Failing to do that, our spiritual enemy displays ruthlessness in their determination to discourage us by one means or another, frequently achieving this by manipulating Christians-in-name-only friends and acquaintances who betray us, accuse us, undermine us, and who knows what else?
The goal, of course, is to disparage the cause of Christ and create division in the body of Christ, in the hope that the individual will become so despondent he will give up, quit, or leave. Most Christians have developed enough what is termed in the military 'situational awareness' that they recognize spiritual opposition for what it is and resist it. No lost individual and too many infantile believers succumb because 'situational awareness' is beyond them. They either cannot or will not look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
The result? Discouraged, despondent, and without hope, they make crucial decisions without seeking wise counsel (with those decisions frequently resulting in irretrievable loss of opportunity or recourse). Sometimes the counsel of friends is sought. At other times, the counsel of parents is sought. Almost never is the counsel of a seasoned spiritual leader sought ... or followed.
How is one to be prepared for service to the Savior if those men given by the Savior are left uninformed and outside the troubled person's decision loop? After all, a good portion of equipping for the work of the ministry is showing how to deal with ongoing spiritual opposition and conflict.
The result is discouragement and defeat resulting from a lack of awareness of how normal and usual a person's issues are (1 Cor 10.13), the forces that are in play (Eph 6.10-18), and the fatal error that is often made by granting to the enemy what they have sought all along, a break of fellowship, a departure, a cut and run decision that is the opposite of God's will and exactly in line with the demons' objective when organizing the attack against that person.
When the apostle wrote First John 2.19 the lines were more clearly drawn than they are in our day ("They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.")
But John's declaration was not the assertion of any new principle. A thousand years earlier Solomon, in Proverbs 21.16, wrote, "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead."
We who have a relationship with God do not always have a storehouse of scripture knowledge, but we more often than not have some amount of situational awareness. We know we are involved in a spiritual conflict and that we are outmatched, wholly dependent upon the grace of God and the means of grace to be equipped to resist the devil so he will flee from us.
The goal? To resist the enemy's push against us. To refuse to flee when we know the goal is to get us away, to separate us from, and to isolate us from those in our lives who are charged by God to minister to our most significant needs.
Notable men are of the opinion that the departure from a congregation is evidence of a lost condition. Not all are agreed. But no would rightly disagrees with the conclusion that to flee is not helpful, to run is not healthy, to bail out is contraindicated, because there is no possible way a child of God can be faithful by being unfaithful, can stand fast by cutting and running.
The long term remedy that should ever be employed? Seek always to maintain 'situational awareness.' Ask yourself and responsible and spiritual mature leaders who are Bible students what God wants you to do and what He would never not want you to do.
'Situational awareness' is crucial. You must always seek to understand your situation, the goal of the enemy in your life, the desire of God for your life, so you can seek God's wisdom, God's grace, and the determination not to flee when you should stay or stay when it is God's will that you leave.
