“You keep moving and the enemy cannot hit you, you dig a foxhole, and you dig your grave.”
Axelrod, Alan. Patton on Leadership: 70 Motivational Cards for Success. U S Games Systems, 1 January 2000.
The accuser isn’t that person reminding you of your wrongs, but it’s the one using that person to drag it up. The accuser is also the one whispering in your ear that the world is out to get you and that you deserve it because of precisely what he had that person remind you of. And yes, I am talking about Satan, and his minions, who roams the earth like a roaring lion, looking for whom he may devour.
He is the one whom they say is the enemy of the Christians, but he is actually the enemy of all of mankind. His job is to devour souls, and for the souls he cannot devour in eternity, he will seek to hinder, confuse, and discredit so that more can be devoured. That is the job of the accuser who does not sleep, eat, get thirsty, or take breaks and neither do his minions.
The accuser works through many different mediums, one being those closest to us, another would be family, and also through media. There is also what the Bible calls “heavenly places” which means the unseen world that is around us where these spirits operate and interact with us directly. (JOB 1). The accuser and his minions are all created beings and conduct business according to specific rules and boundaries.
The accuser also accuses others before us and reminds us of offenses from others which causes bitterness and spite.
Evading the accuser takes on many forms. These can be considered spiritual tactics, or strategies, which is appropriate since all of mankind is engaged in spiritual warfare whether they know it or not, and whether they engage or not.
The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a great textbook for spiritual warfare. Specifically, when Eve was conversing with the Serpent [The Devil], where was Adam during that conversation? Now, in Adam’s defense, he may not have known that the Serpent was lurking, or even existed, however, why were they next to the one tree in all the Garden that they were not supposed to eat from? There it is, the strategic lesson that we’ve all been waiting for; if you aren’t hanging around in the enemy’s field of fire, it’s exponentially harder for him to pin you down with artillery.
You may ask what that has to do with the accuser, and, well, after eating the forbidden fruit, when God asked him “Who told you were naked “, who do you think he meant by “who”? That would be the accuser, who works in loops, and used Eve to do the convincing.
To help translate that into the here and now, think of the things that the accuser has made you think of yourself to kill your drive, happiness, and trust for others. Think about what you have been convinced about yourself that you think keeps you from doing what you know you could do, and more importantly should do.
It is not about living your “dream” as much as it is to answer your call. That may not be what you think you want it to be but many live their dream and are utterly unfulfilled, while others who strive for the call are quite fulfilled. This is not to say that missing a calling is the ultimate sin, however, the continued distraction from it is torture, and could quite possibly be the cause of so many lives in ashes.
The accuser wants men to forget that a calling can exist, that it has come and gone, or that the one they are fulfilling is not good enough. The not-good-enough part is where the devil comes around to the back door. The accusations that can pull a man out of his assigned path and into the cesspool of hopelessness, and when hopeless there is no advance. That is where the devil wants us… stalled and directionless.
One example is being accused of being a dreamer when in actuality you have a vision that is greatly needed. Something you may hear when you get started is that you are doing what you “want”, or that you think you are too good for regular life. Another tactic of the enemy is the diagnosis of mental issues or the assignment of narcissism. Again, these can come from many mediums and in many variations, and will most certainly play to past insecurities, offenses, and failures.
Back to the Garden of Eden, if Adam had not been hanging around the sole tree that he was told to avoid, then it would’ve been a very different story. However, the story is there to teach and the lesson is don’t hang around in the line of fire, in range of fire, and simply do not hang-around. Think about Joseph, who ran from the seduction of Potifer’s wife, we should run from and avoid those things that invite accusations, or reminding. That doesn’t mean running from the people in life that have something to say, it means get moving and then you won’t be a sitting target.
As for those insecurities, we all know what they are as much as we know what the lions in our lives are. There are many ways to block the accuser from slicing confidence and watering down hope, but the best blocking scheme is to start chasing the lions in life and stop petting them on the head.
By D. C. Link