Spiritual Attacks

W e all have difficulties in life. I recently wrote about having faith to move mountainous problems out of our life. But, sometimes it’s the little problems that affect our faith walk with the Lord. It is necessary to get a handle on this, if you are ever going to have the faith to move mountains. Often times our problems are merely spiritual attacks.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” –Ephesians 6:12 ESV

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

How do you recognize a spiritual attack?

There are many ways you can be spiritually attacked. It is my hope that this blog helps you recognize and deal with them. If you’re reading the word and building your faith, you will be attacked. That is the mission of the enemy of your soul… To kill steel and destroy your faith! (John 10:10) First off, without faith it is impossible to please God. That is exactly what the devil wants… for you not to please God. But, when you are reading the Word of God, you are pleasing Him and your faith grows. So, the attack is inevitable.

There are many ways a spiritual attack can take place. Things may be going well and you don’t feel a need to get on your knees and cry out to the Lord for help, or you begin to put off prayer and reading the Word. Maybe some disturbing circumstance just took place and you are consumed by it, so much so, that you can’t bring yourself to prayer. (This next one happened to me recently.) You start talking the talk, but run into trouble walking the walk.

In my case, I’m referring to being offended. I wrote about that briefly in February and now the attacks are coming on strong. I have felt offended quite a bit lately. Usually I react in a normal worldly way by talking about who and what offended me. Friends, this is gossip! Yep, I react in a sinful way. Fortunately, I recognize this (sadly, after the fact), but through the grace of God, by the sacrifice of Jesus, I can repent and move on gaining the victory over that small attack.

How do you deal with a spiritual attack?

The Bible tells us that God has given us spiritual weapons to defend ourselves against attacks of this nature, AKA the schemes of the devil. It is called The Whole Armor of God, found in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10-18.

Let’s break it down, not necessarily in the order in which it was written. Your first weapon of defense is the helmet of salvation, (Ephesians 6:17a). You must personally know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) This is the helmet of salvation. It guards your mind in Christ Jesus. It helps you attain the peace that surpasses all understanding, peace in the middle of a spiritual attack.

Next, the Word says: “Put on the breastplate of righteousness,” (Ephesians 6:14b). Let’s get one thing straight, no one is righteous but God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior, we become the righteousness of God. We no longer bear the guilt or shame of our sins because of what Jesus has done for us. We have everything it takes to overcome sin, as we move forward with our life. The devil doesn’t want you to think about that, he wants you to feel bad. But, when you remember the truth of Gods Word, he looses and must flee. While the helmet of salvation guards your mind, the breast plate of righteousness guards your heart. The Word promises that when your heart and mind are guarded in Christ Jesus, you will have the peace that surpasses all understanding.

That brings us to the belt of truth. “Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,” (Ephesians 6:14a). When something is fastened, it is secure. I love this definition from the dictionary of Oxford Languages… “to single out something or someone and concentrate on it obsessively.” When you concentrate on God’s Word, which is synonymous with Truth, and make that your obsession, you have fastened yourself with the belt of truth. Then you will be secure in the Word, and the devil can’t hurt you. He most certainly will try, but he will ultimately fail. God’s Truth is the best impediment to the devil’s lies. However, speaking of obsession, keep in mind, we all obsess over things at times. When that happens we create idols in our life. God’s first two commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind, and have no strange gods before Him. Anything you love more than God is an idol, therefore, make God the object of your obsession by reading His Word daily.

You must wear special shoes. “And, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace,” (Ephesians 6:15) You can’t walk the talk if you’re not ready to do it. The gospel of peace enables you be ready to do this. When we let our guard down, or let our armor slip, we don’t do a very good job walking the talk. That’s what happened to me the last few times I felt offended.

Ahh, now for the shield of faith! “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). Words and actions that offend you are flaming darts from the enemy. I will say it again as I have in several past blogs, “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) Many times, Jesus encouraged his followers to have eyes to see and ears to hear. Naturally, he was referring to spiritual eyes and ears, or the eyes and ears of your heart. When you listen to the Word of God or read it (especially out loud), you are not only fastening on the belt of truth, but gaining the faith that is need to shield yourself from the spiritual attacks. You will become more sensitive to what is happening, recognize it for what it is, and defeat the enemy of your soul. Oh yes, and please God in the process! Yay!

All of these weapons were given for use to defend ourselves from spiritual attacks. However, this last weapon in the whole armor of God is an offensive one, “The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17b). When we wield God’s Word on our tongue to rebuke the enemy and his lies, he most certainly will flee. Although this may last for a for a time, he will try again, and when he does, we do it all over again. It’s all part of our walk with the Lord. By the way, please don’t use the sword of the Spirit to beat down those who offend you. I’ve done that in the past and it makes a really poor witness of the presence of Jesus in your life. When you least expect it, you could have set yourself up for attack and it can be thrown back in your face. We must remember that we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. That’s why we all need Jesus.

I am paraphrasing these last two verses referring to the whole armor of God found in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 18 and 19. We are instructed to pray at all times in the Spirit, with all types of prayer and supplication, and to keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are also to pray for words to be given to boldly open our mouth to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. For that is our purpose in Christ Jesus. Maybe I’ll expound on that at another time.

God’s Promises

Jesus said: “In this life you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.” Through faith in Jesus and the power in the Word, you will be an over comer! Since this blog was inspired by my feelings and actions that resulted from being offended, I will leave you with a last word on that. Offense is one of the tools the devil uses, not only to steal, kill and destroy your faith, but to do the same to your joy. A wise friend told me that Offense is like poison. It only affects you if you consume it. You sell your joy for poison.

The whole armor of God is a promise to all believers. There are many other promises of God written in His Word. There is a verse from a song we sing at church that encourages me and reminds me to read and remember God’s promises. 🎵God said it; I believe it.🎵 The enemy wants to keep us from knowing the promises of God because he knows there is something good in it for us. He doesn’t want us to please God; he wants us to feel defeated. So, if you don’t feel like reading God’s Word, recognize it as an attack from the enemy and remember all that has been given to you to defeat him, and be an over comer.

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you were enlightened and encouraged I will return again to explain the difference between spiritual attacks and fiery trials. Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) Amen!