This is a repost from something I wrote in June 2010.  The lesson God started teaching me back then, he reminded me of again this weekend.  I have tried to write new words but have come up empty handed.  Why fix something if it isn’t broken.  So here ya go. 

I’m learning a lot these days, friends.  God is honoring the desire to rid my life of unhealthy things (what I affectionately refer to as gluten of the heart and mind).  I have let too many unhealthy things creep into my spirit without question; like the lie that I am my own worst enemy.  I don’t know if it’s my experience in 12-step culture or the years of self-actualization through counseling, but I often state that the first thing to holding me back in any situation, is myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I may be a close second, but I have lost all sense of this prowling lion that Scripture speaks of.

As a child, someone once told me that to write the name of Satan is the ultimate glorification of him.  That by just mentioning his name, we give him power.  I have come to see that this is ridiculously incorrect and perhaps even the greatest manipulation created by Satan himself.  Ignoring our enemy does not weaken him.  In fact, it only gives him more freedom to roam about unhindered.  We live in an age that promotes and praises the glorification of self.  I’ve heard time and time again from beleivers, “I know God extends mercy to you, but it’s hard to realize He extends it to me.”  In forgetting we are in a fight for our lives, we have also forgotten our power.

It’s frightening to think that this war has been raging against me and I have just flipped it the honorary bird of silence.  How can we stand against an enemy that we don’t even acknowledge?  Do not the military and sports people alike spend significant time learning the ways of their enemies?  How also can I stand against Satan when I have forgotten that the victorious power of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is inside of me!  In ignoring my enemy, I see now that I have ignored my God.

This was on my mind all day yesterday.  Last night when I crawled into bed I heard fireworks.  I sat and listened as if some battle cry in the distance was marching my way.  The fight is here, the fight is now.