Frankly I just love people. I am a people-person to the core.  I love to be around people, they energize me. Yes, I know that makes it glaringly obvious to everyone reading this that I am, at my core, an extrovert.

Without people I would die. Literally. Everyone needs people, we need interaction with other humans because that is the way we created. We were created to crave relationship with others. That is what draws us to continue the human race and to continue to seek hard after Jesus.

Ultimately our searching for fulfilling relationship is found only in Him, but the relationships He gives us along the way are breathtakingly beautiful to me. The precious souls He has purposely put in my path are some of my greatest treasures.

I’ve noticed a recent change in some relationships that I’m not altogether happy about. Since I’ve changed prayer tactics and reclaiming ground lost to the enemy of my soul in the name and power of Jesus.  I’m declaring my family and my friends are off limits to the enemy.  We are not for sale, we have been bought with the blood of Jesus and we are His.

Jesus opened my eyes to see that since I’ve been praying this way certain friendships have struggled. There have been conflicts within relationships. But also some friends have experienced some very strange things, things that can only be attributed to the enemy.  While I’ve escaped somewhat unscathed.

Don’t misunderstand, what hurts my friends hurts me. No one is a fan of conflict and I am not exception. I’m used to conflict and so I don’t run from it, I’m not prone to squash my feelings to avoid conflict. Unfortunately my flesh tends to speak first and then think, which as, you know, causes conflicts and pain.

The enemy of my soul knows the great value I have in those I love. He knows this and he exploits this. He knows that he can get to me by getting to my friends. And he will use anything at his disposal, even if it is my own words and fleshly reaction. He will take a friend’s words to me (or my words to them) twist them into something they were not meant to be, then whisper them to me as if they were truth.

He uses this to drive a wedge between my friends and I, because if he can get us to think the other one is the enemy, we will fight and devour each other.

Which is crazy because then we are doing his job! All he does is twist a few words, offer an alternate meaning and we’re killing each other. Stupid!

Ephesian 6:12 says we don’t battle against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of wickedness.

John 10:10 says the thief comes ONLY to steal, kill, and destroy.

But the thief has gotten us believing flesh and blood is the enemy we’re battling and so we destroy each other.

I think I’d like to get off that crazy train and go to battle against my true enemy.  But not alone. That is one battle we can’t do alone and we have no business attempting it on our own. Our enemy will eat us for lunch!

We do it by surrendering our will to the Father, the One who already won the war. The One who died to set us free from the power of the enemy. The One who says in Him we are more than conquerors. The One who says “Stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.”

I know I can be rash and have a huge propensity to be impulsive, and chances are you can be the same way too.  What if we decided to take our immediate, rash responses straight to Jesus, seek His face with the matter, ask for Truth to be spoken to our hearts before we just respond?

What if we did?

We would stop doing the enemy’s job. We would stop battling each other and join forces to battle the unseen enemy in the name and power of Jesus.  Instead of battling each other we would do battle FOR each other on our knees.

So let’s hit our knees and pray, first of all, confessing our sins of pride and unbelief, then begin praying for the one we’ve tried to annihilate with our words and actions. Then let’s seek to build up each other, spurring one another on in our faith.

We are so much stronger together than we could ever hope to be alone. We were made to be in real relationships with real people, to be mutually built up, not destroyed.