Do you find yourself struggling with your life? Maybe it’s just little things like chronic headaches or pains, or being unable to keep up with your bills. Or maybe it is bigger things such as losing your house or your job. Or maybe you have just come to believe life in general is a struggle and there is nothing you can do about. Well that is exactly what the devil wants you to believe. It is true that we will face trials and problems in this world, but it is also true that we have an enemy who is bent on the total destruction of our lives.
Yes that old serpent Satan hates us with such a passion he has made it his life’s purpose to steal our joy and destroy our relationship with God. This my dear friend is spiritual attack. Spiritual attack is designed to throw problems into your life that will bring you down and cause you to lose hope and faith in God. Spiritual attack is also meant to completely stop you or detour you from the purpose that God has placed on your life. You were designed to do great and wonderful things for the Kingdom of God, and whatever the enemy can do to stop you, he will. Even if that means trying to kill you.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
For some people this may sound a little extreme. I can understand that. I lived for the most part of my life in a world where demons and the devil did not even exist. It was as fake as the horror movies I watched on a regular basis. As a believer in Jesus Christ the reality of spiritual attack became painful true for me. Accepting Jesus as my Savior opened up a whole new world of freedom for me – freedom from addiction, depression, being overweight, and generally miserable. But it seemed that every time I really started to get a taste of that freedom things in my life would go horribly wrong. I mean I would start to see real growth in my prayer life and my learning the Word, but then I would sink into a depression or something bad would happen to me. Or even worse, I would lose all desire to pray or even read the Bible at all. I couldn’t understand why. Then despair would creep in because once you experience the awesome love of God in your life, not connecting with it is even worse than not ever knowing Him.
As a new Christian I didn’t really know what spiritual attack was. It was a term not often used in the church I attend, or by the people who I talked to. I began to learn of spiritual attack through my research and study of the Bible. When I started to see the term spiritual attack online while doing research, it resonated within me. Somehow I knew that spiritual attack was a problem I was dealing with. I just wasn’t sure. I had dealt with a life full of problems before. How could I be sure that this wasn’t just normal life happening to me? It was becoming increasingly difficult for me to believe that Jesus brought me out of my past and into a future of more misery. I had began to experience the depth of the love He had for me, and there was no way Jesus died to save me so I could continue to suffer.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6
The Bible is full of promises from God on how He will deliver us, protect us, be our strength, and fight our battles for us. It also tells us of God’s great love for us, and how He will take care of us, and give us hope and a future. How I could read these amazing promises from God and continue to believe that my current state of suffering was right? So I began to research more on spiritual attack. What was it and why in the world was it happening to me? I mean, I am nobody important, right? So why would Satan want to bother with little old me? Just a stay at home mom, living out a new life as a Christian. Wrong! There is not such thing as a nobody to God! All of His children are valuable and loved. And that is exactly what makes the devil sick, sick, sick. Stop believing the lie that you aren’t worth his time – if you are reading this right now it is for a reason.
Once I realized I was indeed under spiritual attack, I wanted to stop it. I figured God would help me and save me. I would sit in times of despair and cry out to Jesus, but nothing would happen. I wouldn’t feel any better. Things that were constant problems weren’t really changing. Why would God just let these things happen to me? I began to have great doubt that God even loved me at all. How could He stand by and watch me suffer and not even help me? Didn’t He have the power to make it all stop?? And here I was, in the midst of a great spiritual battle, and completely unaware because I was so caught up in my personal experience of it.
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. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
God does not ever leave us or forsake us. God also does not control us or our actions. He gave us free will for a reason. That means we have to make choices. In moments of trial and despair we need to choose to trust in God, no matter what is happening. Just like the disciples in the boat who were upset with Jesus for sleeping in the middle of the storm. “Don’t you even care?” they cried. Jesus was right there and yet they still couldn’t have peace in the midst of the storm. Did Jesus have the power to calm the storm? Absolutely. Does that mean Jesus should always calm the storm? No. Jesus did not come to save us from every storm, but instead to teach us how to conquer and command the storm, just as He does.
It took months and months in this journey to learn that I too have the power to stand against spiritual attack. The devil does not have to have his way with me. It takes training to learn to see when you are under spiritual attack. Once you realize you are under spiritual attack there are tools that God has given us to help us fight against it. The number one tool that God has given us as a weapon in spiritual attack is Himself. We must trust Him and believe that He is there for us when we ask Him to help us, even if we don’t see a change in that moment. We must walk by faith with Him to know that ultimately God is in control, and we are dearly and deeply loved by our Father, who sees us and hears our cries.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. Hebrews 11:1-2
Once you begin to recognize spiritual attack remember that Jesus has given you all power and authority to trample of snakes and serpents. Ask for God to send angels to protect you. Put on your armor and learn how to use it against spiritual attack. Fill yourself with the Truth of the Word. Jesus Himself used scripture to fight the lies of Satan! Ask others to pray for you, even if it feels weird or foolish. We were made to do this together, not alone. If the enemy can get one sheep separated from the flock, they are more vulnerable. Pray against spiritual attack to break and bind whatever is coming against you. Tell the enemy to leave you in Jesus name. You have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you! Every knee will bow to Jesus one day, because He is Lord of all, and even the demons know this. They must obey God, and you have God living inside of you. That means when you command demons to leave or stop what they or doing, with faith, they have to obey.
Count it as pure joy when you recognize you are under spiritual attack, because this is a time to learn and grow in your relationship with your Father. He wants to teach you how to fight the spiritual attack of the devil and show you what a victorious life in Christ looks like. You may be thinking that you will never experience that point in your life – that the spiritual attack you are under is so great and so strong you just can’t fight it. I implore you to seek out help from experienced prayer warriors and deliverance ministers who can help you in this walk. The day will come when you will see spiritual attack coming at you and not even blink an eye as you cast it off like a dirty pair of shoes.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12
Finally after feeling like I was fighting a loosing battle with so much spiritual attack coming at me, I can now easily see it’s effects and call on the power of the Holy Spirit to command it to leave and ask God to send me protection. But most importantly I take a great step of faith in believing in my Daddy to show up when I ask Him too. I have grown with great leaps and bounds, and trust me my dear friend, you will too. God has made you for such a time as this!
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. Colossians 1:16
