Latest / Arise Women of God / How to Recognize Spiritual Warfare
Transcript
- 0:00Have you ever walked into your home after a long day and felt an unexplainable weight just seem to press down on you?
- 0:08Or maybe you've watched your usually sweet child spin out of control into unprovoked anger?
- 0:13Or you caught yourself going from 0 to 60 in pure rage over a spill on the counter?
- 0:20You look at your family and wonder, what is going on with my family today?
- 0:26Perhaps you're typing how to Recognize Spiritual Warfare into your search bar because you are exhausted from trying to solve spiritual problems with physical solutions and you need to know if you're dealing with a behavioral issue or a direct,
- 0:42invisible attack on your home.
- 0:44Well, take heart, my friend.
- 0:45You are in the right place.
- 0:46And by the end of today's episode, you will be able to immediately identify the four primary psychological footprints the adversary leaves behind when he enters your household, allowing you to stop fighting your family and start executing your authority
- 1:03as a guardian of your home.
- 1:05We're going to help you solve the pain of home instability by mapping out the exact indicators that flag an emotional shift from normal stress to negative interference.
- 1:17We're moving from blindly reacting to operating with sharp discernment.
- 1:22Stay tuned.
- 1:24Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes.
- 1:33Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
- 1:37I'm your host today, Tamara K.
- 1:39Andersen, and joining me today is the fabulous Wendi Christensen, who is my co founder of Women warriors of Light and has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 30 years.
- 1:50And and we are going to be tackling the vital question of how to recognize spiritual warfare.
- 1:56Recognizing the enemy's footprints isn't an optional skill for a Christian mother.
- 2:02It is our absolute line of defense.
- 2:05Scripture shows us that spiritual attacks can look like normal emotional shifts.
- 2:11In First Samuel, chapter 16, verses 14 through 23, we see King Saul Paul plagued by a distressed spirit that brought overwhelming sudden changes in mood and provoked anger and deep discouragement.
- 2:28Yet when David played beautiful praise music, the environment suddenly cleared and the mood calmed.
- 2:36Isn't it great to know that we can use beautiful music to help remove the forces of the adversary from ourselves and from our home?
- 2:45In can instantly shift in Acts, chapter 16, verses 16 through 18, the apostle Paul encountered a girl whose words sounded fine on the surface.
- 2:57But through spiritual discernment, he recognized that the spirit behind her was entirely off and deceptive, prompting him to command it to leave.
- 3:07Wendi is now going to share from a clinical vantage point what is the absolute number one metric, the key phrase you need to listen for to see if an attack is happening Right now,.
- 3:20A lot of times you are going to feel off.
- 3:23That's something that I will hear when I'm working with people.
- 3:26They'll start saying, they'll come in and they're like, I just feel off.
- 3:29I don't, I don't feel like myself.
- 3:32And I haven't felt like myself.
- 3:34I think that's the number one gauge to know that, that Satan's working against you.
- 3:38You may feel more down, you may feel more sad than usual.
- 3:43Or it could even be I've started recognizing it in the important people around me, like my kids and my husband.
- 3:49They say those types of things too.
- 3:51Where a kid comes home and you get to know your kids and how they really are and their personality and their behavior.
- 3:59And I'll start seeing that they don't seem like themselves either.
- 4:03And they may not recognize that you may not recognize it.
- 4:05So sometimes you even have to listen to what those closest around you are saying.
- 4:09Like, you don't seem like yourself.
- 4:11You, you seem like something's really bothering you or something doesn't seem right for you.
- 4:17Listen to that, pay attention to that.
- 4:19And you can start recognizing it too with your kids and your spouse too.
- 4:23Do I feel like myself?
- 4:25Do I not feel like myself?
- 4:26Does something feel off kilter?
- 4:29There's usually something going on in those moments.
- 4:31So really start spotting the patterns and recognizing those patterns that you can see.
- 4:38There's four primary psychological footprints of darkness that we kind of talk about in our booklet.
- 4:44Our booklet is a great resource.
- 4:47You might feel some sudden heaviness where there's like.
- 4:51Like you're in a fog.
- 4:53So if you feel off or notice amplified emotions or maybe a fog, it could be the adversary.
- 5:00Follow this principle.
- 5:02When in doubt, cast it out.
- 5:05Just recently, our sweet son Nathan, who has low functioning autism, was playing a Wheel of Fortune game on his old Nintendo ds.
- 5:14He was having a hard time guessing the word and became incredibly distressed.
- 5:19And he was yelling and angry, which is completely opposite to who he usually is.
- 5:26I stepped in to try to help him solve it.
- 5:28And as I tried to help him, even I started becoming agitated.
- 5:32I suddenly realized this is not just Nathan or me.
- 5:36This is an adversarial attack.
- 5:39That was my cue right there.
- 5:41I vocally cast out the adversary in the name of Jesus Christ, including the spirit of anger and anxiety and overwhelm.
- 5:49And I called in God to fill us with light and peace and a sense of calm.
- 5:55The climate shifted instantly and we were able to work together to solve that Wheel of Fortune puzzle.
- 6:02It is vital to Remember that the adversary may be hiding behind a physical vulnerability like situational grief or monthly hormone cycles that he magnifies it.
- 6:14He makes it worse than it normally would be.
- 6:17That can be another indicator.
- 6:19Wendi is now going to share a personal example of how this spiritual escalation manifested in a sudden, terrifying rage in her early years as a mother.
- 6:31I remember when I was a young mom, I never thought I ever had an anger problem or an anger issue until I became a mom.
- 6:38And then all of a sudden, I went, holy cow, where did this anchor come from?
- 6:43I have never in my life been this angry, and I loathed it.
- 6:48As a new mom, I hated when my kids, even as they were toddlers, these moments of rage would come, and I would get to the point where I would hate myself because I would blow up or explode at
- 7:01my kid.
- 7:02And then I would feel extreme shame.
- 7:05Not just guilt, because guilt is like, I would feel bad that I did it, but then I would feel like, you worthless piece of you.
- 7:12You are this horrible, horrible mom.
- 7:15And I loathed myself.
- 7:17And I remember begging the Lord, please help me to change this.
- 7:24Please help me to get rid of this anger and this rage.
- 7:27This is not me.
- 7:28This is not who I am, and I hate it.
- 7:31And when I started learning about spiritual warfare, I started recognizing when I would go from 0 to 60 with rage.
- 7:40I knew Satan was attacking me in those moments, and that was my key identifier to go, he's attacking you.
- 7:47And once I saw it and I recognized it, I felt so much relief because I felt like I could control it.
- 7:52All of a sudden I'm like, I know how to control this now.
- 7:56I'd have to recognize it quickly and really fast.
- 7:58And that took some practice and some experience, because I wouldn't always recognize it in the beginning.
- 8:04But as I kept trying and working and processing it, I started recognizing quicker and faster how to see it and to go, satan's working on me.
- 8:14Okay, get rid of it quickly, Wendy.
- 8:16And then you start learning, and we'll teach how we do that.
- 8:19I started recognizing it and casting him away and casting it out.
- 8:23My kids started noticing a difference.
- 8:25I noticed a difference, and I became the mom that I wanted to be.
- 8:29Not perfect.
- 8:30Still will even have moments where I'll explode at times, and I recognize and go, whoa.
- 8:35When they step back.
- 8:36But it's helped so much.
- 8:39Sudden heaviness, sudden mood shifts, that 0 to 60 rate I was talking about, yeah, he can help with that deep discouragement.
- 8:47You'll start to notice division, sharp, biting Words that are meant to isolate family members from each other.
- 8:54Those will often be ways that he will attack you.
- 8:57And you have to see them and recognize them for what they are and call in the Lord to help push out the adversary.
- 9:04As you were talking, it just became crystal clear in my mind.
- 9:07If God's hope for all of us is love and connection, then the adversary's goal is division and isolation.
- 9:17And so if we can look at it that way, how does your home feel right now?
- 9:21How do your relationships feel right now?
- 9:24If it's connected and you know, you've got that we're working together towards something, those feelings are coming from God.
- 9:32If it's division and isolation, then you know that Satan's attacking, right?
- 9:38I love that.
- 9:39So, my friends, once you recognize the footprint, you hold the keys to changing the entire atmosphere of your home.
- 9:46You don't have to sit back and watch your family be torn apart by isolation or rage.
- 9:53You are a guardian.
- 9:55A guardian of your home.
- 9:56And you can stand in the power of Jesus Christ to help you sharpen your spiritual vision and actively track these indicators.
- 10:05Wendy and I have detailed this diagnostic framework inside our new resource guide, A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide.
- 10:14Six Empowering Steps to Fortify Home and Family.
- 10:17You can grab your free copy in the link below.
- 10:20When you download your manual, turn directly to step number three.
- 10:24Mastering discernment.
- 10:25We have built out Wendy's clinical checklist, the counselor's question to help you quickly assess yourself and your kids the moment someone feels off.
- 10:36Then move directly into step number four, the cast out and calm down Scriptural protocol.
- 10:42Sweeping out the negative tools out of your rooms, out of your family, and filling it with light and positive peace.
- 10:50Your home is a holy sanctuary and you can stand your ground when you stand with God, who is your general in this battle.
- 11:00Remember, you're not alone.
- 11:02And you can call on angels to stand with you and by you.
- 11:05And call upon sister warriors to help pray for you when you're facing an intense battle.
- 11:10So, my friend, until next time, may you arise.
- 11:14Do it God's way.
- 11:15God strong.
- 11:17If today's episode helped you feel a little closer to God, please like and subscribe.
- 11:22It helps us grow and ensures heaven's whispers stay at the top of your feed whenever you need them most.