You're in a War: Standing Firm in Spiritual Warfare
A vivid, pastoral call to wake up to the reality of spiritual warfare, put on the full armor of God, and fight from the victory Jesus has already won on the cross.
Watch the Sermon (Starts @ 37:30)
Message Notes
Scripture Reading — Ephesians 6:10–20
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Growing Up with the Spiritual World Wide Open
I grew up in a family where the spiritual world did not feel theoretical. My grandfather got on a boat at twenty years old and went to India as a missionary. He labored there for twenty years and saw almost no visible fruit. When he turned forty, exhausted and desperate, he gathered the leaders in his Baptist mission organization and said, in essence, “If I don’t receive the power promised in Scripture, I can’t go on.”
They laid hands on him and prayed for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That night he experienced what he later described as a river of power flowing through his body and a river of language pouring out of his mouth as he spoke in tongues at the top of his lungs. The next morning an angelic figure came through the wall into his room, so beautiful he was tempted to worship it. But the Holy Spirit spoke within him and said, “This is a counterfeit angel—a demon. Rebuke it.” My grandfather rebuked it in Jesus’ name; it changed form and fled.
When he was old and I was young, he came to live with us. I will never forget sitting at breakfast, chatting about ordinary things, when he suddenly paused, looked up, and said with quiet authority, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have no authority in this house. I command you to leave right now.” Then he turned back to me and said, “Anyway, John, what were you saying?” I remember thinking, What is even happening? I grew up with occasional moments where the veil between the seen and unseen seemed to tear and the things you read about in Scripture played out in my home.
That wasn’t just back then. A few years ago, after a service here in Tennessee, a man came forward with his wife and said, “My wife has a demon and she needs to be freed.” We stepped backstage with the elders. One of our elders, Mike Smith, walked straight up to her and, with calm but bold authority, addressed the demonic presence in Jesus’ name. While I went back out to preach the next service, they continued ministering to her in the back. I share this simply to say: this kind of thing still happens. Not all the time, but sometimes. And if we’re going to take Ephesians 6 seriously, we have to admit that there is more going on than what we can see.
You’re in a War Story
Psychologists talk about something called narrative framing: the way you describe a story determines how you experience it. If I tell you we’re going to see a romantic comedy, you already know the basic plot line and the kind of resolution to expect. If I say it’s a documentary, or a courtroom drama, you expect something very different.
The question is: What kind of story does the Bible say we are in? Many of us have heard that it’s a love story—and it is. But it’s a love story that unfolds in the middle of a war. First John tells us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus didn’t just come to save our souls in a private, internal way; he came to overthrow the works of the evil one.
C. S. Lewis once described our world as enemy-occupied territory and Christianity as the story of the rightful King landing in disguise, calling us to join him in a great campaign of sabotage against the powers of darkness. One of the enemy’s greatest tricks is to convince us that there is no war and no enemy at all. When that happens, we turn other people into the enemy—a political party, a co-worker, another church—instead of recognizing the real battle.
If you live in the middle of a war zone but insist on living like a carefree civilian, you will eventually become a casualty. That’s why Paul tells Timothy that a good soldier does not get entangled in civilian affairs. In the same way, followers of Jesus must resist the temptation to drift into trivial, distracted, entertainment-driven lives while a spiritual battle rages around our hearts, our families, and our churches.
The Armor of God and What It Reveals About the Enemy
When Paul describes the armor of God, he is not giving us a quaint Sunday school illustration. If you have ever been attacked with a weapon, you don’t treat body armor as cute; you treat it as life or death. As I prayed over this passage, I realized something that has helped me again and again: the weapons God gives us reveal the attacks we will face.
We are given the belt of truth because the enemy is the father of lies. If we are not anchored in truth, we will be vulnerable to distortion and deception. We are given the breastplate of righteousness because shame and accusation are some of the enemy’s favorite tools. Left on our own, our default posture is guilt over what we have done; the righteousness of Christ protects our hearts when the enemy tries to drag our past back into the present and tell us we are disqualified from living as beloved sons and daughters.
Our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace because anxiety and fear are everywhere. The enemy loves to keep us disoriented, restless, and on edge. God gives us shoes of peace so that we can walk through a world of chaos with a grounded confidence in his presence and promises.
We are given the shield of faith because the enemy fires flaming arrows of doubt at God’s character, goodness, and power. The helmet of salvation reminds us who we are and whose we are when the battle rages in our minds—when intrusive thoughts, tormenting worries, and confusion feel overwhelming. And we are given the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, because truth is not just something we believe; it is something we wield. We answer lies with Scripture, just as Jesus did in the wilderness.
So when you begin to feel overwhelming guilt and shame, unusual mental chaos, or a barrage of accusations and lies, don’t assume you are simply “having a bad day.” Often those are the signs of spiritual attack. You are in a war; you cannot afford to be naive.
Closing the Doors: Guarding the Access Points
From the very beginning, God gave human beings two basic assignments: to work and to keep. Work is about building culture—families, art, businesses, neighborhoods. Keeping is about guarding what has been entrusted to us, closing the doors to the enemy. Many of the most devastating moments in Scripture and in our own lives come through simple passivity: we fail to keep watch.
Paul warns in Ephesians 4, “In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” That word foothold (topos) was used for a strategic place from which an army could launch an attack. The enemy studies our patterns. He cannot read our thoughts, but he can watch how we live. Over time he develops pattern recognition: Here is the place where bitterness always creeps in; here is the place where lust is entertained; here is the place where greed and envy are never confronted. Those places become doors.
Sometimes those access points are obvious: a website we keep visiting, a secret relationship we won’t bring into the light, a habit of nursing offense instead of forgiving. Other times they are tied to deeper generational or spiritual issues that we don’t fully understand. In my own story, for example, some of my earliest memories involve being badly burned in scalding water as a child and, strangely, repeated episodes of water damage in nearly every home my family has lived in. As my wife and I pressed into prayer and sought counsel, the Holy Spirit surfaced a generational history of occult “water witching” on one side of my family. We responded the only way we knew how: we renounced it, broke agreement with it in Jesus’ name, and asked the Lord to close that door. Since then, that strange pattern of constant flooding has stopped.
I don’t share that to make you see a demon behind every difficulty. Not everything is demonic. But some things are. And wisdom means allowing the Holy Spirit to show us where we have opened doors—through sin, through unforgiveness, through unhealthy attachments, or through unaddressed generational patterns—and then closing those doors in the authority of Jesus.
Learning to Fight with the Power God Has Given Us
The good news is that God has not left us powerless. Ephesians 6 begins this section with a command: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” We don’t fight in our own strength. We stand in the strength of the One who has already triumphed at the cross.
God has given us his word, the blood of Jesus, a new identity in Christ, and real spiritual authority. Whether or not we feel authoritative does not change that reality. A police officer’s confidence level does not determine whether their badge is real. In the same way, our spiritual authority is grounded in who Jesus is and what he has done, not in our emotions on any given day.
I love the old story about Augustine. Before he became a great church father, he lived a wildly immoral life. After his conversion, one of his former lovers called out to him, “Augustine, it is I!” He turned and replied, “Yes, but it is no longer I.” That is the power of a new identity. In Christ we are no longer defined by our past, by what was done to us, or by what we have done. We stand as sons and daughters of God, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.
Part of learning to fight is learning a different kind of prayer. Many of us are familiar with devotional prayer—the “Abba, Father” moments of resting in God’s love. Those moments are beautiful and essential. But Scripture also calls us to warfare prayer: prayers where we stand in our God-given authority, resist the devil, break agreement with lies, renounce bondage, and contend for God’s will in our lives, families, and churches.
During a season of intense spiritual attack, an older leader came alongside me and helped me see that there were specific assignments of the enemy against my life, my family, and our church. He didn’t respond with fear or theatrics; he responded with Spirit-led, Scripture-rooted declarations and prayers. Sitting in his living room, I learned how to renounce specific lies, cancel specific assignments, and stand in the victory of Jesus. It felt strange at first, but it was also deeply freeing. I realized that if I did not learn to fight, the enemy would gladly keep attacking.
A Call to Wake Up and Take Your Stand
Ephesians paints a stunning picture: adoption into God’s family, a new humanity, unity in the church, love, maturity, Spirit-filled homes, and a life shaped by Christlike wisdom. But none of that will simply drift into our lives. If we want to experience those promises, we must be willing to fight for them.
Many of us have been gentle with the demonic and harsh with people, when Scripture calls us to be gentle with people and ruthless toward the works of the enemy. Some of us have allowed trivial pursuits and digital distractions to absorb the energy that was meant for watchfulness and prayer. Others have grown weary in contending for a marriage, a prodigal child, a church, or a calling that feels under siege.
My prayer for you, as you read these notes, is that this message would be a kind of spiritual intervention—a wake-up call to step back to the wall, close the doors that have been left open, and fight in the strength that God provides. The kingdom of God does not advance in our lives through passivity. We are invited to take our stand.
Jesus has already won the decisive victory. Our call is to stand firm in that victory, clothed in his armor, alert and praying for all the Lord’s people.
Closing Prayer of Resistance and Freedom
Father, we come into your presence with confidence because you have invited us as sons and daughters to draw near. We lift our eyes off our fear, anxiety, disappointment, and confusion, and we fix them on Jesus and the victory of the cross. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses all sin and for the cross that has disarmed principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them.
In the name of Jesus, we resist the work of the evil one. We renounce any agreement, bondage, stronghold, or open door that we have given to darkness in our thoughts, our bodies, our habits, our relationships, or our homes. Where we have entertained sin, nursed bitterness, or tolerated compromise, we repent and bring those places under the lordship of Christ. We close every door we’ve left open and ask you, Holy Spirit, to cleanse and claim those spaces for your glory.
We plead the blood of Jesus over our lives, our marriages, our children, our churches, and our work. In Jesus name we cancel every assignment of the enemy set against us and command every unclean spirit to leave and not return. We receive the peace of Christ, the armor of God, the assurance of your presence, and a fresh restoration of courage and authority to walk in what you have for us.
Jesus, thank you that you have already won the decisive victory. Teach us to live as people who are truly free—standing firm, praying without ceasing, and refusing to surrender the ground you have given us. We receive this by faith and pray it in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.