(Clip) You Are Not Alone In Your Warfare

The issue is that we're all subject to the same attacks, the same problems, the same difficulties. You are exposed to the same difficulties that I am, and I am exposed to the same devil you are exposed to, and the same kind of battles. Now listen, this is where this gets really important. You know one of the devil's tactics is to get you to think you're in this all by yourself. What you're experiencing no one else is experiencing. You've got these difficulties. You know, we can get to thinking like that. These struggles. Now listen, if you're a Christian, you've got struggles. If you're a Christian, you've got an enemy. This enemy, very specifically in scripture, it says he targets Christians. He's furious and he's made war with the offspring of the woman. Those who keep the commandments bear the testimony of Christ. That's you. If you're a genuine Christian, I know he's after you, and I know that his forces, his henchmen are targeting you. And how do they target you? The same way they target me. And see, none of us is on an island by ourselves here, and that's why we need to make supplication. But the devil can get us thinking very much that this whole thing is entirely personal and I'm all alone. And you know what, if you start listening to him, you know what happens? You can sit over there in your little corner and you can feel, woe is me. Listen, walking the cross, it's through many tribulations that you're going to enter the kingdom. Tribulations. I know life is going to be difficult. And you know what happens in the difficulties? We can feel like, oh, how unusually hard it is for me. And you can begin to feel sorry for yourselves and you can get cast down. And you know what? This is not something that's simply happening to you. If you've experienced hardships in your life, no full well, so have the rest of us. Now, it may be true that I may be given to be tried in areas not exactly like you, but you know what? There's somebody out there that's being tried just like you are. There's somebody that's lived past generations. They've come and gone. Christians all along, it's the same enemy. And his tactics are the same. They haven't changed. That's why you need to forget about yourself at times. Your prayers need to be geared towards other people. You can't just sit feeling sorry for yourselves. And Satan's great tactic is just to convince us that we're all by ourselves. But you know what happens the moment we realize I'm not all by myself? And this is one of the ways that our trials, you know, when we're in a trial that does seem to be pretty unique, and then somebody else walks up and says, I've been where you are. That can be extremely helpful because suddenly it gives us this encouragement. I am not all by myself. Other people have walked through this. Other people have survived this. Other people have battled the devil right here. And you see, our trouble is that too often we tend to view our problems in such a personal sense. You know, I think about my problems and my difficulties and my fears and my disappointments. And the result is that we can become entirely self-centered, introspective, and then you're defeated. Paul says, no. Do you not realize that those other Christians are experiencing the same battles? They're subject to the same discouragements that you are. And what does he say? Pray for them. You need to intercede for them. Supplication for all the saints. That's what's being said here. How we need this. See, we tend to be so individualistic and we just don't often regard or stay tuned in to where other people are at in the spiritual conflict. You know, this is a personal battle. This is a personal problem. No, it's not. The devil attacks the whole church. And you know what the devil knows? He knows what that truth that's said there in the book of Ecclesiastes. You've got a threefold cord. It is not easily broken. And he recognizes when the church is corded together and we're united together and we're praying for one another, that is not an easily broken cord. He recognizes that. He knows when the church comes together, it's united together and it's praying for each other. That's bad for him. We can get to where we think of no one else. It's always my problem. I see this in the church. You get around certain people. They will not ask you how you're doing. They don't act like they even care what's happening in your life. It's their problem. They're always talking about it. They're always moaning over it. They're always thinking about it. They're always praying about it. And the truth is, people like that, they rarely pray for other people. And Paul says, don't do that. Don't be forever looking at yourself and concentrating on yourself. He says, consider others in the church.