Listen to this articleIn Part 1 we learned that we have real enemies and those enemies are both spiritual and human. We also learned that they’ve teamed up to oppress, discourage, accuse, destroy, entrap and enslave us. Now in this part we’ll learn how to overcome them, and how NOT to try to defeat them.
How to overcome our enemies
At first we don’t want to believe it — it can’t possibly be true that there are actually people in places of authority who intentionally, or are at least willing, to cause unspeakable suffering and death. But then it slowly dawns on us that no other explanation is possible. Yes, we know about Hitler and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot, but those men lived long ago and surely our enlightened era has ended the era of totalitarian regimes. But no, if we study history, it’s the authoritarian regimes and empires that are the rule and the recurring story of history. And sadly, our day is no different, and is probably worse. Make no mistake: human beings exist in the world who have entered into the arena of dark powers and have agreed with them.
When this fact finally dawns on us, we should become enraged.[1] Our indignation and disgust at these evils is right and just. We want to do something! Our natural tendency is to rise up and reciprocate, even to use violence. But Jesus said, ‘yet it shall not be so with you.’ Rather, we are told to:
. . . love your enemies . . .
. . . do good to those who use you . . .
. . . turn the other cheek . .
. . . give him your cloak also . . .
. . . go with him two . . .
Here’s an excerpt from my article: LIE: I am defeated, part 2. Jesus calls us to overcome enemies the way he did: by taking up our own cross.
How we take up our cross
A By revealing, not hiding or defending our own weaknesses, failures and sins
When Christ calls us to take up our cross, he calls us to be willing to go to any length to love and serve, even if it means being embarrassed, humiliated, misunderstood, rejected or even injured or killed.
In our lives we do not easily reveal our weaknesses and sins. Usually we go to great lengths to hide them, defend them, minimize them, or try to compensate for them. We will use any number of ways to protect ourselves and reduce our exposure and vulnerability. But God calls us to avoid all of this prevarication. Rather, he calls us to simply but appropriately admit them.
Taking this posture for ourselves obviously puts us into a vulnerable position; it’s a position that others can easily take advantage of. And yes, people will take advantage of us in ways large and small.
Specifically our enemies use our weaknesses, failures and sins as leverage against us, many times without realizing what they’re doing. But when we relinquish the right to hide or defend our weaknesses, but instead acknowledge them, it removes the ground on which the enemy can effectively oppose us. When we take this posture of vulnerability, we are simply agreeing with God and being honest with who we truly are.
We must not hide the brokenness of our lives because this is the reality of the Adam-flesh that we still inhabit. But when we also shine the light and love of Christ through these broken vessels, it allows the glory of God to shine through as nothing else can.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. — 2 Corinthians 4:7–10
B By sacrificially loving our enemies.
When we find ourselves in these vulnerable situations, we naturally tend to do the bare minimum of what we need to do and then get out of there. But by doing that, we forfeit the opportunity to truly love our enemies. Jesus knew this and instructed us in these situations:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. — Matthew 5:38–42
This also is non-intuitive. Precisely how could we overcome by going twice as far as what we’re exploitatively told to do? Because by doing so we show him (our enemy) that, what he intends as a way to disrespect, harass, ridicule or even torture, actually is now an act of love for him. He means to control you, manipulate you, use you by means of fear and intimidation. But instead, when we love him God turns the tables. By loving him instead of fearing him, you bring your enemy face to face with God. In effect you’re saying: ‘You do not control me; Jesus is my Lord and he commands me to love you. You are not dealing with just me – now you are dealing with God himself.’ Keep in mind, that whether you live or die in the process, you also may end up winning your enemy to God or bringing him closer to judgment.
Paul also said:
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. — 2 Corinthians 2:14–16a
We are in a WAR, not a skirmish
Now let’s go back to the Ephesians six passage, and specifically verses twelve and thirteen:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. — Ephesians 6:12–13
We put on the whole armor of God because of the schemes of the devil. Those schemes are not trivial, so this means we wrestle, not ‘down in the mud’ with unsophisticated, crude methods (which is what our own methods would amount to), but we ‘wrestle’ using advanced, high-level tactics. These high-level tactics are perpetrated by archons and exousias, etc. So the use of the words ‘flesh and blood,’ is in contrast to the armor that is necessary for high-level military battle. Armor is intended to completely cover all flesh and the blood that can otherwise flow from it. In other words, this is war, not a skirmish. War is devised based on high-level planning by the generals. Only the Lord and his Spirit are capable to operate at that level, not us. We simply must stand our ground.
The implication is that this war is completely out of our league. The players involved are completely corrupt and totalitarian. Therefore we are urged to hold nothing back but to put all of our trust in the empowering power of God. The following describes two aspects of our empowerment: internal and external. The internal is spoken first with Paul’s use of the word endynamousthe (‘be strong’), meaning ‘be in-powered,’ or ‘be imbued with power,’ in the Lord. The external is the armor of God, which is described by metaphor in the verses that follow. The external armor describes how we live out this internal power in a hostile world.
Paul says:
- be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. The ancient battle is completely beyond us, therefore we need to internalize the power of God.
- put on the whole armor of God. The battle we are fighting requires everything: truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer. Nothing is to be neglected.
- take up the whole armor of God. Emphasizing the point above. This battle will take everything we have.
- having done all, to stand. It will take everything and all that we can do.
- to stand. Since the battle is the Lord’s we are only required to stand.
- quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. No dart that this totalitarian enemy can launch against us will ignite, as long as we are clothed with the armor of God.
Paul uses the words: ‘whole’ two times and ‘all’ two times. This is the only comprehensive solution to our enemies’ schemes.
Being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, in the face of otherwise overwhelming odds, is an expression of faith in his power. Otherwise it would simply reduce to a crude wrestling with flesh and blood and guts — just a personal violent clash. And that is precisely what the powers are trying to evoke. More on that in a minute.
Although we don’t want to face our own vulnerabilities, and we want to believe we’re up to the task, it’s good to be aware and even to be overwhelmed by the magnitude and mastery of our enemies’ deceitfulness. Truly they are powerful and evil and seek to devour us. The immensity of this evil and of our enemies is incalculable. Listen to Paul’s estimation in the same letter to the Ephesian church:
that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love . . . — Ephesians 4:14–15a
In this passage Paul uses six words to describe how completely deceitful our enemies are. Here are the six words:
- klydonizomenoi – being tossed by waves
- peripheromenoi – being carried about
- kubeia – cunning
- panourgia – craftiness
- methodeian – scheming
- planes – deceit
Paul uses these words to emphasize how impossibly deceitful the devil’s wiles are. The point is we cannot just ‘figure out’ our enemies. We are not even to operate on that level. The answer is not more knowledge.
But it is good to know this impossible level of deceit because it will do one of three things:
- drive us to utter despair
- drive us to escape, become numb, and zombify ourselves
- drive us to the Lord and discover the strong endowment of the ‘power of his might,’ and to put on the armor of God.
Demonic powers and their human counterparts claim the right to control us because man has incorrectly, erroneously, and presumptuously claimed the right to live independently from God. But this is simply a cosmic delusion. The truth is we cannot live autonomously — it’s impossible. The Lord created is to be constantly accompanied and empowered by him. But since we are ‘pretending’ to be independent of God, the gods (little ‘g’) claim to step into that space. But unlike God, they do not partner and empower; they dominate and control.
Yet the fact is that they do not have that right, they falsely claim to have it, but they can only fake it, simulate it, by easily overpowering vulnerable ‘autonomous’ man. At any point they must relinquish their control of us at the command of Jesus. Jesus demonstrated this many times in delivering those who had become completely demonized.
The kind of control that demons and their human counterparts claim extends to turning us into unthinking, unfeeling automatons. We see this in process now with the digital revolution, and for example, the zombifying power of the smartphone. Passivity simulates death, a state in which we become more easily controlled and even ‘consumable’ (demonized).
So dark powers are always trying to embroil us in some public outrage, some evil thing that a politician or a corporate executive or celebrity has done. Most of these are distractions, so beware of these traps. Rather, stay focused on the mission God has given you. There is no lack of righteous causes that God may have you step into in his name.[2]
A final word
It seems that our enemies are being revealed.
If we’re willing to see it, the men and women and institutions we once trusted are being exposed for the complete frauds that they are. And consequently thousands, even millions of people across the world have ‘woken up,’ not to ‘conspiracy theories,’ but to what actually happens in the corporate boardrooms, ivory towers, laboratories, hospitals, and lecture halls of the world. But this should not surprise us! Jesus warned us clearly that the world’s authorities (exousias) — government, corporate, medical, etc —are all about controlling the masses like cattle. Billions of people were injected with a substance that was not what it claimed to be, and in the process, injured, impaired and killed millions.[3] All the while, the bureaucrats, politicians, scientists, and journalists that flit across our TV screens continue to lie and obfuscate and act like nothing is wrong. This is gaslighting on a massive scale.
This revelation of evil and of our enemies is deliberate. But why? Didn’t they want to remain hidden?
Not always.
Our vampiric enemies want and feed off of the anger and hate and blood and violence. They want the division and fragmentation and confusion. But do not be deceived: ‘the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.’[4] Do not fall for this trap.
As the investigative journalist Whitney Webb has written: ‘The war on domestic terror is not going to start itself.’[5]Our intelligence agencies have been building and preparing for the ‘domestic terrorist’ threat for a long time. And now, here in the late summer of 2022, it’s ramping up.
So in America, if you’re a conservative, a Trump follower,[6] Christian, ‘conspiracy theorist,’ gun owner, gardener/prepper, you fit the profile of a domestic terrorist, and the FBI likely has you in its sites[7]. And they may try to provoke you to violence or the incitement of violence.[8] Or they may falsely accuse you without evidence or with planted evidence. However it may happen do not react with your natural instincts. ‘We do not wrestle against flesh and blood . . .’ In that moment remember what Jesus warned us and told us to do:
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. — Matthew 10:16–20
[1] See also my article, LIE: We should not hate, for a more complete study of this subject. In a nutshell, the point is that we should hate institutional evils like abortion, pedophilia, war, transhumanism, eugenics, gender ideology, etc, yet at the same time, we should love the individual soul that we personally encounter who seeks to oppress us, threaten us, falsely accuse us, entrap us, etc. And yet again, a healthy hatred of evildoers as a class of people should push us to do good to those who are afflicted by them.
[2] See my article: LIE: We should not hate, for a good list of these potential missions
[3] See for example, https://openvaers.com
[4] See James 1:20
[5] See https://twitter.com/_whitneywebb/status/1557017747191746560 captured on 18 August 2022.
[6] By mentioning Trump, I am in no way endorsing him. I only mention him because he is likely a major player to be used in framing ‘domestic terrorists,’ whether you believe in the man or not. I certainly do not.
[7] For the FBI leaked document that targets conspiracy theorists, see https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anti-Government,_Identity_Based,_and_Fringe_Political_Conspiracy_Theories_Very_Likely_Motivate_Some_Domestic_Extremists_to_Commit_Criminal,_Sometimes_Violent_Activity
[8] The term stochastic terror is a term being thrown around at the moment.
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