Enemy on the Prowl

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Reality check friends, you have an enemy. An Enemy on the Prowl. The message in this episode isn’t meant to scare you. 

Our purpose is to issue a loud wake-up call for your heart, mind, soul, and body. 

More often than not, we don’t believe we have to deal with an actual enemy. But he is alive and active, taking shape in issues from our past and battles in our present. 

There’s only one creature made in the image and likeness of God- that’s you. Satan can’t stand that. He’s been on the prowl since Adam and Eve. 

Listen in to learn more about the enemy and prepare a battle plan.  Because you, friend, are designed with an authority and an invitation to fight him. 

Highlights:

The enemy’s goal is to isolate us, to split us off from ourselves, from other people, and from God.

It is helpful to recognize this is the enemy of my soul trying to steal my joy, my attention, and all the good and perfect gifts from the Father of Lights.

If we are trying to grow in whatever area in our life and we are unaware or naively believing that the enemy is primarily going to leave us alone, sometimes we’ll end up vilifying ourselves or another person. 

 The accuser is lying and telling you that your sexual sin defines you.

Homework:

Questions to consider: Where in your life do you experience the sense that God is doing something mean to you? Or maybe that He’s holding out on you or not changing you in the way that you want or He’s leaving you alone? Could it be that the enemy is both attacking you in that area and then blaming God for it?

  1. BE ON THE ALERT: The devil is on the prowl. 
  2. TAKE NOTICE: Ask yourself – Is this accusation? Is it temptation? Is it confusion? These can be the enemy trying to work in your life. 
  3. COME AGAINST HIM. Pray; “In the name of Jesus, I silence this voice. I belong to Jesus. I don’t belong to you. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke you. I silence you in the name of Jesus.

Extras:

James 1:17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

1 Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

Reference to The Three Amigos movie.

For more on this topic, check our latest article Can Pain Help You Quit Porn?

Click for Full Podcast Transcription

I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the movie The three amigos. But in it Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase play these three actors who play the three amigos. And the three amigos are three Cowboys, who always ride in to save the day of a tiny village who’s under siege by some villain. They get fired from the studio where they’re working. But then not long after they get a message from a real village is somewhere in South America inviting them to come down and they think they’re being invited down to film another film. So they’re elated. And they go down in their gusto and are ready to do the job. But they don’t know is they’re not being invited down to film a film they’re being invited down because the people, not the village actually believe they’re real cowboys who can help them to overcome the villain who keeps marauding and stealing from their village. So these three guys go out with great pomp. And you know, they’re just elaborate and over the top, ready to act it up. And then one of them, Steve Martin’s character gets shot, he falls on his horse and he is just angry. He, you know, he wants to call the actors union and, and complain and he marches up to the other, the guy who shot him, thinking he’s just another actor. And he’s like, you know, you’re This is terrible. This is so amateur until he realizes that he’s not an actor at all. But he is actually a real bad guy with real bullets in his gun, who means to kill him. And all of a sudden, Steve Martin’s character changes, his demeanor changes. Immediately. He slinks back to his two buddies, and he’s just like, we are going to die. And the three men begin crying. It’s a funny scene but has parallels for us today, which I want to talk about in this podcast. But before I do, if you have been noticing in this podcast and missing the wonderful and wise voice of Kitt Elmer, I want to tell you where what’s going on Kitt is just starting a sabbatical, she’ll be on sabbatical for seven weeks, much-deserved sabbatical. so thrilled that she’s going to be able to take some time to commune with Jesus to rest, to let her soul breathe and to seek Christ in this season of her life. And then she’ll be back. We’re also just switching up the tempo of the podcast, trying to abbreviate a little bit more to appeal to folks who just don’t have time to listen for a long, long time. So we’re just trying some different things out love to hear from you about what you like and don’t like about the podcast. And as always, if you love what you’re listening to, we’d love for you to leave a review on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. So with that out of the way, let me come back to the three amigos Why am I bringing this up? Today? I’m bringing it up. Because oftentimes, in our Christian life, a lot of us have grown up in an environment that doesn’t believe we really have much to do with our enemy, we don’t really have to deal with a real enemy that we’re against. And whether you’re married or single, whether you’re struggling something sexually, you’re someone struggling with something emotionally, whether you’re dealing with issues from your past or your present, you need to know that you have an enemy who is significantly opposed to you growing in Christ’s likeness. Now, why is that? It’s because the enemy hates Christ, he hates God, in and as creatures who are made in God’s image, and we’re thinking back here to Genesis one, God created human beings in his image, male and female. So there’s something even in our sexuality, in our gender, as male and female, as in our in our sexed ness, if I can put it that way, as male and female, that makes visible something of the invisible God. And I don’t mean that God is male or female. But I mean that male and female expresses something of the Spirit, who is God, and makes it manifest on the earth. And the enemy hates to see that he doesn’t want God to be visible on the earth, he is jealous of God. And so he’s therefore jealous of us. And he right from the beginning in Genesis three, when, after Adam and Eve, tried to split their union with each other and with God and with creation, and he continues to be about that today. And why does that matter for us? Well, it matters because if we are trying to grow in whatever area of our life and we are unaware, or or naively believing that the enemy is primarily going to leave us alone, then sometimes what’s going to happen is we’re going to end up vilifying ourselves or another person, or we’re going to end up just continually knocked down and not knowing why. Now, the enemy’s goal there is to isolate us, he wants to split us off from ourselves. He wants to split us off from other people, and he wants to split us off from God. So a lot of the time, part of what happens is is the enemy attacks us and we believe that God is just letting us down over and over again. We might be like God, what are you doing? Why are you allowing us in my life. And meanwhile, God’s like, I’m not allowing In Your Life. There’s an enemy attacking you. And you are designed with an authority and an invitation to fight him. So I think back again to Genesis three as Adam and Eve faced off with The enemy of our souls, they listened to him and believe that what he was saying was offering them that he was offering them something that God was holding out from them. And it’s interesting what he says that he actually says to them, he says to God really say that you can’t eat off this eat off any tree in the garden. And their response to him. He his response to him is no, no, God said we couldn’t get off this one tree. I noticed a couple things about that. First of all, I noticed that her her focus was in God’s allowance for them was an invitation was enough entry you want the whole garden is all yours, except this one, because this will kill you. So their attention isn’t all that they’re allowed to do all they’re permitted to do. And the enemy in the way he phrases the question removes Eve’s attention from all that is permissible for her of all the blessing and all the generosity that God has put in from in front of her. And now he has turned her attention from all the good to this one thing that is prohibited to her. And now he’s got her focused on that. So I want you to just let me just pause here for a moment, think about your own story, whatever it is that you’re wrestling with. And I want to ask, is it possible that your focus has been diverted from so much blessing, so much goodness that God has for you, and you’re focused on this one thing, maybe it’s a wrong that someone did you and you’re, you’re just not willing to forgive them. And you’re so focused on that, so fixated on that, but it is stealing life and joy and goodness and gifts that God has given you. Because you’re not willing to forgive that person, let that go. release that. So you can focus on the good that God has for you. In a way, when we walk in unforgiveness, there’s just a little aside, we are basically saying to the other person, that we’re not forgiving, you have life for me. And I’m going to continue to hold on to your neck, I’m going to continue to not forgive you, until you give me the life that you took for me and that I deserve. And that’s trusting the other person in a way. I mean, it’s a weird way to think about it. But unforgiveness is kind of like flipping it’s a kind of flipping idolatry on its head. It’s it’s kind of a reverse idolatry, except maybe it’s kind of idolatry. Because it’s basically saying the other person you have what I need, if we can release that person, forgive them and turn back to all the goodness, all the trees, all the fruitfulness that God is inviting us to, and release it out of the person because we know they don’t have life for us. That’s one example. Another example might be if you struggle with sexual sin, how much is that sin, crowded out? The other things, other gifts in your life. I know for me and my own journey away from sexual sin. I literally remember times where I was in sweet fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, loving the time with them. And I chose to leave their fellowship, to go engage in lustful activity. I also know that over the years as I became acclimated and addicted to pornography, that it’s it started just consume more and more of my mind. And there were times where I just got consumed by him, it felt like a switch got flipped. And all of a sudden, I was this guy who couldn’t think about anything else. Because my brain, the neural chemistry in my brain had become acclimated to go to porn and lust, to try to meet legitimate needs. And so there’s even a biological reality of what I’m describing here, where our focus gets smaller and smaller on the thing that is forbidden us and ignoring the gifts that God’s given so many other examples of that. That’s just one of the ways I think that the enemy attacks us. And it’s helpful for us to recognize, wait a minute, this is the enemy of my soul, he’s trying to steal my joy is trying to steal my attention from all the good and perfect gifts coming down from the Father of lights thing here of James one. And get me focused on that which God has said no to. The second thing the enemy does is he is he’s the accuser. And so there are times where he is going to accuse you, to you, he’s going to tell you what a dirty wretch you are. I’ve talked about this before in this podcast, times when we feel some level of temptation. And immediately with temptation, there’s this deep sense of guilt and shame. Like, you know, good Christians don’t have these thoughts. Good. Christians don’t think these things. A lot of times with temptation, if it’s a sexual temptation, our bodies even with that initial thought of temptation, our body can start to respond. And the enemies you know, will come in, right that a ha ha ha, you feel that in your body. That’s because that’s who you are, you’re such a pervert, you’re this kind of person, you that kind of person, you might as well just give in because that’s what you’re really all about. That’s an accusation from the enemy. The fact that your body has a response to any kind of sexual stimulation, means your body is a body and it’s a sexual body. But you don’t have to listen to that temptation. That temptation does not have to define you, but the accuser is accusing you and telling you that it does define you. The other thing your accuser does is he accuses other people of you. You found yourself in a situation with your spouse or with a brother or sister in the Lord or maybe a real brother or sister or a sibling, or your boss or co-worker you just find yourself just noticing every little thing about them. This happens my family to me sometimes I noticed how somebody’s eating or talking and he just gets so irritated. And when I recognize wait a minute is the accuser accusing them A person to me is he pointing out the fault of that other person. So I can pray a prayer right then in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you, accuser, I silence you in Jesus name. This is a person I love. This is a person I respect. This is a person I’m called to give my life to, I refuse to see them like that anymore. So I renounce you and rebuke you in the name of Jesus. And sometimes my attitude will change just like that. The other way that the accuser accuses is the accuser accuses God to us. And he’s so sneaky in this way. There are times the accuser will, will be beaten us up in some way. And then he’ll turn it’ll say, God is doing this to you. He falsely accuses the Lord, he did it to Adam and Eve in Genesis three, when he told them, in essence, God, what he told you, he was lying, he was holding out on you, he doesn’t want you to be like him. He’s wanting to keep you from the good you want. Now, somebody told me recently, I love this, they said, you know, the enemy is the one who really coveted God’s position, the enemy, Satan himself, wanted to be like God in a way that was not allowable. And he was trying to convince Adam and Eve, and he’s trying to convince all of us to try to pursue that as well. But again, thinking about the gift. In Genesis one, there is one creature and only one creature who is created in the image and likeness of God. And who is it? Well, it’s male and female, made in the image of God, we are like God in a way. And I don’t mean that we have, we have holds God’s position. But I mean, as his sons and daughters in Christ, we are invited into a union with him, where we really become like him. And it’s not it’s nothing that we were proud about. But it is something that gives us a dignity and honor. And so when we take that into our own hands, because the enemy accuses god of holding out on us, all of a sudden we are we’re giving up our rightful place as those made in His image. So where in your life? Do you experience? the sense that God is doing something mean to you? Or he’s holding out on you? Or he’s not changing you in the way that you want? Or he’s leaving you alone? Could it be that the enemy is both attacking you in that area? And then and then blaming God for it? I think so. Hey, there’s so much more I could say about this. But I just again, bottom line, I just want to alert you and just say wake up brothers and sisters, and I got to be awake to this too. We live in a world in our culture that so many of us put on the back burner the reality that there are devils that come after us because they don’t want us to know our place in Christ, and the goodness and nearness of our Lord. And so a couple practical things as we walk away from this, this podcast. Number one, be on the alert. Beyond the alert. Peter says this to us is beyond the alert. your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. JOHN elder says seeking someone to maim. So be on the alert. Notice these things is that accusation? Is it temptation? Is it is it confusion? Some of these things are these are the enemy trying to work in your life? Secondly, you can come against him, even if you’re not sure that it’s really the enemy isn’t there’s no harm in saying in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, I silenced this voice in the name of Jesus. I say no to that temptation. If there is no enemy there, if there’s no spiritual warfare going on there, there’s no harm, there’s no foul. But if there is a spirit commands to you, then what you’re doing is you’re taking up your authority as one of Christ’s own. And you’re saying in the name of Jesus, no, I belong to Jesus, I don’t belong to you. So much more we can say about this so much more we can go into with this. Couple of good resources on this topic. I’ll leave those in the show notes for you. Keep Take a deep dive into some of this stuff. But in the name of Jesus right now. I just bless you brothers and sisters, and thanks so much for listening.

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