“Mommy, I’m hearing voices,” Sarah told her mother. “They’re telling me to do bad things like kick my brother and disobey you. They’re waking me up at night and scaring me.”
Sarah’s parents had noticed her belligerence of late but chalked it up to culture shock and navigating a foreign school system. (Her family recently relocated as missionaries to a new country.)
So, they prayed for their daughter. Sarah was the only one in our family who didn’t yet know Jesus. They told her about Jesus again, how he was bigger than those voices, but she wasn’t yet ready to surrender to him.
While you may not face such an overt attack on your family like this, the truth is that spiritual warfare does exist.
We have a very real enemy, Satan, who wants nothing more than to destroy our lives, our thoughts, and our walks with Jesus. He, along with his hoard of demons, roams the earth seeking ways to wreak havoc on God’s kingdom.
Unfortunately, we tend to live in two extremes — living as if Satan didn’t exist or believing him bigger than God. Neither is correct. Satan does exist. He’s a created being who used to experience the paradise of God.
For one defining moment, he averted his eyes from God’s glory and rejoiced in his own. In that, he rebelled, deceiving a third of the angels in heaven. He’s waged war against us ever since.
God sent his Son for a specific purpose. Consider these words: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8, ESV).
And destroy, Jesus did. Every encounter Jesus had with demons ended in a victory for God. And on the cross, he dealt the final blow — Jesus died for the very sin Satan incited in the Garden of Eden.
With that as a backdrop, we don’t need to fear. We serve a conquering, powerful God who has destroyed Satan’s work. Because of the cross and the amazing resurrection, we have the power to defeat the enemy’s ploys.
But how? What are five actions we can do right now when we feel attacked?
1. Pray
Our first response to a spiritual attack shouldn’t be panic but prayer. In our own strength, we can’t fight, but when we ask God for help and seek his power, then we find victory.
After their daughter heard voices, Sarah’s family prayed — for her, with her, about her.
They sent a mass email to their prayer team, asking them to intercede for Sarah. During the middle of this ordeal, the parents had to leave to go to a leadership summit.
Two moms and a daughter from their home church graciously came to watch their children. The parents let the team of three know what was going on with Sarah, and they, too, prayed for her.
2. Speak and Believe the Truth
Jesus personifies truth. “I am the truth,” he said (John 14:6). But Satan is a liar. Jesus said this about him:
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
Satan’s native tongue is deceit. So, one of the best ways to combat his untruth is to surround ourselves, our families, and our minds with truth.
Sarah’s family shared the truth about Jesus with her. Others did too. And they reminded themselves that their battle wasn’t against her behavior but against the evil forces in the world.
Paul reminds us, “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 6:12).
Every day that she struggled, Sarah’s family reminded her Jesus would quiet those voices as she gave her heart to Him.
3. Choose Not to Fear
The initial, natural reaction to a spiritual attack is fear and, after that, worry. If we stay in that place of panic, we forget to do the first two actions: pray and speak the truth.
And if we camp in fear’s tent, we shrink back from the joy and power Jesus wants to give us amidst the battle.
Ultimately, this comes down to a question of God’s bigness. Do you believe God is bigger than your worry, than Satan’s attack than the fears that keep you up at night? You have a choice to give into fearful thinking or surrender it to God.
Sarah’s parents initially feared and freaked out a bit when their daughter confessed her battle. It took moxie to choose to lay that fear at Jesus’ feet.
If you’re facing a battle where fear rages, consider praying this prayer of relinquishment:
Jesus, I’m afraid. Please help me to hand my fear over to you. Give me your perspective in this situation. Forgive me for running first to fear and not to you. Please rescue me from this situation. Be big. Enlarge my faith. I choose to rest my fear in your capable arms, and I promise, with the strength you provide, to not snatch it back. Amen.
4. Let Go of Control
When we encounter a spiritual battle, we tend to want to make everything right in our own strength. We want the battle to stop, so we try to fix the situation or make a person behave a certain way.
Unfortunately, we can’t control others. We can’t micromanage difficult situations. We can’t orchestrate outcomes. We are not God.
And that’s the crux. God is bigger than the situation we face. He is the Sovereign One who runs the universe without our help. The fact that we sleep every night and the world keeps running just fine without us testifies to this.
When Sarah heard destructive voices, her parents realized how little control they had. They couldn’t make her become a Christian, though they shared Jesus with her.
They had to entrust her to Jesus, knowing that he loved her more than they did, and he was quite aware of the situation.
Giving up control is not something that comes naturally to any of us, but it was the only thing these parents could do to find peace.
5. Let God Work
God is always at work. The amazing thing about God is that he is creative and doesn’t always achieve his ends in the ways we typically anticipate. His is a paradoxical kingdom, and his ways are mysterious.
If we live in light of this, we’ll live with a holy expectation of the adventure he will bring. We must have faith enough to believe in God’s unpredictable creativity.
While Sarah’s parents attended the leadership conference, they missed a phone call from her. She left this message: “Daddy, Mommy, I just wanted to let you know that I became a Christian.”
At home, they listened as Sarah recounted the story. The 12-year-old daughter of one of the moms shared the gospel again with Sarah and asked if she wanted to meet Jesus. This time, she did.
Sarah’s mom asked, “Are you still hearing those mean voices?”
“No,” Sarah said. “I’m hearing one voice, and He’s telling me to make wise choices.”
“That’s the Holy Spirit,” Sarah’s mom said, marveling at the way God worked. He brought a pre-teen halfway around the world to share Jesus with Sarah who’d been tormented by evil voices. And he delivered her without her parents being there.
Spiritual warfare exists. Just look around this crazy world for evidence. But we don’t need to fret and wring our hands, even if it’s our loved ones in the middle of the mire.
Remember, you can pray. Remind yourself of the truth. Refuse to let fear have its way. Relinquish control, and rest in God’s creative work.
Sarah gave permission to share her story. By God’s grace, today, she doesn’t remember hearing those voices. But she does remember her baptism — her father had the privilege of performing it overseas.
For further reading:
What Is the Biblical Perspective of Spiritual Warfare?
How Seriously Do Christians Need to Take Spiritual Warfare?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/B-C-Designs
Mary DeMuth is the author of 47 books, including Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus (Thomas Nelson), from which this article is adapted. She loves to help her readers and listeners live uncaged, freedom-infused lives. She makes her home in Texas with her husband of 33 years, a needy chocolate lab, and a vocal black cat. She’s the mom of three adult children. Find out more at marydemuth.com
