The Bible let us know that our enemy, Satan, is very subtle (Genesis 3:1) and so he will not always show his ugly color, but at times he will work in darkness as he does his best work behind the scene. That is why sometimes we are not able to discern when we are being attack by the enemy, thus many times we live a defeated life when we should have been victorious in every aspect of our lives.
If you are trying to advance in the kingdom or working in any capacity, then you are a threat to the enemy and he will send out his demonic assassins to destroy you, sometimes silently without you even realizing what is happening until it’s too late, if God does not intervene.
But what is spiritual attack? A spiritual attack is a series of attacks coördinated by servants of Satan with the purpose of causing persons to lose faith, destroy ministry and life, abort promises and purpose, and oppress a believer and bring destiny to a halt. The aim of the enemy in spiritual attack is to kill the person dream, purpose or ministry, by stealing the person joy, peace, happiness, gifts and to ultimately destroy the person (John 10:10).
A child of God or even an unbeliever being attack by the enemy is nothing to be taken lightly. Although the enemy likes to work in darkness, the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:11 remind us: “lest Satan should take advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his devices”
Identifying Spiritual Attack
This leads me to the matter of why this article was written in the first place, how can you identify spiritual attack? Here are some things to look out for; this list is by no means exhausted.
- You lost the passion and zeal for the things of God. This attack is one of the most prominent forms of attack and is one of the most deadly weapons of the enemy. Many times we are striving in our prayer life, very zealous about the things of God and all after a sudden the tenacity we had for the things of God are not there. This does not happen all at once as the enemy likes to work undetected. It may start with a little feeling of ‘can’t bother to pray now’ until all after sudden you know longer have a prayer life, or you no longer have the zeal or passion for the things of God. Many gifts and purposes got aborted this way. The result of this is that we are living in a church era where the people of God have become very complacent and no longer functioning in their calling or ministry.
- Feeling of frustration. When you are under attack by the enemy, his plan is to use situations to cause you to feel very frustrated. This is an attack on the mind of the individual.
- Unusually tiredness and weakness in your body. I am fully aware that lack of energy and tiredness can be caused by various means such as not getting enough rest, or not eating properly. However, at times the enemy will attack you by draining your energy and making you feel tired. He is hoping that you will not realize that you are actually under spiritual attack, and thus he can continue attacking you without you realizing what is happening until it is too late. His aim is to slow you down or stop you from doing the work of the Lord.
- Confuse about your purpose. During a spiritual attack, often times things that was so clear you’re confused about them. Confuse about your calling, confuse about what God wants you to do, where he wants you to be physically or even direction your life is going. A confuse person cannot function effectively.
- Sickness. This is one of the methods that the enemy uses often to attack the people of God to slow them down. This form of sickness often comes on very sudden without any apparent reason(s). I can remember one morning I came under heavy attack. Within few hours my entire body, especially my feet, were under severe pain and I was extremely sick. I was like a walking dead.
If I didn’t have a little experience in spiritual warfare and didn’t have some friends that took nothing for granted, I probably would have gone to the doctor thinking it was a mere sickness. After my friends prayed and anointed my body, within minutes I started feeling better and the pain started to leave. The enemy realize that by attacking the church with sickness they will not be able to carry out the will of God as they use to, or even spend time reading the Bible and praying as they should.
- Loss of peace of mind, and joy. One of the plans of the enemy is to rob you of your peace of mind, to do this he will bombard your mind with various thoughts to rob you of your peace. He will tell you that your no a body, you’re not anointed, no one loves you, your good for nothing, thoughts of condemnation and guilt and so on. By doing this he wants to get you distracted and start believing a lie or seeing things that are not there. Not only that, but he will remind you of your financial issues and fill your life with problems so your life will be miserable, you stop praying as you should, you’re no longer the peaceful and joyful person you once were, and soon your living a broken and defeated life.
- Strong urge to stop walking in their calling. Each one of us was born to fulfill a purpose. The truth is that each one of us was created to be a miracle to someone else; someone is depending on us to walk in our purpose. My purpose is not your purpose as each one of us has our own calling. When we are walking in our calling the enemy does not like this so he will attack us as we are a threat to him. When a believer is walking in his calling he will live a victorious life in every aspect of his life
When under spiritual attack, we will have strong feelings to stop doing what the Lord commanded us to do. We will feel as if we can no longer continue and to abandon our post. Spiritual fatigue is the worst enemy of the anointing. Elijah wanted to give up when he felt tired and wanted to stop his ministry prematurely.
- Feelings of guilt and condemnation. The Bible says that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), however, many Christians are feeling condemn for things that God has already forgiven them for. Many live their life feeling unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness. This attack of the enemy is to keep the believer defeated and never amounting to his or her full potential. God will never condemn anyone or leave them in guilt.
- Questioning direction and call of God upon your life. There was a time when the calling of God upon your life was so clear and you were filled with vigor and great determination to carry out the will of God, but now you are confuse and wondering if you are actually being call for ministry. You start questioning the direction your life and ministry is going and no longer think it’s going the way it should.
What the enemy has done is that he has released some of his dangerous assassins or weapons: spirit of confusion, shame, intimidation, persecution, and other issues in your life with the intention of causing you to question if God had actually called you to ministry. The person that is being attack will start questioning prophetic words, visions and dreams, and choices they made in the past; things that were once clear is now no more clear.
The plan of the enemy is to cause you to throw in the towel; when you do that then you will no longer be under the covering of God and he can move into totally destroying you once and for all.
Please see my other article: Under Spiritual Attack? Then it’s Time to Fight Back
Have an experience of being attack by the enemy? Have any question? Want to contribute anything to this article, please leave a comment below
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