I Am my own Worst Enemy Part 1

Since the earliest church, there has always been a pervasive belief that our fight is only against the devil and his minions. If that were the case, then defeating him would be relatively easy. For the bible promises, if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. However, that does not deal with the real enemy. To understand this, we must explore the Holy Word. In Ephesians 6:12, it reads,

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. Note from the text that we are fighting against 4 destructive forces. We are fighting 1) against the rulers 2) against the authorities 3) the powers of this dark world and 4) spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Let us tackle the first two forces. The Greek word for the phase the rulers is archē, which means beginning; origin, the person or thing that commences; the first person or thing in a series, the leader. The Greek word for the word authorities is exousia, which means privilege, i.e. (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom. Therefore, without tackling enemy forces #3 & #4, which clearly depict Satan’s realm, let us paraphrase the first 2 destructive forces within the text. By applying the Greek definitions, the beginning of the scripture would read like this, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the first person, against his privilege….” [TK]

This war we are fighting is against our nature first minus anything new from the devil. Meaning, we have an inherent sin nature that can destroy us completely by itself, with no involvement from the powers of the evil one. Dissimilar to the bible promise that resisting the devil will cause him to flee, I cannot resist my flesh. No matter what I say to my flesh it is always with me. Therefore, what am I to do? Let us look to scripture again; In Galatians 5:24, the scripture states, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”.

The Greek word for crucify is stauróō, which means to impale on the cross; figuratively, to extinguish (subdue) passion or selfishness. Therefore, if we do not nail our self-will to the cross daily, we can never walk this Christian faith. Meaning, if you are not crucifying yourself (figuratively) daily, you are not living as a Christian. For those who may disagree, let us explore the holy Word once more. In Luke 9:23-24, the text states,

23 "Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny

themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save

their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it".

This is a powerful scripture. For it unlocks clearly how Christ views true disciples of His. Note the stark phases that are used: Deny yourself; take up your cross; lose your life for me. This is an important distinction to make because it goes against the doctrine of Humanism and the perverse gospel of Individualism. Both belief systems' focal point is on the person and their needs. Yet this is antithetical to the gospel of Christ Jesus because it is self-seeking, self-confident, self-pleasing, and self-satisfying. In contrast, we are called to lay aside everything and take up the cross and follow Christ. God wants a people whose only desire is for His full control in and through their lives.

As prophesized in Ezekiel 36:25-27,

25 "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws".

Only through full surrender can the Holy Spirit move freely within us, to achieve the life God designed and imparted inside of us. Anything apart from full surrender is a direct rejection of the motivation behind our creation in the first place. *To be continued.

Be encouraged,

Thomas Knowles, Minister of the Gospel of Christ Jesus