Spiritual Warfare: Underestimating Ourselves, Overestimating Satan
In a later post, we'll look at examples from the Bible of Satan's schemes, but in the next two posts we'll consider a couple risks that make us more vulnerable to his schemes: overestimating Satan while underestimating ourselves (this post) ... and underestimating Satan while overestimating ourselves (next post). Both have their own pitfalls.
Ephesians 6:11: "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes."
"Your stand"
There are spiritual attacks that have your name on them. Satan will try to attack you in various ways, and so you must be alert and ready.
1 Peter 5:8-9: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith..."
No one else can take your stand. No one else can fight your spiritual battles for you. Yes, we can and should get all the support we can from other Christians (no Christian should be an island), but when it's time to take your stand, only you can do it.
When I was going through months of demonic harassment (see here), I had little idea what was going on, how to fight it, or where to look for answers. I felt so vulnerable, so unprepared, so alone. And since I didn't know what demons were capable of or about the spiritual weapons/authority God gives believers, I overestimated demons (their power) and underestimated myself (our God-given ability to fight them). I was afraid to go to bed at night, always watching for them, always waiting for the next attack. Always.
I was so uneducated and unprepared (and scared) that I wanted to run and hide behind other Christians, to have them fight my battles for me. I tried seeking help from others (emotional support, prayer support, get-rid-of-these-demons-for-me support) in my very reserved, introverted way (shyly and nervously telling my friends about the scary things that were happening to me, hoping they would rally around me and offer support). But no one really took me seriously enough to help (you can tell by the pauses, the arched eyebrows, and the "oh, yeah, I know someone who thinks they were attacked by demons too"). One person did pray with me once because he said he understood, which was nice, but that was all the help I got.
The less seriously they took me, the less I wanted their help anyway. They just couldn't understand. And if they couldn't understand - if they didn't take demons and the spiritual battle seriously - then what could they really do for me anyway, other than making me feel like I was crazy and over-reacting? And so I had to figure it all out on my own.
It was a scary, confusing, lonely time, but it ended up being one of the best things that happened to my faith. To this day, I thank God not only for allowing the harassment (it grew my faith so much and made me much more careful how I lived), but I also thank Him for having to go through it alone, without other believers to lean on (it forced me to run to Him, to lean on Him, to find my hope, security, and strength in Him instead of in other people). It taught me to take up my armor, get into the battle, and fight back, instead of cowering in fear.
If spiritual warfare is just a part of a Christian's life, then it's pointless to be afraid of it, to try to hide from it. It's going to come, whether we want it to or not. And so we just have to face it and deal with it as it comes, leaning on the Lord the whole way.
If we overestimate demons, we might hyper-focus on them instead of focusing on God. We'll fear demons instead of fearing God. And this will put us at risk.
"... do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after killing the body, has power to throw you in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:4-7)
We are not to fear people or demons, but we are to fear God, to have a healthy, reverent respect for His authority and power. And Proverbs 2:1-5 tells us how: “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” And it goes on to say that you will have wisdom, that knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, and that discretion will protect you.
The fear of the Lord isn't so much about our feelings towards Him, but it's about seeking God's wisdom, His ways, learning and obeying His commands (just like loving Him isn't about our feelings but about obedience). And if we do this, we'll be more under His protection because we're doing things God's way.
The more we fear demons (and the situations, problems, or people we face), the less we'll fear God, and the more at risk we'll be.
But the more we fear God (the more we focus on Him, seek Him, lean on Him, learn His truth and His commands, and obey Him) and the more we remember His power and His loving care for us ("Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows"), then the more confident we'll be in His ability to help us through our trials, tragedies, and temptations. If He loves us enough to know the number of hairs on our head, then He loves us enough to help us fight our spiritual battles. Fear God, not evil. Fear God so that you can fight evil.
My neighbor, a new-ish believer, has recently experienced spiritual harassment similar to what I went through. And though it's scary (and yes, I'm here for her, helping her through it, because I truly understand), I'm encouraging her that someday she'll probably say it was one of the best things to happen to her faith - because it will mature her faith more than almost anything else. And since she's still a young believer, she gets to start out with knowledge of spiritual warfare that took me decades to learn. Not a bad way to start, especially in this evil, upside-down world we live in right now.
I also told her that it's actually probably a good sign that she's being demonically attacked as openly as she is, because it means she's a threat to them. They wouldn't risk exposing themselves like this so clearly and boldly if she wasn't. She recently became a believer, started seriously and deeply reading the Bible, is sharing her faith with her little children and other people, and is taking spiritual warfare seriously, learning to do it biblically. This is terrifying to demons, a threat to them and their plans.
If they can - especially if we're lazy Christians who don't take our faith or the spiritual battle seriously - demons will stay hidden as long as possible, making us think they aren't real and active, so that they can do their work under the radar and behind the scenes. But once we're onto them and their games, once we jump into the battle with both feet, once we start living in a way that threatens them (living godly and obedient lives, dependent on God, bringing Him glory and spreading the gospel), they'll drop the cover and might come out into the open to harass us, scare us, and meet us head-on. And so if she's being attacked the way she is, it's probably a good sign.
Sure, she might feel afraid of them, but it's really that they're afraid of her.
[Yes, I know, it's a catch-22. We need to draw near to God, especially when we're being attacked, but drawing near to God might actually incite attacks. If we're far from God, we're easy targets - but when we draw near to God, we draw the attention of demons and make ourselves targets. We're never free from the risk of demonic attacks. And personally, I'd rather face them with the Lord by my side, walking very closely with Him, even if that's threatening to demons. But it beats the alternative of being a vulnerable, weak, easy target because you're walking through life on your own, far from the Lord.]
Note: Most attacks are not as vivid and obvious as what my neighbor and I went through (things like feeling paralyzed or electrocuted when waking up, feeling choked by demons, feeling an invisible thing bump into your elbow or walk up your bed, etc.).
Most are more subtle, “human” kinds of attacks, such as shame, fear, anxiety, depression, confusion, addictions, negative self-thoughts, doubts about God, unexplained health problems, mistreatment from other people, making you feel helpless or hopeless, etc.. Or the temptation to dabble with sin, to be prideful, to engage in occultic things, to partake in ungodly entertainment, to run ahead of God's timing/leading, etc.
Demons might even use "good" things to distract you, to lure you away from God's best: a "good" job, a "good" person to marry, a "good" opportunity ... but not the ones God wants for you. Maybe they'll "attack" you with things that don't seem negative at all, things that seem like blessings, such as pleasures, money, success, an abundance of possessions, friends (but the wrong kind), etc., to get you to focus on the wrong things or head in the wrong direction. But of course, they'll convince you that it's "blessings from God" and that He just wants you to enjoy them. Or if God has richly blessed you, they'll simply leave you alone and let you enjoy it all too much, so that you focus more on enjoying life than pursuing God.
[How do you think the rich, comfortable, "blessed" Laodicean church of Revelation 3 got to be so lukewarm, so worthless? They got everything they wanted and didn't need God anymore. They became prideful and saw themselves as self-sufficient. Being too fulfilled by earthly blessings might make us forget who blessed us: Deut. 6:11-12: “... then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”]
Yes, God wants us to enjoy His blessings, the good things in this life, but we need to be careful to discern when it's really His blessings and when it's a trap or a test, when it's from Him and when it's from demons or our own desires. And when blessings are from God, we need to remember to thank Him for them and to glorify Him with them.
Going off on a somewhat related tangent here, about a spiritual risk we all might face sometime or other:
My mother - who's serving a life sentence in prison, and who we're sure is guilty even though she keeps claiming she's innocent, always making up new stories about what happened - keeps sending me letters claiming that God is abundantly pouring out His "blessings" on her in prison: by comforting her in her grief, by revealing new details that "prove her innocence," and by giving her multiple opportunities to share her testimony with other inmates of how faithful God is even though she's being "falsely" accused and "unjustly" imprisoned, etc.
She sees these things as God's blessings, His hand at work in her life, as though He's on her side ... and she's praising God for it, confident that it means He'll help her appeal the conviction and get a new trial. (Lord, not another trial, please.) It's sad. It's delusional (I believe). And it makes it really hard to talk to her or be there for her in any way - not only because I have to be exceptionally careful of every single word I say to her (which could end up in a new trial, in the news, or in the book she says she's writing), but because she seems to think I'm upset that she's been "unjustly convicted" and keeps trying to comfort me like "Don't worry, God is faithful, He'll get me outta here, it's gonna be okay, I'm just trusting the Lord, God is so good" when, in reality, I think she's guilty, which I told her once (but I don't think it sunk in).
She thinks God is blessing her and pouring out His care on her in her "unfair" circumstance, but I can't help but think that these are not blessings from God at all but are indications that He's handed her over to her lies, her hard-heartedness, her refusal to repent, letting her dig her hole deeper. I believe God is allowing Satan to deceive her - and she's letting herself be deceived - because she refuses to repent and admit the truth. (I'm not saying He's not caring for her in certain other ways, just that if she's guilty as we all think, then He's not trying to help her prove her "innocence" and He's not glorified by her spreading lies in her testimony to others. This whole thing is a mess, and I don't always know what to think about it all. I wish it never happened.)
Here's the take-away for us all, the warning: Not everything that seems like it's "from God" is from God. Not every "blessing" is a blessing (sometimes it's a punishment). Here are two examples from the Bible to show you what I mean:
Not everything is "from God": In Ezekiel 13 and 14, God condemns false prophets, and He's talking about the idolatrous people who visit them when He says this to Ezekiel:
“For any one of the house of Israel ... who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to inquire for himself of me, I the Lord will answer him myself ... And if the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people, Israel. And they shall bear their punishment – the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike-” (Ezekiel 14:7,9-10, RSV)
People want to think that all biblical-sounding things are "from God." The people in this passage thought that as long as they sought out advice from a "prophet," they were getting good information "from God."
But it wasn't. In this case, God allowed false prophets to hear lies and to spread lies to the people who wanted to believe lies. These false prophets (Ezekiel 13) were not sent by the Lord. And the people who are inquiring of them had first set up idols in their hearts, and so their sins were blocking them from seeing things correctly. Their idolatrous hearts were leading them astray from the beginning, causing them to follow after what they wanted and not after God.
The prophets and the people had been unfaithful to the Lord and didn't really want to hear what He had to say. They wanted to hear, believe, and spread lies. And so God gave them what they wanted. He gave the prophets opportunities to spread lies, and He gave the people opportunities to believe lies.
We know that God does not tempt/cause us to sin, and so God did not force them to lie or to believe lies. But God did let them do it because that's what they wanted to do. When God says "I have deceived that prophet," it doesn't mean He Himself lied to the prophet, because we know God can't lie. It means that God used demons to carry out His plan to give lies to the people, giving them an opportunity to choose between believing lies or not. God can use Satan's schemes in His plans - to expose what's in our hearts, to punish us or discipline us. (It's like how God used Satan to tempt David to number the troops, exposing the sin in David's heart. 2 Samuel 24:1 says that God incited David to do it, but 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan incited David to do it. This is not a discrepancy. What it means is that God used Satan to carry out His plan. God wanted to expose the sin in David's heart, and to do this He had to give David a chance to act out the sin in his heart. But since God can't tempt people to sin, He allowed Satan to do it, giving David a chance to make his choice between good and evil. And once this sin was exposed, God could deal with it.)
Sometimes, what appears to be "from God" (because we want to believe it is) is not. Sometimes it's God giving you the lies, sin, or evil that you want and seek. If we want to choose lies/sin over God, He'll let us do it, and He might even allow Satan to bring us opportunities to do it. It's not that God is making us do it, it's that He's giving us the choice. If there's something sinful in our hearts that we won't deal with, God might eventually allow Satan's schemes to bring it to the surface, to expose it so that God can deal with it.
[Now don't freak out about this, thinking that you have to expend enormous energy, sweat, and tears to search out and destroy every old unconfessed sin, every heart idol, or every bad heart attitude all at once. Just be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading when He does bring up something you need to deal with or confess. Invite God to show you what's in your heart - and if He does reveal something that needs to be dealt with, then confess it, thank Him for already forgiving it, and ask Him what He wants you to do about it moving forward. I believe that if we're sensitive to Him, God will be as gentle with us as possible, helping us tackle the things in our hearts and lives one at a time, as we have the ability and strength to deal with it. James 1:5: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." Notice the "without finding fault" part. If we ask, God will give us the wisdom we need to take the right steps and do the right thing, even if we're trying to dig ourselves out of a mess we made. And He'll do it without shaming us for the wrong choices we made at first. When we admit our mistakes/sins and cry out to Him for help, for wisdom, He won't say "I told you so!" or "Look at the mess you made!" He will help us, without finding fault, step by step, one day at a time. God doesn't expect us to take massive spiritual leaps at one time, just small, faithful, obedient steps in the right direction as He leads. Pray and ask Him what's the first step He wants you to take right now. And be alert for His answer and willing to obey.]
Do not believe something is "from God" just because it sounds godly and because it's what you wanted to believe anyway. Do not underestimate your ability to look for excuses to do whatever it is you want to do. Be aware of when your desires might lead you astray or make you bypass God. Be discerning about answers to prayers you get or messages that seem to be from God. Test the spirits. Compare everything against the truth of God's Word. Search your heart to see if you really want to know what God says about something (and if you really want to follow God's leading and glorify Him in your decisions) or if you're just looking for justification or confirmation for what you want to do.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ [not just that Jesus lived, but that He is the Christ, the Messiah] has come in the flesh [that He lived, died, and rose again] is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God." (1 John 4:1-3)
And about not every "blessing" being a blessing: In Numbers 11, the Israelites in the desert begged Moses for meat. They weren't politely asking for meat (and notice they never got on their knees and humbly prayed to God for meat); they were complaining about God’s care for them, grumbling against Him, demanding what they wanted, becoming thankless and bitter.
And what did God do in response? He appeared to answer their complaint by giving them quail. Lots of quail. So much quail. But quail that came with a plague that killed many of them. What seemed to be the answer they were looking for, a "blessing" from God, was really punishment for treating God with contempt. Sometimes God gives us what we want not because He's blessing us, but because He's punishing or disciplining us.
Be careful not to judge yourself or how well you're doing in life or in your faith according to your circumstances or earthly "blessings." Getting everything you want doesn't necessarily mean God is blessing you; sometimes it just means you wanted the wrong things. You got what you wanted, but you didn't get God.
(And on the flip-side, some of those in the Bible who were closest to God's heart and most faithful to Him didn't have the easiest, happiest lives, but they faced the most difficult circumstances and paid the highest earthly prices. Instead of pursuing selfish, earthly desires, they pursued God, whatever the cost, trusting that their real rewards would be waiting for them in heaven.)
What does all this have to do with underestimating ourselves and overestimating demons? I have no idea. But it seemed worth sharing.
Most demonic attacks won't look especially demonic. That's how they get you. But Satan has many tools to distract us, to scare us, to wear us down, to make us lazy and comfortable, to get us off-track with God, or to cause us to fear, doubt, or sin.
I’m not saying that everything I listed is always a spiritual attack. But they could be attacks or, at the very least, they could be weak areas that could open the door for attacks.
Any issue we're facing might have spiritual roots, a spiritual scheme behind it. But if we address just the earthly, physical symptoms with earthly, human tools - instead of addressing the spiritual root-cause with spiritual tools - we'll only be applying temporary bandages that won't work for long. Ask God for discernment and wisdom about whatever you're going through, to figure out if there's a spiritual root-cause you need to deal with and to know how to deal with it.
2 Cor. 2:11: "in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes."
If it's spiritual, you need to deal with it spiritually. You can’t fight spiritual battles with earthly weapons. (But Satan sure does want you to think you can because then you will have no real power, will feel weaker and more afraid, will waste a lot of time and energy, and will probably create more messes you'll have to clean up later. For a good basic sermon on spiritual warfare, watch Tony Evans' sermon "The War Revealed and Strongholds Defined.")
Because of the clearly demonic harassment I experienced, I learned to take the spirit world and spiritual warfare seriously. Because I know how real it all is. And I also learned to have a more balanced view of it, to not overestimate demons or underestimate myself anymore. (But wait, now that I think about it, yeah, I probably do still overestimate demons sometimes, especially considering how strong of a hold I let anxiety get on me over the years, mostly stemming from the situation with my mother. But I'm working on it, with the Lord's help. It's been my hardest spiritual battle yet. If demons can't get to us one way, they'll try another. Just goes to show the importance of always keeping our armor on and our guard up, showing how desperately and daily we need the Lord.)
In fact, I wish that all believers could, at some point, experience the kind of harassment that I and my neighbor experienced (not the anxiety, but the nighttime demonic shenanigans) - because if we all did, we'd all take the spiritual battle a lot more seriously, would draw as near to God as we could, and would be very careful how we lived so that we could have the best chance to resist evil. We'd take our stands and fight back, learning to use the weapons God gives us to fight evil. We wouldn't cower in fear anymore, sticking our heads in the sand, thinking demons have more power than they do, allowing evil to run amuck in our lives. And then maybe our hearts and minds and families and communities and world wouldn't be in quite the mess they're in.
As I told my neighbor, we don't have to be afraid of demons more than we need to be. They don't have as much power over believers as it might seem. They present themselves like the Wizard of Oz - the giant, scary, powerful-looking projection with smoke and flames shooting all over - but, in reality, they're the bumbling, weak, little man behind the curtain.
Of course, I'm not really saying they're bumbling or weak. They're very strong and have a very well-organized hierarchy. They've got lots of skill and power. They can do a lot of damage (just look at the trouble they cause in the world). But don't give them more power than they have and don't think they have more power and reach in a believer's life than they do.
They might be strong, but God is stronger.
They might seem unbeatable, but remember that even just David playing "worship" music (1 Samuel 16:23) and the disciples speaking Jesus's name against them (Luke 10:17) and Jesus resisting temptation and quoting Scripture (Matthew 4) was enough to send them running.
They're not as powerful and undefeatable as they want us to think they are. And they can only have as much power and reach in our lives as God lets them have and as we allow them to have. And they'll have far less if we're living as God wants us to live, if we're not harboring sin in our hearts or compromising with evil in any way, if we're taking prayer and the Bible seriously, and if we're fighting the spiritual battles with the spiritual weapons He provides.
And remember - very important! - that when we stand against Satan, we are standing against an enemy who's already been defeated in eternity. Jesus won the war when He died on the cross and rose again. At that moment, Satan lost and his destruction was assured. And not only that, but when we became believers, our salvation was secured. Satan lost his chance to destroy our souls in hell. In Jesus, we already have the victory.
“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.” (Col. 1:13-14)
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
“[you] through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials… Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (
Sure, we might underestimate ourselves, but don't underestimate God.
“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." (Phil. 4:13)
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim. 1:7, memorize this, repeat it often)
“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." (2 Cor. 10:3-5)
And lastly, in case of attack
If you're facing clearly spiritual attacks, you don't have to give up in despair, feeling like Satan is always going to be stronger and you're always gonna be defeated. Turn the ship around. Figure out what's causing it. Take your God-given power back again, starting with prayer, asking God to reveal to you what you need to do first and how you should proceed. (Get into His Word to see what He says about it.)
It is possible that you're facing attacks because you're seeking God more than ever, growing in your faith, doing some great work for Him, praising Him, sharing the gospel with others, or something else that makes demons feel angry and threatened. The attacks may be a good sign that you're on the right track. And if this is the case, then keep it up, and remember to keep your spiritual armor on, to use the Word as your sword, to remain in the Lord, to pray, to use Jesus’s name, and to listen to worship music a lot. If demons don't have a right to be there, they have to leave when you command them to leave in Jesus’s name.
[And don't forget, even if you don't have support from other Christians, you've got it from God, and that's all you really need. Besides, what I've found is that so few Christians actually take the spirit world and spiritual warfare seriously anyway, and so most will think you're "crazy" if you say you're experiencing demonic harassment. Most won't understand, even good, godly Christians. The closer you walk with the Lord, the lonelier it gets. Don't let it deter you. Keep growing in the faith and in wisdom and in the knowledge of spiritual warfare, and then someday you might be able to come alongside someone else who starts to experience it too.]
But if it's not that you're growing in the Lord, that you're a threat to demons, you might be being attacked because you've given demons a right to be there, through things like these:
- you're in sin (or have un-confessed sin) and have grieved the Holy Spirit, shutting yourself off from His guidance and protection. You've put out a “welcome mat” to demons through your sinful or careless choices, giving them a “legal right” to harass you.
- you dabbled with or engaged in something ungodly, New Age, witchcraft-y, or from a false religion, such as horoscopes, voodoo, psychics, Ouija Board, yoga, certain martial arts programs or Eastern healing treatments, Freemasonry, ungodly entertainment, etc. (I am not saying that all of these things will lead directly to demonic attacks, but they are definitely “welcome mats” for it.)
- you brought something into your house that is occultic, New Age, ungodly, witchcraft-y, or from a false religion, such as statutes of false gods, trinkets or jewelry with occultic symbols, certain items that have been handed down which may have occultic roots or purposes, books or movies that celebrate witchcraft, humanism, false gods, etc.
- other people attracted demons and you were just a bystander, such as going with someone to visit a psychic even if you didn’t get a reading or letting a family member worship false gods in your home or being at a party where others were doing all sorts of ungodly things even if you didn't. (Remember, demons don't play fair.)
- someone else did something to you, such as abused you or involved you in something ungodly, or maybe you had a traumatic experience, like an accident or divorce. These kinds of things can become gateways for demons to enter your life. They can lead to intense negative thoughts and emotions which can attract demons, giving them something to feed on.
- your ancestors welcomed and encouraged demons by things they engaged in, such as witchcraft, Freemasonry, etc.
- you have believed in lies from the enemy or embraced falsehoods, about yourself, God, life, others, etc.
Take the time to figure out (and pray about) why the attacks are coming or when they started. Seek help from a pastor or godly friend. Pray and ask God if you have opened the door to demons in any way and what you should do about it. Confess any sins that need to be confessed. Renounce any sins from your family’s past. Get rid of any "welcome mats." Command demons to leave in Jesus’s name. Remind them that Jesus died for you, that you are His child and are under His protection, covered by His blood. Purge your home and life of things that celebrate false religions, evil, or the occult. Ask the Holy Spirit to purify your mind. Consider the music you listen to and movies you watch. Do they celebrate evil and things Satan enjoys? Surround yourself with music that praises God. In fact, praise God a lot. Praise repels demons. Pray daily that God sends His heavenly angels to protect you from evil. And remember that Scripture is the “sword of the Spirit” - read it, write it, live it, memorize it, and quote relevant verses out loud in times of attack, just as Jesus quoted Scripture to resist the temptations of Satan.
[Of course, there are a lot of resources online for help in spiritual warfare, but make sure it's not a website that sensationalizes demons and demonic attacks or that gives a whole bunch of weird human rituals to get rid of them. Be discerning. Ask God what's appropriate and what's not, and compare it all against Scripture. You can find some good resources in this post of mine. And here's a post I just found that might be worth checking out, but be discerning: Dealing with the Legal Rights of Demons.
And if you are dealing with anxiety, discouragement, and sinful strongholds in your life, here are some really good books I recommend from Neil T. Anderson (some have a coauthor): Victory Over The Darkness, Freedom From Fear, and The Bondage Breaker. They are loaded with Scripture and biblical truth to help you break free from demonic strongholds.
And to help you root out anything that might be interfering in your faith and life and relationship with God, check out my "workbook" "Through the Refining Fire: Your 'Sweetly Broken' Journey". I have no idea if it's helpful or any good, but it's based on the things I went through and learned as I grew through painful trials.]
