How's Your Spiritual Warfare Going?

As Christians we acknowledge the fact of spiritual warfare. We understand that this is the world we live in. Yet I wonder if we’re always aware just how close and personal it is. We’re often tired of running our races and we tend to lose our focus. However, the enemy never relaxes. He is always up close and personal.

Skeptics will naturally laugh at spiritual warfare, picturing Christians hunting for demons in every corner and closet of their households. I can understand that.

I was a skeptic when the demons came knocking on my door. Back then I meditated daily and had all sorts of neat positive experiences chalked up. I don’t think I even believed in a literal devil or ghosts for that matter.

Then one night I got up out of bed to go to the bathroom and sensed a presence which scared me in a way which I hadn’t experienced before.

At that time I was regularly lifting heavy weights and proud of my strength. I would have been less scared had I discovered a burglar in my house. This happened more than once and I knew enough to invoke the name of Jesus Christ. Each time I did so, the presence vanished. Other former New Age Christians have had similar experiences. Satan is real and so are his demons.

I’m no longer getting nightly demonic calls on my way to the bathroom but I know they’re still around and constantly busy. The devil looks for various ways to render Christians ineffective. He doesn’t always need to scare them silly in the middle of the night.

Chip Ingram – who wrote the book The Invisible War – has shared personal experiences I can relate to.

He woke up one night feeling an evil presence in his room. There was an intense pressure on his chest; a tightness around his neck which closed his windpipe and he was paralyzed. Ingram was released after desperate prayer which invoked Jesus’ name. This incident occurred when he was pastor of a church in Santa Cruz – a region known for its thriving occult activity.

Ingram also relates a bizarre incident which followed the start of his perfect day. His wife had brought him cups of coffee in bed and he had a “meaningful time with the Lord.” He had a great relationship with God, and his loving wife, and his family was fine. It was all good.

Then about an hour before he was about to teach that same day, he was attacked. Sinister thoughts overwhelmed him: He didn’t want to live anymore; he didn’t want to teach his curriculum; he was “a terrible person” and he didn’t want to be the president of Walk Thru the Bible. What was going on?

The subject he was teaching on was spiritual warfare. He was encroaching on enemy territory and the enemy retaliated. Prayer quickly delivered him from the attack.

He notes that he’s normally upbeat and not prone to depression. While everyone gets discouraged occasionally – and while there may well be psychological and medical reasons for sudden depression – when it strikes suddenly for no obvious reason, it might be a spiritual attack. Ingram identifies five specific times when Christians can expect these attacks:

1) During spiritual growth
2) When invading enemy territory
3) When exposing the enemy
4) When one is breaking away from the world
5) When God is preparing an individual or corporation for a great work

Charles Spurgeon warns that we may also get attacked as we pray:

“My soul is in prayer, so it would be unnatural that I should then blaspheme, yet then the blasphemy comes. Therefore it is clearly satanic and not from my own mind.”

How often have I been distracted by obscure thoughts in the middle of prayer and how quickly have I forgotten that prayer upon rising from my knees! Why attack during prayer? – Because it is a major spiritual battleground.

Satan’s strategy is to blind people from the truth of the gospel. There are correlations between intercessory prayer, acceptance of the gospel and invisible war. When people are coming to Christ, someone somewhere is doing prayer work, and this is why prayer and the prayer are attacked.

Ingram cites Elisabeth Eliot’s comparison of an accomplished skier to someone who is a pray-er. Prayer isn’t a sport one participates in for the fun of it. Eliot wrote:

“Prayer is the opposite of leisure. It’s something to be engaged in, not indulged in. It’s a job you give priority to. It’s performing when you have energy left for nothing else.”

Another story recounted by Ingram is that of a missionary who was serving as a medic in Africa. A man admitted to him that he and his friends had visited his camp one night to rob and kill him. But when they got there they spotted 26 guards. The missionary explained that he had no guards; yet the man insisted that they had counted them.

When this missionary went home he was informed that – at the same time of the incident – a member of the congregation suddenly felt a leading by the Lord to pray for him. He got on the phone and asked others to pray as well. There were 26 in all!

How often have we been prompted to suddenly pray for someone or do something which takes us out of our comfort zone? Did we take heed?

The Acts Era Church was characterized by bold, strategic and consistent prayer. Prayer was so important to that church that the apostles even assigned deacons as administrators in order to free themselves to prayer and preaching the word (Acts 6:3-4).

Ingram suggests using the ACTS acronym as a guide to effective praying. Our prayers should be saturated with Adoration; express honest Confession; always Thankful, and contain Supplication for ourselves and others.

It is important to remember that Satan has been defeated and we are already victors in Christ (John 12:31; 1 Cor 15:55-57; Col 2:15). We have the power to resist the devil and demonic attacks, and we need to learn to use the full armor of God (Eph 6:13-16; 1 John 4:4).

Satan wanted to crush the early church out of existence. He tried to do it from within and through external means. The same dynamics apply to the church today. Now, as before, we are confronting serious Spiritual Warfare and persecution. Time is running out for this world’s powers, and the devil still wants to destroy the church.

So let us all put on our armor and get busy praying.

And remember that the Lord has already won the battle.

Purchase Chip Ingram’s The Invisible War!

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