Chapter 8 focused on who the enemy is, but knowing that is only part of the battle. Yes, we have to know who we are fighting, but if we want to win, we need to know more. We've got to know how the enemy fights. We need to know how he attacks so that we can counter it and fight back. We've got to know how the enemy works so that we can be victorious.
This battle, like D-Day, is a crucial fight that must be won. June 6, 1944 as he closed his message to the troops about to storm the beaches of Normandy Eisenhower said, "We will accept nothing less than full victory!", and that must be our mentality as well. The battle we fight is not simply for us, but for our marriages, our sons, and the souls of the world.
The enemy attacks in three stages, as I read about them I kept thinking about scenes from the movie 300 that line up with the three of them. Near the beginning of the movie a messenger from the Persian King Xerxes arrives in Sparta and offers a simple request to King Leonidas, "Earth and water." Presenting the front that all Xerxes wants is to get along, and that if they comply nothing will change.
Our enemy begins his attack in the same manner. His first tactic is to convince us "I'm not here - this is all just you." The reason being "You can't fight a battle you don't think exists." If you don't think there is an army on the way you aren't going to train for combat. If you don't believe there is an enemy at the gates you aren't going to dress for battle. And if our enemy can get us to ignore him, to simply allow things to continue as they are, believe nothing out of the ordinary is happening, then he never meets any resistance.
1 Peter 5.8-9 says, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world." "What is the Holy Spirit, through Peter, assuming about your life? That you are under spiritual attack. This is not a passage about nonbelievers; he's talking about 'your brethren.' Peter takes ir for granted that every believer is under some sort of unseen assault. And what does he insist you do? Resist the devil. Fight back, take a stand... when you ignore the Enemy, he wins. He simply loves to blame everything on us, get us feeling hurt, misunderstood, suspicious, and resentful of one another."
Think about it, if we're so focused on how messed up we are, or how someone else has thrown us under the bus or screwed us over, do we even give the real enemy a second thought? It begins with a lack of communication. "Before an effective military strike can be made, you must take out the opposing army's line of communication. The Evil One does this all the time- in ministries and especially with couples... Most of all the Enemy will try to jam communications with Headquarters." Most problems arise from a lack of communication. In marriage, in ministry, in life, so many issues could be avoided if communication took place, and so the first thing the enemy takes out is our communication lines.
Things get in the way and take up the time we have just to talk to each other. Feelings get hurt for one reason or another and conversation doesn't take place to resolve it or heal it. Instead walls are built, relationships fall apart, and we are left all alone felling like we've failed and messed everything up. And that is just how the Enemy wants us to feel. If our focus is on us, it can't be on him. And if we don't have communication with God, we don't have the voice of truth speaking into us, helping us be aware of what is really going on. "Oswald Chambers warns us, 'Sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that."
Too often we leave the communication lines unguarded, and once they are taken out, step two of the "I'm not here" attack begins. "Next comes propaganda... the Enemy is constantly broadcasting messages to try to demoralize us... he is constantly putting his spin on things. After all, Scripture calls him the 'accuser of our brethren'."
This is always against your identity. This is why knowing your real name is so crucial. Jesus' identity is the thing that Satan attacks during the wilderness temptation. John points out how this attack is so subtle that it seems true at the time. This happens to me. I listen to other great preachers and I think, "I have no business doing that. I can't speak like they can. I can't talk as long as they do, I don't think of the stuff like they do. I'll never be able to do that as well as them, so what's the point?" And that is how the Enemy wants me to feel. Preaching is something I love. It's something I've been called to do, and I've been told that it's something that I'm gifted at, and so this is what the Enemy attacks in one way or another. I once had a lady tell me, minutes after getting done with a Sunday morning message, that I was nothing more than a teacher and that I needed to watch TV to learn how to preach, I'm not kidding that really happened, and it was a move of the enemy.
We all face things like this, but let me offer some encouragement, it's a good thing. "Follow this; so long as a man remains no real threat to the Enemy, Satan's line to him is You're fine." Difficult and painful as it is, the attack on your identity is affirmation that you are on the right path. It is affirmation that you are dangerous and a force that cannot be ignored, not because of you, but because of your submission to God. As it says in James 4.7, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Take God's side and the Enemy goes on the hard offensive, but stand firm, submitted to God, and the Enemy will have to flee. Be encouraged by the attack.
And when the propaganda doesn't work, the "I'm not here" stage makes its last attempt, "Finally, he probes the perimeter, looking for a weakness... He knows your story, knows what works with you, and so the line is tailor-made to your situation." This is where it gets personal, and difficult. This is a last ditch effort so nothing is held back. Here is a cornered animal trying to get out. "When Satan probes, make no agreements. If we make an agreement, if something in our heart says, Yeah, you're right, then he pours it on." Do not buy into the lies of the enemy. Don't agree with what he is trying to feed you, he is a liar, capable of telling nothing else. Stand firm don't give in.
After the dialogue with the Persian messenger, Leonidas considers what has been said as he thinks how to respond. He has been told, "Choose your next words carefully, Leonidas. They may be your last as king." He pauses, looks around the city, and then draws his sword backing the messenger up to a pit he declares, "Earth and water, well you'll find plenty of both down there. You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death. Oh I've chosen my words carefully Persian, perhaps you should have done the same." The messenger is fear and anger responds, "This is blasphemy. This is madness." Leonidas lowers his sword, pauses, and then says, "Madness?" And then yells, "THIS IS SPARTA!" as he kicks him into the pit.
"When we are under attack, we've got to hang on to the truth. Dodge the blow, block it with a stubborn refusal, slash back with what is true. This is how Christ answered Satan- he didn't get into an argument with him, try to reason his way out. He simply stood on the truth. He answered with Scripture and we've got to do the same. This will not be easy, especially when all hell is breaking loose around you. It will feel like holding on to a rope while you're being dragged behind a truck, like keeping your balance in a hurricane... but this is where your strength is revealed and even increased- through exercise. Stand on what is true and do not let go. Period."
Granted this is simply the first attack, more will follow, but as Thomas a Kempis said, "Yet we must be watchful, especially in the beginning of the temptation; for the enemy is then more easily overcome, if he is not suffered to enter the door of our hearts, but is resisted without the gate at his first knock."
We've survived the first wave, now breathe, the next blow is coming quickly.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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