Starve Your Enemies

At a very difficult juncture in the Apostle Paul’s life, Jesus gave him a new assignment - to take the gospel to Rome - and He told him that in order to get there he would have to “take courage” with him.  Immediately after Paul was given this word from God (Acts 23:11), his enemies;

...formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed him. More than forty men were involved in this plot. Acts 23: 12 – 13 NIV

That’s an impressive number of determined adversaries! Most of us know that as sure as we have a God-inspired future, there are forces that conspire to keep us from it. Our dreams always have enemies.

Here’s what I find fascinating: these “more than forty” guys who had sworn not to eat or drink until they killed Paul must have gotten very hungry. Knowing the human body, about four days into this pact, they either drank or died. Their plans against Paul were not in agreement with God’s plans for Paul, so it didn’t matter what kind of oath they made. They either starved to death or became publicly known deal-breakers.

Taking courage to pursue our God-inspired futures requires us to starve our enemies. It sounds harsh, but it’s solid, biblical advice. Keep reading.

Paul’s enemies tried to control the outcome by vowing to either get their way or starve. Paul didn’t waver. Their oath and determination had nothing to do with the God-dreamed future he was given, nor did it diminish his courage-taking.

We can starve our enemies with a variety of methods.  Here are three ways to starve your enemies:

1. Have good intelligence.  You have to know that you will encounter enemies.

Paul was able to thwart his enemies’ schemes to kill him because he was made aware of their plans, sought help, and took action to continue moving towards his preferred future.

You need to know that you will have enemies.  Some enemies are human beings, and others are spiritual forces behind human beings.  Most any worthy change for someone, a business, or an organization brings opposition.  The safeguard is to be prepared for inevitable opposition or enemies, and don’t be discouraged when forces or circumstances around you conspire to distract you from your God- dreamed future.

2. Learn how to fight when necessary.

The way we fight enemies, however, is not through physical means, but through spiritual power.  When people or circumstances oppose you, do not retaliate against them.  I encourage you to fight against the spiritual influences behind these forces.  Learn to be strong in the Spirit.  Learn to be strong in the Scriptures.  Learn to be strong in prayer, praise, and purpose.  When you learn these things, the enemy is disarmed.

3. Get up every day and do good, especially to those who hate you. (Luke 6:27-28)

For many years, our church moved through the process of getting approval to build and eventually expand our facility into another part of town. I chose to get up every day and “fight” by leading our congregation in our God-dreamed future, and I did it with excitement and faith, even when it was difficult. As I outline in my book, Live Ten:

“Our church has gone through lengthy and difficult battles in front of zoning and planning boards...In each instance, we were making an application regarding our need to expand or relocate our facilities to serve more people. Though we ultimately won overwhelming approval in each instance, these victories never came without tremendous resistance from some in our community who have a different picture than ours of the future of our township and our church’s role in it.”

Occasionally, things would get ugly. Sometimes a person would publish and distribute lies about our church and about me as the leader; or individuals attending the zoning meetings would grill me with erroneous questions; or anonymous people would contact a local reporter to spread lies as we tried to expand to another side of town.

At the time of the final vote for the planning board, one board member—who was previously opposed to our development—made a point to compliment the way we had fulfilled our promises made to the community with our first project, and how we made a positive impact on the neighborhood. He said he had every reason to expect a similar outcome with the new development, and so he voted yes. And so did all of the other members. It was a unanimous decision.  We starved our enemies by getting up every day and doing good.

Check out Jesus’ words found in the Gospel of Luke:

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27 – 28 NIV

Jesus knew enemies would be part of the story—the fact is that your attempts to bring about positive change will lead to opposition. But we are implored to love, and thankfully He gives us some instruction on how to accomplish this.

Do not be disheartened when you have a vision, a sense of calling, an awareness of your destiny, and enemies or opposition seem to find you. You have been equipped with the knowledge to starve your enemies, whether they come from outside sources or forces within.

I hope you'll leave a comment and share a personal story about starving your enemy, whether internal or external? I’d love to be encouraged by your testimony of how you were able to stay on your God-dreamed road despite challenges.