WHO IS YOUR ENEMY ?

We cannot engage in combat with an enemy we do not know. We must know our enemy and his strategies to defeat him.

“5 (44:6) With you we overthrow our enemies, With your name we crush our adversaries. 6 (44:7) For I do not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me; 7 (44:8) But it is you who deliver us from our enemies, and confound those who hate us” (Psalms 44:6-8 (5-7)).

Definitions:
David speaks of enemy and adversary (Verse 5 (6)). Note that there is a difference between an enemy and an adversary;
An adversary is someone who wants to win, who wants to snatch what is ours, steal the show. On the other hand, an enemy is someone who hates us, who does not want to see us live, who lays traps for us, who wants to kill us.

David faced many enemies in his life, but it was with God that he overthrew his enemies. It was with the name of God that he crushed his adversaries. David recognized that his sword would not save him. He had a great army and generals, but it was the Lord who gave him victory over his enemies and his adversaries.

The different places or spheres where we meet our enemies and adversaries:
(i) In our homes:
“35 For I have come to set a division between a man and his father, between a daughter and her mother, between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the people of his house” (Matthew 10:35-36).
Our enemies are in our homes, especially when we have believed and other family members have not experienced the new birth, so the persecutions are many.
God had told Abram to leave his father’s house because it was an idolatrous family. Because of the altars and the curses of his family, God asked Abram to leave.
In families, there are manipulations, rivalries between children, sometimes tensions between parents and children. The man will have as enemies the people of his house. Therefore, it is necessary in the long term that he leaves his father’s house, otherwise it will be difficult for him to fulfill his destiny.

-Let us pray to the Lord, that every enemy in the house of our fathers will let go of our destiny, in the name of Jesus Christ.

(ii) At our work places:
Our promotion, our talents, our attire, our outspokenness can arouse the jealousy of a colleague, for example.

(iii) In the neighborhood, in the village, in the city:
When God lifts us up, it can cause jealousy. For this, sorcerers, occult forces and forces of darkness can rise up against us. Everyone who has a destiny of greatness has an enemy whose purpose is to fight him. We live in a dangerous world. We must cling to the true Protector, the Lord of Hosts, and hide ourselves in the blood of Jesus Christ.

-Let us pray to the Lord, so that any visible or invisible enemy who opposes us fulfilling our destiny, will fall, in the name of Jesus Christ.

(iv) In the Church:
“12 (55:13) It is not an enemy who insults me, I will bear it; It is not my adversary who rises against me, I would hide before him. 13 (55:14) It is you, whom I esteemed my equal, You, my confidant and my friend! 14 (55:15) Together we lived in sweet intimacy, We went with the crowd to the house of God! 15 (55:16) Let death take them by surprise, Let them go down alive to Hades! For wickedness is in their dwelling place, in their midst. 16 (55:17) And I cry to God, and the Lord will save me” (Psalms 55:12-16 (13-17)).
There are enemies in the ministry, in the Church, who were once our confidants, with whom we shared our meals, but who later rise up against us. Thus, people who once were close friends create rivalries in the Church, become jealous enemies of the prosperity of other brethren, jealous enemies of the calling of other brethren. Yet the Lord wants us to put each of our gifts together in the service of His kingdom.
The Lord warns: “Jesus said to his disciples: It is impossible that there will not be scandals; but woe to him by whom they come! (Luke 17:1). Let us not be a stumbling block for the destiny of our brother.

– Let us pray to the Lord, that we will not be a stumbling block to destabilize the ministry of our brother, our sister or our pastor, in the name of Jesus Christ.

The different types of enemies:
Goliath, Pharaoh and Herod are examples of enemies. For the child Jesus, a refugee in Egypt, to return to Galilee to fulfill His destiny, Herod had to die.

Two types of enemies:
-The repentant enemy: God can grant him divine grace
-The unrepentant enemy: God can kill him: “You shall not allow the witch to live” (Exodus 22:18).

-Let us pray to the Lord, that every unrepentant enemy, every enemy hidden in the darkness, with a mission to destroy us, will fall and not rise again, in the name of Jesus Christ.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all! (Revelation 20:21).

Apôtre Joël Danzoué