The enemy is real - REALLY!
via TJC
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 NLT
Today’s Wrestling Topic: We have a real enemy who wants to destroy us
The Kingdom is at war, you were made for victory - The Joshua Commission Creed
We recently came off the battlefield training at Gettysburg with a team of men. We started the entire day of training talking about the first line of the TJC creed - The Kingdom is at War. I still remember earlier this year at the Chickamauga battlefield when “the Colonel” (Norm) made the statement that if we as men of TJC didn’t know that we are in a battle then we were idiots and he wasn’t sure why we were even there. We tell it like it is on the battlefields.
If you haven’t been hanging out with us on battlefields already, and you aren’t too sure about this whole “we have an enemy” business, you aren’t alone. And the enemy (you can call him the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, whatever) and all his little helpers (demons, fallen angels, evil spirits, again, whatever works for you) want you to be confused, ignorant or even in denial about them. But if you believe what scripture says then you can’t ignore that our enemy actually exists. As Kingdom Men we have to recognize that our real battle is not like the ones fought at Chickamauga, Fredericksburg or Gettysburg.
Ephesians 6:12 says “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Our real enemy is in fact in the spiritual world - and he is organized with layers of forces lined up against us. So don’t be ignorant about him but also don’t be afraid of him or overconfident in your ability to deal with him. A great book to get an idea of how our enemy operates is The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Writing from the perspective of a senior demon mentoring a junior demon on how to keep his “patient” (the human the younger demon is assigned to) under control he says “Tortured fear and stupid confidence are both desirable states of mind.”
As Kingdom men we will not get caught in those extremes. We will stay ready for the attacks of this sneaky, underhanded, lying enemy. Our confidence will come from the knowledge that the war against this enemy has already been won, he just doesn’t recognize it yet, so battles are still being fought. Do you recognize your enemy?? Are you ready for the fight??
Daily Battle Order
Look up Ephesians 6:10-18 and read it several times. Do you see the promises of victory and the equipment we have all been given as Kingdom Men to go to war every day against this very real enemy in the spiritual world? Read this passage every morning until it is part of who you are - print it out and stick it on your mirror. Remember that the creed doesn’t just remind us that the Kingdom is at war but that You were made for VICTORY. So armor up and go kick some enemy ass today!!
Join us tomorrow for another challenging Wrestling topic.