Am I Under Spiritual Attack or Just Going Through Life?

Both happen. But they are not the same thing. And until you learn to tell the difference, you will keep responding to spiritual opposition the same way you respond to a bad day. That gap in awareness is exactly where the enemy wants to keep you.

Some of what happens in your life is just life. Traffic. A hard season at work. Relationships that go through rough patches. A bad week. Not everything has a demon attached to it, and we need to be honest about that. But some of what happens has a pattern to it, a specific, strategic, targeted pattern that shows up around your gifts, your purpose, and your movement toward what God is calling you to. And learning to read that pattern is one of the most important things you can do for your spiritual life.

Does the Enemy Study Your Life?

Every serious athlete will tell you that studying film is non-negotiable. Before the Super Bowl, you better believe the Rams were watching film on the Bengals. They were studying where the strengths were, where the weaknesses were, which plays worked and which ones didn't. And the Bengals were doing the exact same thing on the Rams. That is just how you prepare for a serious opponent.

The enemy does this too.

He has watched you. He knows where he has been successful with you and where he has not. He knows which entry point works best on you. He knows which area of your life, when hit, will most likely knock you off course. Your children? Your finances? Your marriage? Your self-worth? Your fear of what people think? He has studied your film. And he keeps going back to what works.

James 1:12-14 (NKJV) says, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." He knows your desires. He knows your enticements. And he uses them on repeat until you recognize the pattern and shut it down.

How Do You Tell the Difference Between Spiritual Attack and Just Life?

Here is what I have learned from paying attention to my own pattern. When the enemy is behind something, it tends to show up around your movement. Around your gifts. Around the places where God is asking you to step up or step out.

When I was just singing in the choir and ushering at the door, the enemy largely left me alone. The moment I opened my mouth to teach God's Word and minister to women, the hits started coming with a consistency that was hard to ignore. My marriage got hit. My car got totaled in an accident I walked away from without a scratch. I missed jury duty and got served by a sheriff at my door the day after the very first SheShed lesson. That is not coincidence. That is pattern.

He will also use people who love you. In Rocky 4, after Apollo died in the ring, Rocky decided he was going to fight the Russian who killed his friend. And his wife, who loved him, who had seen what Drago was capable of, said, have you read the papers? This is suicide. You can't win. Someone who loved Rocky deeply was speaking the most discouraging words into his ear right before the most important fight of his life. The enemy does this. He will use the people closest to you, the ones who love you and don't want to see you hurt, to talk you out of the very thing God is calling you toward.

What This Means for You

Start paying attention. Start studying your own film.

When the hits come, ask yourself where they are landing. Are they landing around your purpose? Around the gifts God has placed in you? Around the season when you are stepping into something new? That is a different category than just a hard week. That is opposition.

And here is the good news. The fact that he is coming for what God placed in you is confirmation that what God placed in you is real and is a threat to his kingdom. He does not bother people who are not a threat. If your gifts were not dangerous to his agenda, he would leave you alone. The opposition is actually evidence of the calling.

1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV) says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Vigilant means awake. Paying attention. Recognizing the pattern before you are in the middle of it. That is not paranoia. That is preparation.

Shed the belief that everything hard is just life. Shed the habit of going through the hits without stopping to study what is happening. And shed the idea that recognizing the enemy's tactics makes you fearful. It makes you ready.

Take this to the Word yourself. James 1:12-14, 1 Peter 5:8, Revelation 12:12, Ephesians 6:11-12.

When you look back over the last year, is there a pattern to where the hits have landed? And does that pattern have anything to do with where God has been calling you to move?

This continues The Game series. Last time, we talked about why you keep getting hit when you are trying to do the right thing. Next, we will get into why the same struggles seem to keep showing up and what it means to actually study your own film so you can stop repeating the same cycle.

I teach God's Word weekly inside the SheShed Community, and this is exactly the kind of teaching that hits different when you're in the room for it. The replay of this teaching, "The Game," is available inside the community as well. Come sit with us.