Direct Attack

People living in a war zone learn how to live carefully. They always go out in a group, so they can defend themselves from any attack. Everyone is armed and trained to know what to do if they come under attack. Someone will always be on watch for a threat danger. When the warning is sounded, they all take up a different position designed to protect the entire group.

We are engaged in a spiritual war. Yet many Christians living in the West function as if they were living during peacetime. They go through life casually almost oblivious to the dangers from spiritual attack. They assume that because evil is manifesting blatantly, it is not operating. If they travel into a different culture, they become very aware of spiritual warfare because it is out in the open, but when they get home, they go into peacetime mode. This is dangerous, because it leaves them vulnerable to enemy attacks.

Blatant attack works well in more traditional cultures, because people a easily intimidated. In modern cultures, the enemy has to be more subtle. Attacks generally come in two ways. One form of attack is the deceptive thoughts that are intended to lead us into disobedience to God or to grieve the Holy Spirit. Jesus temptation is a good example of this kind of attack. He resisted by standing on God’s word. This method is not so effective among Christians who know right from wrong.

The other common form of attack is sickness. The forces of evil frequently use sickness to cripple mature Christians to prevent them from obey God and fulfilling their calling. This method of attack works well in the West, because the Christian often does not even realise that they are under attack. They just assume that they picked up an infection or a virus.

This gives the enemy a huge advantage, as it allows him to attack, without the person under attack realising what is happening. It is almost impossible to defend against an attack, if you do not realise that you are under attack.

The fourth chapter of my book called Healing explains how to deal with direct attack of sickness. My impression is that this danger is not well understood by Christians.