The Meeting

There was a little tension that could be felt just before the meeting was about to begin. Two brothers sat opposite each other, each anxious to get the meeting going. There were others in the room also anxious, also feeling the slight tension.

The person in charge of the meeting passed out an agenda--each looked to his spot in the schedule, determining when they would give an update of their respective ministries. A short, sincere word of prayer was shared and the meeting was underway.

Distant words were shared about the budget and menial operating details when the war began.

"What will you say? Did you bring enough information to share? Did you do enough this past month? Have you seen any success, any progress? What will they think? What will they say? Will you have their approval?"

A beastly, otherworldy figure slid his arm around one of the guys and whispered in his ear, pointing to the guy across the table from him with his other arm. While the attack was a blatant attempt at division, it was almost completely unnoticeable to that guy in the meeting.

"Look at him. He thinks you're doing a poor job. He thinks you're no good. He thinks it's a waste to have you in this position over this ministry."

At the same time another figure had his arm around the guy on the opposite side of the table. He was a little different...his arm looked like a snake on his shoulder, but his motive was the same.

"Who does he think he is? He thinks his ministry is more important than yours. He thinks he's more important than you. But he doesn't even do that much. This church could definitely survive without him. You could do a better job than he does."

The figure seemed to almost spit on him as he injected lie after lie into the man's mind.

"Look at him. He's doing a poor job. He's no good. It's a waste to have him in this position over this ministry."

...

After the meeting was over, each man went to his car to go home, and each beast got in on the passenger side.

"He thinks you're no good. Did you see the way he looked at you as you gave your report?"

"He's no good. His report was crap."

And thus the battled continued. Each man tried to fight the sense that the other had a low opinion of him, but it was hard. It was near impossible. For some reason, although the lies were blatant, they were easy to believe. This war to cause division had begun, and the beasts settled in for a long seige. They knew all too well that if they fought long and hard enough, they could win over the humans.

~

Here's my sorry attempt to illustrate a spiritual battle where the enemy tries to bring division. I'm not sure if this is close to how it really plays out, but make no mistake, Satan tries to bring division among brothers and sisters in Christ. My guess is that it's a pretty big strategy of the enemy to get brothers to believe false things about each other. Extreme miscommunication occurs and we begin to assume this or that about our brothers and sisters. And usually what we assume about people is pretty negative.

Why bring division? Division causes us to become distracted from what really matters. The enemy knows that many of us have a pretty serious hang up about what others think of us. And if we're consumed about what others think of us, then we can become greatly distracted from the work that God has for each of us. Remember Peter and the little servant girl? She accused him of being a follower of Christ. And out of fear of other people, he denied Him. Could it be that he was afraid of what other people would think of him? Well, I don't know about that (I know he was scared because Jesus was about to be crucified and he might be next), but I can guarantee that many of the rest of us do have a problem with this.

Anyway, simply put, my warning is this: be wary of the lies of the enemy. Because although we may be able to discern them as lies, they are still extremely believable. Be wary of the division that he seeks to bring. That division can do a lot of damage.

WJS (also known as "BS," but I was encouraged to not sign my posts with these initials for obvious reasons)