You Are Your First Enemy!

Generally speaking, we all want to blame another person or find a situation to blame for our shortcomings. Oh, I know he’s responsible for my failure, oh, I know she never liked my personality and chose to kick me out of the classroom. I remember when I was in School taking classes for My Masters degree. I was in one of those classes that was necessary to help me in future (in the real world), mid way into the semester, a project on Non-Profit Organization was assigned to every member of the class and we were supposed to be working with any chosen Non-Profit Organization. Shortly before the semester was over, I was done with my project of about 44 slides to be presented after it was graded. Some of the materials I had picked from the company to help me work on my project were not properly used because I did not remember to cite my work, and you know how grievous that offense is. The instructor said I was 12% guilty of plagiarism and that was huge, I pleaded to go back and cite my work since I admitted I’d used the materials given to me while I was working with the Organization to help me understand what they were all about. Summary, I was dropped from the class at the end of the semester with no possibility of going to another class that semester and my GPA was somewhat affected, the rest is history. The question is did I add words from their materials? Yes.

Many at times, we look for people to point accusing fingers at over our situations even though we know that we play a large role in bringing our situations to play. Those enemies we seek to fight or we fight externally were attracted by the internal enemies in us. What am I saying? Let’s analyze the issue above. If I had cited my source or studied the materials better or even taken my time to change the words I had picked from my source, I wouldn’t have been dropped from that class and as a matter of fact, I probably would have had the GPA I’d wanted and I wouldn’t have been battling with the school and tagging them “racists”, concluding that they did not like the fact that I was doing well at school. The internal enemy opens the door for external enemies to come in, and the less we look inwardly at the enemy on the inside, the more external battles we’ll keep fighting until we identify and kill the one we carry in us.

I had a friend who shared his problem with me concerning his temporary blessings. He said nothing lasts for him and that he felt someone back home was behind his case (like someone didn’t like the fact that he was progressing). The first question I asked him was, are you born again? He said, yes. I asked him the last time he was in God’s presence, he said, each time he wanted to attend church service his girlfriend complained that she wasn’t getting enough attention or his job called him for overtime, and some other stories that touched the heart, but he added that he read his bible, prayed and even listened to sermons online. I asked him what he does with this girlfriend of his on Sundays that wouldn’t wait till after service and how much was he being paid for overtime that he couldn’t sacrifice to pursue God’s purpose for his life? He couldn’t reply. The only thing I could say to him was, as long as you’re termed a child of God, you can never prosper in iniquity, I presented myself as an example, as long as you keep struggling with sin, you cannot conquer that external enemy. When you discipline the members of your household not to open the door for any stranger, it will be very difficult for a thief to be welcomed into your home, so also, if you discipline your body and bring it under subjection, it will be very difficult to expose yourself to the enemy and only then can you be sure of fighting battles that you’ll win through the help of God. It’s very possible that there are external forces fighting him, but if the lust of the flesh, greed for more money and living in absolute falsehood would be identified and killed (eliminated), he’d gain more strength and have the armor of God stay on him.

You discover that the more you fight the enemies, it seems like the arrows you throw are not going far, or they’re not affected by your prayers. Have you been fighting battles without winning? Pause for a moment……look inwardly, between you and God, point out those ugly desires within you, such as lust of the flesh, jealousy, slander, greed, etc The moment you’re able to identify some of these enemies, you’re few steps to winning your battles against external enemies. Identify those enemies and fight them, get rid of them because they open wider doors to the external enemies that are more powerful than they are. When you get rid of those internal enemies, you are secured against external enemies, even though they will hang around waiting to come in. 1 peter 5:8, be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. As long as there are no openings or there are no inner enemies to open the door for them, external enemies will have no access to destroy you and you’ll remain a victor. Now, don’t go saying, Prisca said no more battles, no, you’re only assured of victory.

 John 10:10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

It is my prayer that as we watch and pray, God will uphold us and help us to stay firm in Him.