Ron Carpenter - The Necessity of an Enemy: How the Battle You Face Is Your Best Opportunity

T HE N ECESSITY OF AN E NEMY
P UBLISHED BY W ATER B ROOK P RESS
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Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NLT ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2012 by Ron Carpenter Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carpenter, Ron.
The necessity of an enemy : how the battle you face is your best opportunity / Ron Carpenter, Jr.1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-73029-9
1. Conflict managementReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Interpersonal relationsReligious aspectsChristianity. 3. Providence and government of GodChristianity. I. Title.
BV4597.53.C58C37 2012
248.86dc23

2011044483

v3.1

T his book is not just about how to defeat your enemies and properly put into perspective the adversities you encounter in your life. More than that, I believe this book will be for you a message of hope.

I believe it will show you that God is not only causing you to triumph over adversity but quite possibly repositioning you for your greatest moment. You could be Zacchaeus, the tax collector who climbed the tree, hoping to see Jesusbut not really expecting anything. However, your misfortunes are positioning you to receive a remarkable blessing. Remember:

With God there is no pain without purpose.

As I write these words in the fall of 2011, our nation is in the midst of what is certainly the worst economic climate of my lifetime. The downturn of 2008 is still with us. The Bible says that where a mans treasure is, so is his heart (Matthew 6:21). If you reverse-engineer that scripture, you can understand why, after heavy financial losses, so many people over the last four years have become disheartened. As their treasures left them, so did their hearts.

Proverbs 13:12 says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. When you keep trying to get a job and you fail, when you try to save your house but you lose it, when you desperately try to hang on to your business but the doors close, hopelessness sets in.

In this bleak economy my belief is that the largest issue is not the financial problem but the heart problem.

So how can you rise from the ashes and be ready for a better day?

God uses adversity for our advantage. I trust that this book will help you seize and attack life with renewed enthusiasm as you gain a better understanding of your enemies.

Stand firmyou will rise from the ashes of any adversity. A bigger and better day is coming.

I want you to consider something that may surprise you.

If you had lived in Judea in the first century and were acquainted with Jesus and His ministry, who among His twelve disciples would you have said was a close friend? Which disciple was Jesuss enemy (not the Enemy, Satan, but a flesh-and-blood enemy)?

His friends are usually identified as Peter, James, John, and the other faithful disciples. The enemy? That seems a no-brainerhas to be Judas, the notorious betrayer, right?

Now, I warn you: Im going to mess with your mind, because in a moment I want you to consider a principle of the Christian life thats often ignored.

But first, back to my questions about Jesus and His relationships. Lets look first at a familiar incident involving one of Jesuss buddies, the fiery, foot-in-mouth Peter. One day Jesus and the disciples were having a discussion, and Peter got high-fives for saying that Jesus was the Christ. But a little later, when Peter pulled Jesus aside and started criticizing the Lord for saying that He had to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, Jesus got in Peters face and said, Get behind Me, Satan! (Matthew 16:1323.)

Whoa! What happened to theniceJesus?

Now flash forward a few days to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is in agony about upcoming events. Judas shows up with a group of soldiers who intend to take Jesus prisoner. The betrayer steps forward, greets Jesus, and gives Him a kiss. Jesus (who of course knows whats up) responds, Friend, why have you come?

The kiss is the secret signal to the soldiers that this is the guy, and they rush forward to grab Jesus. One of the disciplesyup, its Peterpulls his sword and takes a whack at the head of a servant of the high priest, slashing off the poor mans ear. Jesus will have none of it and, after telling His friend he has it all wrong and needs to sheath his sword, says, Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus? And later Jesus also says, All this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled (Matthew 26:5056).

Now, I ask you, taking into consideration these two incidents involving Peter and Judas, which man ultimately did the most to advance Jesuss mission on earth? Who did Jesus call Satan? Who did Jesus greet as Friend?

Heres the point. The message Jesus was trying to get across to Peter was something like this: You do not have in mind the things of God. You are trying to keep Me from the cross. Right now you are an enemy. And later, Jesus effectively said to Judas, You have come to sell Me out so that I will complete My destiny. You, therefore, are My friend.

In this circumstancewhich because of the Cross is the most important moment in historyJudas did for Jesus what Peter and the other disciples could not do.

You already know that Gods ways, including His view of enemies, are different from our ways. But an understanding of how God uses people coming against us and situations that are very negative can change everything.

If we are to make authentic progress in life, we have to face up to the necessity of an enemy.

H ave you ever had a day when, by about noon, all you wanted to do was go home and crawl up in your mamas lap?

I know, grown men are probably not supposed to say things like that, but likely my worst run to mama day was September 24, 2007. Without that day I dont think I would ever have learned the life-altering message of this book.

On that fall day, there I wasa well-known pastor in the community of Greenville, South Carolinasitting in a room with steel walls and no windows, sweat running down my sides, my head pounding like a drum as three FBI agents fired one question after another at me.

As you may have guessed, I wasnt in the federal building in Greenville that day to conduct any pastoral duties. No, I was under investigation for possible criminal activity. As the hours dragged on, all I could think was,