The Fight is Fixed: Principles of Spiritual Warfare

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase spiritual warfare? Some people picture shadows in every corner, the soundtrack of a horror movie, or some dramatic clash between the natural and the supernatural. Go ahead and set that image aside.

I don’t blame anyone for drifting toward those ideas. There are plenty of misconceptions floating around about the subject. I’ve even heard the claim that every zip code has its own “territorial spirit,” and if you can just figure out which devil is assigned to your neighborhood, you’ll finally know how to pray. That may sound interesting, but it has nothing to do with the Bible’s picture of spiritual conflict.

Believers don’t fight the enemy by standing in the right spot on a map. And Satan probably isn’t trying to take over your homeowners' association. Scripture says we fight the enemy from our position in Christ. That’s not a geographic location. It’s a position of authority rooted in Him.

I do have thoughts to share about spiritual warfare, but before we get there, we need to clear out the clutter. Let’s start with what spiritual warfare is not.

Spiritual Warfare is Not Every Hardship

Not only is spiritual warfare not about superstitious or strange ideas about the spirit world, it’s also not the belief that anything complicated or inconvenient must be an attack from the enemy. A bad week, a flat tire, a tense conversation, a bill you forgot was due—none of that automatically means the devil is coordinating a strike against your life. Sometimes it’s just life. And sometimes a difficulty arises because our own choices finally catch up with us.

But while every hardship is not necessarily spiritual resistance, Scripture is clear that the fight in the spirit world is very real. Real warfare shows up whenever the work of God is moving forward and something steps in to stop it. Let me give you some examples of actual spiritual opposition found in the Bible.

Biblical Examples of Spiritual Warfare

Take Paul, for example. In one of his letters, he says he tried again and again to visit the believers in Thessalonica, but, in his words, “Satan hindered us.” Paul wasn’t blaming the devil for a travel delay. He knew the Gospel was breaking into new territory, and he recognized there was a force that wanted that door shut.

Look at the early chapters of Acts. The religious authorities repeatedly threatened the apostles, arrested them, ordered them to stop preaching, and even debated killing them. Scripture makes it clear that this pressure wasn’t random. It carried a specific intention: namely, to silence the message of Jesus.

Then there’s Acts 13, where a sorcerer actively tried to block the gospel from reaching a political leader. Paul didn’t chalk that up to a personality conflict between him and the sorcerer. He saw the deeper resistance behind it. And he responded with spiritual authority, ordering the man who opposed the message to be struck blind.

None of these moments is superstitious. None of them turns everyday inconveniences into spiritual drama. These are straightforward biblical examples showing that when God’s people step forward in obedience, something steps forward to oppose them. That is spiritual warfare at its clearest—not everything going wrong, but the right things being resisted.

The Example of Nero

There is even an example in history where it seems like a satanic attack was launched against God’s people through a major political leader. I’m talking about Nero, the Roman emperor. You’ve probably heard the account: in A.D. 64, much of Rome went up in flames. The fire tore through huge sections of the city.

Before the fire, Nero had tried to convince the Roman Senate to approve a massive reconstruction project—one that would remake Rome in his own likeness, complete with monuments and statues presenting him as a divine deity. When the Senate refused, tradition says Nero took another route. He sent his servants into the city with torches. And, strangely enough, the only district that didn’t burn was the one where he was already building his new palace.

Historians disagree about whether Nero personally ordered the fire. But everyone agrees on what he did afterward: he blamed the Christians. And he didn’t just accuse them—he turned the full force of the empire against them in a wave of horrible persecution.

Looking back, it seems that Nero wasn’t simply using the Christians as a convenient scapegoat. It becomes clear that the persecution had a very different intention. It was targeted. It was designed to silence the message of Jesus and stop the spread of the Gospel in Rome. Believers were arrested, tortured, and executed in horrific ways. Paul himself was imprisoned during this period and eventually put to death under Nero’s rule.

Christian historians have long noticed how this fits the same pattern we see in Scripture: the work of God moves forward, and a hostile force rises to shut it down—in this case, through a human leader whose pride and cruelty make him an easy tool in the enemy's hands. And just like every other attempt before it, Nero’s attack didn’t stop the Gospel. It actually pushed it farther than he could ever imagine. But there is no doubt that this was spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare Today

But if you’re like me, you might wonder what spiritual warfare actually looks like in the modern world. Most of us aren’t facing Roman emperors, sorcerers, or councils threatening to throw us into prison. And if you’re not in full-time ministry, you may assume your life is too ordinary ever to involve spiritual resistance.

But the truth is, the enemy pushes against leaders and laypeople alike. It often shows up like this: you take a clear step of obedience—maybe you join a small group, start sharing your faith more openly, or finally return to a habit of prayer and devotional time you’ve neglected. Suddenly, the pushback comes. A conversation that should have been simple turns unexpectedly hostile. A door that looked wide open slams shut. Accusations come from nowhere. An old temptation flares up with unusual strength.

Or it might be nothing more than distractions stacking themselves up in a strangely coordinated way. You sit down to pray or read Scripture, and suddenly your phone, your emotions, your thoughts, and your worries all seem to activate at the same time—as if something is trying to keep you from doing what you know you should do. The pressure doesn’t feel random. It’s directed. It aims right at your obedience and your spiritual growth.

Again, this doesn't mean we blame the enemy for everything. But it does mean we must pay attention to the pattern: when the right things – God’s things — are being resisted, it's likely to be spiritual warfare.

The Good News About Spiritual Warfare

I don’t want to leave you only with the awareness that spiritual warfare exists, or that you’ll encounter it at some point. I want you to hear the other side of the story. Because though the enemy pushes back, he doesn’t win. He never has.

At the cross, Jesus stripped the powers of darkness of their authority. The resurrection proved that the cross wasn’t a farce. And every time the Gospel has been opposed—whether in the book of Acts, under Nero’s persecution, or in the quiet pushback you feel when you take a step of obedience—the story ends the same way. The Gospel prevails. The Kingdom moves forward. Jesus wins.

So when you sense resistance, don’t panic. Don’t assume something strange is happening. See it for what it is. Remember that the enemy hates the work God is doing in you and wants to shut it down. But he can’t. Not when you stand in Christ.

The pressure may come, but the outcome is already written.

The fight is fixed!