Spiritual Warfare Part 1: What Does Spiritual Warfare Actually Look Like? – The Reality of Spiritual Evil and the Christian’s Confidence in Christ

By Phillip James, MDiv

Spiritual Warfare Part 1 – What Does Spiritual Warfare Actually Look Like?

Someone you know has been unsettled. Perhaps it began with an experience they cannot explain, or with a growing fascination with occult practices. Now they are asking, half embarrassed, whether something spiritually dangerous is involved.

“If spiritual evil is real, why should we trust Christ rather than live in fear?”

Two answers tempt us. One dismisses the question: the Bible’s language belongs to a pre-scientific age. The other finds demons behind every difficulty, so that a bad week, a quarrel, or a stray thought becomes evidence of an attack.

Both fail for a similar reason. Neither submits its explanations to Scripture.

The better question is this: if spiritual evil is real, why should we trust Christ rather than live in fear? Ephesians 6 gives us a framework for answering that question.

Paul Begins with the Lord’s Strength

Before Paul describes the enemy, he names the source of our strength. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Eph. 6:10). The strength is “in the Lord,” not in personal resolve, secret knowledge, or special techniques.

“Christianity’s answer to spiritual danger does not begin with a method for controlling dark powers. It begins with the sufficiency of the Lord we already trust.”

Then the command: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).

God supplies the armor, and believers must put it on. “Wiles” points to scheming and craft. Spiritual opposition can work through deception and temptation, as well as through intimidation.

So Christianity’s answer to spiritual danger does not begin with a method for controlling dark powers. It begins with the sufficiency of the Lord we already trust.

The Enemy Is Real, but People Are Not the Ultimate Enemy

Paul does not minimize the danger. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The opposition is real, organized, and spiritual.

“Taking spiritual evil seriously means letting Scripture set the limits of what we claim as well as what we deny.”

Peter says the same in plainer words. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith” (1 Pet. 5:8-9).

The lion is real, and he is described as prowling and hunting, not as holding the church’s fate. The command is not to be frantic but to be sober, watchful, and steadfast.

“Not against flesh and blood” keeps us from treating human adversaries as the ultimate enemy. It does not remove human responsibility. People still choose what they do, and wrongdoing is still wrongdoing. Paul identifies the deeper conflict behind the visible one.

Nor does he license diagnosis. Nothing in Ephesians 6 tells us to read every illness, conflict, or disturbing thought as demonic. And the particular possession described in Mark 5 is not the same thing as the warfare addressed to all believers here.

Taking spiritual evil seriously means letting Scripture set the limits of what we claim as well as what we deny.

Christ Names the Enemy and His Fate

Jesus speaks about this enemy more plainly than anyone. He calls the devil “a liar, and the father of it” (Jn. 8:44), which fits Paul’s placing truth first among the pieces of armor.

“The ruler of this world will be driven out. He has no claim on Christ and nothing in Him to grip. And he already stands condemned.”

And as the cross draws near, Jesus gives a threefold verdict. “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (Jn. 12:31). “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (Jn. 14:30). And again, “the prince of this world is judged” (Jn. 16:11).

Look at what the three say. The ruler of this world will be driven out. He has no claim on Christ and nothing in Him to grip. And he already stands condemned. These are the words of the One who is walking toward the cross, and the cross is where Paul says the powers were disarmed, though the final judgment still lies ahead.

When Demons Meet Jesus

Mark 5 shows spiritual evil meeting Christ face to face. The man was a tragic figure: he lived among the tombs, no one could bind him, and “always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones” (Mk. 5:5). Mark himself identifies the cause: the man had “an unclean spirit” (Mk. 5:2). Readers are not left to infer it from unusual behavior, which is a warning against reading the pattern backward onto anyone whose behavior seems strange.

“Mark 5 records one man’s deliverance. It is not a diagnostic checklist for possession or the basis for a detailed system of demonology.”

The spirits do not confront Jesus as equals. The man “saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,” and he cries, “I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not” (Mk. 5:6-7).

Even the request to enter the swine is a petition: “all the devils besought him” (Mk. 5:12). Then Jesus restores the man, “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind” (Mk. 5:15), and sends him home to tell “how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee” (Mk. 5:19). Authority and mercy meet in the same Lord.

One boundary matters. Mark 5 records one man’s deliverance. It is not a diagnostic checklist for possession or the basis for a detailed system of demonology.

What God’s Armor Equips Us to Do

Return to Ephesians 6. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:14-17).

“Jesus calls the devil a liar, and truth and faith are the armor that answers a liar. Spiritual warfare, in this sense, begins with believing what God has said when something persuasive contradicts it.”

Read as a whole, these pieces describe the Christian life itself. Truth means receiving what God has said and refusing falsehood.

Righteousness belongs to God’s provision for His people and shapes their conduct; the armor cannot be separated from a life of obedience.

The gospel of peace equips believers with readiness to stand. Faith is trusting God amid temptation, accusation, and fear. Salvation is confidence in His saving work. The word of God is His revelation, received and used faithfully.

These pieces are first God’s own. Isaiah 59:17 says of the Lord, “he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head.” Believers stand in what God provides and wins.

Paul’s repeated command is simply “stand.” He is not describing rituals or formulas, and he is writing to a church, not to isolated individuals. The armor also fits the enemy’s method. Jesus calls the devil a liar, and truth and faith are the armor that answers a liar. Spiritual warfare, in this sense, begins with believing what God has said when something persuasive contradicts it.

Why the Cross Gives Grounds for Confidence

None of this gives real confidence if the outcome is uncertain. Paul grounds it in what Christ has already done.

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13-15).

“Spiritual warfare directs the church toward faithful witness.”

Look at the movement. Forgiveness, the cancelled debt, and the disarming of the hostile powers belong together in one saving work.

Christ’s saving work stays central, and His triumph over evil comes through the very cross that saves us. It is the verdict Jesus announced in John 12:31, decisively won at the cross, and it is the same authority displayed in Mark 5.

But this does not mean believers will face no further opposition. If it did, Paul would not need to command us to stand, nor Peter to warn of a prowling lion. The victory is decisive, and the resistance continues. Christian confidence rests in Christ’s accomplished work, not in mastery over spiritual powers.

“Spiritual evil is real, but our confidence rests in Jesus Christ: the Lord who delivers, the Savior who triumphs, and the One in whose strength we stand.”

Scripture does not leave believers passive. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7).

The same Christ who triumphed also gave His disciples real authority, and He told them to rejoice chiefly that their names were written in heaven (Lk. 10:17-20).

Prayer, Watchfulness, and Faithful Witness

Paul does not end with armor. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Eph. 6:18).

Then Paul asks for something striking: “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:19-20). Paul’s request centers on boldness to proclaim the gospel, even in chains. Spiritual warfare directs the church toward faithful witness.

This also helps the person from the opening. Seeking spiritual power or guidance independently of God conflicts with the dependence on the Lord that Paul commands.

If someone has actually taken part in occult practices, repentance is the biblical response. But frightening imagery, an unexplained event, or an unwanted thought is a different matter, and these passages do not authorize us to call every unexplained experience demonic. Telling the two apart calls for sober discernment, not alarm.

Conclusion – Look to the One Who Has Authority

For the person who asked, the answer is not a dramatic procedure. It is to keep company with mature Christians, to pray, and to test every explanation against Scripture. If there has been actual involvement in the occult, it is also to repent and turn from it. And where an experience may have other causes, it is wise to seek ordinary help alongside spiritual counsel.

Spiritual evil is real, but our confidence rests in Jesus Christ: the Lord who delivers, the Savior who triumphs, and the One in whose strength we stand.

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Thank you for reading Part 1 of 3 in this series about spiritual warfare. In the next lesson, Part 2, we’ll be answering the question: What Authority Has Christ Given His People?

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