HELEN SANDERS
5-14-2020
WHO IS OUR ENEMY?
Often, we sing the song “I went into the enemy’s camp,” and I love the part where it says “he’s under my feet, he’s under my feet.” Who truly is our enemy? Is it the person that broke into your house and stole your jewelry? Is it the grocery clerk that deliberately shortchanged you? Is it the person that went into a bank and murdered five women?
You might think that these people are the enemy, but the truth of the matter is, it isn’t the person, it is the spirit controlling the person. Galatians 5:16-18 says
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”
Every person has a battle going on in their life. Before we receive salvation, there is nothing in us to lead us spiritually because we have a dead spirit. What we do is dictated by our flesh and our souls. It results in the horrible things that people do. The fruit (works) of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5:19-21. It says
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest (made clear), which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (uncontrolled sexual desire) idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions (divisions), heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like..”
These “works of the flesh” are contrary to what God wants for us.
Until a person receives Christ, and crucifies the old nature, they cannot help doing these works because they are under the dominion of Satan. He controls the unregenerated life and wants them to be destroyed. He alone is the enemy behind all of these attributes. His whole purpose is to deceive and destroy. He comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
If any of these attributes are in your life and you are a Christian, then you would be called a “carnal”, or flesh-driven Christian. You must make a choice to put these things to death by transforming your mind. All sin starts with a thought. Look at Adam and Eve. Satan put a thought into Eve’s mind, and she let it control her actions. The life of victory for a Christian comes through casting down imaginations and thoughts that are contrary to what God would have you do. How do you know what God would have you do? That is simple. You read his Word, the Bible, and you will know. The will of God is always the Word of God.
The enemy of your soul wants to destroy you my friends, and he will if we let him. We have to say no to these fleshly desires and say yes to God’s Word. Don’t look at people as the enemy. Satan may use them to cause you to react, but they aren’t the true enemy, it is the spirit controlling them that is causing the problem. As you grow in the word of God, you grow in the fruit of a Christian, which also is listed in Galatians 5: 22-23
“love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance
.”
V. 24 tells us that
“they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
The Spirit-filled life is a crucified life. It is something that we must do daily in order to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.
Always remember who your real enemy is, Satan. You will know him by his evil fruit, while God knows us by our good fruit.
