My Enemy.....

My Enemy.....


does not wear shoes, or nail polish or a jacket when it's cold. My enemy does not ride a motorcycle, wear gang colors or get haircuts. My enemy has not ever sat in the recliner in my living room. My enemy is not related to me by blood or marriage or work in the next cubicle over.....My enemy does not sleep next to me in the bed at night or in the next bedroom down the hall....My enemy is not of flesh and blood but of the spirit....

Don't take my word for it..... God said it, not me:

Ephesians 6:12:12For 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.

Satan wants so badly for us to see people as our enemy and not him... because then he gets away with it..."it" being hurting our feelings, destroying our marriages, planting hatred, abuse and destruction....blowing apart families, the list just goes on and on.

My inlaws are not the enemy-satan is. My child's school teacher is not the enemy-satan is. And sometimes we do such a good job of allowing the enemy to work through us he doesn't HAVE to do anything, just sit back and let us roll with our own refusal to adhere to the Word.

Is God a liar? EMPHATICALLY NO! Then why do we act like this passage is not true and continue to treat people as our enemies and not the enemy as our enemy?

I know a couple of reasons why.

When we make people the enemy we don't have to feel as accountable for our own actions, thoughts and words.

We can hang on to victim mentalities and point the finger elsewhere while saying, "see?! See what so-and-so did to me?" Then we use that to excuse our own bad behavior-such as retaliation, unforgiveness, rebellion against authority-which the bible says, by the way, is as unto witchcraft in the eyes of the Lord.

We prefer people to be the enemy so we can justify our own bad behavior.When we make people the enemy we can avoid developing the fruit of the spirit.

We say we want to be fruitful but being fruitful is painful. It hurts.

Galatians 5:22-25:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Does any of that look easy to come by? No. It is nearly impossible to love the unlovable. It is hard to have patience. Sometimes I hang on to my peace by a thread. Fruit of the spirit produces good behavior choices.

The opposite?

Hateful, Anxiety-ridden, impatient, unkind, bad/evil, unfaithful, rough, and unable to control one's self. It is important to understand that these are strongholds of the enemy. Again-not the people, but the principalities!

None of us have arrived but sometimes we are quick to excuse ourselves as not having arrived and even quicker to condemn those around us who have not arrived. As if our own behavior is of a different standard.

I MUST separate people from principalities.

I MUST separate the face of a human being, a creation of God, from the face of the enemy.

I need to hang on to Ephesians 6:12 the next time someone cuts me off in traffic and flips me the bird and remember it at the next family gathering.

I need to remember it when I am in a position to reach out to someone I have held on to in my heart as the enemy and all the while the enemy has stood right next to me laughing his head off because I didn't even know it was him that hurt me.

After reading this, lack of knowledge is no longer an excuse to walk in unforgiveness and to perish, taking out as many people around me as possible.

I cannot tell the Lord, "I didn't know! " Because now I know.

What am I going to do about it?

Acknowledge the enemy and then focus on God.

When it comes to the people around you, what would Jesus do?

Written April 11, 2006