Who is my enemy?
I always start my prayer time with a proclamation of surrender to Christ. Ending with, “Let me hear Your voice and Your voice only.” Then I run to Him.
Once I find Him and quiet my heart and mind, I’m available to listen to Him. My regular pattern is to ask three questions. “What are we doing today? What do I need to learn today and who am I praying for?” He gives me an understanding of our next step. My only job is to bask in His presence and listen.
I ran to Him and stopped short of an embrace. There He stood outfitted in a Roman helmet. I only saw him from the shoulders up. In shock, I waited to see what He would continue to show me. Numerous helmets representing murderous dictatorships emerged behind Him. I only recognized the Nazi helmet. Stunned, I waited for an explanation.
This is what My scripture speaks of in second Corinthians.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:17-21, ESV)
I’ve redeemed what you judge hopeless. When you see hatred, violence, and unjust men behaving barbarically, I see My creation. My beloved who do not yet know who they are.
• When you love, you must love like Me.
• How can you determine who will come to Me?
I desire all to be saved. Love them and forgive them, those whom you call the persecutors of the world, and pray for their salvation.
Who is your enemy?
***
In protest, my mind tried to justify my anger toward the evil people of this world. The Holy Spirit nudged me into the knowledge this mindset was direct disobedience.
I hadn’t prepared my heart for this assignment, but He had.
The day before in prayer God had brought to remembrance those whom I had not forgiven. They were small slights I hadn’t really recalled because they hadn’t caused me much pain. In obedience to God, I forgave these people, repented for my unforgiveness, and prayed for mercy and favor over them. It was a simple thing to do because the sin of these people I deemed minor and my pain was minimal. As a reward I neither deserved nor had even asked for, He gave me a powerful surge of peace and grace.
Would I obey today? My heart and mind reeled to draw in the depth of His scripture. Christ humbled himself, even to the barbarian dictators of the world throughout time, to reconcile them to the Father.
If He did that — and be assured He did. Then, of course, my normal response should be to humble myself and listen to how God loves them and desires me to pray for them.
First, I had to learn He excludes no person from the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. He desires to gather in everyone so that they may choose Him as their Savior and receive all He offers. The people are not my enemy — Satan is.
I’m always surprised at how much unforgiveness hides in my heart. Every time I humble myself and ask Him to search my heart for these places of sin, He finds a new one. I urge you to ask the Lord if there is anyone you haven’t forgiven. Forgive these people and commit to pray for them. To do this is to participate in the overthrow of evil from your life and the world.
I’m choosing today to agree with God that’s those offenses, slights, and sometimes downright evil deeds done against us can actually be a beacon to prayer.
We can choose to allow God to search our hearts for these places of sin and unforgiveness, and overthrow the plans of the enemy by committing to pray for the perpetrators.
Let God be your guide to these difficult places. He is more than enough to heal all things.
Allow him to teach you, “Who is my enemy?” Then allow Him to lead you to overthrow the plans of that ancient enemy — Satan. This overthrow occurs when we pray for those we have mistaken for an enemy.
Prayer for you and me:
Thank you for revealing our hearts to us. Help us through the moments of shock we receive by looking at evil. Help us persevere when we’d like to look away. Your grace is more than sufficient to cover us. Protect our hearts as we surrender and dedicate them to you. Use us for Your mighty purposes. Strengthen us to bless our ‘mistaken enemies’.
Thank You, Jesus. Amen.
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