{"id":59,"date":"2012-10-08T10:56:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T14:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/?p=59"},"modified":"2012-10-08T10:56:14","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T14:56:14","slug":"know-your-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/know-your-opponent\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I wrote on knowing your playbook, and that for a Christian we should constantly be studying the Word of God to know the will of God.\u00a0 This morning I want us to realize that we have an adversary who wants to destroy us.\u00a0 Part of a sports teams preparation for an upcoming game during the week is watching game film of their opponent.\u00a0 A defense will study an opponent’s offense to see if they can pick up some tendencies.\u00a0 A pitcher will study an opposing team’s batters to learn what they can hit well and what they struggle with. It is simply part of the preparation process for an athlete.\u00a0 But what about for a Christian?\u00a0 Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places<\/em>.”\u00a0 We aren’t fighting each other, although many times it looks that way to us, rather we are fighting against satan and his forces.\u00a0 So who is our adversary, what does he do, and how does he do it?<\/p>\n

Obviously as a Christian, our adversary is satan and his demons.\u00a0 Again read Ephesians 6:12, we are fighting an invisible power.\u00a0 1 Peter 5:8 shows us what satan does when it says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”\u00a0 Notice satan is a roaring lion who is constantly looking for someone to destroy.\u00a0 This is why putting on the whole armor of God daily is so important.\u00a0 The final question to consider is, how does a roaring lion find those to destroy?\u00a0 Genesis 3:1 says, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”\u00a0 In this case the “serpent” is a reference to satan.\u00a0 Notice, satan is subtle.\u00a0 The word means to be sly or cunning.\u00a0 I love how one Christian pastor put it, “satan doesn’t have to destroy you to be successful, all he has to do is distract you.”\u00a0 In the Garden of Eden, satan didn’t come right out and lie because then Eve would have stood a better chance of recognizing it.\u00a0 Rather, he distracts us by getting us to question God and God’s Word.\u00a0 Satan gets us to thinking, is God’s Word really trustworthy?\u00a0 Satan gets us debating mindless arguments that distract us from our God-given mission.\u00a0 What are forms of spiritual warfare?\u00a0 Although this is not an exhaustive list, this is a good place to start.\u00a0 Diana and I recently went to a Pastor, Staff, and Wives retreat.\u00a0 The featured speakers were Brian and Amy Bloye.\u00a0 In one of the session they made the comment “be aware of the unseen.”\u00a0 Specifically they mentioned spiritual warfare can be “disguised as frustration, anger, or even discouragement.”\u00a0 Notice how subtle these things are!\u00a0 Have you ever tried to do something that you felt God calling you to do only to have it not work or your work get frustrated at every turn?\u00a0 Have you ever gotten angry at a brother or sister in Christ?\u00a0 Have you ever been discouraged?\u00a0 Again this is not an exhaustive list, but how effective are these strategies?<\/p>\n

Know your enemy, his desire, and his tactics or you will get overrun!\u00a0 When you feel that attacks pounding at your door I encourage you to do two things.\u00a0 First of all, you need to pray.\u00a0 You cannot fight satan and his demons on your own.\u00a0 Secondly, you need to rest.\u00a0 When do you get sick?\u00a0 Most of the time we get sick when our bodies are worn down from the constant running and stress of life.\u00a0 The same is true in our spiritual life.\u00a0 When we don’t take time to physically rest and spiritually rest in Jesus, we are vulnerable to attacks.\u00a0 Victory is certain because of Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean the devil won’t try to slow you down, distract you, or even take you out of the game.<\/p>\n

By His grace and through His strength, may we live for Him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I wrote on knowing your playbook, and that for a Christian we should constantly be studying the Word of God to know the will of God.\u00a0 This morning I want us to realize that we … Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westlakebaptist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}