The Battlefield
1 Peter 5:8
It was a picture-perfect, postcard morning. Light northeast trade winds played over the peaceful South Pacific harbor as an armada of cumulus clouds sailed proudly overhead. The U.S. sailors stationed there yawned and stretched to greet the lazy Sunday morning.
This idyllic setting seemed the least likely place in all the earth for a war to start,
but at five minutes till eight, the calm blanketing Pearl Harbor was slashed
by the ruthless propellers of enemy warplanes.
In a carefully planned strategy, 190 Japanese planes from 6 aircraft carriers swooped down from the cloud cover, diving to make their attack in coordinated waves of strafing and bombing. Around the island 25 submarines waited to pick off survivors of the air attack, while several two-man subs infiltrated the harbor to finish off the crippled U.S. fleet.
When the enemy strike force returned to the carriers and the smoke of battle cleared, 2,113 navy men and marines were dead, another 987 wounded.
The enemy's strategy had been meticulously planned, carefully coordinated, and almost flawlessly executed. With a loss of twenty-nine planes, five miniature submarines, and sixty-four men, the Japanese had sunk four U.S. battleships, badly damaged three more, and wounded an eighth. They had also demolished two destroyers and blown the bow off a third while putting several other warships permanently or temporarily out of commission
The island paradise of O’ahu, Hawaii is one of the least likely places on earth to be a battlefield. BUT IT WAS GROUND ZERO… the main battlefield in Japan’s war against the US because the enemy realized VICTORY WOULD BE WON OR LOST ON THAT CRUCIAL FIELD!
Their scheme was simple, shrewd and deadly.
Today, each of us faces an enemy whose scheme for our defeat is just as simple, just as shrewd and just as deadly.
The warning of Peter, in 1 Peter 1:8, reveals our enemy's strategy, or as Peter calls it… his scheme.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Pet. 5:8)
Japan’s scheme for Pearl Harbor was to take out their greatest enemy with an all out attack designed to destroy us.
Our Enemy… Satan… has the same desire for us.
As we see in this verse…
he prowls … Satan is RELENTLESS
devour … Satan is RUTHLESS
Satan does not want to pester you… or trip you up…
His plan is to DEVOUR… DISTROY YOU
In this passage Peter does not discuss the WHY… why Satan wants to devour us
The reason is the same as Japan’s attack on the US
To render the US ineffective, useless, powerless
A non player in the war
That would leave Japan the top dog in the Naval world
Satan wants to render us… you and me… the church… the people of God… ineffective, useless, powerless in the spiritual realm and leave him #1, top dog… free to carry out his plans to hurt God.
Peter does not address the WHY… He is speaking to the HOW
The word schemes in verse 11 is transliterated methodeia in the Greek. From this we get our word method.
If the US had viewed Japan as the enemy, they would have been more vigilant in monitoring their movements and they could never have moved the aircraft carriers into range to attack.
But we did not……….. so they did!!!
If the devil is our enemy, as 1 Peter 5:8 says, it stands to reason
HE-- WILL-- ATTACK-- US
AND
If he• will attack us, it further stands to reason that he will have a plan of attack-a scheme, a strategy.
And his strategy is to get to your mind ... To attack you in your mind…
Your reasoning
Your thinking
Your understanding
Your mind is Satan’s Pearl Harbor… if he can devour you there he will win the war… your actions.
If the US…… on Friday….. had intercepted a message from one of the aircraft carriers to one of the planes saying… “Everything is “go” for the attack on Pearl Harbor at 8 am on Sunday”… do you think things might have gone differently?
I hope so… if they had advance warning and still let it happen… that is treasonous.
Well, listen… I can tell you where Satan is going to attack you!!!
IN YOUR MIND
Satan does not want to attack your body… because he has lost too many battles there
JOB – NICK Vojecic Joni Erickson Tada Beethoven
It does no good to attack the body… if you cannot get the mind
But Satan knows… if he can get the mind… he will get the body
Have you ever heard the saying… God has no hands but your hands and no feet but your feet…?
Ain’t true!!! God can make any feet He needs, he does not need your’s… He uses them… but he is not limited to them.
Satan, however, does not create anything… he just misuses and corrupts what God creates.
So it would be correct to say … Satan has no hands but your hands and no feet but your feet.
If Satan wants to do something that needs feet… he has to use OURS.
And he knows that if he wants to use our feet… he has to go through our mind.
So… the primary target for Satan is OUR MINDS
In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul helps us see the real war.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
In this illustration, Paul compares the mind to a fortress.
Ancient cities were often constructed with a surrounding wall for protection against enemies and wild animals. Within the wall were towers that rose higher than the walls and overlooked the surrounding terrain. In the event of an enemy siege, military strategists would climb these "lofty" lookouts and shout orders to coordinate their ground soldiers in a defensive effort.
For a city to be conquered, the offensive forces would have to …
penetrate or scale the wall and
take control of these towers by either killing or taking captive the men in them.
Similarly, the mind is a fortress… OR SHOULD BE!!!
Paul used the analogy of armor to talk about protecting our mind
But I want to stay with the fortress analogy
If we want to be victorious against our prowling, devouring enemy...
then we need to build walls to protect ourselves, erect towers to keep a lookout for enemy attacks and install a keen military strategist in the tower to give us orders for troop deployment.
HOW???
THE WALLS
The strong walls of a worldly wall would be built from large stones.
But what do we use to build the wall around our mind so we can repulse the attack of Satan?
David, a great military leader provides us with a simple yet profound plan to build the walls.
Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. (Ps. 119:11)
The only material made that is strong enough to stand against the “fiery darts” of Satan is THE WORD…the scriptures…THE BIBLE
I want to give you a four stage plan for building the wall around your mind.
Our wall should be built from verses like…
Ps 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?
Ps 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
If you are really serious about conquering mediocrity, which, starts in the mind, then I have four words to offer---
MEMORIZE, ANALIZE, PERSONALYZE AND PRAY
MEMORIZE
In Eph. 6, Paul is using the analogy of armor and says… In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
But following our analogy of the fortress… the truth is still the same… Satan is shooting “fiery darts at our mind.”
These darts are thoughts, reasonings, understandings, world views, temptations, etc…. all IN THE MIND
If we want to block the fiery darts we need to build the wall.. OF SCRIPTURE
That is right… we need a wall of scripture we have memorized.
You say, YOU CAN’T memorize
Well the first verse you need to learn is I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4: 13).
It is not easy.. neither was building a stone wall
But if you are serious about protection… your’s, your family’s…
IT MUST BE DONE.
There are many translations today… pick an easy one and learn it.
There are many methods
Note cards
Songs
Verse-a-day
Competitions
If it takes you a whole month to learn one verse… you are better off
You have one more verse than before
In 12 months you’ll have 12 verses… more than 90% of Christians have memorized in the last 12 years
And your wall will be higher and stronger than other people’s wall
And you will be more victorious…. And pleasing.
All you have to do is get hold of a Bible, read it thoughtfully, and when you come across a statement that addresses some issue you're struggling with or some area of need in your life, write it down and spend part of your day tucking it away in the folds of your mind. You'll be amazed at the strength it will give you.
Analyze.
Analyze means you ask yourself some questions about the verse or passage.
What situation was the scripture addressing in its original setting?
What was the promise or teaching for that situation?
What principle was scripture teaching?
How does it apply to life today?
How does it apply to my life?
What biblical principle can I learn that I can apply?
Personalize.
With the verse memorized… the block cemented in the wall
And with a better understanding of the principle
Now it is time to “bring it home”… make it your own
This is where you quote the verse IN THE FIRST PERSON…. By using I, me, my, mine.
To show you what I mean, let's go back again to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
For though [I] walk in the flesh, [I] do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of [my] warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. [I am] destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and [I am] taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Look at Ps 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
BECOMES
The Lord is near to me when I call on Him, when I call on Him in truth.
Claim the promises of scripture for yourself
Personalize also means you personalize YOUR wall using scriptures that apply to YOU… knowing where Satan will attack YOU
And finally…. For me the most important…
PRAY
Not just pray in general… everyone should do that
PRAY THE SCRIPTURE
Make it the basis of your prayer, and make it the outline of your prayer.
Claim the promise, ask God to help you to obey, confess any sin it points out, pray it back to God as praise
Memorize… analyze… personalize…Pray
And as you do… your wall will get taller and stronger and you will be more victorious and more pleasing to God.
