Our Enemy is Bread for Us!

      In Numbers 14:5-9 Joshua and Caleb came back after spying out the land with a good report saying that the land was an exceedingly good land flowing with milk and honey. He also said that the enemies’ defense has departed from them and that the enemy is “bread for them.” Our enemy is anyone or anything that stands in direct opposition to what Yahweh has promised us. They want to fight and rob blessings. They are forces from without. Here they stood at the border of the people’s new land. God’s people were at the edge of something great and maybe some of us our at the same point.

     How does the opposition feed us? In John 4:32 after Yahshua speaks so nicely to the lady at the well and ministers to her, His disciples come on the scene. They ask Him to eat some food that they brought for Him. He answered and said that He has meat that they didn’t know about. He then describes this meat-“my meat is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish his work.” Our strength is when we preach the message of salvation and have opposition against us. Opposition is good for us. It strengthens us. Opposition brings us closer to God. We depend on Him more and not our own strength. A large part of the church today is lazy and compromising as they don’t have any opposition. They are stagnant! Most don’t realize that opposition to the purpose of spreading the gospel is good for them.

     Let’s look at the book of Acts: After getting filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Chapter 3, Peter and John raise up a man who was lame from his mother’s womb. In Chapter 4 it is recorded that they were arrested and warned not to speak in the Name of Jesus anymore (v.17). However, in v. 20 the apostles answer and say that they can not but speak the things which they had seen and heard. This opposition caused three things:

1.)    This opposition ignited a prayer meeting- in v. 29 the apostles asked the Lord to give them more boldness and that more signs and wonders would be done through them in His Name (v.29-30). They got angry, grew stronger and asked for more power. Do you see what the opposition did to the Church?

2.)    The second thing that the opposition caused was to move them to divine compassion- They all sold their possessions and gave the money to the apostles for distribution to every one who had a need (v. 32-35).

3.)    They got great grace and new power- the prayer that they prayed for more power and more signs and wonders in v.29-30 was answered when more signs and wonders were done through their hands, enemies got afraid and more believers were added to the Lord. Even people were healed as they walked under the shadow of Peter. Everybody that came to them were delivered from evil spirits and healed! (v. 12-15).

     These great manifestations happened because the apostles refuse to compromise in the face of opposition but said that they have to obey God rather then man (Chapter 5 v. 29).

     As the Israelites were at their border of their promise land and there was no turning back, we too can’t go back. The enemy has no power to stop you.

     In Psalm 84 v. 5 the word says that blessed is the man whose strength is in the LORD. In the book of Judges Chapter 3 the word records that God’s people get lackadaisical and their enemies conquers them  and has them in captivity( v. 7-14). This opposition pushes them back to the LORD and after they repent a man named Ehud kills the enemy king and they rise up and defeat the enemy by killing 10,000 of them (v. 15-31). They are free! You see, opposition pushes them back to the LORD. 

     In Psalm 23 v. 5 the LORD says that He prepares a table in the midst of our enemies. Again, our enemies are meat for us! The word also says in the same verse that this is where He anoints us-right in the midst of our enemies. He is not going to anoint people who are “couch potatoes” just waiting for the Rapture. He is going to anoint those who are facing opposition for His name’s sake.

     Remember how Samson killed a lion with his bare hands and split him into two pieces. Later on he got hungry and ate the honey that bees had put in the carcass. His enemy fed him! The battle with the lion was “bread for him.”  

     So, today I am asking you to join with me and thank the LORD for our enemies. It may sound like a strange request but you will see that their opposition is bread for us as it gives the strength that we need to minister for Yahshua.