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The topic of spiritual warfare comes up often in Christian circles, both online and off. Depending on the denomination of your church (Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.), you’ve probably either heard a lot about this topic or…hardly anything at all.
That's because most Christians fall into one of two camps. The first camp believes everything “bad” is a result of spiritual warfare, while the second believes nothing is.
How do we, as Jesus followers, clear up the confusion? Because, let’s face it, if we don’t really understand a problem, we can’t work through it. First things first: what is spiritual warfare, exactly?
That’s the question I want to answer in this blog post. We’ll also talk about how we can fight spiritual attacks.
The Cliff Notes
Spiritual warfare is an unseen (but very real) war between the kingdom of God and the forces of darkness.
Spiritual attacks come in many forms (sickness, job loss, financial trouble, etc.) and happen because Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy.
To fight the spiritual battle, repent of your sins and believe in Jesus, recognize your sinful tendencies, study scripture and speak it over your life, pray without ceasing, call on your prayer warriors, focus on God, pay attention to what you’re ingesting, and get professional help if you need to.
Table of Contents
What Is Spiritual Warfare?
How to Fight Spiritual Attacks
Victory in Jesus
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Spiritual Warfare?
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Simply put, spiritual warfare is a battle between good and evil. Sounds basic, but that’s what it really comes down to. It’s an unseen war between the kingdom of God and the forces of darkness.
But don’t let the word “unseen” fool you. That doesn’t mean “fake” or “hypothetical.” Though the war isn’t (always) visible to our human eyes, it’s most certainly real. And it can affect us in actual, tangible ways.
The good news is we can fight back! But before we get into all that, let’s talk about what spiritual attacks can look like.
What Attacks Often Look Like
Spiritual attacks come in many, many forms. Anything from sickness to job loss to demonic possession can be an attack. The trick is learning to decipher when something goes wrong simply because we live in a broken world or because there’s an evil force plotting against us.
What I’ve noticed in my own life is that if things go to pot every single time I turn around, it might be warfare. My kid coming down with the flu? Not necessarily an attack. But both kids getting the flu, my car breaking down, and losing a client all in the same week? Could be spiritual warfare.
Something else worth noting: If you run into a problem or a bad situation when you’re in the middle of serving God in some way, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’re being attacked.
See, Satan doesn’t want us impacting people for God. He doesn’t want God’s kingdom to grow. And since he can’t have the souls of born-again believers, he’ll do everything he can to steal, kill, and destroy every other area of our lives. Because then we won’t be light in the darkness.
How to Fight Spiritual Attacks
1. Repent & Believe
Even though the idea of spiritual warfare can be scary, there’s good news! If you’re a believer, you’ve already won this battle because Jesus has won the war. And God is faithful.
Ephesians 1:20-21 says, “…when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Then in Ephesians 2, it goes on to say, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” That means we, too, are above all the powers of darkness listed above.
But that’s only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. It is by grace, through faith, that we have been saved. So the first step in fighting spiritual attacks is to become a true child of God by repenting of your sin (anything you think, say, or do that goes against God) and believing in Jesus.
2. Recognize Sinful Tendencies
Some scholars claim that unrepented or continuous sin is what opens the doors to spiritual warfare in our lives. While I don’t know if that’s always true or if there’s some other cause, what I do know is that sin hinders our relationship with the Father, even after we’re saved.
When we’re living in constant sin, especially unforgiveness, it’s harder to hear from the Lord. We might feel more distant from Him or even just numb or apathetic. That’s not a good position to fight a war from.
If you feel like you’re being attacked spiritually, ask God to reveal any sin in your life. And when He does, ask Him to cleanse and deliver you from those habits.
3. Study Scripture and Speak It Over Your Life
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Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us how to fight the spiritual war with the armor of God. That armor includes things like salvation, faith, and truth. But the only offensive weapon mentioned is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Everything else is defensive, meant to thwart attacks.
The Word of God is meant to fight.
Think about when Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. What did Jesus do? He quoted scripture at Satan and, eventually, the attacks stopped.
But we can’t quote scripture if we don’t know it. I’m not saying you have to memorize a thousand Bible verses, but the more you study God’s Word, the more He’ll hide it in your heart…sometimes without you even realizing it.
If you don’t know where to start, check out my weekly email devotionals. These get sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday. It’s completely free to sign up (here) and is a great way to get into your Bible.
For every other day of the week, I recommend the Bible App and Proverbs 31 Ministries. Both have free resources and devotionals to help you grow in your faith.
As you’re spending time in Bible study, it’s also important to speak the Word over your life. How? By using scriptural affirmations. For example, you could say (out loud), “I am strong in the Lord, and through His armor, I can resist and fight evil.” That’s straight from the book of Ephesians.
I’ve also found it helpful to ask God to revoke any satanic plans against you and your family. And to then declare that Satan can’t have your home, family, impact, finances, etc. because it all belongs to Jesus Christ.
4. Pray Without Ceasing
The Bible calls us to “pray without ceasing.” But what does that actually mean? Surely we can’t pray while we’re in the middle of working or paying bills or creating a family budget, right?
In my opinion, praying without ceasing doesn’t necessarily mean that every second of the day is filled with the words of a prayer. Instead, it means we keep an open line of communication going with our Savior.
Worried about your finances? Pray for peace. About to go into a job interview? Pray for courage. Getting in the car to drive your kids to school? Pray for protection. You get the idea.
These don’t have to be long, fancy prayers. Simply talk to Jesus. And as you do, don’t forget to also thank Him for what He's done, what He’s going to do, and who He is.
5. Call on Your Prayer Warriors
We all need a little help sometimes. Maybe you’re too exhausted to fight anymore. Maybe you’re too discouraged to even try to pray. You might start believing it’s all useless.
That’s when you call on your prayer warriors. These are your closest friends and family who won’t judge you and will actually pray when you ask them to. Let me tell you, friend, it makes a huge difference! I’ve been in situations that felt helpless and, looking back, I know Jesus got me through because of the prayers of people who love me.
(If you don’t have at least one prayer warrior, I’d love to be that for you. Just shoot me an email.)
6. Focus on God, Not the Devil
While it’s super important to be aware of the spiritual war going on around us, it’s equally as important not to focus all our time and energy on it. Instead, focus on God! Read your Bible, pray, get together with other believers.
The Word tells us to think about what’s true, noble, pure, and lovely. Satan is none of those things. We can’t spend more time worrying about the enemy than we do praising Jesus, because that only leads to fear, discouragement, and defeat.
7. Pay Attention to What You’re Ingesting
Like I tell my kids (over and over), what we ingest matters. That includes what we read, watch, and listen to. And it’s not just about avoiding the “bad” things; it’s also about incorporating more of the Godly things.
For instance, when I’m feeling particularly low or attacked, I blast praise and worship music. It’s guaranteed to lift my spirits. And when I read a page-turning novel that ultimately points to Jesus or reflects His goodness, I close the book feeling a sense of joy and peace.
(Hint: All of my novels are uplifting Christian fiction, even the suspense stories. You can check them out here or on Amazon.)
8. Get Professional Help
When you can’t seem to shake the spiritual attacks no matter what you do, it might be time to seek out professional help. We tend to think of Catholic-style, dramatic exorcisms when it comes to casting out demons or removing demonic oppression, but that’s not the only option (and is less common than you might think).
Protestant deliverance ministries exist, too, and they’re becoming more available. This type of deliverance focuses mostly on repenting of sin and using your God-given authority to resist and rebuke the enemy.
Reach out to your pastor or a church leader first, and if they don’t offer to help (they may not feel equipped), search for a Biblical deliverance minister in your area.
Note: The topic of deliverance is controversial among today’s Biblical scholars, pastors, and leaders. You’ll find a lot of differing opinions about it between denominations and even churches within the same denomination. My advice is to pray about whether having a deliverance session is something God wants you to do, and then follow His leading the best you know how.
Victory in Jesus
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Spiritual warfare is terrifying once you truly begin to understand it. But, as Christians, we have nothing to fear! Jesus defeated the enemy of our souls on the cross and, through faith in Him, we’re victorious, too.
When you come face to face with a spiritual attack, remember this: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [spirits of darkness], because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” -1 John 4:4
Frequently Asked Questions
What are examples of spiritual warfare?
I listed some everyday examples of spiritual warfare above, but we can also look to the Bible for examples. Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness (found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4) is one, as is Job’s life (found in the book of Job).
What are signs of spiritual warfare?
Like I mentioned earlier, not every bad thing that happens to you is spiritual warfare. But if you experience a sequence of bad things completely out of your control in a short period of time, that could be a sign of something more going on than what you can see.
Also, if you can’t seem to shake feelings of discouragement, depression, or hopelessness, you might be under attack.
What does God say about spiritual warfare?
God makes it clear that spiritual warfare is real and is happening all around us. In fact, His Word says we don’t fight against humans, but against evil forces. But God also says we are more than conquerors through Him, and He gives us weapons for the battle (see Ephesians 6).
