Jean Max B. St Louis - From Victory to Victory

The Importance of Being Aware of the Enemies

W hen Jesus sent out His disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He gave them many instructions; these included healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He gave the disciples specific instructions as to what they needed to carry with them during that journey. And He talked to them concerning their responses to the people who would receive them and to those who would not. He even spoke to them about His judgment toward the cities that would not welcome them. One crucial instruction was this: They should always be aware of their enemies.

In Matthew 10:16-17, Jesus told them: Behold I send you out as a sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpent and harmless as sheep. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues

With these words, Jesus informed His disciples that the mission they were about to undertake was not just preaching the kingdom of heaven or merely performing miracles; but being aware of their surroundings, they needed to be mindful of their enemies.

In fact, if we read the whole passage of Matthew Chapter 10, we will observe that Jesus spent more time alerting the apostles about their enemies and their attitudes towards them than instructing them about anything else concerning their mission. The success of their assignment was, in great measure, dependent upon the awareness of their foes.

It is the same for us as believers. We cannot fully experience a victorious life if we are not aware of our enemies and do not take an appropriate stand against them. The measure of our success in the service of God does not necessarily determine how victorious we are over our enemies. In fact, our enemies are good at using successful ministries to cause the fall of great ministers. The success of our service for God could be used by our foes to distract us from our walk with God. This is why it is not possible for us as Christians to experience a glorious and continuous victory in our lives if we are not fully cognizant of our opponents and have proper behavior towards them.

As human beings, although we are capable of great feats, we can only do well within the limitations of our knowledge and with the elements and conditions within our control. We cannot perform well beyond the scope of our awareness and capabilities. A lawyer cannot be expected to perform well if placed in an emergency room to diagnose and treat the sick; neither can a doctor be expected to defend the accused in a courtroom. Our performance in any given field is largely dependent upon our knowledge and proficiency in said field or endeavor.

Consider another example, the case of an army that is warring against an unknown enemy. They go to the battlefield, but they do not know whom they are fighting. They have no information about their enemies and they are not seeking to learn anything about them. Can this army expect that they will be victorious over their opponents? No way! If they do not know their enemies, how can they hope to prevail against them? If they are not fighting against their enemies, how can they even hope to win the war? In fact, they are exposing themselves to failure. The other army becomes aware that their opponents are not aware of them and seizes the opportunity to attack and defeat them.

Just as it is a great miscalculation for a soldier to engage in a battle without accurate intelligence about the movements and capabilities of his enemy, it is very dangerous for us, as Christians who are constantly at war with the forces of evil, not to be aware of our own adversaries. This is a truth we must all understand: As believers we are constantly engaged in warfare against our enemies, and living the Christian life victoriously requires that we become aware of their identities, sensitive to their strategies against us, and knowledgeable about how to defeat them.

Sometimes, we are preoccupied with other things. We do not seek to know the line of attack that our foes are using against us. But by not doing so, we are setting ourselves up to be defeated by them.

Andrew Murray said: There is nothing that makes an enemy so dangerous as the fact that he remains hidden or forgotten. This is exactly what our enemies desire, for us not even to notice they are there; because the less we are aware of them, the better they will be able to deceive us; and the more they deceive us, the better they will be able to defeat us.

The Victory and the Alertness of the Enemies

Now, let me ask you some questions: Are you truly aware of the extent of the Christian battle? Are you really cognizant of the enemies of the Christian life? Perhaps you might ask, Why should I bother knowing about my foes if I am already more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus? If truth be told, we do have the victory over our enemies in Christ Jesus, but how can we fully understand the glory and the extent of this victory if we are not aware of the power of the enemies that Jesus has defeated at the cross? If we know how powerful our enemies are, then we will understand how great the victory at the cross was. The whole power that triumphed over our enemies at the cross will be clearly revealed to us when we become aware of who those enemies are. Our hearts will gladden greatly when we understand how these enemies held us tightly in their powerful grasp and how, if it had not been for the unrivaled triumph of Jesus Christ at the cross, we would still be subjected to them.