Knowing Your Enemy is Half the Battle

20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth I don't know if it is half the battle, but I do know that not knowing your enemy in the Christian life is crippling, confusing and catastrophizing. Many Christians might say, "Yep, I know my enemy--it is that filthy devil...I rebuuuuuuuuuuuuuke you filthy devil." Yes, satan is a powerful foe to be reckoned with; however, he is not the real problem...he has been stripped of his power. All he has left is the lie. Lies, lies, lies, is all he has. He is not allowed to come near any believer unless God allows it. It always makes me angry when I see people getting all whipped up about the devil when the Scriptures simply say, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." That is it. The believer has been given "all the fullness" (col. 2) of Christ Jesus which includes headship over the principalities and powers. All we need to do is resist. The weakest of believers have this authority. The Apostle John tells us that all believers have the anointing of God. Why, then, have Christians been fooled into thinking that they have to go to some "anointed" brother or sister for deliverance? Why are prayer lines full of Saints of God with total authority going up and having someone pray for them. And the people praying act like if they stamp their feet enough, yell loud enough and say the right thing, something will happen. The Bible is clear that we are not supposed to tangle with the devil this way. We are to be on guard, resit when we discern an attack, and then fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and who we are in him. . We are to pray for one another, don't misunderstand me. We build relationships of love by praying for one another. In other words, I have authority to pray and so do you. We confess, share and pray for each other and from out of that comes the intimate, loving relationships God designed. I don't know churches motivation by promoting this idea, but it keeps saints in bondage, blinded to who they really are in Christ Jesus, and impotent. It keeps them dependant on the church structure rather than on Christ. It is often a fair show of the flesh, I fear. This brings us to the real enemy--the flesh; the flesh is our most potent enemy and in part 2 we will look at the real enemy, but for now, know that it is not the devil.