What Is Spiritual Warfare? What the Bible Says and How to Fight It

How do you explain the evil in our world? Human trafficking. The divorce rate. Mass shootings. Education hasn't fixed it. Legislation hasn't fixed it. And a harder question: how do you explain the sin and evil in your own life and mine?

The first Halloween I remember, I picked out my own costume at Smathers Supermarket. A devil costume. Plastic mask with horns, a red suit, a long tail swishing behind me. My father was a pastor, and he let me trick-or-treat down Poplar Avenue in our little North Carolina paper mill town dressed as the devil. People yelled things at me all night. I had no idea what any of it meant.

But the devil doesn't come to us like that. He's covert, not overt. Isn't it interesting that the most powerful forces in the world are unseen? Love. The wind. We only see the results. Our adversary works the same way.

What Is Spiritual Warfare?

Spiritual warfare is the cosmic war between good and evil, between God and the devil. Christianity was never meant to be a playground. It's a battleground, and the war is in your mind.

Paul spells it out in Ephesians 6:12: "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."

Here's what that means for you. Maybe the conflict in your marriage isn't the complete story. Maybe the conflict in a business deal, your finances or a hurtful habit isn't the whole conflict. What happens here can be traced to another sphere. The battle you're fighting is probably not just the battle you think you're fighting.

And if you're following Jesus and you're not feeling any conflict at all, you're probably not living for the Lord.

Is Satan Real?

Gallup found that 58 percent of Americans believe in the devil. That means a lot of people think Satan belongs with goblins, ghosts and haunted houses.

I'm a twice-convinced guy. First, I'm convinced because I know Jesus personally. Second, I've had courtside seats to the havoc and carnage the devil causes when people use their free will to let him work in their lives.

His resume is in the Bible. Before his name changed, he was Lucifer, the head worship leader in heaven, and a lot of scholars believe he was one of the archangels. Then, as Isaiah 14 describes, he attempted a kingdom coup. He had throne issues. He wanted to sit on the throne of heaven. It was pride. He was fired and took a third of the angels with him.

"How could a good God create evil?" He didn't. He gave us free will, and Lucifer, a created being, chose to turn his back on God. The devil is powerful, second only to God, but the gap between them is massive. He's a brilliant historian and theologian, and he's the father of lies.

How the Enemy Works: His Three-Step Scheme

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to be aware of the devil's schemes. In football season, we're always thinking about the other team's offensive and defensive schemes. The devil has a scheme to take you out, and he uses the same one every time.

It started in the garden. His pitch to Adam and Eve was simple: "You do it." You sit on the throne of your life. Here's how he runs that play:

1. Dialogue. He always starts with a conversation. "Just talk to me a little bit. You're not sinning."
2. Deception. Then he lies. "You deserve that. You need that money. It's a good lie. Go ahead."
3. Defeat. After you give in, he turns on you. "You don't deserve forgiveness. You don't deserve grace and mercy. Who are you to serve God?"

What Is a Stronghold in the Bible?

A stronghold is an area in your life where Jesus is not Lord. He's not running the show. It's a place where you've let the enemy come in and build sandbags, a little fortress. And the enemy camouflages it, so a lot of us don't even know we have one.

Lust is a stronghold in many people's lives. Pride is another major one. If you don't believe me, scroll through Instagram or TikTok. Greed, envy and jealousy can all become strongholds. Ephesians 4:27 warns us not to give the devil a foothold, because a foothold can become a stronghold, and then a chokehold.

The first sin behind all the others is pride, every single time. An anger issue is pride first. A lust issue is pride first. An envy issue is pride first.

Strongholds show up at three levels:

• Individual strongholds are personal: a habitual sin or destructive thought pattern we all deal with.
• Cultural strongholds are ungodly ideas so embedded in the culture that people take their cues from them without realizing it.
• Cosmic strongholds are dark spiritual forces over certain regions and nations. The Bible doesn't break this down specifically, but they're there.

The good news is that strongholds come down the way they went up, by taking the sandbags away one decision at a time.

Signs of Spiritual Attack

Here are some signs the enemy is working in your life:

1. You're stuck and stumbling. The enemy doesn't want you to advance. He wants to keep you stuck. You're wondering why you're not victorious, why your marriage isn't hitting on all cylinders, why your business or your finances aren't moving.
2. Accusation follows every failure. "You don't deserve forgiveness. You can't be used by God." That's his defeat play.
3. Showing up gets harder. Getting to church, into God's Word or into a group of believers suddenly feels like warfare, because it is. The enemy doesn't want you there.
4. Fiery darts keep coming. I use the acronym D-A-R-T-S: Doubt, Anxiety, Rebellion, Trials and Sensuality. We all face them.

Can Christians Be Possessed by Demons?

No. Someone who is a believer cannot be demon-possessed. We can be oppressed, but not possessed.

When I talk about this, people tend to fall on two ends. One person says, "I'm not so sure any of this is real." The other sees a demon everywhere and blames every struggle on "the spirit of lust" or "the spirit of Jezebel." Where's that in the Bible? It's not.

Many times the temptation is to blame the demonic instead of taking full responsibility for our lives. "The devil made me do it." He may have been involved, but it was your choice. It's real, it's dark, and there are demons. But too often we concentrate so much on the devil that we give him more attention than the Lord.

How to Fight Spiritual Warfare: Get Dressed

I played basketball at Florida State, and in 1980 we played the Kentucky Wildcats in the Mideast Regionals on national TV. In the locker room, I looked over at my teammate Greg. He'd pulled his warmups on right over his underwear. No uniform. "Greg, what are you doing?" He said, "We're not going to play."

Two minutes left, down by 25, and I thought, "Uh oh, garbage time. The coach is going to call on underwear Greg."

What are you doing in your underwear? You're trying to fight the enemy dressed like that and wondering why you're not victorious. Get dressed. Ephesians 6:13 says, "Therefore put on the full armor of God." Paul wrote it chained to a Roman soldier in full combat gear, and the armor is simply the character qualities Jesus hammered out in His life:

1. The belt of truth. The belt holds everything together. I call it spiritual Spanx. Our world says truth is relative, but that leads to absurdity. Start the day with truth and end the day with truth. Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).
2. The breastplate of righteousness. When you become a Christian, the righteousness of Jesus is transferred to your account. Picture two chairs, you in one and Jesus in the other. Ask God the Father which one He sees as more righteous, and He'd say, "Both." Ask yourself: are your activities building your righteousness or taking away from it?
3. The gospel boots of peace. Roman soldiers wore sandals with ridiculously thick soles and cleats, so they could dig in and hold their ground. You don't just stand there neutral; you move out. When you have peace with God, you can have the peace of God, and you can share it.
4. The shield of faith. Faith is acting on belief. Roman shields were covered in leather and dipped in water so they could put out the fiery darts. Those shields also had beveled edges so soldiers could link them together. Christianity is not a solo sport.
5. The helmet of salvation. The battle is in the mind. When you're in Christ, you have the mind of Christ, and you can take your thoughts captive. It's not a sin to have a tempting thought. The sin comes when you take that thought and turn it over and over on the rotisserie grill.
6. The sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is your offensive weapon. When the devil tempted Jesus in Matthew 4, Jesus answered three times, "It is written." If the Son of God used the sword, we can too.

Spiritual Warfare Scriptures

• 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."
• Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against… the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
• Ephesians 6:16: "Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."
• Ephesians 4:27: Don't give the devil a foothold.
• 2 Corinthians 10:4–5: "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds… and take every thought captive to obey Christ."
• 2 Corinthians 4:4: The god of this world has "blinded the minds of unbelievers."
• Isaiah 14: The fall of the one who tried to take God's throne.

You Fight From Victory, Not For It

Here's what the devil doesn't want you to know. He was totally defeated in AD 33, through three things: the incarnation, when the Word became flesh; the crucifixion; and the resurrection. The war is over. Satan is on a short leash.

So we're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory. We should walk with a spiritual swag, not cocky or prideful, but confident, because we have Jesus.

Name the stronghold. Get dressed. Then start taking those sandbags away, one decision at a time.

And if you've never given your life to Jesus, you can do it right now. He loves you so much that He died on the cross for your sins and rose again. Just tell Him, "Jesus, You sit on the throne of my life. I want to dethrone myself."

If you want to go deeper, my five-week guidebook Battle Ready walks you through all of it.