I’m from the great state of Texas, where the state animal is an armadillo.  Yes, someone thought Texans were best represented by a nasty, armored rodent.  I’m super-proud.  :/  Truthfully, I am almost annoyingly proud to be a Texan.  However, I had never experienced armadillos in Texas the way I have in Alabama.  Every August through September (which I have deemed Armadillo season), these sickening animals traipse through our yard hunting for grub worms.  We live in a HOA neighborhood where people care what their lawn looks like (at least in theory) and we are no exception.  We try to take care of our lawn.  We have it treated by a local lawn care company to make sure it is green and void of as many weeds.  We have invested time, money and energy in our lawn.  And every August, the blessed armadillos sneak in the dark of the night into our lawn.  They use their pointy little noses to dig up holes throughout our lawn as they scavenge for worms.  Morning after morning we would wake to find evidence of their destruction.

Are you kidding me?  For the love of everything that is good, what are we to do?  Being raised in the south (East Texas to be exact), my husband determined the best form of action was to hunt them.  Jared would set an alarm, get up, turn on the flood lights and with pistol in hand attempting to catch the dirty varmints.  Did I mention we live in an HOA subdivision?  Some nights he would see them and some night, he wouldn’t.  Some nights they would run away before he could “take care of them.”  The whole thing was just really frustrating as they continued to tear up our yard.

This went on for a couple of “armadillo seasons.”  And then we got wise and made a game-changing discovery.  We found the reason they were digging up our yard–grub worms.  With this knowledge we held in our possession valuable arsenal.  Knowledge is power, my friend.  The following spring we treated our lawn for grub worms.  When Armadillo season came back around, we were ready.  And sure enough, the armadillos came…we know because we saw their tracks in our lawn.  However, what we didn’t see were holes in our lawn.  The armadillo instead passed over us and crossed the street to our neighbors lawn where he feasted on her grub worms.

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Is the Enemy wrecking havoc in your life?  Have you carefully invested in your walk with God only to have this nasty worm sneak in and mess things up?  You’re not alone.  However, your strategy of defeating the Enemy is much like our’s of defeating the armadillos.  It requires knowledge and preparation.

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How To Defeat The Enemy

1. Knowledge

Know Who God Is: The Enemy loves to confuse us regarding the character of God.  God is love.  He is loving and He proved it on the cross.  Get in the Bible and take notice of the character of God.

Recognize Who Your Enemy Is:  We often underestimate the evil intents of the Enemy.  Satan is deceptive and an accuser.  He is a worthy adversary.  Know who you are dealing with.  Because of who we are in Christ, we have nothing to fear.  Yet, remaining ignorant will not withhold the Enemy’s attack.

2.  Be Prepared

Ephesians 6:12-18 talks about putting on the armor of God.  Did you know that five of the six pieces of armor are defensive?  That means instead of going after the Enemy, our main job is to defend that which we already possess.  Defending ourselves from the Enemy means preparing ourselves for his attack.  Just as we treated our lawn to remove the grub worms in preparation for the armadillo’s visit.  We must remove those things in our lives that Satan uses to trip us up.  The most effective way to be prepared is intimacy with God.  As we walk closely with God, we discover Jesus is our armor.  He is the one who protects and provides.

To learn more about Spiritual Warfare, you can check out my online Bible Study called Warrior Up here.