I agree with Michael that spiritual attacks from Satan are designed not to annoy us but drag us away from trust in Jesus. Rats and car troubles? What about the gross wealth of western society keeping the church nice and comfortable and lukewarm? Temptations to sin, and the sense of condemnation after sin to keep us from turning to God in repentant prayer? And false teaching that infiltrates the church and teach us to rely not on God but on ourselves, that sin isn't our main problem, and the cross not the only solution and guide for our whole lives? And really painful circumstances like terrible sickness and broken relationships that cause us to doubt God, or persecution? Or division in the church over things that don't matter? Or the temptation to stand united with church groups that deny the gospel? Or the lure of worldly idols that promise so much but only destroy us and capture our hearts? I think these are more the spiritual attacks. But hey, I guess Satan can use anything to drag our attention away from Jesus, and God can use anything Satan comes up with to further his Kingdom (aka the book of Acts).

There is definitely a balance in all this. Years ago I remember John MacArthur speaking about a group that was praying against traffic problems in a large city. They viewed that as a spiritual attack and set about to bind the foul demons that were placing all those cars in the way. When I was ministering in the Philippines there was a church there that would cast all the demons out of the service before they started. The funny thing is they had to open the door so they could get out. Those are obvious extremes.

At the same time there is real spiritual attack that happens. I believe it usually (though not always) revolves around truth and lies. The devil wants us to embrace lies. God wants us to stand on His truth. You see this in wilderness during the temptation of Christ. The devil attacked with lies, Jesus responded with specific truth that countered those lies.

Ephesians 6:16 gives us a clue about where the battle rages.

“Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The devil shoots those fiery darts filled with lies, his aim is for them to lodge deeply into our thinking and begin to burn and consume our thinking. When this happens we start heading down those paths that lead to fear, insecurity, doubt and ungodly behavior. The defense is to get that shield of faith up quickly to block those fire filled lies. We do that by trusting in and applying the scriptures we have prepared ourselves with when we buckled on the belt of truth (Eph 6:14). We do that by using the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17). This is the example that Jesus gave us in His temptation.

Spiritual warfare can happen in circumstances and in sickness. Take Job for example. Mostly though, I believe it happens in the battle for truth against lies.

Sermon over.

Its tough to find a happy medium when it comes to discerning whether certain events are a spiritual attack. I also feel like a lot of Christians (in America at least) don't really believe/accept the fact that there are in fact spiritual battles that take place. But thats another topic for another day….

I really didn't think much of spiritual warfare stuff before this past year….and then I went to stay with a good friend of mine, whose roommate was being tormented by a demon and was having it cast out of her while I was there. Yeah, talk about a rude awakening. It know it sounds crazy, but it was the truth, and it was frightening.
A couple months later I did have a talk with that friend (and the girl who was being tormented as well) about what had happened, and got a little perspective. The fact is that we have already won, and Jesus has given us the authority over these things, so we have nothing to fear. Yes, we need to be aware of it, but our God is BIG.

I've definitely dealt with some spiritual attack in my own life, especially when I'm doing outreach or ministry (I dance with a Christian dance company and sometimes get to speak as well), but all that says to me is that God must have something big planned, and Satan is just trying to rain on his parade.