The best defense is a good offense. This is a principle every sports coach seems to know as they lead their atheletic teams in the war games of their sport.

      In spiritual warfare, there are tools that will put you on the offense rather than on the defense. This can make a big difference in your associations and relationships.

      People will get out of hand and if you don't balance them out with reproofs, rebukes and encouragements; your associations and relationships may degenerate to where they are of no real benefit to you.

      Someone may challenge the way you are doing things because they are domineering. If you know it, you may want to go on the offense with a good solid well communicated reproof.

      An older man challenged a younger man telling him, "Your diagnosis of your health problems isn't always right." What he was challenging was the man's right to diagnose his own infirmities and deal with them accordingly. The older man wanted him to become dependent on his advice and followe orders from doctors.

      The younger man had become skillful in dealing with his infirmities which were by far too many for any doctor to care for at that time, so he reproved the older man saying, "Edison tried two thousand experiments which were one failed diagnosis after another but they ultimately showed him what not to do, so he could find what to do light up a light bulb. His failures paved the way to his success.

      The man who offered unsolicited advice was silent. He had gone too far in offering his unsolicited advice, and had collided into a reproof.

      The younger man had made many wrong diagnosis while inventing orthopedic shoes to keep himself out of a wheelchair and with the Light of the Spirit, he had succeeded in finally designing shoes he could walk in without pain. If there was a valid reason for confronting him, it was mingled with a desire on the older man's part to exalt his way of doing things above the younger man's to obtain dominion over him.

      Reproofs, rebukes and encouragements can all have a positive effect on others if they are delivered properly.

      If you are too passive in all your contact with the human race, you will come under the power of them all; and will not be able to live for the Lord. There is a balance in which you keep yourself free to fight the good fight of the faith daily without the encumbrances of having to do things according to the will of others who do not know the workings of God in your life.