For most of us living in the West today, there is little awareness of matters in the Spiritual realm. As Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit guides us, aids us in understanding the Bible and enables our relationship with Jesus, and we believe in a spiritual being called the Devil. It is understandable that in this materialist society in which we live, the spiritual realm is ignored by non-Christians, but Jesus and the early church took the threat very seriously indeed. This is not a case of a secondary issue which can be ignored by those who believe in the cessation of gifts such as prophecy or tongues, but is something which all Christians should have a fundamental awareness of so that they can know how to best defend themselves from this distraction of the Devil and get on with the spreading of the Word.
We’ll start by having a look at what spiritual attack is and why God allows it, and then look at what the Bible says about how we can practically defend against it. It is worth noting from the very start that there is nothing to be afraid of in this subject; the fear itself is from the Devil as Jesus commands ‘Do not worry’ (Matt 7:25), and Paul says he is “convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels not demons, … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39). We must remember that Christ Jesus reigns and all his enemies and hence our enemies will one day be a footstool for his feet (Ps 110:1 cf Heb 10:13).
How then is spiritual attack so dangerous? It is more a danger of ignorance than anything else. Perhaps one of the most dangerous lies the Devil can make us as Western Christians believe is that the Spiritual realm is not real or somehow does not affect us even though we see it clearly in our Bibles. If we are ignorant in these matters and then start to be under spiritual attack, it often leads to fear of the spiritual forces at work and confusion of our relationship with God. Perhaps most importantly for those of us coming up to mission time, instead of outwardly proclaiming the gospel to people we are tempted to withdraw into our ‘shells’ to be safer. This, as I will show below is the wrong approach and exactly what the Devil would like the most.
So, what is “spiritual attack”? As Paul writes “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but … against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12). This can be manifested in many strange and various ways in different people. Some people feel depressed for no reason, are upset, become ill or get distracted very easily. Of course, if this happens it’s not a sure sign of spiritual attack, however it has been noticed that many more things go wrong in the build-up to some major evangelistic event (eg a mission) than normal. From this it can be seen that defining a spiritual attack in clear language is very difficult because it is so subjective, however this should cause us to increase the seriousness with which we think about the subject.
How do we defend against spiritual attack? Fortunately this is much easier to answer because God has given us many examples in the Bible. The first and most obvious (although not at the time of spiritual attack) is to pray to God to ask his protection. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit who being in very nature God is all powerful and hence able to protect us from any form of spiritual attack. We see this in the (hopefully familiar) passage of Ephesians 6 where Paul instructs us to “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Eph 6:10-11). How do we put this wonderful armour on? Paul goes on to say “pray in the Spirit on all occasions” (6:18). Therefore to get the full protection of God we must be praying! Many of us find prayer amazingly hard and get easily distracted; maybe this is because the Devil knows how powerful prayer is and therefore tries to get us to believe anything which causes us to stop doing it.
One of the best examples of this is Jesus praying shortly before his death (Matt 26:36-46), Jesus is praying for God to take away the temptation – praying so hard that blood is seen on his forehead (Luke 22:44). However, Jesus also tells Peter “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matt 26:41). This shows several things, firstly prayer about not falling into temptation (a type of spiritual attack) is effective. Secondly, we must ‘watch’ as well as pray, be on the lookout for evil and try to avoid it. Peter says we must “Be self-controlled and alert” Why? because “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring-lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Thirdly, it takes both your spirit and body to be fully focused on God to avoid the attack.
As well as prayer, learning scriptures is also very important. (Another thing which we as Westerners sometimes neglect is memorizing scripture. Perhaps this is also because the Devil doesn’t want us to be very familiar with the word of God). We see Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 defending himself against spiritual attack. Hopefully we will never be tested to the extent that the Devil tested Jesus, but we can still learn much from this encounter. Firstly, Jesus three times quotes scripture in answer to the Devil showing how Jesus treats scripture. We also see the Devil misusing scripture in 4:6 to tempt Jesus. Perhaps these days this will both be in the form depicted in Matthew and also in sermons or casual conversations with other Christians, making it more important to ‘test everything’ (1 Thes 5:21). As Hebrews shows, God’s word is so powerful even in the spiritual realm “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit” (Heb 4:12).
Perhaps an important question to finish with is why does God allow us to be attacked in the spiritual realms? Did not Christ die and rise from the dead in the final conquest over the Devil? Yes of course we have the assurance that, in the end, the Devil will be totally destroyed (Rev 20:10), however in God’s great wisdom He has allowed the power of the Devil to exist in the present age (cf Rev 20:1). There are many reasons which could be given for this. Firstly the fact that we face spiritual attack will help us place more faith in God. The spiritual attack helps us to realize how very much we depend on God, and helps us deepen our relationship with Him. Perhaps it is worth looking at the first two chapters of Job to see how God allows the Devil to test Job, but not beyond the point at which he or us will break (cf 1 Cor 10:13). God can also use this spiritual attack to discipline us (Heb 12:1-13), make us less materialistic or to strengthen us in the long run.
In conclusion, there is a massive battle going on in the spiritual realms and coming from a materialistic society doesn’t have any effect on how much we are in the battle. The devil will attack us sometimes more than others, but because of Jesus’ death we can be confident that we will be safe. To avoid and defend yourself against spiritual attack, you should study the Bible, pray, be self-controlled and be alert to the battle going on in the spiritual realms. We must always remember that even though the Devil seems to be in control of the attack, it is God allowing it and He is allowing it so that we may know more of his grace, mercy and faithfulness!