The Enemy Among Us

I recently had a great time traveling to other churches and sharing about what God is doing in Thief River Falls and Northwest Minnesota. I shared encouragement from the Bible and from our experience about the hard work that has been accomplished by faith, our labor that has been prompted by love, and endurance inspired by our hope in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:3). I shared about how God is blessing our church – really a movement of churches in northern MN – and how the Holy Spirit is moving among us in a mighty way (but greater things are still to come!).

Our church rocks! And although it was fun (and necessary) to share and worship with other believers, it was hard to be gone for three weeks from the church and people that I love.  It has been such an exciting summer as God has brought us many new guests who are finding Epiphany Station to be the kind of place that we’ve been working so hard to make. It has been so encouraging to see our people embracing guests and doing whatever it takes – prompted by love – to accomplish whatever needs to be done. We are truly experiencing a special time of God’s blessing (but greater things are still to be done!).

But one thing I’ve learned in years of ministry is that when God is at work, something else is working extra hard to unravel what God is doing. The Bible warns us to “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). In my experience, this “devouring” rarely comes from external persecution, but from internal turmoil as Satan prowls among us, the church, looking for an opportunity – a word to twist; an experience to distort; an idea to debate; a relationship to break – to pounce and devour God’s people. Satan knows there is no better way to keep us from reaching “lost” people than to occupy our time and energy with those who are “found.” He knows the best way to distract us from accomplishing God’s mission is to get us to focus on our personal agendas. So be self-controlled and alert! Because the enemy is prowling around looking for an opportunity to devour. Any of us can be the prey. Perhaps, especially me.

I admit it. I get frustrated, discouraged and angry when Satan attacks. It usually takes me a while to figure out what’s going on, so those feelings get initially placed in improper places. But Scripture reminds us that “We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Satan wants us to think that each other is the enemy. If he can do that, he wins. But we know the truth. Our enemy is not you, me, or any person, but Satan himself.  He is the only one worthy of our anger.

So we must “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-11).

God has given us a mission of hope with a message of salvation to reach people who are lost without Christ’s love. And through the power of the Holy Spirit and lots of hard work being accomplished through faith, God’s message is ringing out and His mission is advancing.

And our enemy hates it.

So we must “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (Ephesians 6:18).

We are in the midst of a battle for the hearts, minds and souls of people. Our lone enemy is Satan. Our only hope is Jesus Christ.