We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

When to Do Spiritual Warfare
If the world is engulfed in spiritual warfare, how do we know when we’re confronting a demon that requires deliverance prayer, or simply confronting a “natural” by-product of the fallen world that requires medical or therapeutic attention?
A few years ago, a man from my church called me saying that he had been attacked by demons all weekend long. He was hearing evil voices, seeing evil apparitions, and “sensing” evil everywhere.
In many cases such a conversation might lead to a prayer team going to his house to engage in spiritual warfare, but in this situation I knew that this man struggled with mild schizophrenia and paranoia. When he took his medications, got good sleep and ate right, he was fine. When I inquired about these matters, he told me that the “attacks” began after he “felt God” telling him to “prove his faith by discontinuing his medication.” By the time he called me, he hadn’t slept or eaten in two days.
Once we were able to get the man back on his medication, eating right and sleeping right, he was “delivered.” We still prayed a warfare prayer over him, in case anything in the spirit realm was taking advantage of his “natural” infirmities. But it was obvious that this experience was primarily due to natural causes, not demons.
My response was based on my experience with this man. But what do you do in cases where you don’t know of any pre-existing mental illness? And what do you do in cases of physical infirmities, since sometimes—but not always—Jesus identified specific demons behind illnesses?
My answer is that, unless you happen to share a history with a person, or unless God gives you what the Bible calls “a word of knowledge” (1 Cor 12:8) about the particular situation, you can’t ordinarily know with any degree of certainty whether you’re dealing with a natural consequence of the fallen world that requires medical or therapeutic attention or with a demonic presence.
My advice, therefore, is for disciples to always shoot in both directions. Pray against anything in the spiritual realm that might be afflicting a person and, at the same time, encourage them to explore every possible medical or therapeutic remedy for their condition.
Even if a person’s condition is due to natural causes—a malfunction in the person’s body or brain chemistry, for example—this is ultimately an aspect of Satan’s oppressive hold on the world. Were the world not fallen and under Satan’s grip, this malady would not exist. So it makes sense to not only treat the infirmity on a natural level but to also revolt against the diabolic dimension of the illness.
So, whenever I pray for people who are suffering physical or mental afflictions, I include a prayer along these lines: “If there is anything in the spiritual realm influencing or causing this condition in any way, I take authority over it in Jesus’ name.”
Image by : 23 : via Flickr
Category: General
Tags: Demonization, Demons, Mental Illness, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Related Reading

God’s Aikido Way of Defeating Evil
Greg continues his thoughts on the atonement with this installment highlighting the way God uses the evil intentions and actions of his enemies to bring about good. And because this strategy is based in love, the demons who encountered Christ could not possibly imagine what he was up to. They ended up participating in their…

Sermon Clip: Mystery of the Miraculous
In this week’s sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses the supernatural gifts of faith, healing, and miracles Christians receive from the Holy Spirit. He describes what each of these gifts are, as well as how we can ask for them and use them in our lives today. View the full sermon here: http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon/mystery-of-the-miraculous

Storming the Gates of Hell
Jesus said: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18) To understand Jesus’ teaching here, there are a few things you should know. First, “Hades” was the standard term for the underworld, which means that Jesus was probably referring to the whole of the Satanic kingdom.…

Six Theses of the Warfare Worldview
The trinitarian warfare worldview seeks to reconcile our experience of radical evil with the conviction that reality is created and sustained by an all-loving, all-powerful God. Six principles form the foundation for this view. These principles are based on Scripture’s account of God’s battle with Satan as well as our experience with the war-zone reflected…

The “Christus Victor” View of the Atonement
God accomplished many things by having his Son become incarnate and die on Calvary. Through Christ God revealed the definitive truth about himself (Rom 5:8, cf. Jn 14:7-10); reconciled all things, including humans, to himself (2 Cor 5:18-19; Col 1:20-22), forgave us our sins (Ac 13:38; Eph 1:7); healed us from our sin-diseased nature (1…

Last Minute Preparations
We’re all busy here at ReKnew making last minute preparations for the Open2013 conference here in St. Paul, MN. It’s our first ever event of this kind and there’s a nervous energy and anticipation. I wonder if you’ll hold this up in prayer if you weren’t able to join us? We have a last minute…