I want to talk to you for a little while about the phrase that I titled this article with: ‘the best defense is a good offense’. I want to show you how you can implement this phrase into your daily life in such a way as to cause the devil to try to avoid attacking you if he can.
First, I want to give you a little bit of background on this phrase. This phrase is commonly attributed to George Washington in a letter that he wrote in 1799, but the origins actually are much older. This phrase is also seen in the writing of certain Greek and Roman philosophers, as well as being seen in the Chinese military treatise, ‘The Art of War’.
The particular strategic use of this phrase that I am referring to is slightly different than the normal use of this phrase. Here’s an excerpt from www.usdictionary.com that encapsulates the normal use of this phrase.
‘”The best defense is a good offense” usually means that being proactive and aggressive in actions or strategies is the most effective way to protect oneself.’
While I agree with this completely, the implementation of this phrase into spiritual warfare is more involved than simply attacking the enemy first. The strategy that I am suggesting involves a counterattack used when you are under attack as a means of defense. Let me explain how this strategy works.
Anytime that you find yourself being attacked by the devil (however the attack comes), immediately go on the offensive. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the most common way is to pray aggressively for others. What do I mean by ‘pray aggressively’? Pick a group of people (friends, family, etc) and begin to pray (‘aggressively’ is the only word that comes to mind) for their salvation and blessing. You can also pick a place of business (I recently prayed for all of the employees of our local Dominoes pizza establishment) for the same things (salvation of all of the employees, as well as spiritual blessings). If you choose to pray for a business, you can pray over the employees in each area. Again, with Dominoes as the example, I prayed for all of the cooks, then the cashiers, the drivers, and so on.
Another way that this can be implemented is by witnessing to the lost. You can develop specific strategies that you use to witness to people. I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own life.
1)I often start the conversation with ‘Can I ask you a question?’ I’ve only been told no a couple of times. I then proceed to say, ‘This is kind of a personal question, but it’s easily the most important question that you will ever be asked. If you died tonight, and stood before God, and He asked you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’, what would your answer be?’ This opens the door for you to, at the least, share how to avoid hell.
Another way that I often use is, ‘Can I ask you a question? Can I borrow 2 minutes of your time?’ Most people are accommodating and patient. Next, I ask them, ‘Can I feed you a question sandwich? Two easy questions with a little harder question in the middle.’ They are usually intrigued and say ‘Sure!’ Then I begin.
a) The first question is, ‘What is your name?’
b) The second question is some variation of the question from the first strategy. ‘If you died tonight,’, and so on and so forth.
c) The last question is simple, but it requires boldness. Ask them if you can pray for them, and take 20 seconds to say a quick prayer for blessing over them (both physical and spiritual blessings).
One more strategy that can be used is to just find someone to bless, whether that’s a financial blessing, a material blessing, or just a kind act or word. The devil absolutely HATES when we bless other people, because that reminds him of the Lord Jesus Christ and His gifts to us.
That is how you implement this particular strategy into your life, and, when applied consistently, the devil realizes eventually that you are a much harder target to bring down now than you were in the past, and the number of attacks are reduced greatly. Be warned ahead of time, though, that this puts you into a much deeper and more intense level of warfare than you were in previously, so the attacks that DO come will be more involved and intense than before.
I believe that I have thoroughly explained how to implement this particular strategy into your life. The possibilities are endless when it comes to different things that you can do to thwart the enemy, so don’t be afraid to try new things. Remember that I love you guys and I’m praying for you.