This month, we marked the 81
st anniversary of
D-Day, June 6,
1944. On that date during World War II, Allied
forces representing the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other
countries launched the greatest naval, air, and land invasion in world history. By 6:30 am on June 6, the amphibious invasion
began. Over 5,000 ships and landing
craft carrying troops and supplies were arriving from England across the channel
to France. Meanwhile, more than 11,000
aircraft provided air cover and support for the invasion.
The strategy, under the direction of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was to open
up a second battle front in northern France by attacking the beaches of
Normandy which were controlled by Nazi forces under Adolph Hitler. Bent on defending his control of the European
mainland, Hitler had ordered the construction of the “Atlantic Wall.” This coastal defense consisted of over 2,400
miles of coastal bunkers, landmines, and obstacles including heavy
fortifications on the heights above the Normandy beaches.
The immediate objective of Allied forces on that June morning was to establish
a beachhead or foothold from which to accomplish the landing of more troops, vehicles,
munitions, and other equipment. Over
2,000 American lives, representing about half of total Allied casualties, were lost
on Utah Beach and Omaha Beach on the first day, and thousands more were wounded
or missing. But, by day’s end over
156,000 Allied troops had survived and secured a foothold on the beaches of
Normandy.
D-Day military strategy was not the first in world history to depend upon securing
a foothold against enemy forces. Success
in any military effort depends upon gaining control of sufficient ground to
establish a staging area for more powerful and sustained frontal attacks on the
enemy. Likewise, on D-Day, success of
the defending Nazi forces depended upon denial of the foothold. Their failed efforts to deny the Allied forces
a foothold signaled the beginning of the Allied advance to liberate western
Europe and eventually their defeat of Nazi Germany.
Recognizing
Our Enemy
Throughout God’s Word,
we encounter the words “foothold” and “deny” as metaphors in the teaching of
Scripture related to how we can resist and be victorious against the spiritual
attacks of Satan. The first step to be
victorious is to
recognize our Enemy and not “deny” his existence and
schemes.
Six years before D-Day, British Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain met
with Adolph Hitler and signed the Munich Agreement which ceded the German-speaking
Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Within the following year, it became evident
that Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement that promised “Peace for Our Time” would
not stop Hitler’s aggression. Chamberlain
had mistakenly denied Hitler’s evil intent to dominate Europe and eventually
the world.
Chamberlain’s error should teach us that simply denying the existence of
something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Today, many mistakenly deny the existence of God and His objective
revelation in the Holy Scriptures. Having
denied God’s existence and His objective truth, the next step is to deny the
existence of good and evil. But if we
are honest with ourselves, denial of our own personal tendency toward pride,
selfishness, and conflict is really a denial of reality. This denial
is a spiritual consequence of our sinful nature inherited from our father, Adam. Romans 5: 12 affirms this truth:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world
through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because
all sinned —
Jesus’s half-brother, James, recognized that we all have a “sin nature,” and asked
probing questions about its consequences in his epistle, in James 4: 1-2:
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
Is not the source the evil desires that wage war in your members?
You lust and do not have; so you commit murder.
You are envious and cannot obtain; so, you fight and quarrel.
Wars throughout world history and the current wars in various parts of the
world, all began within “the evil desires that wage war in [our] members.” The good news is that when a person yields to
the authority of Jesus Christ, he or she is “united with Christ in the likeness
of His death” and “raised to new life (‘born again’) in the likeness of His
resurrection” (Romans 6: 5). Born again
Christ-followers are “no longer slaves to sin.”
Because we still possess a sin nature, we remain a target of Satan who
is our "adversary," "accuser,” and also "opposer" or
"obstructor," along with his hellish minions (demons). But under the “new Master,” Jesus Christ, every
born-again Christ-follower is indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit who enables him or
her to oppose sin’s reign in their mortal body so that they “need not obey its passions”
(Romans 6: 12-14). In other words, when Christ
is our new Master, Satan no longer has free access to our lives. But, as in any warfare, our victory over sin
depends on how well we can recognize the strategy of our enemy and then respond
so as to deny the enemy even a foothold.
Strategy of
Our Enemy
Psalm 36: 1-4 provides what can become a clear battle plan for
recognizing and resisting our spiritual enemy.
First, unlike Neville Chamberlain’s naivety toward scheming Adolph
Hitler, we must
recognize the deceptive nature of the messaging that
bombards our eyes and ears every day.
The messaging from the “world system of thought” will tend to appeal to
the
evil desires that wage
war in [our]
members (recall James 4: 1-2 above).
Second, we must
resist ungodly messages we see and hear by
remembering God’s goodness and love that sent His Son, Jesus, to the Cross to
intercede and deliver us from the dominion of sin and Satan. The Apostle John wrote (1 John 2: 14b-16; emphasis
added),
I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and
the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world nor the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of
the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but
is from the world.
When the Enemy Gains Foothold
What happens when we fail to recognize our Enemy and do not resist his
attacks? When this happens, we allow the
Enemy to gain a foothold in our heart and mind. The table below outlines the unfortunate
progression of spiritual defeat. But, in
the right column are samples from God’s Word that can be used to counter the Enemy
assault:
On the other hand, I must remember that “Calvary is always on the way” and has
come to my aid (Recall the bugles when the U.S. Cavalry comes to the rescue?) Titus wrote the following to first century
believers, and to us (emphasis added): For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live
sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ
Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,
and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for
good deeds. (Titus 2: 11-14).
Denying a Foothold
Titus 2: 11-14 is a great passage to memorize.
Note that while God extends His GRACE (“God’s Riches at Christ’s
Expense) freely, it is not “cheap!” Grace
came at the great expense of Christ’s leaving Heaven’s glory to die on a Roman
cross, bearing our sin, and our pain and sorrow in place of us. Therefore, Titus 2: 12 reminds us that God’s
priceless GRACE not only “brings salvation” but it also “disciplines us to deny
ungodliness and worldly passions.”
“Deny” here means to “refuse access” in the same way athletic coaches
teach their players how to play defense so as to “deny” their opponent access
to the goal line in football or to the rim in basketball.
Spiritually, we must “deny” our enemy access to our minds lest he gain a
foothold. The Apostle Paul cautions us
about unrighteous anger and unresolved issues in relationships: BE
ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not
give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4: 26-27). Paul recognized, and so must we, that our
major challenges in life are not primarily the threats from a “physical”
enemy.” He wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:
3-5:
For though we live in the world,
we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.…
In Ephesians 6, Paul uses the analogy of a well-equipped soldier armed for
battle (Ephesians 6: 10-18). He explains,
as shown in the graphic, how each piece of armor that provides physical
protection also has a spiritual significance.
I encourage readers to study this passage, and note specifically how the
Word of God is the offensive weapon while the other pieces are defensive and must
be put on “while praying at all times” (verse 18). Christ-follower, wouldn’t you agree from your
own experience that “effective, fervent prayer” is your most important
spiritual “weapon” both in defense against the enemy, and in achieving victory
in your service of our King?
The Power of Prayer
In conclusion, as we remember D-Day and the thousands of Allied troops that
stormed the beaches of Normandy 81 years ago this June, we imagine that many of
them advanced courageously because they knew they were being held up in prayer
by loved ones at home. Many others
carried a military Bible near their hearts as they scaled the cliffs against
enemy fire and experienced boldness and yet peace of mind in the midst of
conflict.
May we each take to heart the lesson of the prepared soldier and the strategy
of denying the Enemy a spiritual foothold in our lives. We close with a quote from Andrew Murray, the
great South African pastor whose writings continue to offer deep spiritual
insight. The quote is from Murray’s book,
The Prayer
Life:
“When a general chooses the place from which he intends to strike the enemy, he
pays most attention to those points which he thinks most important in the
fight. Thus, there was on the battlefield of Waterloo a farmhouse which
Wellington immediately saw was the key to the situation. He did not spare his
troops in his endeavors to hold that point: the victory depended on it. So, it actually happened. It is the same in the conflict between the
believer and the powers of darkness. The inner chamber is the place where the
decisive victory is obtained.”
“When the Church shuts herself up to the power of the inner chamber, and
the soldiers of the Lord have received on their knees 'power from on high',
then the powers of darkness will be shaken and souls will be delivered. In the Church, on the mission field, with the
minister and his congregation, everything depends on the faithful exercise of
the power of prayer.”
Care to Comment:
We hope you have given high priority to gaining and maintaining a foothold on the
firm ground of faith, able to withstand our Enemy attacks and the inclinations
of our sinful flesh. Maybe you have a
question about something you have read, or about how to surrender your life to
Christ. You may contact us using the “Comment”
link below, or use our e-mail address: silviusj@gmail.com We would love to hear from you.
