Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual Warfare is an attack from the enemy. Any time we start to get closer to God or do good work in God’s name, Satan attacks. He sends his army of demons to make us stumble into temptation, cry out in despair, feel broken and lose ourselves. When God send His son Jesus to spread His message of love and life, the enemy fought harder than ever to steal souls and wound the righteous. In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that we would have troubles in our lives. But, despite these troubles and setbacks, God gives us what we need to fight these battles and, if we let Him, He will fight these demonic forces for us. There is power in the name of the Lord and power in His Holy Spirit. Through prayer and with God’s help, we can overcome anything the devil tries to throw at us.
2 Corinthians 10:3—5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Isaiah 54:17
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.
Ephesians 6:11—18
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Deuteronomy 28:7
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
In the Book of Job, Satan asks God if he can torment Job. Job was a righteous man and the devil believed that if he kept throwing enough trouble Job’s way, that Job would eventually leave the protection of the Lord and Satan would be able to steal Job’s soul. God agreed, knowing Job was fully His child. Job was tested over and over; yet, he was able to remain righteous and stand strong through the onslaught. Even though Job was often bitter toward God and depressed by all the loss and hardship he was facing, he continued to trust God. Job never wavered in his love for God.
Spiritual warfare often comes in the form of one attack after another. Everything seems to be going wrong in our lives even though we are trying our hardest to be good and have faith in God’s love and protection. We face struggles, death of a loved one, battles in our closest relationships, loss of a job. Life feels to be out of our control and no matter what we do, we cannot seem to get back on track.
Spiritual warfare can also come in the form of a physical attack such as an illness or life—threatening situation. We know Satan comes to destroy everything we hold sacred. The ultimate goal of the enemy is to bring evil to the world and blot out love. Like Daniel in the lion’s den, we have to trust God to step in for us and make miracles happen. We have to maintain our faith that God will intervene on our behalf. Even when life does not seem to make sense and miracles defy every logical thing we know, we can trust in God to bring us through a situation safely. And when we face impossible trials, we have to remember God is right there with us, holding our hand.
Spiritual warfare can come in the form of a never—ending string of temptations. The enemy is always trying to lure us into compromising situations or leading us to make the wrong choices. He lies in wait to destroy a family and break up every good relationship we have ever had. In Matthew 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. He was exhausted from travelling, hungry from fasting, and physically weak. This was the perfect recipe for Satan to step in and offer Jesus twisted temptations that would cause Jesus to sin. But, being the son of the one true God, Jesus was free from sin and remained so even during His weakest moments. Jesus was the Christ and therefore, had the power to rebuke Satan and make him stop his futile attacks on Jesus. Anytime you feel like you are getting pulled away from God and from the people you love and trust, this is merely the enemy trying to temp you back into sin.
Spiritual warfare can also come in the guise of mental illness such as anxiety and depression or simply great fear and paranoia. When these types of negative emotions and situations leave us feeling hopeless and completely alone, we have to remember that Jesus is just a call away. We need to call out to Jesus to come and help us out of our despair, to calm our anxiety, worry, and fear, or simply to walk with us while we find new hope and joy in our hearts.
Spiritual warfare can be subtle as well. We may not even recognize the attack for what it is. Satan is cunning and will use regular people like you and me to carry out his attack, while those being used do not even realize this attack is happening. The enemy fills us with doubt, confusion, guilt, and tries to take us away from God’s loving protection. The enemy can give us so much to do that we no longer take time to pray and be with God and His Word. We may even stop going to church and spending time with like minded Christians. This is very important to keep us in step with the righteous path to become more Christ like. Life often seems to move along at an automatic pace while darkness shrouds everything we do. We soon begin to doubt the very core of our beliefs and instead listen to what the world says is right.
God can bring us out of that kind of funk by bringing us back toward Him. He will nudge us to get back to His word and put the right people in our path to remind us that we are His children and with His help, we can conquer anything. The enemy tells us lies and makes us feel confused and guilty. God tells us only the truth and makes us feel confident and sure of the steps we must take to overcome our weaknesses. God will remind us to get back to scripture and arm ourselves with the truth in order to know when Satan is telling us lies.
God would never leave His child alone in the dark to fend for ourselves. He is always right beside us anytime we need Him. The veil of darkness is what the evil one uses to hide God from us and lead us to believe that God has abandoned us. But, God is always right there and has been there for us the whole time. We become stronger because Christ Jesus is within us. When we accepted Jesus to come into our lives, we accepted Him into our hearts and minds as well. We also have the Holy Spirit to fill us with the love and light of the Lord. The Spirit dwells within us all the time to help us discern right from wrong, good from evil.
Acts 1:8 says,
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.
We use scripture as our sword to battle evil and help us discern what is righteous. But, we cannot forget the power of prayer and worship. Prayer travels through the Holy Spirit straight to God. He hears every single one of our prayers. He will send us help during a crisis and gives us the tools we need to succeed. The Holy Spirit is the messenger of God. He is the voice for us when we cannot find the right words. Praise and worship for God is like pouring water on the wicked witch of the west. Demons cannot stand to hear the name of God and Jesus Christ spoken out loud. When we worship and praise God, the darkness is pushed back, the hissing and gnashing of teeth are silenced, and the enemy flees back to Hades where he was forced to go when God cast him out of heaven.
2 Chronicles 20:22 reminds us that God fights our battles for us and comes quickly when he hears our praise
As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.
Psalm 22:3 reminds us that
He inhabits the praises of His people.
When we submit to God, we are given the power to resist the devil. So long as we stay strong in the Lord, the enemy will flee from us (James 4:7). We must remember that God can defeat Satan, God will fight our battles for us, and we are always secure in God’s hands. One of my most favorite verses that has gotten me through many struggles is
Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
He will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
For you, O Lord, are my refuge!
You have made the Most High your dwelling place.
Because of this, no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
Written By:
Michelle Menkhus Rouse aka ~Misha