Proverbs 24:5 – A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increases power.
In order to be strong men, we need knowledge, and for the next several weeks, we are going to increase our knowledge in the realities of spiritual warfare.
We have a very real enemy. We need to be prepared (knowledgeable) about how our enemy works, what we can do to battle against him, and how we can be aware of signs that we may be under a spiritual attack.
1 Peter 5:8 says we need to stay alert. We need to watch out for our enemy as he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
What we don’t often realize, is that our enemy is looking for someone to devour, and a lot of times we are much too easy prey.
Satan will try to interrupt your prayer life, stop your praise – he will do whatever it takes to get you to stop worshipping and following Jesus. If Satan can’t stop you from receiving Christ as your Savior, then hell has a “Plan B” – to make you a miserable
Christian. He does this by using temptation, pressures, and burdens to squeeze the joy out of your walk with God and try to get you to focus more on you and your problems then on God and His blessings.
In the next coming weeks, we are going to share how we can “armor up” in our battle. What we need to do to make sure that we are not such easy prey for our enemy. But for now, I want to list a few items from Jentezen Franklin’s book “Python” that you may want to evaluate personally to see if maybe you are currently under a spiritual attack.
1. Loss of Spiritual Desire: The goal from any spiritual attack is to turn you away from what God wants to do in your life. Have you lost desire to pray, worship, attend church, get into community. Remember, there is a difference between doing something merely out of obligation, and doing something because you delight in it.
2. Physical Fatigue: If you are constantly worn out, no energy and your body is tried, it allows things to get into your mind which negatively affects everything else.
3. Frustrations and Lack: All your resources are dried up at the same time, everything starts breaking down at the same time. Enemy attacks this way to get your mind off God and put your eyes on money, materials and problems.
4. Weak Prayer Life: Prayer is a discipline. In most of our failures in life we can most likely find two common denominators: a dusty Bible and a broken prayer life. If you are not reading your Bible on a regular basis and praying, you are under a spiritual attack.
5. Feeling Overwhelmed or Hopeless: Planting seeds of a bad attitude, you feel like giving up – if you feel like quitting or walking away, you are under a spiritual attack.
6. Pulling Away from Godly Relationships: Your friends are a photograph of your future. If you have more in common with people in the world than you do with people who serve Christ, you are not connected to the right people.
If any (or all) of these are going on in your life, it’s time to fight back. Establish a strong prayer life, get into the Word, and run toward, not away, from Biblical Community.
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