Ephesians 6:12 (New International Version)

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.

The devil would not like anything more but for you to think you are actually fighting people, therefore destroying your life and possibly the other person’s life too. His aim is to divide people and set them up against each other. Meanwhile we open the door wide for him and invite him in unknowingly through wrong believing. These battles cannot be discerned with physical eyes, they have to be discerned through spiritual eyes.

Here are a couple of examples to illustrate what is going on in the spiritual realm, in our own life, or in someone else’s life:

There was a man who was sick and who was confessing the Word over his body, quoting healing scriptures and believing for his healing to manifest. While doing so, he was intermittently attacked with thoughts of doubt.

After he had gone through a hard time and was beginning to get discouraged, God opened his eyes to the spirit world. This is what he saw: a demon speaking lies to him, telling him that he was not going to get healed and that confessing the Word was not going to work. But he also saw that each time he was confessing the Word, light would come out of his mouth like a sword, and the demon would cower and fall backward. As God showed him the vision, the man then understood why it was then so important to keep on speaking the Word. He saw that he did have faith, which is why the demon was attacking him with doubt.”1

“Spend your wrath on Satan, who is the chief enemy. Men are only his puppets. They may be won to Christ’s side and so become your friends at last. Anselm explains it in the following manner: ‘When the enemy comes riding up in battle, the valiant soldier is not angry with the horse, but with the horseman. He works to kill the rider so he may possess the horse for his own use. Thus must we do with the wicked. We are not to bend our wrath against them, but against Satan who rides them and spurs them on. Let us pray fervently, as Christ did on the cross, that the devil will be dismounted and these miserable souls be delivered from him.’”2

I hope these illustrations have helped you understand spiritually what is going on in the unseen world.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (New International Version)

7 We live by faith, not by sight.

Let’s remember that the only power the devil has is what we allow him to have through temptation, doubt, deception and the fear of man, as he is a defeated devil already. If we are set free by knowing what the truth is, we will operate in the authority Jesus died for us to have, we know that we are protected under the Blood of the Lamb and there we have the power to speak to our mountains.

My prayer is that we may all be set free from these deceptions, thinking we are fighting against people, and make the choice to believe what the Bible actually says. I pray we may use the weapons God gave us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

  1. Where is the real battle happening?
  2. Who is our real enemy?
  3. Where is the Devil’s power coming from and what is our responsibility?

  1. Meyer, J.: Battlefield of the Mind, Harrison House, p. 118, 1995 ↩

  2. Alves, E.: Becoming a Prayer Warrior, Renew, p. 98, 1998 ↩