The Bible records Jesus telling opponents that evil thoughts come from the heart, i.e., the mind. The reason why this happens is because people have their thoughts controlled by the god of this world and do not know how to fight spiritual warfare.
…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
(2 Corinthians 4:4)
Those under this dominion of Satan think thoughts that are hostile to God. Even if they are Christians, they think the thoughts that everyone else in the world thinks. Their morals and attitudes are those of the society, and they look just like those of the world. They do not know how to fight spiritual warfare.
But there is hope for those trapped in the world’s ways and under the control of the god of this world. It is faith in Jesus Christ which reconciles us to God.
Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
(Colossians 1:22)
Your thoughts must not constantly drag you down to despair and hopelessness. The Holy Spirit empowers you to change when you belong to God because He lives in you. This happens when you are set apart to God because you have believed the gospel.
We transform our minds by changing the way we think. Romans 12:2 tells us we can transform our minds to believe God-glorifying thoughts.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
(Romans 12:2)
Help Me With My Thoughts
You may have believed the gospel, yet you still think thoughts of unbelief, despair, and other negativity that are not God-glorifying. Such thoughts constantly lead you to hopelessness and make you very frustrated. You wonder why this happens.
The reason is that there is a spiritual warfare going on in the life of every Christian. The battle is for your mind, which is waged in the thoughts. In this battle, the enemy seeks to influence your thoughts and thus control your actions.
He wants you to think thoughts that are opposed to God’s word. That way, by having you think his thoughts, he can change the direction of your life and consequently destroy it. The solution is to learn how to fight spiritual warfare.
So How Do I Fight Spiritual Warfare?
There is a simple way to do so.
- Detect the devil’s tactics.
- Know that the enemy attacks us personally
- Put on God’s protection for us, which is his amour.
- Know that you have a weapon of offense, the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.
Are you still wondering how to fight spiritual warfare? Let us take a detailed look at how to do it.
- What is the devil’s tactic?
The enemy’s number one tactic is to make Christians ineffective. He never wants unbelievers to come to the knowledge of the truth about Jesus. He works by causing people to doubt everything the Christian faith teaches.
He is unyielding and always looking for those he can victimize and destroy. The Bible describes his continuous actions this way.
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The enemy is forever strategizing on how to defeat us in battle. He works hard to dishonor God’s name and plans for Christians to turn around and dishonor God.
2. Understand the enemy’s attacks are personal.
One way the enemy attacks us personally is through fellow believers. The enemy is not happy when Christians live with love and unity. He is happy when there is disunity, infighting, division, and separation in the body of Christ. He wants Christians to resemble unbelievers completely.
In John 13:35, Jesus said that Christians are to be known by their love.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The enemy wants to ensure this love is missing so that he can turn and accuse us before the Father.
A second way the enemy launches personal attacks on us is through our thoughts. The enemy attacks us in our minds and endeavors to make it hard to believe the word of God.
We do not war with flesh and blood. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
He wants us warring against each other so he can do his work of destruction better.
3. Put on the whole armor of God.
God has protected us as we fight spiritual warfare in the armor of God. To keep your mind protected in spiritual warfare, put on the whole armor of God.
The full armor of God comprises the following,
- Loins girded with truth.
- Breastplate of righteousness
- Feet covered with the shoes of the gospel of peace
- Shield of faith
- Helmet of salvation
- Sword of the Spirit (The Word of God)
Ephesians 6:10 – 17
The armor of God keeps us protected from the enemy’s fiery attacks. Putting on the full armor of God is learning how to fight spiritual warfare.
4. Clear your mind of wrong thoughts with scriptures.
You could be thinking thoughts that are harmful to you in your Christian walk. If you want to know if a thought is worth thinking on, test it with Phil 4:8. If a thought does not meet the standard set by Phil 4:8, throw it out of your mind and think of something else. You can only think one thought at a time, so this will be possible.
Here is Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
But how do you fill your mind with the thoughts described in Phil 4:8? By filling your mind with scriptures.
There are proven ways of memorizing scriptures.
- Write the scriptures on a card and read them repeatedly until the words become stuck in your heart. Let them come alive in your heart.
- Read the scriptures often. You can read them three times a day.
- You can also read the scriptures three times each time you read them.
- Others still emphasize one word at a time as they read the scriptures.
However you choose to read scriptures, the goal is to memorize them until they come alive in your heart.
Each time a wrong thought crosses your mind, repeat a scripture you are memorizing and do it for as long as it takes to replace the negative thought with a positive one. Repeat scripture to yourself for as long as it takes to regain your thought life.
Pray to the Lord as thoughts of fear, worry, and anxiety seek to control your thought life. Then go to His word and take every thought captive by replacing wrong thoughts with scripture. When you have learnt to do this, you learn how to fight spiritual warfare. You will gain great freedom, which is your right as a Great King’s Child, and you will be pleasantly surprised as you see the Lord do battle for you.
Who Are Your Enemies In Spiritual Warfare?
It is critical to be able to recognize your enemies in spiritual warfare. In every warfare, there are adversaries. You need to know who your enemy is before you learn how to fight spiritual warfare.
When you give your life to Christ, you begin a personal relationship with Him. You give Him control of your life.
But not all of you always agree with you when you give your life to Christ. Some parts want to fight your decision and regain control of your life.
You may even feel that there’s a battle raging inside you. There may be days when you struggle to believe what the word of God says about you and God.
It’s completely normal to struggle to believe. Remember that deception comes through lies and is one of the enemy’s best tactics.
Recognize your enemies in spiritual warfare: the world, the devil, and the flesh. This is the critical step if you want to learn how to fight spiritual warfare and win.
The World
The world around us is constantly conditioning us to think in specific ways. The culture around us also influences these ways of thinking. Some elements of culture can point you toward God; others are neither good nor bad, while others make it difficult for you to follow Jesus and believe in God.
What a culture focuses on is usually a strong indicator of the position God is given in that culture. The Western culture emphasizes, amongst other values, physical appearance, freedom, and success in one’s personal life. These values conflict with following God when they are prioritized.
A Christian may be tempted to uphold such values above God. The Bible encourages us to put God above everything and to walk closely with Him. We need to be aware of the influences others around us have on us.
Read 1 John 2:16
The Devil
The devil is a defeated foe. What Jesus did on the cross is what sealed Satan’s defeat. Jesus got victory over death when he was resurrected after dying on the cross. The devil does not like it when people know what Jesus did on the cross.
The devil always endeavors to tempt humanity as he did in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3 reveals to us what the devil is.
- He is craftier than all other animals in the garden.
- He is full of deception and presents himself as an ally.
- His only weapon is deception, which he uses to bend what truth God speaks to a person.
- He wants to bring doubts into people’s minds about what God has said.
- He wants a person to doubt God’s protection and see it as denying freedom.
- He plants rebellion in the hearts of men by deceiving them that they deserve to be in control of their lives.
- He sows pride and shame in the hearts of men so that he can use them to turn people against others.
The devil is a natural enemy of Christians. He has singleness of purpose and is quite dangerous. You must be clever regarding how you conduct your warfare with him. The Holy Spirit in us is a great ally who helps us fight our battles with Satan. But you must resist pride, which tempts you to attempt to fight your enemy on your own.
The Flesh
The world’s negative influence and the devil’s attempt to turn you against God are real. But the flesh is also at work to make you walk against God. This struggle comes from your desires and your sin.
Here is how the apostle Paul recorded his struggle with his flesh.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
(Romans 7:21-23, The Message)
What Is Victory In Spiritual Warfare?
Spiritual warfare is severe and real. Many times you may feel that you can’t win the battle. You are right to feel so. Only God can win the war in spiritual warfare. Take your cares to him in prayer and watch him win your battles.
Spiritual warfare comes as significant life challenges or fierce internal battles. The devil wants to separate you from God as much as possible. Thus he exploits human emotions such as insecurity, loneliness, disappointment, and shame as much as possible.
Victory in your faith might be perseverance through every situation in your day-to-day life that might make you question your trust in God. In other instances, victory is getting over a real obstacle to faith, such as doubt over what you believe.
It is common for even Christians to blame God when things go wrong in their life and not thank him when they go well. Victory in Christian warfare might be overcoming such a huddle. Remember, 1 Cor 1:18 states.
“the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (NIV).
Salvation looks like foolishness to the world. But when you have victory in your spiritual warfare, you continue believing in Jesus despite what it is to the world.
Victory is about trust in using prayer as a weapon of spiritual warfare. It believes that your battles are His battles. It believes that when you bring a heartfelt need to God, he hears you and will respond.
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
(Mark 11:24, NIV)
The scriptures teach us that Jesus won the battle for us on the cross and that he will fight for us. But despite such overwhelming victory, spiritual warfare remains a reality so long as we are in the body. God wants us to experience victory in our battle against our adversary, the devil. This sense of victory comes through constant prayer.
Scriptures To Use For Spiritual Warfare
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)
“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. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Romans 8:37-39
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Isaiah 54:17 (NIV)
“‘No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,’ declares the LORD.”
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
John 15:7
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 8:32
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Ephesians 6:10-11
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
1 Peter 5:8-9
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
James 4:7
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 16:33
“I [Jesus] have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Colossians 1:13-14
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Have you faced any spiritual battles lately? Share your experiences in the comments section.