Samson

Judges 16
4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

How interesting that the Philistines didn't simply intend to kill Samson but to "overpower him, that we may bind and afflict him"! Pay attention to the specific words used in scripture; they give us clues. In this case, we are being SHOWN the pattern of the enemy where it comes to Christians who are anointed by God with powerful assignments. The enemy wishes to discover the source of our power, attack that first, and then bind us and afflict us. Dear Christian; the devil cannot simply walk up to you and attack you or kill you. He must first disarm you, and he is not allowed to harm you; he seeks to make you harm your self instead.

Let's examine this spiritual principle, first from the perspective of Jesus's victory that He purchased for us through His own blood, and then from the perspective of the enemy who seeks to weaken us and make us vulnerable so he can bind us and afflict us. Notice that Jesus Himself laid out this pattern for how we can overcome the enemy's strongholds and take back what was stolen.

Luke 11:21-22
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

In this analogy, Jesus is describing what He Himself does to the enemy; He strips the enemy of his armor and plunders his goods. Jesus has declared that He is the true and rightful King and that Satan's rule and reign upon the earth is at an end.

Matthew 18:18
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Luke 10:19
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

So Jesus has total dominion over all evil including all things that can harm us and over death itself; and He gave us this overcoming power and complete victory through His Spirit.

Romans 8:3
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh

1 Corinthians 15:56
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

1 Corinthians 15:26
The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Ephesians 3:16
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man

But how is the devil trying to use this strategy of disarming and binding and afflicting believers? Through lies.

John 8:44
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.

Why are lies powerful? Because the freedom that Jesus gave us is through faith in Him, and that faith must rest on the truth of His word and His promises. Therefore if we believe the lie, or rather, disbelieve the truth, we have become unarmed.

John 8:32
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The devil's field of battle is in our minds. Since there is now no condemnation for us according to Romans 8:1, the devil's job is to trick us into condemning ourselves. One of his favorite tactics for believers is to try to find "loopholes" in scripture that we can use against ourselves to condemn ourselves before God and therefore to hide ourselves from God, as Adam and Eve did in the garden, and to reject God's love and acceptance of us and to cut ourselves off from God's grace and mercy and presence.

And so the battleground is not in the physical but in the mental realm. If Satan can successfully accuse us and get us to reject the forgiveness that Jesus purchased with His own blood, then he effectively strips us of our strength and can then begin to bind us and afflict us.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ

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.

So the enemy's tactics are clear: get us to doubt God, get us to condemn ourselves, get us to pronounce curses against ourselves, to feel as though God is not on our side and will not protect us or provide for us, place us into religious bondage so that we find ourselves helpless against sin, and to fight in our own strength instead of the overcoming power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Watch out for fear; watch out for self righteousness; watch out for either pride or false humility. Place your confidence entirely on the finished work of Jesus, so that nothing of God's acceptance of you or His power working through you has anything whatsoever to do with YOU. Watch out for the subtle clues of the creeping in of the religious spirit. The devil loves to masquerade as an angel of light to deceive you with the trappings of religion so he can get you to chase your own tail instead of serving God in the Spirit by grace through faith.

Colossians 2:23
These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

2 Peter 2:18
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

Where does our power and strength lie? In the total forgiveness we have in Jesus, access to God, the freedom to enter the Holy of Holies because of the perfect righteousness of our Savior and Advocate and High Priest, Who by His one offering has perfected us forever.

Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 12:2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 10:35
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

Romans 5:2
through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Ephesians 2:18
For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:12
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.