Believers and Spiritual Attack - Part 1
Lesson # 5
Spirits Attacking Believers

  1. Spiritual Forces Coming Against Believers:


  2. Why believers come under attack :
    • Stop their work for the Kingdom — 2 Timothy 4:10.
    • Keep them in defeat and not fruitful — John 15:1-2 .
    • Keep them unfocused and confused in their understanding of Christ’s work — Galatians 3:1-5.
    • To quench the power of the Holy Spirit in order to proclaim the Gospel — 1 Thessalonians 5:19
    • To reveal what still needs to be cleansed in their walk with the Lord — James 1:13-15.
    • Enemy doesn’t want believers to bring the light into darkness to set captives free — Mat. 5:16.
    • He doesn’t want believers to share the truth of the gospel with those in bondage — Luke 24:47.
    • Finally, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy — John 10:10.

      • The enemy will try to destroy our walk, our witness, our ministry for the Lord.
      • The enemy will try to steal our health, our possessions, our joy in the Lord.
      • And, if he can, he will try to kill us!

  3. Warnings from the Apostles:
    • Peter: Be aware that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion ready to attack — 1 Peter 5:8-9.
    • James: Submit to God. Stand and resist the enemy in the attack. He will flee — James 4:7.
    • Paul: Put up the shield of faith to resist the attacks of the fiery darts of the enemy — Eph. 6:16.
    • John: Test the spirits — 1 John 4:1.

  4. Important to remember:
    • Satan needs permission to come against believers. (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Luke 22:31-32)
    • He is the accuser of the brethren who accuses us before the Father, as he sees things in our lives he can accuse us of. We open doors, we should not go into. (Rev. 12:10)
    • Finally, the Lord Jesus is our Advocate before the Father, and He prays and intercedes for us in the middle of the temptation — turn to HIM! (Luke 22:31-32). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who guides us in all truth and warns us about the attacks (John 16:13). And Father God covers us under His divine protection — Psalm 91:1-4.

  5. Attacking spirits:
    1. Deceiving spirit:
      • Very effective against the congregations of believers with false teachers and false prophets bringing in wrong doctrines, heresies, lies, confusion, and in a sense another gospel—1 Tim. 6:3-5; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 2 Peter 2:12-19.
    2. Lying spirit:
      • Will bring deceiving messages that will not line up with what the Word of God declares we are in Christ. The lying spirits will lie to us and cause to worry about our health, our economy, our future, our children, our family, our job—the believer needs to use the Sword of the Word to stop this attack — Matthew 6:25-34.
    3. Spirit of control:
      • Very effectively used by false teachers, false prophets, and false church leaders against believers in the congregation. This spirit of control working through these people will cause congregations to be fruitless for the Kingdom—we know what Jesus does to fruitless trees — 3 John 9-11; Acts 20:29-31; Matthew 7:15-20.
    4. Spirit of lust:
      • This spirit comes into congregations of believers in many different ways and it will attack everyone in the congregation including the pastors and leaders.
      • Many times this spirit comes to attack through a very worldly sensual music being played today in many congregations.
      • We see the results of this spirit as many fall under pornography, divorce, fornication, adultery, and many other sexual immoralities — and all inside a congregation of believers!
      • David was a man of God and he was taken over by this spirit and it did much harm to his life and the life of his family — 2 Samuel 11-13.
    5. Spirit of fear:
      • This spirit works very effectively with a lying spirit. It neutralizes the believers and paralyzes him because he/she hears the lies, believes the lies, and fear comes to control that person. Fear is unbelief and not trusting what God has already given us in His Word. We, believers, should not follow a spirit of fear, but we should have power, love, and a sound mind — 2 Timothy 1:7.
    6. Spirit of confusion:
      • This spirit works with all the other satanic spirits in order to create in the mind of the believer misunderstanding of what Christ has done and given us: Eph.1:17-23