Prayer: Waging War on the Enemy

This post almost didn’t happen. The week leading up to writing this post and even while writing, I have had to stop and pray against attack. Words wouldn’t save, images wouldn’t upload right, and interruptions kept coming that couldn’t be ignored.

Spiritual warfare is daily battle with an unseen attacker. It sounds like something dangerous to stay away from. It wasn’t something I heard about when I was younger. It was especially difficult for me believe there was an “enemy” I was at war with. How can we battle something we can’t even see? I have found that the closer I walk with God, the closer the enemy follows. I became a Christian and was baptized at 12 years old. I didn’t really grasp what it meant to walk with God at that point, so the enemy left me alone. As I have come to a better understanding of surrendering my life to God daily, the enemy has tried to do everything he can to stop me.

While the enemy can find many ways to attack, I have never felt his attacks so strongly as when it comes to my marriage. I read somewhere that the goal of satan is to divide the church. The best way for him to do that is to divide the marriages within the church. Many agree with me that satan works his hardest on Sunday morning when a family is getting ready for church. God’s mission is completed through the hands and feet of his followers, the church. When the church is divided, we can not be successful in sharing the love of Jesus in a broken world.

The movie “War Room” with Priscilla Shirer and T.D. Stallings is about an elderly woman, Miss Clara, who is getting ready to put her house on the market. She walks her realtor through the house and shows her favorite room. It is a closet where she goes to war on her knees through prayer. The realtor, Priscilla Shirer, has marriage struggles that don’t seem to be resolving. Miss Clara encourages her not to fight with her husband but to get to the root of the struggles, which is a spiritual attack of the enemy on her marriage.

I will never forget sitting in the movie theater watching this scene with tears streaming down my face. I felt like I was watching myself on the screen. Prisiclla Shirer had enough of the enemy’s attack on her family and her life. She has her own war with the satan. There have been many times in my life where I have had to pray spiritual warfare as I felt a heavy attack on my family.

Removing the enemy doesn’t remove the problems, it removes the ammunition.

Maybe you are reading this and find it hard to believe. You may have never acknowledged the presence of a spiritual enemy or felt you were being attacked. The presence of the enemy is in Genesis 3 when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve who walked closely with God and had Him all to themselves. They didn’t realize they were being attacked until they gave into the enemy. In Luke 4, Jesus did know he was being attacked and he fought the enemy with the truths of scripture. Evidence of the enemy is throughout the entire Bible.

In John 10, Jesus talks about sheep safely in the comfort of their pen and in John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Jesus says “the thief comes” not “might come”. Its guaranteed that the enemy is prowling right now seeking to steal and destroy your joy, peace, and your life. Jesus goes on to say, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” With the attack of the enemy comes abundant life. Why? Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection was an act of looking satan in the eye and saying “I won”.

Death did not control the fate of the Savior of the world nor will it conquer you or me.

Through prayer we can get the enemy away from our doorstep so we can take hold of the abundant life Jesus promises to give. Ask God to help you see when the enemy is attacking. Then, call satan out, like Priscilla, and in Jesus Name send him away from your door. Say it out loud. Tell the enemy he has no power over you, in Jesus Name.