The Rules of Engagement

Six

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Hiroshima of the Spirit

T he enemy forms and forges a great variety of weapons. Some are more apparent than others, such as abuse and afflictions. Others are not as evident, such as the spirit of indifference and frustration. In several places, the Bible portrays Satan as a crouching lion waiting for the most opportune moment to pounce upon his unsuspecting prey. First Peter 5:8 exhorts us to “be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” The word may is the key word in this passage. It says to me that Satan cannot devour everyone. He cannot devour you if you are aware of his tactics and strate gies, because the weapons you fight with are far greater than his according to 2 Corinthians 10:4–5. From this scripture alone we can conclude that the weapons the enemy uses against us are primarily carnal in nature: ones that involve the mind, will, and emotions. In order to defend against Satan and his deceptive attacks, we must first understand what we are defending against. Imagine, for example, that you are a general with tens of thousands of soldiers and weapons at your command. The battlefield is pitch black—and as events would have it, you don’t at this moment have night-vision goggles and equipment. You know out there somewhere is another general with his battalions, but you don’t know how many soldiers he has on the battlefield. You don’t know if your soldiers will be facing tanks, cannons, planes, or missiles. You don’t know whether the terrain is mountainous or wet and swampy. Can you plan a battle effec tively? Absolutely not! Everything would be guesswork. Both you and your soldiers would be at a disadvantage and in greater danger of being killed. Our general, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not an uninformed general. He knows the enemy, his arsenal, and the terrain. The battlefield is the mind, and the weapons…well, you are about to discover.

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