2 Chronicles 17:1-5ESV
1 Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel.
2 He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured.
3 The LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,
4 but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the practices of Israel. 5 Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor.

So many Christians are like a highway for the enemy, they haven’t realised that they must shut, lock and bar every door to stop the enemy from gaining entrance into their lives.
How securely do we lock our doors, even the security on our tech devices is like forth Knox, impossible to enter or break.
Sadly, we fail to take spiritual precautions in securing our lives, gifts, and destinies from spiritual attacks. Jehoshaphat strengthened his kingdom spiritually and militarily against the attack of the enemy.
The Lord admonishes or commands us to live and teach others to live righteously, to foster dependence on God to afford us the ability to strengthen ourselves against the enemy otherwise, we will find ourselves depending on ourselves and others to charge us with the knowledge of strength needed to fight the enemy.
The Lord will later tell Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:15 that the battle belongs to the Lord, as He keeps telling so many of us who insist on fighting the enemy by ourselves.
Our battles are not carnal, fleshy, physical or with humans declares Ephesians 6:12, but against things that our natural ability and strength can not overpower, an enemy that we require the supernatural strength of God to resist and defeat.
As Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to guard our hearts against the mental enemy, so too must we strengthen ourselves; our mind, heart, body and life against the attacks of the enemy.
Strengthening ourselves against the enemy starts with a physical demonstration of removal, as seen in Deuteronomy 12:3 where the Israelites destroyed all the existing worship centres when they entered Canaan; the Canaanite religion focused on fertility, with shrines on mountains, hills, and under trees. This was the one way the Lord could get them to strengthen themselves against following after the worship of the Canaanite gods.
We must be strong in the Lord and the power of His might according to Ephesians 6:10 to be strengthened to stand against the enemy.
Every battle is an impossible one without the Lord, no battle is the believer’s alone but we must adhere to Psalm 119:105, make the word of God our lamp and light to have the confidence of a victor. Like Jehoshaphat, we must not just walk uprightly but learn to stop and be still before God and allow Him to contend and fight on our behalf as promised in Psalm 35:1 whilst Psalm 60:12 say it’s only through and in God can we do valiantly because it is God who tramples our foes.
The Lord has made us watchmen as indicated in Ezekiel 33:7, as watchmen, we are to look out for the approaching enemy and strengthen ourselves against the coming attack. The Lord appointed us as He did Ezekiel to be a “watchman” over families, homes, neighbourhoods and the nations. People depended on the watchman not only to remain vigilant but also to sound the alarm if the city was in danger. It was then up to the people to decide whether to heed these warnings, prepare and strengthen themselves or ignore them and perish.
We all need to be prepared for battle, the enemy is not relenting in his attacks, he’s getting more subtle in his ambush, so strengthen yourselves against the enemy.
Shalom