Resist the Enemy – Part 2

31 Oct Resist the Enemy – Part 2

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

We’re continuing our series: “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective.”

Unless we have an eternal perspective, viewing life as God does, we are playing checkers in life while God is playing chess. And, if that’s the case, two things are certain: (1) we will consistently make the wrong moves, and (2) we lose in the end. I’d like to help avoid that.

(If you would like a concise outline to help you keep your mind around the big picture as we move through the details, click here and we’ll send you one. It’s available at the end of this post also.)

Currently in our series on five steps to unleashing the power of an eternal perspective, we’re looking at the final issue involved in Step 4: You Must Fight the Invisible.

So far we’ve seen that we must

• Be alert to spiritual warfare, accepting the reality of it and embracing that reality as the organizing perspective in life rather than the American Dream…
•  Put on the spiritual armor and are trusting in God’s power to protect us… next, we must
• Resist the enemy

Last week we looked at Part 1 of resisting the enemy: Be shrewd in detecting spiritual deception and intimidation.

Today we’ll look at Part 2 of resisting the enemy: Don’t Take the Bait

Satan’s inherent character is evil

Satan has two defining characteristics:

1. He is a deceiver: John 8:44 says that Satan is, in his very nature, “a liar and the father of lies.

Ephesians 6:11 warns us to “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (NASB).  Other Bible versions speak of “wiles,” “strategies,” or “evil tricks” rather than “schemes.”

The point is, Satan is a liar, and he tries to trick us, deceive us, in order to destroy us.  His goal is to get us to believe…

• • that what is false is true
  • that what is bad is good
  • that what is wrong is right

In the process, Satan may…

• • attack horizontal relationships (conflict, confusion with others)
  • attack vertical relationship (conflict, confusion with God)
  • promote propaganda (“I’ll give you what you want, it will make you happy.”)
  • demoralize (“You aren’t worth it, you can’t do it, God won’t bless you.”)
  • probe your perimeter (he will take everything you give him, and probe for more)

He’s very good at deception.  We have to be shrewd.  We have to not take the bait.

2. He is a destroyer: Revelation 9:11 gives Satan the name, “Apollyon,” which means “destroyer.”

John 10:10 says, referring to Satan, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”

Satan’s intent is to destroy us.  Deception is a major strategy he uses to accomplish his intent.  If he can get us to believe his deceptions, he can destroy us.

Our task is to not take Satan’s bait

Our challenge is to not take the bait. Our challenge is, as we said last week, to be shrewd… to not be a spiritual stooge… to not blunder into his deceptions.

Said another way, our goal is to not take the bait when Satan dangles it in front of us. He may offer us something that is wrong, but try to deceive us into thinking it is right, or at least not so bad. Or, he may offer us something that, in and of itself, is not wrong, but the will of God is not giving it to us. If so, there is a hook in it. Like a worm offered to a fish… there is nothing wrong with the worm, but if there is a hook in it, it “destroys” the fish. So it can be with the enemy’s temptations.

To strengthen your capacity to resist, picture a hook in the thing Satan is tempting you with, and don’t take the bait.

Another image that parallels the idea of not “taking the bait” is to not “charge the cape.”

If there is something Satan knows is nearly impossible for us to resist, just like a skilled matador with a cape, he will come and dangle that thing in front of us at strategic moments.

When Satan wants to disappoint, discourage, or defeat us with a trial that he knows we are vulnerable to, it is like a matador toying with a bull. He knows our vulnerability, so he waves the “thing” in front of us, knowing that’s the thing most difficult for us to resist. He knows if we “take the bait” and “charge the cape” it will put us on the path to disappointment, discouragement and destruction. We must be smarter than the bull. We must be alert to the evil source behind the trial and not give in. Knowing what he is doing to us helps give us resolve to not charge the cape!

To strengthen your capacity to resist, picture a cape that Satan is tempting you with, and don’t charge the cape.

Conclusion

It is as Frederick Buechner wrote: “Reality can be harsh, and you shut your eyes to it at your peril. Because if you do not face up to the enemy in all his dark power, then the enemy will come up from behind some dark day and destroy you while you are facing the other way.”

We are all in a spiritual war, and to be clueless about that fact is not an advantage! We must accept the reality that each of us is in a spiritual war and respond in three ways:

Be alert!  You can’t win a war you do don’t know you are in.

Wear your spiritual armor! You must fight a spiritual war with spiritual weapons.

Resist! You must be spiritually shrewd and not take the enemy’s bait.

Next week, we’ll look at a third issue in resisting the enemy: Resistible and un-resistible warfare. You won’t want to miss having this additional knowledge in fighting the invisible. See you next week! (NOTE: This category was left off the  Moving from Checkers to Chess Overview/Outline, so you can either just add it to your outline or signup again below for the updated outline – you won’t get duplicate emails from us if you use the signup form again.)

Get a Moving from Checkers to Chess At-a-Glance-Overview: Click Here

As we have been studying these concepts for quite some time (including in some prior blog series), and I am excited to now be connecting all the “moving parts” from those posts and combining them into a “spiritual game plan” in this “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective” series.

For an overview of the game plan, so you can see at a glance where we begin and where we’re headed, I’ve created an overview/outline you can download for free: Click Here

For the full discussion of each of the steps, begin with the first post in this series, Moving from Checkers to Chess, and then continue with the following posts thereafter.

In case you’re new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey:

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