The Enemy Inside

By Henry R. Darko

This is a book about how Christians can resist and overcome the “enemy within.” It is a well-drawn argument, relying heavily on scripture to support its thesis and supporting points.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543901481

Book preview

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Introduction

In the beginning, God created man as a living soul . He gave man dominion over the earth. However, Satan, the archenemy, deceived Adam and Eve to disobey God. As a result, humanity lost his rule over the earth due to his disobedience. Providentially, our Lord Jesus Christ restored this authority through His death and resurrection. Nevertheless, Satan continues to deceive man as he executes his mandate to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) by his destructive traits, which this book describes as the enemy inside .

Jesus commands us to love the Lord with all our mind, soul, heart, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27; Deuteronomy 6:5). However, Satan uses his evil traits to contaminate our minds, souls, and hearts, thus hindering us from serving God. We are commanded to walk in the spirit so that we will not yield to the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). As stated in Galatians 5:19, the works of the flesh (traits of Satan) include sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, pride, hatred, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, envy, and drunkenness. This is what I call the enemy inside, which the enemy preys on and uses to destroy us.

By ourselves, we are powerless before the enemy. But praise be to God! Jesus conquered the devil, and to them that believe in Him (Jesus) He gives them power to become the children of God. As Christians, the Holy Spirit enables us to worship God in spirit and truth.

Our God can restore the years that the locusts have eaten away from our destiny by the activities of these enemies. It does not matter the damage caused to your destiny there is hope. Our God can make everything new; remember Rahab the prostitute who became an ancestor of our Savior.

In the last days, evil shall abound, as the Bible says (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:1). The Bible teaches us to be as wise as the serpent and as harmless as the dove. We also have this assurance in the last days:

But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. (Daniel 11:32b)

Like Adam, the course of destinies of individuals, societies, families, churches, and nations have been altered for the worst. This results from the subtle, unchecked influence of Satan and his agents. It is imperative that you deal with any trait of the enemy in you so that your destiny does not become an easy target.

Daniel was taken into captivity to Babylon, at a tender age with his friends. Strange gods surrounded him. He chose and found right relationship with God in a foreign land. Daniel refused to defile himself with food sacrificed to idols. God saved him and gave him wisdom. He encountered many difficult situations without complaining. He always cast his cares on God through prayer. Daniel became a noble in a Babylon at the time when his opponents tried all kinds of ills to bring him down.

Scriptures refer to the prince of this world, Satan, as an influential adversary who dared to take on Our Lord Jesus Christ before His Crucifixion. We all read how Satan entered Judas’s heart and used him to betray Jesus. Satan was able to entice Judas through greed (an enemy inside). We must, walk in the spirit so that we will be able to resist the devil as Jesus did when tempted. As the Bible illustrates:

Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30 I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. (John 14:29–31)

Jesus, being God and man, had no sin in Him. As He said, the prince of this world comes but He has nothing in Me (John 14:30). When His accusers brought Him before Pilate, they found no basis for a charge against Him (John 18:38). Satan had no power over Jesus (John 14:30) and could not rule over Him. He yielded to death out of love for His Father in obedience.

We must always bear in mind that man has one real enemy—Satan. Although he uses people to execute his evil plans, no person is your enemy. Our common enemy is Satan. He is the enemy that destroys glorious destinies. It is the same traits–greed, envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness, pride, self–centeredness, immorality, etc. that he uses to ensnare and destroy us. By these evil traits, Satan has succeeded to some extent in sowing seeds of discord and hatred in families, churches, and nations by turning people against each other. As the Bible shows, strife and envy lead to all kinds of evil works, including murder, witchcraft, lack of progress, and so on.

As Christians, if you fail to heed God’s Word and guidance you will be blinded and judge issues based on your senses. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit in everything we do, especially in dealing with people who are used by the enemy against us. The people who are closest to us are the ones the enemy usually uses to hurt us the most. They are referred to as household enemies. Jesus clarified that a man’s enemy is of his own family (household). This makes it very difficult to detect and very confusing to handle unless the Lord God intervenes. It is dire and deadly! It began with the first children, Cain and Abel, of the first family on earth. Satan used his traits of envy and discontentment on the first couple and succeeded, then followed it up with their children just to get at God’s original plan.

It is not surprising that Joseph’s brothers envied and hated him to the core because of his vision; how the cornstalk of the brothers bowed, that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed to him. Jacob warned Joseph not to tell his vision to anyone that he Jacob (sun), mother (moon), and eleven other children (stars) would bow to him. Earlier, God had promised Abraham that his children shall be numbered like the stars and the sands of the seashore.

Joseph was so excited about his dreams he did not keep his father Jacob’s warning. He told his brothers about his vision. Envy set in when Jacob gave him a coat of many colors, and his visions aggravated his woes. Envy led to hatred, attempted murder, and eventually slavery. Joseph ended up being incarcerated in Egypt with no expectation of a future. The young Hebrew boy had to suffer for thirteen good years, but the Lord was with him. Hatred and envy drove his brothers to try to terminate his destiny. In the end, God delivered him, but he never was sour about the unfairness he experienced. As the Bible says:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. (Daniel 12:10)

As with Joseph, many glorious destinies have been tampered with and often sold into spiritual slavery by household enemies due to envy, idolatry, witchcraft, and so on. I have had my share of destiny detours with very unpleasant experiences, but God has been good to me as He always makes a way of escape for me. It is gravely worrying to read from the good books that for lack of knowledge the children of God would perish.

We often desire to share what God wants to do in our life with people who have no business knowing. As the Bible says:

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)

People that we share our dreams and visions with are often used by the enemy to hurt us due to greed, envy, and jealousy. This is a gloomy unpleasant fact. These are the people who would teach us bitter lessons, and without God’s divine mercies and intervention, we would live to be sorry for sharing our dreams with them.

Christians need to be alert and wide–awake. I know a young Christian family who put their whole trust in God. Indeed, God was blessing them, too, as evidenced by the background from which the couple came.

Subtly lurking were close relations of the couple, and they both had several unknown issues working against them. In a serpentine way, household enemies entered and sowed discord between the couple. The result was very disheartening, but God is restoring them.

And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

(Matthew 10:36)

They gain access to us through sin, trickery, and lack of knowledge. When God describes someone to you as having jealousy and an envious spirit, be warned, separate yourself, and be on guard prayerfully. They have an evil eye and destructive force.

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. (Psalms 41:9)

Envy forms the basis upon which people act in heartless ways. Joseph’s brothers envied him because of his vision. He was hated because his father loved him. We have this scenario in almost every home, society, family, church, and nation around our world. Look into your own life and see what God has in store for you, believing in him for all things. Jealousy, envy, and comparing oneself with others attract witchcraft. As the Bible says:

A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones. (Proverbs 14:30)

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. (James 3:16)

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbors. (Exodus 20:17)

Knowingly or unknowingly, Satan has a lot in us he uses every day against us, hindering answers to our prayers. Many have fallen victim to this enemy who works inside us; these works have altered many beautiful destinies God has ordained for you, for me, for all of humanity. Judas was not destined for hell, but greed for money sent him there; neither was the thief near Jesus on the cross destined for heaven, but repentance took him there.

Every great development of man and the church is sabotaged from within. It is a very powerful army. This enemy is able to do great damage to the Lord’s church because of the attacks that come from where they are least expected—within! Many Christians in one way or another do not check these enemies of the soul. We need to subject