Who Is Your Enemy, Really?

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Hey everyone, I'm Melissa, and this is My Question for You. And I want to welcome you to season four of our podcast. It feels so good to say that, and I am so happy that you're back to walk through a new season with me because I'm excited about where we're going this season because we're shifting gears a little bit. So if you've been listening for a while, we've covered a lot of ground together over the past three seasons. We've talked about trusting God and waiting on God. We've talked a little bit about getting unstuck, wrestling with doubt, asking questions we don't always want to say out loud. And most recently, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at what's happening underneath the version of ourselves everybody gets to see. But every week, I end this podcast with the same words: encouragement for your spirit, wisdom for your walk. And lately, I've been thinking about that second part: wisdom for your walk. What does it actually mean to walk wisely as a believer? Because faith isn't just about being encouraged. There are things we need to understand, there are things we need to recognize. And there are times when we need discernment because everything we encounter isn't necessarily what it appears to be. And that's what brings us to spiritual warfare. So for the next few weeks, we're going behind enemy lines. That's what I'm calling this series. And before anybody gets nervous about where we're headed, we're not spending the next several weeks looking for demons behind every corner. I don't want you finishing this series afraid of Satan. And I definitely don't want you becoming obsessed with him. What I want is much simpler. I want us to know what Scripture actually says. Because if the Bible tells us we have an enemy, I think there's wisdom in understanding who that enemy is and how he operates. Okay, let me ask you something to get you thinking. When you hear the words spiritual warfare, what comes to mind? Seriously, I mean, maybe it's somebody praying really loudly, maybe it's demons, could be the devil, or maybe you grew up in a church where pretty much anything that went wrong could somehow be traced back to the enemy. You got a flat tire on the way to church, spiritual warfare. You woke up with a headache, spiritual warfare. Somebody got on your last nerve at work. The enemy was busy that day. And listen, I am not making fun of that because I absolutely believe spiritual warfare is real. The Bible is very clear that there is a spiritual reality to this life. But I also wonder if sometimes we give the devil credit for things he didn't even do. And then there's the other side of this. Maybe you believe Satan exists because the Bible says he does, but beyond that, you don't really think about him much. And honestly, that's probably a little closer to where I am. I don't particularly want to spend a lot of time thinking about the devil, but I have been sitting with something lately. There's a difference between being focused on the enemy and simply being aware of how he operates. Those aren't the same thing. And if scripture tells us to be aware of him, then I think there's wisdom in understanding what we're dealing with. So as we jump into season four, here's my question for you. Who is your enemy, really? And maybe just as important, how much of what you believe about him actually came from the Bible? So let's let's go ahead and turn to the Bible. Let's dig into this a little deeper. There's a passage we're gonna come back to quite a bit this season, and it's probably one you've heard before. Ephesians chapter six. This is where Paul talks about the armor of God. And if you've done any um reading research uh in the Bible about spiritual warfare, you definitely have found yourself in the book of Ephesians. The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. Um, there's the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit. And we are definitely going there. It's important to this series. Actually, we're gonna spend an entire series there later this season. But there's something Paul says before he starts describing any of the armor, and I think we need to start there. Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 10, it says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. And then in verse twelve it says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Now, there's a lot happening in those verses, and we're gonna take our time with them throughout this entire season. But one word jumped out at me when I read this again schemes. Paul doesn't simply say you have an enemy, he warns them about the devil's schemes. And when I hear the word scheme, I think strategy. There's some intention behind it. There's there's a way of operating, which means Paul isn't telling these believers to just acknowledge that Satan exists, he's telling them to be prepared for how he works. And I started wondering how many of us actually know what that means? I mean, if someone asked you right now, what are the devil's schemes, what would you say? And more importantly, where did your answer come from? Because I started thinking about some of the things I've heard people say about Satan over the years. And there are a lot of different beliefs and thoughts and stories that people share, different beliefs on who the enemy is and how he operates. I've heard people talk about what Satan knows, what he can hear, what he can see, where he can go, what he can cause, and what he can stop. And somewhere in the middle of thinking about all of that, I realized I don't always know where some of those ideas came from. Did I actually read that in scripture? Did somebody preach it somewhere along the way? Did I hear another Christian say it? Maybe I saw it in a movie 20 years ago and somehow filed it away in the same mental folder as theology. I'm not really sure. Because that can happen. Something gets repeated enough times that eventually it just sounds biblical. You just start believing it and you forgot where you heard it. So I started just thinking about it a little bit more and asking some questions as I was preparing for this series and really trying to dig into spiritual warfare a little bit more. Can Satan hear our thoughts? Does he know what's going to happen before it happens? Can he be everywhere at once? When something terrible happens, does that mean that Satan caused it? And how much power does he actually have? And I'm not going to try to answer every one of those questions today. We'll get into some of them as we go through this series. But I think they're worth asking because spiritual warfare is one of those subjects where Christians can sometimes say things with a lot of confidence that scripture itself doesn't say quite so clearly. And I don't want us to do that. If we're going behind enemy lines, then the Bible needs to be our map. So let's start with something foundational. I think most Christians know that, but sometimes the way we talk about spiritual warfare doesn't sound like we actually really know that. We can almost picture God on one side and Satan on the other, these two enormous spiritual forces battling back and forth over our lives. But that's not the picture scripture gives us. Satan is a created being. That distinction alone changes the conversation. The characteristics we associate with God, being all-knowing, all-powerful, present everywhere, those are attributes of God. And we shouldn't casually assign them to Satan. And I think that's important because fear has a way of making an enemy look bigger than he actually is. Have you ever had a problem that got larger in your head the longer you thought about it? We all have, right? The more you kind of meditate on something and worry about something and think about it, it just seems to intensify and magnify in our thoughts. You start with one thing that actually happened, and then your mind adds 10 things that could happen, three things that somebody might be thinking, and a conversation that hasn't even taken place yet. And by the time you're finished, you're fighting something much larger than what was actually there to begin with. I think we can do something similar with spiritual warfare. We can become so fascinated by what Satan might be doing that we forget what scripture has already told us about God. So I want that settled before we go any further in this series. We're talking about a real enemy. We're not talking about God's equal. Now, here's something that I found interesting. Scripture uses several different descriptions for Satan. He's called the devil, the adversary, the tempter, the accuser, and the evil one. Jesus refers to him as the father of lies. And when you put those descriptions together, you start getting a picture. Not necessarily of what Satan looks like. Scripture seems much more interested in showing us what he does. And that matters because I don't think our job is to become experts on Satan. Our job is to become discerning enough to recognize when something doesn't line up with God and with God's word. And over the next few episodes, that's where we're going. We're going to talk about deception. We're going to talk about accusation and temptation. And I want to look at those things carefully because they're all places where scripture gives us something concrete to work with. But even before we get there, going back to Paul, Paul has already told us something important. There are schemes and strategies and things we need to be aware of. Which brings me to another scripture. Let's look at 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8. It says, Be alert and of sober mind, that your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Now that's a pretty intense picture. A roaring lion looking for something to devour will definitely get your attention. But look at the instruction Peter gives. He says, be alert. I think that's different from being afraid. If you're alert, you're paying attention. You're aware of your surroundings. You're not wandering through life completely oblivious to what's happening around you. But fear does something different. Fear can make you fixate on the danger until that's all you see. And I don't think that's what Peter is asking believers to do. Because if we keep reading, verse 9 says, resist him by standing firm in the faith. There's that word again. Stand. We're going to hear that a lot this season. And I want you to notice that Peter assumes resistance is possible. He doesn't describe believers as helpless people waiting around hoping Satan doesn't notice them. He tells them to be alert and stand firm. That's a very different posture to take. There's another part of Ephesians 6 that I don't want us to skip over. And that's where Paul says our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That's interesting when you think about how much of our energy gets spent fighting flesh and blood. It's the coworker, the spouse, the kids, the family member, the person online who said something that maybe you want to throw your phone. And sometimes those relationships are really difficult. People can hurt us. People can make terrible choices. And scripture isn't asking us to pretend otherwise. But Paul is reminding believers that there's more happening in the world than what they can physically see. And I think that's where discernment comes in again. If I'm only paying attention to what's directly in front of me, I may respond to everything as though the person is the entire problem. Sometimes there's more happening beneath the surface. That doesn't remove personal responsibility. Doesn't mean every argument is spiritual warfare. It simply reminds us that the world scripture describes includes both the visible and the spiritual. And walking wisely means we don't ignore either one. Which brings us back to the flat tire. Is everything spiritual warfare? I don't think scripture gives us permission to say that. There are absolutely times when I need to pray about what I'm facing. There are also times when I need to apologize, change a habit, or admit that I made a bad decision and now I'm dealing with the consequences. If I'm spending money I don't have and struggling to pay my bills, I probably need a budget. If I'm exhausted because I stayed up until two o'clock in the morning scrolling on my phone, I don't know that we need to call a prayer meeting for that one, right? That's my consequence to my action. Sometimes the answer is just, well, listen, put the phone down and go to sleep. And I think that's worth saying in a series about spiritual warfare because discernment works both ways. We don't want to ignore a spiritual battle because we can't see it. But we also don't want to spiritualize something that requires wisdom, responsibility, or a change in our own behavior. Sometimes it may even be both. That's why this subject deserves more than cliches. We need wisdom. And there's one thing I want us to establish before we finish this episode today. This is probably the most important ground rule for this series behind enemy lines. We're going to talk about Satan in this series. We're going to look at what scripture says about the way he operates, and we're going to ask some questions that maybe we haven't thought about, thought much about before. But the enemy doesn't deserve an entire series where he's the main character. God does. Because go back to Ephesians 6. Before Paul says one word about the devil's schemes, he says, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. I don't think that's accidental. Paul starts with God. Our confidence in spiritual warfare doesn't come from how much we know about Satan. It comes from knowing the one we're standing in. It comes from knowing God, knowing his word, knowing his actions. And honestly, that's one of the things I want to be really careful about this season. If we get to the end of this series and we've learned a whole bunch of things about the devil, but we haven't grown in our understanding of God, then I think we've missed the point. We're learning about the enemy so we can walk wisely. We're keeping our eyes on God so we remember why we don't have to walk afraid. So I'm gonna give you something a little different to sit with this week. I don't want you looking for spiritual warfare. Actually, I'd kind of prefer that you didn't. Instead, think about what you already believe about it. What do you believe Satan can do? Where did those beliefs come from? Are there things that you've assumed were biblical because you've heard them repeat it from others around you, others in your circle for years now, and they've just become true to you somehow? You don't have to figure all of that out in one week. I just want you to start noticing what your beliefs are, what your understanding is. And if something comes to mind that you're not sure about, look it up. Go back to Scripture, grab your Bible, read for yourself, and get that understanding. Because that's what we're going to do together throughout this series. We are going to ask questions and we're going to look at what the Bible actually says. And where Scripture doesn't give us an answer, we're going to be careful about pretending that it does. Because that is wisdom too. So, who is your enemy, really? We're just beginning to answer that question. We know scripture says he's real, we know he's an adversary, and we know there are schemes we need to be aware of. And we also know something else. He's not God. So we're going to learn how the enemy operates because there's wisdom in understanding what we're dealing with. But we're not going to spend so much time studying him that we lose sight of the one who's already told us how to stand. The enemy doesn't deserve an entire season where he's the main character. God does. Next time, we're going to start looking at the strategies. And we're going all the way back to Genesis for this one. Because the first time scripture shows us the serpent interacting with humanity, he doesn't come crashing into the garden announcing himself as the enemy. He starts a conversation. And that conversation begins with a question. Did God really say that? We're going to talk about that. But until next time, I hope that you will keep asking, keep listening, and remember, being aware of the enemy doesn't mean living afraid of him. It means knowing where to look when you're not sure what you're dealing with. Each week, I send a short email called This Week's Question A Quiet Invitation, and it's a simple reflection to help you stay grounded, to pay attention, to dive deeper into God's Word, and to walk with God throughout your week. You can sign up at myquestion for you dot com, bringing you encouragement for your spirit and wisdom for your walk.