Overcoming the Enemy’s Tactics

“If you aren’t experiencing spiritual warfare, then you’re no threat to the enemy.”

Lee Nienhuis, keynote speaker for Speak Up Conference

Coming off the spiritual high from having 200 women participating in our three-day challenge on devotional writing, the Scriptures I read in my quiet time left me in awe! These verses led me to clearly see the pushback we experienced leading up to last week’s virtual event.

As the team gathered from Florida, Washington, Colorado, California, Arizona, and Michigan we had mounting connection issues.  This resulted in losing our connection in the middle of my interview with Janet McHenry during the VIP session. Even with an ethernet (landline) connection with 5G Internet, it still went down. A moment of panic came over me and I anxiously began to try everything I could to get reconnected. 

Would the Internet come back on? 

Could I use my hotspot? 

Did it shut down the entire ZOOM link? 

Would our team be able to step in?  

My frustration peaked as I, along with the instructor with me, attempted to reconnect. 

Then, I remembered that 1 Peter 5:7 reminds us we can cast all our anxieties on Him because He cares for us. This passage continues to admonish us to be sober minded and watchful because the enemy is on a mission to devour us. We need only to resist him and to be firm in our faith.

Dictionary.com reveals that anxiety is “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.”

I see how disorder and confusion (that inevitably leads to anxious thoughts) distracts us from trusting God, and how the enemy’s lies cause dread, panic, and fretfulness. Yet, when the enemy stirs up anxiety, God tells us exactly what to do with it! 

Cast it ALL on HIM because He cares for us! 

When we obey that biblical instruction, He brings peace, calm, and order.

If you can attend the Speak Up Conference this summer, there are apt to be challenges. It might be forgetting your main point during your speaking critique, or your Internet gives out while trying to connect to the virtual livestream; it might be a 15-minute appointment with an agent or publisher causes your anxieties to bubble to the surface. But if you are speaking or writing with a goal in mind to help others find a deeper connection to their Savior, remember—the enemy is not going to appreciate that!

So knowing you are, in fact, a threat to the enemy, let’s wrap this up with an admonition from Deuteronomy 20:4:

For the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you, against your enemies, to save you.   

Check out the 3 action steps we are presented:

• Do not be afraid of the army you are up against,
• Do not be faint hearted or afraid,
• Do not be alarmed or terrified.

Because…

• The Lord your God IS WITH YOU.
• The Lord your God GOES BEFORE YOU TO FIGHT FOR YOU AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES.
• He goes with you to GIVE YOU THE VICTORY.

When it seems like the enemy is winning, keep calm! Choose to trust Him as the One who will rescue you. Hurl all the anxiety the enemy is trying to stir up onto Him. 

We must understand clearly what his agenda is as we firmly say “NO” to the enemy and “YES” to God. Let’s shift from confusion to confidence as we stand firm in our faith.

***

Back in Washington with the Internet still down, we waited. After just over a minute or two, although it seemed much longer, the signal popped on and we scurried to jump on and enter the Zoom meeting. The teaching was going on as if we had been there all along. Another team member had noticed we disappeared and was able to continue the conversation without missing a beat. 

The enemy may have some power as he uses tangible things like an Internet outage to confuse and distract us. But he will never have power to thwart God’s work. We can do this—because He is faithful to be with us, fight for us, and give us the victory!

As you step into the unknown this summer, be reminded that the One who has called you is able to provide everything you need to accomplish His purposes. Then, when things don’t go quite like you may have hoped, do not allow the enemy to rattle you. Instead, cast those cares on Him. 

The shoulders that were big enough to carry the cross are indeed big enough to carry you. 

Question:  In what ways has the enemy stirred up anxiety in your heart? How do you resist him when that happens?