MISIDENTIFYING THE ENEMY?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Job 42:10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job,
when he prayed for his friends:
also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Romans 12: 14 Bless them that persecute you, BLESS, and curse not.
15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16. Be of the same mind one to another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
17. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
19. Dearly beloved, AVENGE NOT YOURSELVES, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, VENGEANCE IS MINE; I WILL REPAY, saith the Lord.
20. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, FEED HIM; if he thirst, GIVE HIM drink: for in doing so thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
One of the terrible problems in Viet Nam was identifying who the enemy really was?
The Viet Cong would strap a bomb on a little kid, and as he asked for a candy bar,
they would blow up and kill our troops.
A beautiful lady would be a front that would lead some of our soldiers to their death.
To fight and not to be able to identify who the real enemy is, will always hurt one in battle.
Many people identify JOB’S FRIENDS as his enemy. This is far from the truth.
They may have said hurtful things, but they sat three days and nights along side of the suffering man.
If they had intended on hurting Job, they would have attacked immediately.
JOB’S FRIENDS had good intentions, they saw him suffering. They saw his family suffer.
They wanted better.
Their approach lacked wisdom, but there was love there.
Job 42:10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job,
when he prayed for his friends:
also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
We value the gift, God values the giver.
Job had to realize that his friends were less than perfect, but they loved the Lord and they loved Job.
Job’s friends were not his enemies, the enemy would have love to distort this in Job’s eyes and had him hate them for ever.
Your friend that needs your love the most deserves it the least.
Hell will be full of people that were moral, they just misidentified who the enemy was.
Today many see the preacher as the enemy. The preacher sees many of his people as the enemy.
We don’t even have FRIENDLY FIRE, we have shooting at friends on purpose.
WE HAVE NO FIRE.
This poem was written in the 1920’s by James Patrick Kinney.
Thought provoking...!
The Cold Within
Six humans trapped by happenstance in black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood (or so the story’s told).
Their dying fire, in need of logs, the first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire, she noticed one was black.
The second, looking across the way, saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch.
The poor man sat in tattered clothes, he gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood was a chance to spite the white.
And the last of this forlorn group did not accept for gain:
Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in deaths’ still hands was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.
Can you clearly identify God’s enemies?
It can be hard to fight an elusive enemy.
Many think that Lucifer is some red, ugly, smelly bad guy with a pitch fork.
This is probably not the way he really looks.
Our enemy can appear as an angel of light.
He knows to wear masks and hide his purpose and identity.
Our enemy does not show his true colors. He is deceptive and a liar.
The pictures he paints are terrible distortions and lies. He uses 1/2 truths,
but his motive is to steal, kill, and destroy.
YOUR SPOUSE IS NOT THE ENEMY?
YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT THE ENEMY?
The pastor and church is not your enemy?
Your employer is not your enemy?
Your family and neighbors are not your enemy?
WHY WOULD THE ENEMY LIKE US TO MISIDENTIFY WHO THE ENEMY REALLY IS?
ANSWER ME!
There is no creative power that our enemy holds.
God is the Creator and He alone holds procreative powers.
God can make something out of nothing.
Our enemy holds no new tricks, his traps are as old as man.
Yet we still fall for them.
The enemy of our souls will not come and knock on your front door as an ugly, smelly, foul being.
If the enemy came as a wild bear or a poisonous snake we would not open the door?
He is smarter than that.
Our enemy quietly sneaks in the back door.
A cigarette commercial shows a strong handsome cowboy.
The real picture is a weak dying man gasping for breath, blue, leaving a
huge hospital bill and leaving a young family without a daddy.
A beer commercial shows some strong handsome athlete with pretty women gathered
around in a wonderful party.
The real picture is a man waking up in a pool of vomit in the jail cell, being served papers,
that his pickup was traveling down the wrong side of the interstate and he killed 27 church kids,
and left many kids scarred from the burns. The whole county never to be the same.
Beer is no party, when the beer is gone, so are the friends.
I have not physically laid eyes on an evil spirit, that I know of ... but I do think that the
enemy will hide behind a false beauty appealing to the eye, and to the pride of life.
See the middle letter in Lucifer, sin, and pride is i ---
Luc(i)fer
s(i)n
pr(i)de
self-centered, I demand an apology, I demand----???
The cross is the i crossed out ...
I knew a young teen age pastor’s son that was very popular,
talented and impressed the church, he secretly had sex with his young girl friend,
and ended up with aids and died. We can’t blame the girl,
it was a case of misidentifying who was a real friend?
The young girl was smart and pretty, the eyes were deceptive.
The heart was deceived by thinking aids can never happen to me.
Our enemy would take the form of an angel of light and deceive,
for the eyes and emotions are poor identifiers of the enemy.
Troubles and trials are often the tools that God fashions us for a closer walk
with our creator. What the enemy meant to hurt, does not have to hurt?
Read Rom. 8:28.
Life is full of quicksand.
The quicksand hides near real sand.
Once in the trap of quicksand, the more you fight the quicker you sink.
I know any trap will try to hide the fact, this is a trap?
There are no alarms, as you near the trap,
unless you are guided by the Holy Spirit.
Many people are so angry that they don’t hear the alarm.
The free cheese that a mouse goes after is not free at all? ? ?
The cost of the free cheese is expensive.
The enemy might hide behind our weakest link?
Temper, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, wrath all distort traps.
I will just quit? I will run away.
How many young girls ran away from a safe, good home to be abused and killed?
How many have run from a good church instead humbling and submitting
and forgiving in the face of the giant?
The enemy does not always attack our strong sides.
The real enemy attacks at the weakest point.
Samson’s first temptation was to run from the lion, but in
his strength, he stood his ground and it brought victory.
Did the enemy look sweet and different to Samson?
Samson’s enemy was pretty.
We paint Delilah as one that loved Samson.
She never loved him, she used him to profit.
How about Judas?
He had a problem with the love of money, but he misidentified who his enemy was.
Was Jesus an enemy?
The trap appeared different to Lot’s wife?
Lot’s wife had a longing in her heart? Not for God?
She didn’t realize the bright lights of Sodom, the lose
life style was her enemy?
The problem is we do not correctly identify the enemy and his traps.
Beware, learn to know the tactics and strategies of our enemy.
Did you see, several years ago in the college level, a coach at a big college had the opponent’s locker room
bugged. As he spied and ease dropped, he learned the opposing teams strategy.
In disgrace he had to leave, most of the games he could have won anyway?
His enemy was not the other team, it was his compromised values.
We tend to glorify the enemy today?
Delilah never loved Samson? She sold Samson?
Her motive was not sex, her motive was greed?
Lot’s wife had a heart problem, else why would she have looked back.
Flirting with the enemy, playing around the trap, not being where you should be,
all open the doors to allow the enemy to play mind games.
If you flee temptation, why leave a forwarding address?
I think too few of us can properly identify the enemy.
If you are looking for a red suit, two horns, a tail and a pitch fork or a
really ugly hell looking guy, you might be surprised?
We are better to shun the bait than to try to get free from the trap.
Our weaknesses and temptations are like bums.
The more you give them, and the kinder you are,
the more likely they are to return with their friends.
Learn to identify the enemy.
Flee from any appearance of evil.
My opinion, is your friends are not your enemy.
Just look back and see their little acts of love.
Don’t focus on distorted facts, and things said in times of pain.
Job was delivered... Job had Divine Deliverance...
But his deliverance came when he prayed for his misidentified enemies they were his friends.
Job had to let go and pray, and when he let go...
he freed someone, set free...
Job set himself free, and the dam that he had built that stopped
God’s deliverance’s was broken and freedom and deliverance came.
Will you set yourself free?
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
