THE WARFARE OF JESUS
 
During a time when I felt particularly embattled in my ministry, I decided to study what Jesus taught and demonstrated about personal spiritual warfare. I took a paperback edition of the Bible and, with an orange highlighter, began to mark the occasions when Jesus was in some form of spiritual conflict.
 
My criteria for defining warfare were the moments when the enemy tried to hurt Jesus or hinder Him from fulfilling His purpose. I marked out every time His life was threatened or He was assaulted with physical violence, false accusation, slander, betrayal, plotting, traps and trickery, deceit, gossip, condemnation, intimidation, name-calling, and other forms of rejection. He also experienced what is now called “spiritual abuse” by the hands of those who were in authority. These are all the same tools the enemy uses against us today.
 
Once I completed the markup, I fanned through the four gospels with my thumb and was amazed to see how orange it was. Jesus was in constant conflict from conception to the cross.
 
I began to see a pattern of how the devil preferred to use those who were closest to Jesus to hurt and hinder Him. For example, he used Judas Iscariot because of his proximity to Jesus. Then, there was Peter. One minute he was speaking revelation by the Spirit and the next minute he was being used by the enemy to prevent Jesus from fulfilling His purpose.
 
None of us like the idea that the enemy can momentarily use those closest to us to speak aloud those things that he wants spoken, often hurting and hindering us. The fact is, the enemy wants to use the closest warm body to us to keep us from doing the will of God. He could use a family member, a friend, a pastor, or a board member, anyone who is supportive one minute and then can be pitted against us the next. He knows that this can blow us away more thoroughly than if he used someone we don’t know.
 
If it happened to Jesus, why should we be surprised when it happens to us?