Why do we listen to the enemy? We know that he is a liar, deceiver, destroyer, manipulator and many other things and yet we listen to him and believe that what he says is truth. Jesus said: Mt 10:16 ¶ Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. We as children of God must become wise to Satan’s ways.
A story we learn in Sunday School as children is about David and Goliath. All of you know the story. I want to point out verse eight: 1Sa 17:8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. Nowhere else in the scripture do we see two armies gathered together and one man going out and challenging the other army to send out one of their men to fight him. Winner take all. This isn’t the way wars were fought. The army of Israel let the Philistines dictate the terms of war. As I said in the beginning, Why do we listen to the enemy? Another point in verse eight is when you let the enemy dictate the terms you go down to him.
When we find ourselves in the valley, it is because we have gone down to the enemy. We as the Body of Christ must set the terms of when and where we do battle. We are to force the enemy to come to us on higher ground. We are an army. We are not one person fighting this war but we are together as an army. The enemy wants to get us alone (come out and fight me alone). We have one another to help us fight the enemy. We must not let the enemy dictate the terms of war.
When we entertain negative thoughts we are going down to meet the enemy alone. We need to remember at all times we are not alone. You don’t have to go out and meet Goliath alone.
We see the wisdom of Nehemiah, Ne 6:1 ¶ Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. Here again the enemy wants to set the terms of battle. The enemy will continuously try to get you to come down. We must always remember that we are doing a great work and we can not go down because the enemy beckons us. This is why so many people are defeated because they go down and meet the enemy alone.
In both of these Bible stories we have the brave and the fearful. Fear over takes us when we are pulled off alone. We must always remember that we are never alone. We must not let fear take control of us. The enemy sees that the completion of the wall is near and will try to pull us away from the task at hand to hinder the work. Let us work and remain faithful to the calling in our lives. Do not listen to the enemy. We are doing a great work.