An often-used statement within the self-help community is the adage that if there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do you no harm. This is used to inform people of their responsibility for the failures in their lives. The proper meaning of the adage is that so-called enemies outside the individual – whether they are principalities or powers, demons or men – can do nothing to the individual who has not given over the government of self through character faults, vices, and personal negligence. It means that no one out there can defeat a person unless such a person has defeated him or herself.
The quote that if there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do you no harm is attributed as an African quote. When this insight into the life of man is understood in the background of diabolic happenings in Africa, it is easy to see that the elders who discerned such wisdom passed through the rite of initiation into knowledge. They came to realise the nature of the relationship of man with himself, and with the external world, and understand that nothing outside of a man can ruin him if the man has not first ruined himself.
There can be an enemy in a person! I am not talking about the ego, but something more. In simple terms, this enemy within is a collective of the “faults” or weaknesses of a person. Fears, limiting beliefs, negative thinking patterns, warped perception of life, and ignorance. These negativities hinder the person from perceiving the truth about himself or herself and the truth of situations concerning their life. Such a person starts living a lie.
To the extent that the enemy within is active in the life of a person, to that extent will the person be at the mercy of the forces of life and other people who can gain power over the individual through the doors which his or her faults open to them.
The enemy without has done so much harm in the lives of many people because the enemy within set them up. But if there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do them no harm.
I want to illuminate your mind more on the enemy within and to show how the enemy without makes inroads into people’s lives and ruins them.
Jesus Christ spoke of the enemy without. In the Bible book of Mark 3:27, Christ said, No man can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. The event that led to Christ making this statement was the accusation of the Jews who said he was casting out devils through the power of Beelzebub. Christ opened their minds to the irrationality of their accusation, pointing out how the kingdom of His Enemy cannot stand if Christ was a servant of the Enemy and then plundering the house of his master. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. No man can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. Christ was showing that He could cast out devils because He had bound up the owner of the house wherein demon-possessed humans were held in affliction. The house, in context, is the Earth or the realm of the spiritual where the Enemy held sway over the souls of men.
This event of Christ is well understood and within His utterance is the wisdom that when applied to the lives of men can help them overcome challenges that agonise their spirits, minds, and bodies.
The enemy can bind up the mind of a person and when that attack is successful, the enemy goes on to plunder the man. The mind is the arena and there are devices that the enemy employs to bind up the mind. Binding up the mind is to make it defenceless, on the one hand, and to shut it out of its power, on the other hand. The enemy uses devices such as deceptive images and words, suggestions, and spells to spin a chain around the mind. When the mind is captive, the enemy goes on to steal the life force of the person, destroy dreams and aspirations, and kill, if it gets to the extreme.
Imagine the human being as a vehicle loaded with treasures, going somewhere, and the mind as the driver of the vehicle. A stranger to which the driver gave a lift turns out to be an enemy that, during the journey, sought to take over the vehicle by taking the hands of the driver off the steering wheel. The driver who is aware of what the stranger is up to will become resistant and throw the stranger out. The careless driver loses consciousness of the presence and subtle manipulation of the stranger and then vacates his seat for the driver to run the car. Not only does the real owner of the car take a seat nearby watching while someone else drives his car, but he also allows the stranger to incapacitate him from taking the wheel. In extreme cases, careless drivers like this are even thrown out of the vehicle.
The metaphor of the vehicle is not as relatable to the metaphor of a house as the life of a person. The metaphor of a house is best to illustrate the operation of the stranger that comes in, bounds the owner of the house, and plunders his properties. This is the reason why some people have dreamt of their apartments being emptied or someone coming in to steal their belongings. That is a clear sign of the operation of the stranger in their lives because the door was opened through careless governance of the self.
People open the door to the stranger through the way they regulate their lives, especially from the place of their minds. The faults of their lives, seen in weaknesses such as vices, habits, addictions, tendencies, and limiting beliefs, can give a stranger who is adept at binding the mind the opportunity to step in, bind the mind, and go about ruining the life of the person and stealing their treasures.
The bad habits, disempowering beliefs, vices, addictions, and negative tendencies of a person create an enemy within the person’s personality that stands against his or her progress and self-realisation. The person who loses the fight over the enemy within will open doors to the enemy without.
The enemy can go to the extreme when he seeks to break into the life of a person. The enemy may employ acts of diabolism and subtle mind control techniques to aid his operation against the defences of the mind of the person. The person who has not attained mastery over self thus falls victim to the enemy who will be merciless in plundering the goods in the house of the person.
Self-governance is the only way to shut the doors against strangers lurking around your fences seeking to break in to steal and ruin. Break off bad habits and tendencies that leave your doors open. Be discerning of the whispers of the enemy. Open your eyes to his traps. Walk in the light and truth of your God.
If there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do you no harm. If there is an enemy within, the enemy without moves in and steals.
“If there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do you no harm.”
The first time I learned about this quote, I stopped worrying about enemy without. Since then I always tell people I got no enemies outside.
That mindset is liberating as it helps you not to create mental problems for yourself through what other people say or do.