I was reading through I & II Samuel last week and two thoughts hit me HARD that I wanted to blog about this week…the first is…
#1 - The Enemy Will Always Come After The Leader!
God hit me in the face with this truth in I Samuel 31:1-3 (where the enemy came after Saul) and II Samuel 5:11 (where the enemy came after David.) In both instances the enemy came hard after the leader because they knew…take out the leader and you can stop the movement!
Here is a truth about every leader you know in church world…we are all under an intense amount of spiritual attack. And…the larger the ministry grows the larger the target on his or her back!
I’ve had leaders talk to me about this in the past as if they were surprised! The false mentaility that seems to exist is that the higher we climb on the leaderhip ladder the less temptation we will face.
NOTHING could be further from the truth.
David was at the top of his game when the enemy came after him and took him down with an affair.
Elijah had just accomplished one of the greatest victories he had ever seen in his life—then Jezebel sent word that SHE was coming after him (and he freaked out…many times as leaders we lose perspective when under attack!)
I am not saying this to scare anyone—heck…it’s a fact of life. So how do we gaurd ourselves?
#1 - Consistent time with the Lord! Find out what brings you close to Jesus and DO IT A LOT!
#2 - Memorizing Scripture - if Jesus defeated satan three times by quoting Scripture then we should learn to do that as well!
#3 - Intense accountability - not some lame meeting with a group of guys where you share popcorn and talk about what you are learning…but rather an invitation for people to “get in your face” and call you out when they see something unhealthy and destructive.
#4 - Becoming a FREAK about personal integrity - no one knows your thoughts, feeling and struggles but you…and YOU are the only person who can establish correct boundaries for your personal integrity. If you don’t make integrity a priority then it will fall by the wayside as important…which makes you ONE stupid decision away from losing what it may have taken YEARS to build.
The enemy IS coming after us…which should not cause us to fear but rather to FOCUS more on Jesus…and continue to kick him in the nuts as often as we can!!! WE WIN because JESUS wins…HE IS IN US!!! Isaiah 54:17!!!