• Ephesians 6:11-13. “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
• 1 Peter 5:8-10. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
• James 4:7. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
• Ephesians 4:26-27. “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.”
• Luke 10:18-19. “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.’”
• 1 Timothy 3:6-7. “And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”
• 1 Thessalonians 3:5. “For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.”
• Acts 5:3. “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?’”
• 1 Corinthians 7:5. “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
• 1 Thessalonians 2:18. “For we wanted to come to you – I, Paul, more than once – and yet Satan hindered us.”
• Luke 22:31-32. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
• 2 Corinthians 2:10-11. “But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”
• Romans 16:20a. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
• Matthew 4:10-11. “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’ ’ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.”
• 1 John 3:7-10. “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
• 2 Timothy 2:24-26. “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
• Matthew 6:13. “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Today’s battle drill – “Watch for Ambushes!” – requires of each of us to be on the alert and to make wise choices. Just like we learned last week, we need to have interlocking sectors of fire, to ensure we are maintaining effective security in our lives and in our community life. There are many ways the devil would seek to get a foothold or stronghold in your life, and in our community life, so we must be vigilant to walk in the way of God and keep ourselves from the pitfalls of immorality. That takes us to the third action step…

Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval. In the NASB, Proverbs 5 is titled, “Pitfalls of Immorality.” To avoid the ambushes and to not fall into the schemes of the devil, we must pay attention to every step we take, and ask God to direct our steps so that our ways are pleasing to Him, as Proverbs 5:21 states, “For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths.”

When I go hiking in treacherous terrain, whether by the nature of the terrain itself or caused by an unexpected storm, I am unable to enjoy the scenery, unless I take the time to stop and look around, because my eyes are 100% focused on the trail – on every step I take – so that I do not slip, fall, get hurt, or die. Listen to three passages on avoiding pitfalls along the way:

• Psalm 7:14-15. “Behold, he travails with wickedness, and he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, and has fallen into the hole which he made.”
• Proverbs 26:26-28. “Though his hatred covers itself with guile, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.”
• Proverbs 28:9-10. “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. He who leads the upright astray in an evil way will himself fall into his own pit, but the blameless will inherit good.”

Today’s battle drill is not only about the enemy external, Satan, but also about the enemy within – self, the flesh – who often will lead us willfully off the right way and into dangerous territory when we seek to please ourselves instead of God, the One who enlisted us into His services for His glory! A powerful illustration of this is the Samson story and how he kept returning to Delilah, the adulteress of Proverbs 5 – she was a pitfall to Samson, and we must learn from his story. Listen to my Seize the Moment devotion on Judges 16:

What is your Delilah? Judges 16:4-6 introduces us to the woman that would be Samson’s downfall, and yes, her name was Delilah:

After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you.”

Samson fell in love with a seedy woman and while the Bible gives us Delilah’s motivation from the get-go, Samson seemed to be unaware of her intentions, or at least blinded to them by his infatuation with her. His romantic involvement prevented him from seeing straight. They do say love is blind, but in this case, it wasn’t love; rather, it was lust, and lust is a counterfeit, an enemy smoke screen to obscure the battlefield.

Delilah is not subtle about her efforts to sell Samson to his enemies, the Philistines, for riches beyond anything she would ever be able to earn in her normal nighttime activities. In fact, when you read Judges 16:6-20 you just want to pull Samson aside and talk some sense into him. Every time she asked him how to bind his strength, the very next scene his enemies were doing it to him. Yet, Samson, in all his pride, kept returning to Delilah.

What is your Delilah? What do you keep returning to even though you know it is seeking to steel, kill, or destroy you (John 10:10a)?

Seize the moment and break up with your Delilah today – “Flee immorality” and “pursue righteousness” (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22)!

How then shall we live on mission today? We must submit to God and resist the devil, which takes us to our final action step in training to live on mission as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Action Step #4) Live on mission. The battle drill for today is to watch for ambushes so that you can avoid them. The following are warning signs of potential ambush locations:

• You can see or hear the enemy or their weapons, or signs of their activity along the way
• There is an obstacle in the middle of the way that causes you stop
• There is an intersection where a decision must be made on which path to take
• There is an open area or some kind of exposed area where you would be exposed
• There is damage on or near the way from previous ambushes that mark the location as a dangerous area based on past experiences of those who have gone before you.