Armored in Faith: Conquering the Unseen Forces in Spiritual Warfare

Ready to face an unseen enemy? It's time to arm yourself for the spiritual battles that rage around us every day. Drawing from my own experiences, this episode sheds a light on the spiritual struggle that all Christians face - not against physical entities, but against the unseen forces of evil. 

Feel an echo in your life, a surge in temptations, or a vague restlessness? Join me as we navigate this spiritual turbulence by equipping ourselves with the armor of God as detailed in the scripture. We'll discuss how these spiritual battles subtly influence our work, relationships, and even our sleep. This episode is an essential guide for any Christian seeking to understand and conquer the spiritual warfare happening around them. Learn how to stand firm and weather the storm.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

What's going on everybody? Welcome to the Parallel Christian Society podcast. My name is Andrew Torba, I'm the CEO of Gapcom and your host. So today we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare.

Speaker 1: 0:23

You know, over the past couple of weeks I've sort of felt this tremendous spiritual war going on, and if you're a Christian you can certainly relate to this. But it seems that you know I've sort of been over target lately spiritually and with my work, and so the enemy is not pleased, to say the least. And typically when I get sort of aligned spiritually, I feel like I'm making real progress in discipling my family, discipling my children and growing closer to God and, you know, maturing in my faith and also, you know, making a big impact with my work in glorifying God and, you know, advancing the kingdom. And whenever I sort of hit a stride with this, you know the darkness sort of in the background, the dark forces, the principalities, you know they start to pick up their attacks and this sort of manifests in a lot of different ways. You know I'm finding it difficult to sleep, and not because I'm anxious about anything or you know anything like that, but it's just. I feel I can sort of sense the spiritual warfare going on around me and you know I've talked with a few friends about this this week and they're noticing something similar, you know, in their own lives, where they're sort of hitting strides with, you know, conquering their sin and temptation, and you know they'll notice that as they get further and further along, the attacks start to pick up, the temptations get stronger and you know they can sort of sense the spiritual warfare going on around them. And this is a very real thing and it's sort of difficult to explain because it's not something that you can sort of tangibly see. It's something that's going on, you know, in spirit form, right, and so you know understanding spiritual warfare. What exactly does this mean? So, spiritual warfare, it's a reality for Christians.

Speaker 1: 2:59

You know, as we're engaging in battle, you know, not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms, right, we learned this in Ephesians 612. And this concept, it can be confusing. You know you say this to sort of a non-believer and they think you're crazy, but it's important to remember that God has equipped us with everything that we need to stand against this enemy. You know we have the armor of God Ephesians 6, 13, through 17. The Apostle Paul is describing the armor of God that we are called to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Each piece of the armor serves a specific purpose in our spiritual battles and together they form this powerful defense against the enemy's schemes.

Speaker 1: 3:58

You know, I woke up this morning and I had an attack article on one of my last episodes and it was in Religious News Service or something like this, one of these religious quote-unquote religious news outlets. I think it's Religious News Service. It's actually a pretty big one and you know, this guy wrote this whole article about how I believe that there's this conspiracy to take Christ out of Christmas. You know, as I mentioned in my last episode, and he made it seem like this is something that I sort of just came up with. When you listen to the last episode, all I did was pull up an article and it was in a Jewish magazine or a Jewish news source, written by a Jewish journalist who was citing a Jewish author talking about the Jewish songwriters of all of these Christmas quote-unquote Christmas songs that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas, right, and, using their own words, like just reading this article. That was what the vast majority of the episode was about, and so this guy took this episode and spun it into this whole article, you know, trying to defame me and attack me for simply reading the words of what these other people have said about these songs and about their intent or what the purpose of the songs is, which is, if you recall and you listen to the last episode, to De Christ Christmas and make it into a holiday about snow.

Speaker 1: 5:49

So you know, I woke up to that attack this morning and then I also woke up to Owen Strayhan attacking me. Now, owen loves to attack people to his right. He loves to attack people, um, brothers in Christ, but you know, when it comes to attacking the people or criticizing the people that are dismantling our society or dismantling Christian values, you know that's sort of that's a no-no, not allowed to do that. And so Owen has, uh, has, blocked me on X for quite some time now and out of nowhere, today he decides to unblock me, call me out by name and tag me and um, attack me, and so I'm a counterpuncher. You know I don't go around trying to pick fights and, um, most of the time I'm sort of responding in good faith. So if you're going to come at me, you know you can expect a response. And so I responded to him and he just got ratioed like no tomorrow and dug himself into a pretty big hole today.

Speaker 1: 7:15

But you know, my point in bringing these two things up is it's just I seem to be over-target because I'm getting attacked from these regime puppets in big Eva circles and in the media and I've been feeling the attacks of spiritual warfare sort of all around me. Honestly, it's been making it difficult to sleep and it's been weighing on me. But what it does is it sort of strengthens my faith and I've been putting on the armor of God, as we're told to do in these situations, and standing firm in my faith. You know, as we face these spiritual battles, it's essential that we stand firm in our faith and we trust in God's protection. James 4-7 tells us to submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Speaker 1: 8:14

By submitting to God we can resist the enemy and overcome the spiritual attacks that we face. You have to recognize that. You know we're dealing with these powers and principalities and these battles are sort of going on in the heavenly realms. It's not something that we can defeat on our own. We are utterly helpless on our own. Our own flesh can do nothing to battle against you know the spiritual warfare that's going on around us. But God has given us these tools. He's given us this armor and his word. And if we submit to him and if we resist the devil now understand the words here right resist the devil. It doesn't say to go fight the devil, it says to resist him and he will flee from you. How do we resist? By submitting to God. It's not something that we're doing ourselves, it's having faith and allowing him to do the work for you and through you. And so you know, a vital aspect of spiritual warfare is prayer. Prayer not only strengthens our relationship with God, but it also serves as a powerful weapon against the enemy.

Speaker 1: 9:44

In addition to prayer, having a strong community of believers around you is essential fellowship, you know, having people that you can go to. I mentioned earlier that I was having this conversation with one of my brothers in Christ and you know these are the people that, when this is going on, you know you can talk to, you say hey, you know I'm under some intense spiritual attacks lately. Can you pray for me? And you know, as I mentioned, I'm bringing this up to friends and they're saying, hey, I am too. Can you pray for me too? Right, you know, chances are other people are noticing this. Other believers are going through similar situations at similar times, and you guys can build up one another and help one another and pray for one another. And so you know, having the strong community of believers around you is really essential.

Speaker 1: 10:45

In the book of Ecclesiastes we're reminded that though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. That's Ecclesiastes 412. So by joining together with fellow believers, we can stand strong in the face of spiritual warfare. And so you know this is going on. As this is going on, you know the Bible tells us what to do. You know we have a roadmap, we have tools available to us to overcome times when we're under sort of spiritual attack, and this is very real stuff. And so we need to understand what these tools in our tool belt are, put on the armor of God, understand what spiritual warfare is, stand firm in our faith, pray and reach out to you know another brother or sister and talk about it and have them pray for you. You know, that's that's how we get through these things, and so I think that you know, understanding this is really important because the spiritual attacks seem to be increasing. You know, there's there's sort of a lot of advancements that are being made and the truth is getting out there and I'm seeing more and more people return to the faith and they're sort of reaching out.

Speaker 1: 12:34

You know I get messages constantly. People DM me on gab, they send me emails, they write me letters saying hey, you know, I read your book and I've sort of shyed away from the faith for a number of years now and I started going to church again, or I recently got baptized, or I recently became a Christian. You know what? What Bible would you recommend? What you know? What pastors would you recommend? You know I'm getting these questions. I'm getting messages like this constantly and all glory to God. You know it's it's not me, has nothing to do with me. I don't want any of the glory. All the glory belongs to Christ. But good things are happening.

Speaker 1: 13:20

You know, amidst the chaos of this world, you know people are. People are coming back to the God and they're realizing that they need sort of solid ground to stand on. You know, the shifting sands of the world and the chaos of the world beckons people to want order and to want stability and to want solid ground to stand on. And you know, upon some self examination they say to themselves hey, maybe these Christians are on to something, maybe grandma and grandpa knew something that I didn't know. Maybe my way, maybe the world's way isn't the best way.

Speaker 1: 14:09

And you know they're, they're engaged in spiritual warfare, whether they realize it or not. You know the world calls it different things. It's anxiety or it's whatever you know clinical terms to try to reframe what is actually going on, which is in the heavenly realms. It's unseen to us, but we're certainly feeling the effects of it and we sort of don't know how to describe it. And the Bible is clear about what's going on. It's it's spiritual warfare and God gives us the tools to overcome the spiritual warfare and to win.

Speaker 1: 14:58

And we have to know, if you're going through a difficult season right now, to reach out to a fellow believer, ask him to pray for you, to pray directly, ask God To help you put on the armor of God and to stand firm in your faith and you're going to get through this. You know there's a lot of people that are struggling right now. There's a lot of people that are in a season that is difficult. There's a lot of people. But what I've learned and you know, myself included, by the way this past year was very difficult for me. You know we lost a family member and that was very difficult, and we had a very difficult year with the business, with the economy and the market, the way that it was. But we're still standing and through those trials, you know God was right there and my faith is the solid ground that I was able to stand on through many of these trials and I'm thankful for them as well, because I've matured and I've grown so much in my faith this year and it's just, it's incredible to see the work that the Holy Spirit is doing. You know, I look back at who I was when I first started GAB it's almost eight years ago now and it's just crazy to see how much I've grown and how much I've matured and how much stronger my faith has gotten.

Speaker 1: 16:54

And if I didn't go through, you know, all the trials that I've been through, all the difficulties, overcoming all the problems that we faced the persecution, I don't know that I would have become the person that I am today, and I don't know that my faith would have been as strong. You know, it's very easy to be faithful when things are going well. You know, when there's blue skies and things are all sort of hunky-dory, it's real easy to have faith, you know. But when those skies darken and you have to face some real challenges and real trials, that is when your faith becomes the solid ground on which you stand. And you go through these things and all of it is about God drawing you closer to Him, making you more dependent on Him, submitting to His will for your life and trusting in His plan for your life as well. And so when you look at it that way, when you have that mindset, you know going through the trials it doesn't necessarily take the trials away. It doesn't take the suffering away, it doesn't take the persecution away, but it helps you to get through it and to grow through it and to grow closer to God through it as well.

Speaker 1: 18:45

And so I encourage you, if you're going through a season like this, if you feel like the spiritual attacks have increased lately in your life, to stand firm in the faith, put on the armor of God, understand spiritual warfare, pray, submit to God, reach out to a brother or sister and hold fast, because there are good things happening. And you know, I feel like we're in a winter right now, both literally and metaphorically, but spring is right around the corner and God is doing incredible things. Right now. Things are going to get better. We're going to overcome these spiritual battles. We have one another, we have God. We have the tools that he's provided us to engage in this spiritual warfare, to resist the devil and have him flee from you, and we're going to overcome these spiritual attacks. So, again, I encourage you, if you're having a difficult season, you're going through trials, to remain constant in prayer and to understand these tools that have been given to us to engage in spiritual warfare. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Remember to speak freely. Christ is King.