Hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?
You might be ripe for a spiritual attack. But what is it, and how does it work?
It was one of those days.
I had a long day at work, followed by a stressful commute that took longer than usual and involved more than one close call, fraying my nerves.
Soo had a women’s group to get to that night, so I had to get home in time for dinner with the kids before she left. The more delays I hit on the road, the more stressed out I became.
By the time I shuffled in the door, I was flustered, drained, irritable, and hungry.
Soo left me with instructions on what to heat for dinner before she bolted out the door.
I called the kids to come to the table and was microwaving leftovers when my phone alerted me to an incoming email. With a few minutes to kill while waiting, I made the mistake of checking that email at that moment.
It was from a fellow parent, stating that there was “ongoing friction” between his child and mine, and that my child “has been making derogatory comments” towards his.
I immediately snapped – at my son. “What did you do?” I barked at him. “What did you say to (this other child)? Were you calling them names?”
Bewildered, he asked me what I was talking about, so I read the email to him.
He claimed that he didn’t understand what was going on.
You know how, as a parent, you can tell when your child is lying to you? I didn’t get that sense this time. I believed my son.
So my anger swung towards this other parent.
And that’s when the spiritual attack hit.
“Spiritual attack” is one of these terms that gets bandied about by Christians and sounds more mystical than it is, so let’s first define what it is – and what it isn‘t.
A spiritual attack is not a battle involving magical power, like in some role-playing game. It’s not a horde of demons swarming you like Dementors on Hogwarts. And it‘s not evil spirits causing you to sin.
A spiritual attack is the convergence of elevated levels of temptation and our decreased ability to resist that temptation due to mental, physical, and/or spiritual fatigue.
“The devil made me do it” is a false notion – Satan cannot make us sin. Satan is no creator and cannot “make” something out of nothing; he can only amplify what‘s already there.
Satan can only tempt and accuse us, and how we respond is our choice.
1. A spiritual attack is not the devil causing us to sin. We are responsible for our own sins.
It is nobody else’s choice but ours to commit sin. We all have the power to resist temptation, but we sometimes choose to give in to it.
Scriptures tell us:
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13 NIV)
And James 4:7 says “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
But, it’s harder to resist when you’re feeling worn down. It’s harder to flee when you don’t have the energy.
I can’t remember who came up with this helpful acronym: H.A.L.T., which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Being in any one of these states can make you more vulnerable to temptation as your defenses are lowered, opening up your weak spots.
I was all four of these things when I read that email that night. My defenses were low. I gave in to my sinful nature and fell to the temptation of anger.
When I first read the email, I believed the other parent and started yelling at my son. Why?
Pride – one of my weak spots.
I felt like a failure as a parent when I thought that my son was making ”derogatory comments” about other children.
The anger I expressed towards my son was really directed at myself, and I gave in to the temptation to unleash that anger at my child.
And when I realized that my son was honestly baffled by the accusation, my rage shifted to the other parent, and I gave in to a combination of sinful, angry thoughts and discouragement.
What was my weak spot here?
An unhealed wound.
When I was four years old, another child accused me of throwing a toy at them, so my father locked me in a closet to punish me without first hearing my side of the story.
It hurt that my own father believed a false accusation rather than his own child, and now, here I was, doing the same to my son. I was reliving that moment in the closet when I was four – only this time, I was the angry dad. Enraged at this realization, I shifted my anger towards the other parent for putting me in this situation.
2. A spiritual attack happens when unhealed wounds provide soft targets for the enemy to pick at.
Satan knows that we all have these vulnerable areas that are easier to attack and inflict pain on.
In my case, I have long wrestled with anger issues stemming from my struggles with identity.
We need to heal our emotional and spiritual wounds to stop Satan from continually poking at them – the more that wounds get poked, the longer they remain unhealed, just like scabs don’t heal if you keep picking at them.
What are your unhealed wounds – the buttons that get pushed, the triggers that set you off?
And once you‘ve identified them, how do you heal those wounds?
- Forgive those who have hurt you.
- Pray and ask God for healing.
- Give yourself permission to ask God where He was during difficult moments in your life – He might surprise you with the answer.
- Find someone whom you trust to pray with you.
- And whenever you feel tempted towards sin, resist it.
The more you resist temptation, the more resilient you become against it.
3. Spiritual battles are fought first in your mind.
It all begins with a lie that infiltrates your thoughts:
- “You‘re not good enough…”
- “God will never like you, anyway, so you might as well (sin).”
- “This isn‘t going to hurt anyone.”
- ”Did God really say that?” (Gen. 3:1)
When these thoughts cross your mind, you have a choice: agree with them or reject them.
Remember, we will always have a way to resist them, but it‘s up to us to muster up the strength to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (1 Cor. 10:5).
When I read that email, I could have chosen to stay calm and pray that our meeting with this other family would go well and be resolved peacefully. Instead, I gave in to anxious thoughts and braced myself for a worst-case scenario, further fanning my anger.
Satan is known as the accuser and the father of lies. The way to resist is to counter lies with the truth of God’s word; this is how we make thoughts obedient to Christ.
So does this mean it’s all in your mind? That this is all psychological?
I didn‘t say that. I said that the battle starts in your mind.
God created us, and He created every part of us: the mind, the body, the spirit. It’s all interconnected, but ever since the Age of Enlightenment, there has been a tendency to view and treat each one separately.
My failure to take my thoughts captive, resulting in anger, affected me physically: an explosion of adrenaline, shortness of breath, light-headedness, pounding heart.
It affected me spiritually: by opening the door to anger, I opened the floodgates and became even angrier, at more than just this email incident. This, in turn, triggered other unhealed wounds. It all began to snowball from there.
And this is what a spiritual attack looked like, at least for me, at that moment.
Symptoms of a spiritual attack include nervousness, anxiety, depression, rage, an aversion to the name of Jesus, vile thoughts, an increased desire to sin, discouragement, loss of faith, and more.
Spiritual attacks look different for each individual, and some might be more intense than others.
Some may even lead to episodes of demonic oppression. But that’s a whole other story.
Please rest assured that my experience wasn‘t as bad as it sounds. My son and I had a peaceful meeting with the other family and resolved it. (It all turned out to be a misunderstanding.) And I never acted out in my anger, except for a vigorous workout on the punching bag in my garage.
My purpose in sharing the details of my spiritual attack is to provide a case study to help you identify how you might be attacked.
Once you’re aware of how a spiritual attack works, you can recognize one when it comes, and you can be more vigilant in resisting it.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV)
How might you be vulnerable to a spiritual attack?
