Who is my Enemy?

“For 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.” Ephesians 6:12 NIV

This is probably a familiar Scripture for most of you. I learned the whole armor of God passage when I was just beginning to study the Word of God. Yet, how often in the midst of a tough situation I still gloss over it, at best, or just don’t think about it at all, when it is actually the very tool to bring me through that situation victoriously in Christ!

I seem to remember this verse more readily when it is not a situation that involves me; for instance, when someone I know is facing difficulties with people in their family or work situation. I stand strong in these cases, reminding my friends of the above verse. I don’t seem to be quite so quick, however, to apply it to those difficult situations in my own life. It’s at these times I allow myself to get all caught up in the emotion of the situation and react and pray from there, rather than praying and responding from the position the Lord has for me. Ephesians 2:6 NIV tells us our true position: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” It’s easy for me to come up with an example, for I seem to have had lots of practice at this over the last several months.

A friend who used to call or visit from time to time had stopped both. There was an obvious tension when we were around each other; though, to my knowledge, nothing had happened to cause this. I prayed and prayed, or should I say that I whined and whined? “Lord, why is she treating me this way? Lord, this hurts, and I haven’t done anything to deserve it.” God really had nothing to work with in this kind of prayer. I sure wasn’t open to His correction, or even for Him to reveal what she might have perceived as the problem. Needless to say, I got no answer from the Lord, nor did the situation improve. I was dealing with this situation strictly from the basis of my emotions, not from the position of being seated with the Lord in the heavenly realms. The longer it went on, and I stayed emotion-bound, the more my imagination ran wild, contrary to 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Eventually, she came to me to talk through the issues, some real and some only perceived as real, thanks to those imaginations and emotions on both our parts. It wasn’t until later, as I reflected on our conversation, that the Lord gave me revelation of the root sin for which I was guilty. During the course of all this time of the demise of our friendship, I had kept my eyes focused on the natural things, so I prayed that way, from the natural and emotional perspective. I was praying out my hurt, not from my hurting heart. God’s perspective is so much higher and clearer than what we see with our natural eyes or figure out from our emotions and imaginations. If we will come into His presence, He will help us see the situations and circumstances from His perspective. This is where He places us spiritually when we are saved. This is where we need to stay in our prayer and thought lives all the time. And it is done by abiding in the Word and letting the Word abide in us so it is the place from which we think at all times, and it is what we speak and pray, regardless of what we feel.

Our enemy, the devil, wants us to stay caught up in emotions and imaginations so that we continue to see and deal with each other as the enemy. The only power and victory in that place is for the devil. It’s only when we come up higher and see that it is division and strife hard at work to divide and conquer believers that we can begin to pray in the position of authority God has given us. This – division, strife, vain imaginations, all the work of the evil one at all the various levels – is what we pray against, not each other. That’s where we find the real victory. Because I did not take my rightful position in this situation, this relationship between sisters in the Lord was allowed to become infected and come dangerously close to the point of death over the course of a year. I have repented and received the forgiveness Jesus paid that incredible price for, praise His name. Now I am more quickly recognizing the signs and symptoms in other situations and relationships, well before it goes so far, and am able to come back to that place of authority in the heavenly realms with Him, seeing it more clearly and doing the warfare against my real enemy, the enemy of the body of Christ. Glory to the name of the Lord!

© Copyright 2004 Kay V. Stocking