Sometimes, before you can deal with a spiritual enemy, you need to remove the legal groundwork beneath his feet. This is where repentance comes in. An act that involves accurately judging yourself and owning where you are wrong.
Here’s a trap: ”all or nothing” thinking. Suppose you are mostly right and the other person is mostly wrong? What if you are 25% at fault but they are 75% at fault? Can you do a 25% repentance and reconciliation? No.
But you can take 100% responsibility for your 25%….and this often releases the GRACE on the other person to own their 75%.
There will be other times when you need to ignore the enemy. This isn’t easy. Ever get into a fight where you want to keep at it? The hardest thing to do is to stop and disengage! If you are accustomed to verbally persuading and influencing others, something inside you wants to talk, text or type your way into triumph! But it never works. You can’t ever kill off a spirit by conversation.
And if the spirit has an offended person attached, you are in for a season of never ending verbal volleyball.
That’s where you need to ignore the situation. Bide your time. David ignored the deeds of those who conspired against him…..but told his son Solomon that he needed to deal with those specific troublemakers if his administration was going to succeed. Think of yourself as a combined David/Solomon. David is the guy that screwed up and gave the enemy an opportunity to injure the dynasty. Solomon is the “wisdom” that came out of that screw up (talking about Bathsheba.) Once you get wisdom (often from the consequences of your bad decisions), God gives you a season to deal with your enemies and uproot them.
Revenge is not an option. “…Avenge not yourselves but give place to wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ ” (Ro 12:19) If we do our best to overcome evil with good, and it does not work, there is always the prospect that God will take matters into His own hands and overcome evil by visiting it with an ax. Isn't that the point Jesus made about the unfruitful tree?
Jesus taught that an unfruitful tree may have a delayed execution, but, if it persists in its unfruitful state, it will be uprooted. What if God does that with areas of our life? He “dungs around the tree” so to speak, but after a while, if thing's don't yield to the master, He uproots it.
This cycle is manifest in David’s unfinished business being taken care of by Solomon.
Be wise. Remove the legal groundwork. Repent of 100% of your 25%, if need be. Bless… do good… Ignore judging – till the time comes, if necessary, to judge… when that time comes.
Lance Wallnau
This is a great piece of wisdom and something one can use throughout life and truly experience victory and peace if applied !
This is so true, yet so hard to put it in practice at the right time!
So timely! Confirmation for me to just be quiet about certain things. Thank you for posting.
Oh my gosh, tears came to my eyes as I read this!! I have been struggling with pride and ego, asking God to remove it and return me to my first love! To help me see clearly once it is gone. So right on, like Jesus talking to me ‘face to face.’ Thank you Lance for your insight!
Another excellent one! Thank you. 🙂
Thanks Lance. By forgiving those who have come against me, I am setting them free and setting myself free from the traps of the enemy. I need to forgive on a daily basis. Thank you Lord for forgiving me.
I am interested in how you advise Chantelle . My son is in a work environment similar to what she described . He is in despair , the abuse has gotten to him . He has tried to leave by transfer but it got blocked . The two guys over him are very vindictive !
Oh gosh, the two guys aren’t so vindictive. Satan IS so vindictive.
Thanks, Lance! I think Christians just love drama and the more drama they have in their life that they can classify as “warfare” – they feel validated or important. Ignoring it means no drama. Love it!
Fabulous!
Word!! Very relevant, thank you! God bless you, Lance!! You have helped open my eyes to something bigger:)