HOW DID I END UP ON THE PAVEMENT?

1 Peter 5: 8

"Be self–controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Hey Christian! See the title? That may be your words after surviving a spiritual assault on the streets of your mind. The fact is you may not even know who attacked you. You must remember, the spiritual thug (demon) does not play by your rules.

You can get beaten to the ground and when you wake up, you may not even know what hit you and even from which direction the strike came. How am I going to dodge something I can’t see? Who did this to me? What kind of fighter would do this? …Nothing. You can not remember a thing. The fearless fighter got smacked down by a single strike. One blow – BAM! – fighter gone!

This happens all the time… Why? Because you didn’t even notice that there was someone with intentions to strike you down. You didn’t even realize that someone would actually do that. Yea, you have read about the fight between good and evil, but you thought at least the enemy would fight fair. What kind of fighter does this? The Bible says that we are to "Be self–controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Make no mistake about it. The fight we are in for our soul is not against an opponent that wants to touch gloves with us in the center of the ring. No, this fighter wants to sneak up from behind and hit us over the head with the crow-bar of deception.

It is important to realize that spiritual thugs who want to strike, mug or kill someone usually pick victims who appear weak. They want the evil strike to be quick and effective. They don’t want them to fight back - they don’t want to encounter an "Anointed Fighter" who is "fighting the good fight of the faith" (1Timothy 6:12) through the power of Jesus Christ. It is a lost cause as they have already been defeated at the cross.

This kind of spiritual thug doesn’t want to be identified, caught and hurt. They just want to overcome the fight. I may not even call them “fighters” because they never actually fight you… they just strike when your not looking. So many people today believe that it's Satan himself who fights against them. They believe that Satan will confront them like he did Jesus in the wilderness; face to face (Matthew 4:3). The truth is, they are not fighting against Satan, but rather his network of spiritual thugs. It's as if we believe there's an imaginary evil being out there that comes right up in plain sight and challenges us to a fight, when in reality, we are being stocked by evil spirits who don't want us to see them coming. Far too often, we as Christians point our fingers at the gang leader, but completely ignore the thugs the evil one has sent out against us. It's about time we listen to Jesus and guard ourselves against the thugs that Satan has set against us, lest we become vulnerable to the plans Satan has against us and find ourselves waking up on the pavement of life.

It's time that we recognize the thugs that are hiding in the spiritual alleys of our minds. Yes the gang leader Satan indirectly oppresses God's children, but it's the various ranks of troops under him that carry out the actual dirty work. Ephesians 6 isn't saying that we struggle against Satan himself, but against the various ranks of demons that are under the lordship of Satan:

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."

Let's not wash Satan clean here by putting everything on the demons, but let's also not forget who's standing behind the next corner waiting to hit us over the head when we walk by.

Your enemy would love for you to approach the war with your eyes on the evil leader and ignore the troops / messengers coming towards you. If you did such a thing in a physical war, wouldn't that put you at a very vulnerable position? You wouldn't last 10 minutes on the battle field before getting struck down! The same is true in the spiritual realm. It's only wise to keep your eyes on the direct enemies in any war.

Don't get me wrong, we aren't to see demons so much that it's all that we're looking at. I am a strong advocator of keeping our minds and hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ, and on positive things that uplift us and keep our eyes on the Lord. But on the same token, it's never wise to ignore a thug that Satan has sent to destroy us. Paul himself made it clear that it's never wise to be ignorant of Satan's devices:

2 Corinthians 2:11, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."

No rules, no honor. The spiritual thug wants to have the factor of surprise on their side and they become very unconfident when they loose it. You have to prayerfully train your senses. The best thing you can do, is be led by the spirit and "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory, not for victory. Keep Fighting!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you for being with me and never leaving me to fight alone. May your perfect will be done in my life. Amen

Danny White