Dearly Beloved of Yeshua,

Watch!

I really wanted to write on love this month, but the Lord arrested me as I pondered the topic and said, “Not this year!” He reminded me about last month’s letter titled “PRAY” and told me that there was another word connected with PRAY that was crucial for the days in which we live. The word is WATCH. Watch what? Watch who? Why watch?

There are two verses to consider: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41; Mark 14:38) and “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

The word WATCH certainly applies to watching for the soon return of the Messiah Yeshua. “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:37). But the meaning emphasized in the above verses includes the idea: WATCH OUT! Be on guard. Stay alert. Be aware of your enemy: SATAN. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. 5:8). (Sometimes we have less time then a stalked gazelle to escape his attack.)

Watching the enemy began in the Garden of Eden where God instructed the first man Adam to dress and keep the Garden. The word “keep” comes from the Hebrew word shamar— (shahMAHR), to guard, hedge about, protect, or attend to. It also has the connotation of beware, be circumspect, take heed, watch, or save oneself. Dr. Cindy Trimm in her book, 101 Satanic Weapons Used Against the Saints, comments: “God was giving Adam a ‘heads up,’ warning him that there was an enemy lurking about the garden.” Unfortunately, for all mankind, Adam either did not remain vigilant or underestimated the power of the enemy.

What about Messiah’s bride today? I believe that our Father is giving us a “heads up”—a warning, an exhortation, and loving advice about His (and our) spiritual enemy—HaSatan, in Hebrew, literally “the accuser” or “the adversary.” We are engaged in a spiritual battle with him, whether we like it or not. In these end times, HaSatan is trying to wear down the saints (believers in Yeshua). See Daniel 7:25-27. He wants us to become battle-fatigued and give up. He also wants us to believe that we don’t have to fight in the war—that God will do that for us. This is not true. We are in a wrestling match, and, unlike many team sports, wrestling is one-on-one combat. You and HaSatan. Me and HaSatan. Spiritual warfare is not an option for Yeshua’s bride. Our wrestling match is described in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We are called to fight the good fight of faith. You signed up when you received Yeshua as your Lord, Savior, and Messiah. “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Yeshua HaMashiach. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim 2:3-4). The good news is: We don’t have to fight HaSatan alone. God is with us, empowering and protecting us in our battles.

Know Your Enemy

C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters made the following comment about HaSatan and any focus Dearly Beloved of Yeshua, on him: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased with both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” This book gives great insights into how our spiritual enemy operates.

HaSatan wants people to believe that he does not exist. Skeptics, as well as most traditional Jews, do not believe in an invisible, supernatural “personal devil” who influences our day-to-day lives. They believe that HaSatan is a force representing the internal inclination towards evil—the yetzer hara—  (YET-zehr hah-RAH)—not a separate malevolent being.

What does the Bible say about HaSatan? Prior to becoming God’s enemy, the devil served God as the archangel Lucifer, the anointed cherub. At some point, he rebelled against God’s authority and instigated an insurrection, taking one-third of the angels with him. Pride caused Satan to be cast out of heaven. “How you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning!…For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:12-14; see also Ez. 28:11-17). The Messiah Yeshua said in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The book of Revelation affirms the expulsion of HaSatan: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9). The angels cast out with HaSatan were “fallen angels” or demons.

Satan has an evil Kingdom on earth, of which he is commander-in-chief. The Bible tells us that he is:

Yeshua the Messiah spoke to a group of Judeans about their involvement in the war against the God of the Bible, His truth, and His purposes on earth: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (Jn. 8:44). Yeshua also said about the devil, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…” (Jn. 10:10).

The devil is a liar and a murderer. His nature has been seen throughout history, notably in our day. The enemy lies about the Jewish people in Israel and then finds evil accomplices to murder them. This happened with the Holocaust, October 7, 2023, and even now as we start this new year. Radical Islam perpetuates lies about the Jews and their allies and then radicalizes people to carry out satanic agendas such as ramming cars into civilian gatherings.

Since the enemy is a spirit being, he has spirits at his command. There are spirits of anger, hate, violence, and murder being unleashed by the devil today. Satan knows that his time is short and is pulling out all the stops. He is indeed the “wicked one,” spoken of in Matthew 13:19, 38; Ephesians 6:16, I John 2:13-14; I John 3:12, and I John 5:18-19. Not so ironically, radical Islam calls Israel the “little satan” and the U.S. is the “great satan.” The Bible says that the enemy is “cunning” (Gen. 3:1).

The Enemy’s Weapons

If we know what HaSatan’s weapons are, if we are “not ignorant of his devices” (II Cor. 2:11), we can watch for him and defeat him with the help of our Faithful Father. First of all, we must be aware that Satan likes to work in secrecy and darkness. He doesn’t like light. He specializes in making evil look good and good evil, since he is a master deceiver. His contact with believers is through the OLD NATURE, especially the mind. He cannot touch the WILL of a child of God, but we can surrender to his influence. Pre-believers, on the other hand, are totally subject to Satan’s lies and manipulation. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (I Jn 5:19). The devil has blinded their minds (II Cor. 4:4).

Our minds are also a battlefield. The devil wars against them. Rabbi Saul (Paul) said, “But I fear, lest somehow, as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah.” (II Cor. 11:3). What is that simplicity? Pure devotion to Yeshua. Bride of Messiah, Watch: the enemy is after your thought life. Just as we have a personal Savior, we have a personal adversary, who knows our weaknesses and who lurks about looking for ways to stir up our old natures. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Prov. 23:7) is a truth which makes Satan desperate to control our minds. He whispers to us and plants thoughts in our minds, suggesting things that we often don’t realize are coming from him.

The Believer’s Weapons

The Blood as a Weapon

Space does not allow a discussion of the other spiritual weapons found in Ephesians 6, but there is one weapon not mentioned that has been perhaps the most powerful weapon of all in my life: the blood of the Lamb. I seldom get behind the wheel of a car without asking God to cover me with His blood. It was believing in the power of Messiah’s blood and thanking God for it that gave me victory over cancer, not once but twice. The precious blood of Yeshua has proven powerful over grief at losing my beloved of 48 years. The blood has been a source of joy in my life since 1973, when I met the Messiah. I rejoice in the power of His blood and its undeniable proof of the love of God.

The blood of the Lamb of God is powerful in our war with the enemy of our souls. Revelation 12:11 testifies to this truth: “And they overcame him [HaSatan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” When Yeshua died on the tree, the Devil thought that he had finally triumphed over God, but the Lord had a plan for his defeat: the death and resurrection of His Son. The blood shed at Calvary meant atonement for sin and victory over all the works of the devil (see I Jn. 3:8).

The blood of Messiah conquered death. The blood of Messiah conquered sin. The blood of Messiah conquered Satan. We can conquer as well when we take our positions in the blood. Andrew Murray says in The Power of the Blood of Jesus, “The believer who desires to share in the victory over Satan through the blood of the Lamb must be a fighter.” In Yeshua, we win!

Resist the Devil!

James 4:7 says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” In our spiritual warfare, the first part of this verse is crucial. Submit, humble yourself before, be subject to, surrender to, place yourself under God’s authority—THEN resist the devil. Why? Because we are enlisting the Lord’s help in the battle. He is with us (He is in us) to give us the victory. We fight in his strength, not ours. To try to resist Satan without submission to God invites defeat.

Resist means fight. We have no other option. But God. We are actually MORE than conquerors in Him (Rom. 8:37). No weapon formed against us in Him will prosper (Is. 54:17). We can call upon Adonai T’zvaot , the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, Lord of Hosts, the One in Isaiah 13:4 who “musters the army for battle.” We can submit ourselves to the mighty God of Isaiah 31:4, “As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey…so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.” Victory is ours as we submit to the one who rebukes the devourer for our sakes (Mal. 3:11) and whose name is to be feared (Mal.1:14). We can also call upon Adonai Nissi before resisting the enemy. His name means “The Lord is my Banner,” referring to banners that served as rallying points for troops before a battle. Our God’s banner is a victory banner. In Him, the victory is ours even before we enter the ring. His banner over us is Love—and His love never fails!

Using the mighty name of Yeshua, and the sword of the spirit, pleading His blood, drawing near to God, resisting the devil—all this is done BY FAITH—a central part of our spiritual armor (see I Jn. 5:4). We must keep our shield of faith up at all times, since the devil will attack any weak point in our flesh where he can sow doubt, unbelief, guilt, and condemnation. Remember, there is no truth in him.

Pray with me: Dear Abba, thank You that we are not defenseless in the battle with HaSatan, Your enemy and the enemy of our souls. You have given us so many weapons: the name of Yeshua, Your Word, the blood of the Lamb, overcoming faith, prayer, praise and thanksgiving, Your eternal truths, and Your love which is unfailing. Empower us to wrestle in 2025, to not shrink back, to be discerning, watch, and then see multiple victories in the mighty name of the Messiah Yeshua, our Conquering King. Amen!

Fighting the good fight of faith, your sister in battle,