was JUST dealing with this issue right before reading this. Talk about God's timing 

He always reminds me of this when I need it. I Love God!

James 4:7,8 "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."

[JacquelineDeane55]

Thank you for the devotion. My mother once told me to never take on the devil myself, she said he was too powerful. She said that if he ever attacks I should just pray about it.

[GoofyGirl]

Thanks George. I really enjoyed this lesson and even though it was posted years ago, it still speaks to me today! 

[Whyme]

When i read the OP i thought about how we forget to put faith in God to supply our needs. 

Edited May 4, 2021 by Whyme

[Leonardo Von]

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Understanding the Enemy!

Sincerely, I prefer to invest my time knowing better Jesus and getting close to Him than to waste time thinking on the enemy!

[DeighAnn]

On 12/31/2003 at 11:28 PM, George said:

Practical Binding and Loosing!

 

First of all, let's go through the scriptures which talk about binding and loosing and then discuss the practical application for daily living!

 

 

 

 

Probably a bit busy right now with the server change over but any chance you know what happened to the rest of this post?  Maybe if you have a minute next year...Any way, thank you, I appreciate the service...d

[Leonardo Von]

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Understanding the Enemy!

Sincerely, I prefer invest all my time and energy seeking out to know Jesus better.

[Guest]

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As Christians we understand that we are in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10-12). The problem for many Christians as one writer explained is that we either over emphasis the battle; some blame every sin, every conflict, and every problem on demons, or we under emphasis it by completely ignore[ing] the spiritual realm and the fact that the Bible tells us our battle is against spiritual powers.

A difficult issue that we need to discuss in the context of spiritual warfare is the issue of the enemy. Who is the enemy? The Bible is clear that Satan and his cohorts are our enemies (Ephesians 6:12), but what about those who oppose Biblical teachings and values? What about the same-sex activist? What about the atheist? What about the liberal politician or the biased news media? Are they also our enemies?

I think that we need to tread carefully here. The Bible does talk about people who are apart from Christ as the enemies of God (Romans 5:10, 1 Corinthians 15:25). In fact it says that we were all in that camp at one time (Colossians 1:21). You could easily make the argument that anyone who is an enemy of God is automatically the enemy of the Christian.

There is, however, another very critical part of this discussion, and that is how we as Christians are to relate to our enemies. We have been conditioned by our culture to believe that the best and possibly the only way to interact with an enemy is to attack them with the ultimate goal of total victory. So we go after anyone who dares to openly, and sometimes loudly, disparage our beliefs. We want to put them in their place, to destroy their credibility, even to attack their character.

But that is not how God has told us to relate to our enemies. Instead He said love your enemies (Matthew 5:44) and if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirst, give him a drink (Romans 12:20). That’s a far different approach than many Christians have/are employed/employing. I think the problem is that we have been indoctrinated more by our culture than by our God. I’m not saying that we need to keep silent when someone takes a stand against Biblical truth, I’m just saying that we need to agree with God more than we agree with the dominant views of our culture. We need to employ God’s tactics instead of the tactics of the world. The Bible is clear that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). That alone should give us a clue that the standard operating procedures of this world are not to be those of the Christian.

The question for the Christian is not Who is our enemy? The question is How will we treat our enemies? If more Christians would begin to treat those who disagree with us with grace and compassion instead of anger and hostility we would stand a better chance of impacting the direction of our culture.

Stay in the Word
Pastor Steve

Source: The Christian and the Enemy

(Mark 2:13)  He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.
(Mark 2:14)  And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
(Mark 2:15)  And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
(Mark 2:16)  And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
(Mark 2:17)  And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  [ESV]

 

[Ani Tefillah]

On 12/4/2003 at 12:13 PM, George said:

Let's look at an interesting passage in Matthew to see just HOW IMPORTANT forgiveness truly is:

 

 

 

Notice that Jesus was telling Peter how often he was to forgive! He was telling this to a believer in Messiah. This message was not addressed to unbelievers -- but to believers!

 

 

 

Notice closely that we are just like this servant -- OUR SINS which are so GREAT -- we could never repay, but we come to the Lord in repentance in true worship -- the Lord LOOSES us and forgives us the debt that we owe.

 

 

 

What happens when choose not to forgive? Watch this closely!

 

 

 

Unforgiveness = being delivered to the TORMENTORS! It's the greek word -- basanistes and it's only used once in the entire NT. It literally means -- one who elicits the truth by the use of the rack; an inquisitor, torturer also used of a jailer doubtless because the business of torturing was also assigned to him.

 

Because of unforgiveness you could easily be delivered to the tormentors -- the tormentors of bitterness, resentment, hostility and anger! These torment your soul because in your heart of hearts, you want to be in tune with the Lord -- in His perfect agape love -- in His perfect shalom (life, fullness, and peace).

 

Learn to easily forgive your neighbor then you will find yourself FREE -- and in His freedom, you can enjoy the fulness of the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith and self-control!

 

Learn the enemies tactics -- recognize the world around you -- recognize the enemy wants to bind you up so he can steal from you! NOW THAT YOU RECOGNIZE the tactics of the enemy -- do something about it -- learn to easily forgive, if it means you need to fight through the feelings of anger, then fight through it and forgive!

 

It becomes easier and easier to forgive once you have opened your understanding that through forgiveness -- the joy of the Lord replaces the pain of the sins that you didn't want to forgive in the first place.

 

Your brother in Messiah with much agape love,

 

George

Amen and Amen! This is so true!