Let’s say you are determined to go forward for the Lord. Maybe you’re determined to share your faith more with others. Maybe you’re determined to get the victory over some “besetting sin” (Hebrews 12:1) in your life, alcoholism, gluttony, lethargy, materialism or whatever. But you’ve set your face to go forward to greater obedience, to overcome and really gain ground in the Spirit for the Lord.
Well, I almost hate to tell you this (and you probably know it anyway) but it’s like this: if you do it the right way, the enemy will fight you. The hellish, fiendish “god of this world” (II Cor.4:4) doesn’t plan to give up territory he thinks is his and perhaps actually is his at this time. So you can expect that, one way or the other, the enemy will fight back and do all he can to thwart your plans, your dreams and your desires to go forward for the Lord.
How does he do that? He sends ISIS or some radical Muslim to destroy your life? Usually he’s more subtle than that. I think the vast majority of the time the enemy uses words and thoughts to deter us from our determination to more greatly obey the Lord. And folks, I’ve seen it happen recently and I’ve seen it happen when I was in my 20’s and every step in between.
The devil is the accuser of the saints. The Bible even talks about “false accusers in the last days” (II Tim. 3:3). And the pitiful thing is, the devil can tell you a lot of truth about yourself (or your friends, coworkers or loved ones) not to mention all the lies he tells. But whatever he can find in his dirty bag of tricks, his awful arsenal of evil, he’ll throw it your way. And, sadly, it’s not like it never works. Lies, fears, discouragement, the past, the future, confusion, division, discord, accusations, “revelations”, the list is almost endless of what starts coming at you when you are starting out to climb the mountain of God’s higher will and calling in your life.
Paul the apostle said of the devil “we are not ignorant of his devices”. (II Corinthians 2:11) But it can be downright disheartening how many of the Lord’s sincere saints are sidetracked from the direction the Lord has led them when the enemy pulls out his big guns and starts shooting. And for the most part, it’s all in a battle of the mind. If the devil can persuade you to quit and give up, he doesn’t need to waste his time with any violent persecution of you. You’ve already been eliminated by being overcome by his confusion, fears, false narrative or whatever.
A real doozy is when the devil can pull up something that is actually true and use it against you. It may be something about your life, your weaknesses, your past, someone else’s past, some mistake you or someone else has made, things like that. And he just keeps playing that song and that “fact” in your head without ceasing, if you let him. After all, it is true, you can’t deny it.
But the deal is, there are other things that are much more important that are also true and are what the Lord wants you to focus on. It’s like the verse in the Bible, “this wisdom descends not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” (James 3:15) But it is some form of wisdom, just that it’s not the wisdom from above. Some facts are like that: things that are true but if you focus on them, they’ll lead you right out of the will of God and the mindset He wants you to have. I’ve seen it happen, recently.
Paul said one time, “None of these things move me” (Acts 20:24). He said to the Galatians, “But though we or an angel of heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8) Later on he said to the Galatians, “You did run well, who has bewitched you?” Galatians 3:1 & 5:7)
Often we learn these things through very hard experiences. We learn some of this when we have fallen for this type of device of the enemy, whatever it may be. “The fear of man brings a snare.” (Proverbs 29:25) We are afraid of what people will say and their opinions of us. Or our heart condemns us and tells us that God can’t use us. Or there’s some division that the enemy works among brethren to stop the progress of God’s troops.
But whatever it is, I can guarantee you that it will happen if you are truly going forward to win the battles of the Lord and regain ground from the enemy, in whatever form it may take. So just expect it, don’t fear it or let it frighten or deter you but be prepared, have on the armor of God, and trust that the victory that is needed has already been won for us on the cross when Christ there defeated the enemy of our souls. May He help all of us to be winners in the battles He is leading us into, not victims but victors. God bless you to be fighters for Him.
Important counsel to expect spiritual battles especially when starting important Gospel life projects!
Good article, Mark! Very true! The enemy can tell us a lot of ‘truth’ about ourselves that’s awful, not to speak of the lies he tells us, and if we start listening to him there’s no end until he’s got us totally defeated! The only antidote is to resist the devil and make him flee, by praising the Lord in spite of others, ourselves or circumstances.
Paul testifies to how he got the victory over both spiritual and physical attacks of the enemy, in some of his Epistles, and the victory was looking unto Jesus and trusting in Him rather than in themselves.
2 Corinthians 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
2 Corinthians 1:7-9
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
The fact is that if or when whatever you are putting your confidence in is attacked and defeated, or shown to be flawed or full of holes, then it’s impossible to stand on it confidently! You can stand on a solid rock no matter what, but you can’t stand on sandstone, or an earthen mound in a flood or torrent, as the ground will literally give way beneath your feet and you’ll have nothing to hold you up or keep you from falling.
That’s the way it is when we try to depend on our own self-‘righteousness’ and ourselves instead of the Lord. Our own self-‘righteousness’ and best self-efforts or works of the flesh are like that sandstone or earthen mound, which simply cannot stand up to the floods of the enemy because they are filthy rags, and wood, hay and stubble.
But Paul said that they had the ‘sentence of death in themselves’, they had crucified the flesh and their dead works, and instead were bearing their cross, dying daily and trusting in the LORD’s righteousness alone, and demonstrating that faith and trust by humble and loving obedience. THAT is standing on the ROCK CHRIST JESUS!
And when our ground is sure, and cannot be washed away no matter what the devil throws at you, then we, having done all (through obedience) can ‘STAND’ and more than that go forward and attack and take ground from the enemy knowing our footing is sure; while the devil blows, huffs and puffs himself out, and runs himself ragged trying to ‘wash us out’. He’s only blowing himself out, while we’re standing victorious on the Solid Ground of the Word and our obedience to it! 🙂
Luke 6:47-49
47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
GBY bro! Thanks for sharing these important lessons! 🙂