Identifying the Enemy

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."(Ephesians 6:12 NKJV)

It's no coincidence that as Paul warns us about the deceptive wiles of the enemy he immediately fraws our attention to the fact that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood." I believe that one of the enemy's favorite wiles is to confuse our understanding about his true identity. Satan's plan is to get us thinking that the people in our daily lives (the flesh and blood) are our real enemies. If he can accomplish this, then we're beaten out of the gate because we can't defeat an enemy that we can't identify.

When we focus on the flesh, we do two things that are determental to us. We encourage our own carnality because we stay subject to the wordly level instead of seeing things through the spiritual perspective. We also ensure the world's captivity because when we see our fellow man as the enemy, we certainly won't be inclined to share the saving message of the gospel with them. They stay bound in their captivity, and we stay bound in our carnality.

There are three things that we can do that will help us to stop focusing on the flesh and start identifying who the real enemy is. First,we need to love those who wh're tempted to call our enemy. Second,we need to pray for the people who rub us the wrong way,especially those who don't know the Lord. The more we pray for people, the more we will desire what's best for them. Lastly, we need to share the gospel with them, understanding their spiritual condition and need.When we do these things, we will see people in a much different light, and we will also see our real enemy for who he is.It's a terrible tragedy whenever friendly fire occurs on the battlefield.We need to remember that God calls us to befriend the people in our lives that we mistakenly identify as our enemies.