Lesson 14: God’s Sovereignty in Spiritual Warfare

Ephesians 6:10-13 - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm."

The third possibility as to why suffering occurs is Spiritual Warfare. Yes, demons are real!

We treat the Christian life like it is a walk in the park when the Bible says it is a battleground. According to our text, we are battling against a real devil and real demons in real dark evil places! Yet, many "professing" Christians say that satan "is not a living being but is a symbol of evil." It is no wonder we are going down as the Church. We do not even believe in a literal devil. If you were the enemy, is this not the first thing you would do? Would you not get people to think you do not even exist, just so you could sneak right in their camp and destroy them completely unnoticed? That is exactly what they do! In fact, former satanists admit it!

Doreen (former satanist/black witch): Christians are the satanists' worst enemy. They are out to torment you. They are out to blackmail you. They will even kill you. They even tried to kill me when I came out of witchcraft.

Bill: If you are in a church where the Spirit of God is really moving and where the Word of God is really being preached and where prayer is really going up to heaven for the salvation of souls, then they regard you as their mortal enemies and they will try everything they can to destroy, to kill, and to maim because that is the nature of satan and it is also the nature of his followers.


They will try to infiltrate your church. They will try to set up whispering campaigns against the pastor and the elders. They may even try to seduce the pastor.

Glen (former satanist): For two years I was involved in the Baptist Church. I was constantly complaining about the pastor's sermons being too long, being too dry, sowing discord between the people, gossiping about others.

Doreen: Some satanists who were handpicked, the most powerful ones, were sent into churches to disrupt the meeting, and we stopped people from going forward when they asked the people to go forward and accept Christ as their Savior.

Bill: I was, in fact, trained to learn all the Christian jargon, you know, to say, 'Hallelujah!' and 'Praise the Lord' and do all the right things and I had no more an idea of Jesus being my Savior than a man in the moon.

Glen: If you can tear down the prayer foundation of a church, then you have destroyed that church and that is what every witch or satanist plans to do when they go into a church; to tear down that prayer foundation and then the rest of the church goes down quickly after that."

Too many churches do not believe this is real. Sometimes we are being attacked, whether you believe it or not, by the very forces of evil, especially when great things are taking place! Notice the tactics they use. Not demonic apparitions that would freak us out. No! Too obvious! But a little whisper here, a little slander there, and make sure people stay away from prayer and Bible studies!

* Where do you see this kind of attack happening in your church? Whom can you pray with to stop it?