Faith

Know How the Enemy Fights So You Can Stand Firm

/ Terrence Burton / Leave a comment

Paul warned the church in 2 Corinthians 2:11 to forgive quickly, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” That single verse carries a powerful assumption: believers are expected to understand how the enemy operates so they are never caught off guard.

Attacks That Come from the Outside

Some of the enemy’s tactics show up as external opposition, pressure that comes from other people or circumstances. Nehemiah faced this when he rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls, encountering threats, mockery, slander, and traps designed to pull him away from the work God had called him to do. Paul experienced the same pattern throughout his ministry, describing in 1 Thessalonians 2:18 how Satan hindered his travel plans. Even Jesus faced direct temptation in the wilderness and hostility from religious leaders throughout His ministry.

Attacks That Come from Within

Other schemes are quieter and far more personal. They work through pride, unchecked desire, fear, or discouragement, exploiting the weaknesses already present in our own hearts. David’s census in 1 Chronicles 21:1 began with a prideful thought Satan planted, and Peter’s denial of Christ began with overconfidence that gave way to fear. James 1:14 reminds us that each person is tempted when they are drawn away by their own desire and enticed.

Standing Firm Against Both

The good news is that we are never left defenseless. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” First Peter 5:8 and 9 calls us to be sober and vigilant, resisting the enemy while standing firm in the faith. Whether the pressure comes from outside circumstances or from within our own hearts, the same weapons apply: truth, prayer, community, and an unwavering trust that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.

Awareness is not meant to produce fear. It is meant to produce readiness, so that no scheme of the enemy catches you by surprise.

-Terrence Burton

Guard What You Let Take Root

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You do not plant a seed by holding it tightly in your fist and staring at it, waiting for it to sprout. You bury it, cover it with soil, and let it grow out of your sight. Faith works the same way. We often want to keep our desires in plain view, gripping them tightly out of anxiety, when God is asking us to release them into belief and let them grow quietly underground.

Your Words Are Containers of Faith

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Every time someone speaks to you, they are handing you a piece of what they believe. Words carry faith the way a cup carries water. That means you get to decide what you drink. When someone hands you fear, doubt, or a limiting word about your future, you are not required to receive it just because they said it with confidence.

This week, pay attention to what you are planting in your own soil, and just as carefully, pay attention to what other people are trying to plant there too. Not every seed deserves room to grow.

-Terrence Burton

Your Words Are Carrying Something

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You do not hold a seed in your hand and stare at it, expecting it to grow. You bury it. That single picture explains more about faith than most sermons ever will.

Faith Comes By Hearing

Romans ten reminds us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Words are containers. They carry faith from one person to another, whether that faith is good or bad. Every time someone hands you a doubtful report, they are also handing you what they believe. You are allowed to refuse the package. Saying quietly, that is not for me, is not arrogance. It is stewardship of what you allow to take root.

Guard What Gets Planted

Negative words repeated often enough begin to act like seeds. Left unchallenged, they grow into doubt and fear the same way a good word, believed and watered with patience and peace, grows into the very thing it promised. Renewing the mind, as Romans twelve describes it, is ongoing work. It means keeping your thinking clean and current, not just filling it with good information once and walking away.

Abraham Believed Past the Impossible

Abraham stood at the edge of the hardest instruction he ever received and believed that God was able to raise his son from the dead, even before there was any resurrection to point to as proof. That kind of faith did not come from nowhere. It came from years of a private relationship with God, the same secret place Jesus later told his disciples to enter and shut the door behind them.

Whatever you have been hearing lately, ask yourself whose faith you are carrying. Then plant something worth growing.

-Terrence Burton

The Speed of Your Faith: What’s Really Slowing You Down

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Have you ever felt like your prayers were moving through molasses? You believe. You wait. You keep pressing forward. Yet the answer seems to crawl instead of run. Scripture actually gives us a reason for that, and it has less to do with how hard we are praying and more to do with what we are carrying and how clearly we are seeing.

Clarity Creates Speed

In Habakkuk 2:2, God tells the prophet to write the vision, and make it plain, so that the one who reads it can run. Notice the connection. A clear vision produces a runner. A cloudy vision produces someone who creeps along, hesitant and unsure. Think about driving through fog. You slow down not because something is wrong with your car, but because you cannot see. The moment the fog lifts, you naturally speed up. The same is true spiritually. When our vision of what we are believing God for is blurry, we hesitate. When it becomes clear, our pace changes.

Lay Aside the Weight

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and to run with patience the race set before us. Notice that weight and sin are named separately. Not everything that slows you down is sinful. Something as ordinary as unresolved worry or an old habit of overthinking can still act like a weight, even though it is not a moral failure. The instruction is the same either way. Set it down so you can move.

Run With Patience

Here is the part that surprises people. Patience in this verse does not mean sitting still. It means running consistently. You are not called to wait around for something to happen to you. You are called to keep moving in faith, undistracted, toward what God has already shown you.

So take an honest look today. Is your vision clear? Is there a weight you have been carrying that has nothing to do with sin, yet still slows your steps? Set it down, sharpen your focus, and run.

-Terrence Burton

Trained and Ready: What Abraham Teaches Us About Preparation

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When Abraham heard that his nephew Lot had been taken captive, he did not panic and he did not wait around hoping someone else would handle it. Genesis 14:14 tells us he “armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen,” and pursued the captors immediately. That single verse holds a leadership lesson worth pausing on.

Preparation Made the Difference

The Hebrew word behind “trained” implies men who were tried, tested, and experienced, not hastily gathered volunteers. These were members of Abraham’s own household, men he had invested in over time. When the crisis came, Abraham did not need to scramble to build a team. The training had already happened. Proverbs 22:6 captures this same principle: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Preparation done in advance is what allows us to respond with confidence when trouble shows up unannounced.

Faith and Action Working Together

Abraham’s story is a beautiful picture of faith paired with strategy. He organized his men, divided his forces, and launched a decisive plan, all while trusting God for the outcome. Melchizedek later blessed him, declaring that God had delivered his enemies into his hand. James 2:17 reminds us that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead,” and Abraham’s pursuit of Lot shows exactly what living faith looks like in motion.

A Pattern for Every Generation

This same rhythm shows up throughout Scripture, from Gideon’s three hundred to David’s mighty men to Jesus training twelve disciples who would go on to reach the world. Ephesians 6:11 calls us to “put on the whole armour of God,” a command that assumes preparation happens before the battle, not during it.

Whatever assignment God has placed in front of you, do not wait for the crisis to start preparing. Train now, in the quiet, so that when the moment comes, you are ready to move in faith.

-Terrence Burton