Under Spiritual Attack? Start by Checking Your Walls
Do you ever feel like you are under a measure of spiritual attack?
Yes? Well, then you are not alone. If you are a follower of Jesus you are in a spiritual battle whether you are aware of it or not. It goes with the territory. You have a very real enemy of the soul who doesn’t like you and is bent on taking you down and making life more challenging than it needs to be.
Let me be clear here… not all the challenges and circumstances that are hard in our lives are warfare or spiritual attacks.
When circumstances start mounting up or things get crazy in our lives it is easy to feel like you may be under attack. At times we give the enemy credit for things that are purely life matters, not spiritual matters, though if we give the enemy credit they may begin to become spiritual matters.
That being said, you may have a distinctly clear awareness that you are getting hit spiritually and that what you are encountering is not just life’s circumstantial challenges that you are facing. This feels different: more targeted and often a bit more unsettling.
Here are examples of how spiritual warfare may appear in your life:
Condemning thoughts about self or others
Twisted, evil, dark thoughts that are out of the norm of your regular experience
Heaviness, anxiousness, feeling like you need to look over your shoulder
Lies form in your mind and you are constantly wondering if they are true
Ridiculous or persistent temptations
Feeling like things are out of control
Why you may be experiencing spiritual attacks:
On one hand, an attack may be a sign or indicator of good things happening in your journey. Perhaps you are pressing in deeper in your faith, and as a result, you may be experiencing some spiritual kickback.
On the other hand, it may be a sign that you have a spiritual opening that the enemy is taking advantage of. Before I go any further, let me make two things clear: first, the fact you have an opening does not mean that it has to stay that way. Second, the place where the enemy is taking advantage of you may be the very place that God is highlighting for your attention so that you can stand firm, deal with the issue at hand, enter into victory with Jesus, and come out on the other side both victorious and having closed the door to the enemy’s attack.
There are several reasons you may be experiencing a spiritual attack:
You are pressing in on your faith in a new way. Growing and maturing in faith can lead to a kickback spiritually. Stand firm, hold your ground, lean into what God has for you, and the devil will flee (James 4:7).
You are in a season where you are ready to grow. Struggle and challenge are opportunities for growth. Ask Jesus for wisdom on how to walk through this season, for love to be able to do well, and invite the Holy Spirit to lead you in that time (James 1:5, 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, Proverbs 2:12-15).
You are leading in a ministry or stepping into the battle. You can anticipate potential warfare, but you also need to know that the victory is established and decreed by the Lord. With that in mind press in deeply to Jesus and live into the calling that He has for you. Your work will not be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
You have just levelled up in your faith, gone from glory to glory, as it were (2 Corinthians 3:18), and God wants to give you opportunities to stand firm in this new place and to show you and the enemy that you have grown.
The enemy doesn’t like you, doesn’t play fair, and doesn’t have to.
When you notice that you are in a season of increased attack or warfare, it can be because you are in a spiritual war and pushing in, or because you are breaking into enemy territory and taking land with the Lord. You are right in the heart of the battle.
The enemy actually hates you and wants to take you out. Thank Jesus, resist the enemy and stand firm (1 Peter 5:8–9).
It may also be because you are experiencing a season in which you are living out of alignment with Jesus and living with an open door to—or actively giving the enemy an access point through—your choices, thoughts, motives, or actions. When you choose to live like that you are choosing, as followers of Jesus, to open the door to the enemy to take ground in your life and you leave yourself exposed in a way in which he is able to hit you.
In Proverbs , in the Bible, the author describes the dangers of living this way:
“Like a city whose walls are broken down is a person who lacks self-control” (Proverbs 25:28 NIV).
“If you live without restraint and are unable to control your temper, you’re as helpless a city with broken defences, open to attack” (Proverbs 25:28 TPT).
When you are living without self-control or restraint in areas of sin, you are leaving yourself open to spiritual attack and posturing yourself in such a way that you are open and available to attack. The enemy is a prowling lion looking for an opening from which to attack (1 Peter 5:8). He watches for a place in our lives where the defences are down and more likely to fall, just like a city with walls out of repair.
In the book of Nehemiah, we find the people of God trying to repair the city wall of Jerusalem. The walls have been destroyed and while they are working to repair the damaged walls, Jerusalem’s enemies continue to attack. As long as there are broken places in the walls God’s people are open to attack. Nehemiah and the people rebuild with a hand on the work and a hand on the sword, both rebuilding and rebuffing the attacks that come until the wall is repaired and their defences are established. Once completed they are less open to attack and able to stand firm when attack comes.
If you are experiencing an attack take some time even in the midst of it to inspect the walls of your life and see if there are any broken areas, areas of disrepair, or areas where you have become spiritually lazy or reckless. These areas each present the potential for openings for the enemy to take a shot at you.
Here are a few helpful practices to repair or shore up your walls:
Prioritize regularly checking the status of your walls; shore up the places that are broken down and weakened, and seek to deal with the areas of your life where self-control is an issue.
As you take notice of these areas, make time to re-align your life, actions and motives with the Lord and lean into the strength of his empowering presence.
Welcome God’s intervention, correction and help. When we recognize God’s presence and acknowledge our need for Him, He is able to grow in us the fruit and fortification of self-control that is available by His Spirit. As we do this we can identify with the challenge of Paul in Ephesians 6:10 for the believer to be strong in HIS mighty power.
Armour up. Be aware that you are in a spiritual battle and have been given the armour of the Lord to stand firm, stand strong, and ultimately stand victorious with Jesus in the victory He has already secured for you.
“Finally, 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. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:10-12).
If you notice that your defences are down in this season and that you are giving into sin and the temptations and challenges of the enemy more than normal, know that you are not alone. Others are struggling too. But if you are: check your walls of self-control, look for openings, and invite the Lord God to come and meet you in those very places. He will make those places strong in Himself and as venues of His empowering presence. Invite Him to rebuild the walls of self-control with you. This is best done in His presence.
Then, stand firm on who God says you are and the solid foundation that He has for you. Like Nehemiah, do life with a sword in one hand and the other hand on the wall.
