How the Enemy Feels

Often in our lives as Christians we face trials, difficulties, tribulation, persecution, etc . . . (Don't wanna scare ya away by making the list too long :) )


When things of this nature are going on in our lives we can be guilty of cowering to the work of the devil - the enemy of our souls.  If we are not careful we can allow circumstances to paralyze us spiritually.  If that becomes the case then the enemy has won.  


In reading the book of Joshua I find something interesting about the physical enemies of the children of Israel that I believe can be applied to our spiritual enemy as well.  Listen to this:


Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.  Joshua 5:1


The enemies of the Israelites were so afraid of them because they had heard about all that the Lord had done on their behalf.  The same is true about our enemy - the devil.  He knows about all the great things the Lord has done for you and me and in reality he is fearful and defeated.  His true motive in attacking you and me is to get us to forget what God has done and to get our eyes on what is going on in the moment.  


The enemy wants nothing more than for us to view God through the eyes of our circumstances rather than to view our circumstances through the eyes of God.


By coming against us with trials of many kinds, the enemy is trying to distort our perspective of who God has been and of who God is in our lives.  If he can distort the way we see things, he has succeeded in deceiving us into believing his lies.  Jesus tells us that lying is the only way the devil speaks (John 8:44).  And if he is able to deceive us then he has put us on a path of and with destruction.  


We don't lose the battle to the enemy, we lose the battle to ourselves when the enemy causes us to see things differently from the way they really are.


Joshua records how the enemy truly felt.  That is a far cry of how the ten spies sent to the land by Moses believed the enemy felt.


"We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”  Numbers 13:13


Had this group of spies seen things as they really were, their generation would have inherited the promised land.  As the story plays out we see the children of Israel did indeed inherit the land, but because of the devil's distortion 40 years were lost unnecessarily.  


Don't let the enemy steal from you by distorting the reality of who God is and what God has said.  Walk in the victory given by God and don't give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).