Know Your Adversary and Know the Truth

1 Pet 5:8--Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1 Pet 5:9--Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

John 8:32--And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

We all can agree that life is filled with battles.  Some are big, some are small.  Some we win, and some we lose.  If you were to ask any great General or Conqueror, they would tell you the same thing.  The greatest edge you could have in facing your enemy is to know as much about him as possible.  Know his strengths.  Know his weaknesses.  Know where he is vulnerable.  The simple key to victory is to attack where he is weak and vulnerable.  Never attack his strength.  The battle is easier and victory is swifter when you attack your enemies weakness and vulnerability.

Most of us spend our fighting time, fighting the wrong enemy.  We fight each other.  After all, it was our spouse, our children, our parents, our boss, our political leader that attacked or offended us first.  This could be very true, but it is all a ruse by our real enemy.  Let's take a look at some insight from the second greatest soul-winner outside of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul.  Eph. 6:12--For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].  Even though it was people that came against the work that he was doing, people that put him in jail, people that beat and whipped him, Paul realised that the real culprit behind it was satan.  Satan, through fear, anger and jealousy got someone else to do his dirty work.  Like a magician's trick, it was all slight of hand.
 People are not your REAL enemy.  They don't have any idea that, as Peter said, the "roaring lion" was looking for someone to devour.  A "roaring lion" on the African plain is an old and toothless male.  His teeth and his strength are about gone.  He cannot chase and tear his prey.  He has to hide in the bushes and let the female lioness chase the prey his way.  Then, his job it to jump up, roar and scare the prey into stumbling so the lionesses can catch and kill it.
Peter was another soul-winning, miracle working church founder that gives us insight into the weakness and vulnerability of our enemy.  He calls the devil a toothless and weak and almost useless "roaring lion" whose only strength is to scare the prey.  If the prey kept its head and refused to be afraid, it would keep on running and outrun the lionesses.  The prey would always win.  There's a message there somewhere.  If we would learn to abide in the words of Jesus (John 15), the truth would make us free.

Peter also described satan as our "adversary."  The Greek word for adversary is defined as an attorney at law.  That's a far, far cry from someone that we commonly think of as a powerful wizard.  In any courtroom, you have two attorneys that argue a case for or against the defendant.  As we have seen in the movies as well as in real life, it is the job of the attorney to sway the jury and/or judge to his particular point of view.  There favorite tactics instead of presenting the truth are to instill fear, doubt, anger and prejudice to the jury.  Does that not sound like our enemy?  He always encourages everything but love.  There's a message there, but it will have to wait for another blog.  Remember, the prosecuting attorney and the roaring lion have NO POWER over the accused.  They ONLY instigate someone else to condemn and do the dirty work to a righteous individual.

Here is a very real weakness of our enemy that leaves him extremely vulnerable.  When you get this one down pat, you will have greater success than you have ever had.  Are you ready for this?  The devil is not as smart as WE have made him out to be.  WE are the fear-mongerers.  We have been the ones that have boldly declared the devil's exploits.  We have been pawns in his hand as we do so.  Think, for a minute.  Then, when it dawns on you, think for a long, long time and let this notion be your inspiration to greater prayer. 
The devil knows the Word of God.  He quoted it to Jesus when Jesus was in the wilderness.  Logically, if the devil knew the Word of God, he, surely,  knew that Jesus would die to pay for our sins.  Surely, he knew that if Jesus died and paid the price, that the entire world would be free from his grasp and safe in the covenant of Almighty God.  Instead of trying to kill Jesus, why didn't the devil PROTECT Jesus.  Jesus' shed blood is the destruction of all satan's power and curses.  If Jesus' blood had never been shed, satan would have retained his world-wide domination.  As Jesus healed, He said (John 5:14) go and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.  Since there was no protecting blood shed, all satan had to do was follow Jesus around and bring sin back into the lives of those that Jesus healed.  The devil had it made as long as Jesus was alive.  However, he was too stupid to see it.  His own anger, jealousy and rage became his own undoing.  What a lesson for us.

Finally, know your own strength to be victorious in battle.  Our strength lies in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Our strength lies in our abiding in His Word.  When His Word is our constant thought supply instead of the roarings of a toothless, weak lion, we begin to possess a power greater than we ever imagine.  Meditation on His Word instead of our enemies slander brings a quiet strength and a Rock-solid resolve to our faith.  Our prayers become effective, James 5:16.  We remain calm under fire.  We know the vulnerability of our enemy and refuse to fear.  We become bold.  Proverbs 28:1 says The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.  We become as bold as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  When we are surrounded by screams of anger and jealousy, we are bold enough to stand our ground and let them scream.  The roaring of the enemy will not move me.  I, and the problems that I face, will be moved only by the Word of God.
Pass this lesson on.  Someone else needs it just like you and I.