The Basics of Spiritual Warfare

In this episode of the Press Movement Podcast, we pause our Bible-through-the-year journey to tackle “spiritual warfare.” This is an OVERVIEW of spiritual warfare, but will help you in your own studies.

Host T. Porter explains that every born-again believer is enlisted in an unseen battle—between heaven and hell, flesh and spirit, freedom in Christ and slavery to sin. Drawing on 1 Timothy 1:18 and Ephesians 6, she reminds listeners that our victory is guaranteed when we refuse to bow, wielding weapons that are “mighty through God”: truth, righteousness, faith, salvation, the Word, and—above all—unceasing prayer. Prayer isn’t a side note; it’s the oil that activates the armor and tears down strongholds. Porter urges us to fight the real enemy (principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness) rather than people, to discipline ourselves before confronting darkness, and to stay laser-focused, uncompromised by worldly distractions. Whether you’re wrestling with your own habits or interceding for others, let prayer be your reflex and watch the Word come alive.

#presstopray #powerofprayer #spiritualwarfare #armorofGod #faithfight #praywithoutceasing #kingdomfocus

Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everyone. Thank you for joining me today on the Press Movement Podcast.

Welcome back. So glad you're here. Today, we're going to take a little detour.

We're going to continue with the rest of the Bible next week. And today we're going to talk about the scriptures as well. But we're not going to continue in order.

I'm not going to talk about the remaining prayer list in Ezekiel just yet, because I really wanted to talk about spiritual warfare. And it's such a catchy term out there. It has been around for years, though, because sometimes when you start talking about spiritual warfare, people start thinking really deeply.

But I think it's actually just a part of our spiritual nature, that when you are born again, you are born into a war. You're born into a war between heaven and hell, between God and the enemy, a war for souls, and a war for this world to come to Christ. So we are constantly fighting.

We fight for ourselves. We fight for others. But there's constantly a war.

Even Paul notes that he has a war even in his members. There's a war inside of you, a war between your flesh and your spirit, between the natural man and the spiritual man. They don't think the same.

All of that means you're in a battle. And yet, it's a battle we sign up for, because I'd rather be fighting to be free and have the liberty of Christ than be a slave to the enemy. And in this war, you're going to choose a side no matter what.

And even when you say, I'm not ready to choose, I would say to you, the absence of a decision is still a decision. And so, we who love God and have devoted our lives to Him, we that are born of His name, that have His Spirit, have the Holy Ghost, even as they did in Acts, we are commanded through the letter that Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1.18 to war a good warfare. He said, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.

He's saying, Timothy, I want you to fight right. I want you to fight well. I want you to not surrender.

One of the key things when we start talking about spiritual warfare is recognizing we do not have to lose. We are already guaranteed in the end of this book to win. We are guaranteed, in fact, that even when it looks like we're losing or even when it looks like we might fail, if we'll just hang on.

The Bible says, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, in Ephesians 6, as long as you don't quit, don't bow, when you're living right before God, as long as you don't surrender, you will win. But spiritual warfare is not just defensive, meaning it's not just to teach us how to handle the punches that the enemy throws at us. It is also offensive.

And that's why it's important to realize what we have to fight with. We are not a weak people. The spiritual DNA that we have through the blood of the lamb, through the blood of Jesus Christ, that spiritual DNA that made us his children, Galatians 3, 26 and 27 says, when we were baptized into him, that we put on and that spiritual DNA we obtained because he sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, I'm a father, Galatians 4, 6 says, that DNA that made us his children, it has no failure in it.

It has a fail safe gene. It has a gene that just won't let us fail. And so we are tempted often or pushed because the enemy wants us to quit or surrender.

But as long as we stand still, having done all to stand, the Bible tells you just stand therefore. Sometimes your biggest flex, your biggest show of strength is that all of the things that came against you did not move you. It did not make you bow.

It did not make you surrender your position. Sometimes that is the biggest show that whatever the enemy is trying, whatever he's warring against me with, I'm still here. And in any war, the objective is always to take territory, take riches and take land.

But when you keep standing, you're telling the enemy, you can't have this territory. You can't have what God gave me and you cannot have me. That's the mindset Timothy is to have when Paul tells him war a good warfare in first Timothy 1 18.

The Bible teaches us what we're fighting against. The Bible says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. When I look at this passage in second Corinthians 10, three and four, it's first of all, letting us know that what God gave us to fight with, it's not something you hold with your hands.

It's not something you use to beat up other people. It is spiritual. It's not fleshly.

It is so important. I've said this repeatedly on this podcast. I think I've posted it.

When it comes to God, when you're still fighting faces and fighting people, you're really not even in the battle yet. You need to learn how to get to the real fight, get to the spirit behind that person, get to the things that are motivating them, the things that are trying to pull strings behind the scenes. That's where we fight.

We don't waste our time on fighting people because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're meant to pull down strongholds, things that have been established as forts, as barriers. They've been there a long time. What our warfare does is pull them down, but it's not through fleshly acts.

It's through war. Paul admonishes us in this same chapter that though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, meaning just what I've been saying. We don't chase a fight with a person.

We don't worry about fighting their faces. When we fight spiritually, we're not fighting people per se, but we're coming for the strongholds. We're casting down imaginations.

We're casting things down that bring themselves high against what you know about God. When you're wrestling between, I know this about God, but this looks so big or this looks so hard. This looks so grand.

Those are the kinds of things that are trying to exalt themselves against what you know, and there you fight. It gives us the ability to arrest our thoughts to the obedience of Christ and to have a readiness to revenge. Ephesians 6, though, tells us what He gave us to fight with and also what we are to fight in terms of targets.

Ephesians 6 encourages us, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I love this verse because when you can't be strong in you, be strong in Him. He makes up the difference.

The Bible says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That word wiles means methods. You need to take on all God has given you to protect yourself.

He's about to go into the different pieces of what He's given. You need to take it all because in taking these things, you'll be able to stand. Ephesians lists for us some additional targets that are not flesh and blood, but that are principalities, powers against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual weakness in high places, principalities, authorities, or even government when it's evil, against those who are in control, though we can't see them.

The Bible says that's who you are to fight against, spiritual weakness in high places. These are things we are to wrestle with. We are to fight with.

You don't fight it by making a post. You don't fight it by staging a protest per se. You fight it where the real fight is, attack it spiritually.

In going into more detail about how to attack it spiritually, He first tells you to be prepared, to get your armor on. You don't go into battle all exposed. He tells you to have your loins good about with truth, have truth in your inward parts, in your secret parts, in the things everybody don't see, everybody doesn't touch.

Be honest there, be clear there, and have on the breastplate of righteousness. Let right be in your heart. Let right flow through you.

Let right protect you. He says, and your feet shoved with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You see how Jesus prepared to preach this gospel? It's not just that He walked before us, it's how He walked before us.

That shows us the pattern for the way that we are to walk. The Bible also says, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Whatever the enemy tries to throw at you, it can get caught and trapped and stopped by your faith.

Likewise, the Bible says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So you have this helmet covering your mind is the fact He has saved you and is saving you. It is salvation that keeps my mind steady, keeps my mind protected, keeps my mind focused.

And finally, the last piece of armor He lists is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The Bible teaches us about His word. You see, the word can be taken in the form of just head knowledge.

There's plenty of people who can quote scriptures and give you references and tell you this verse says that and that verse says this. And they have the head knowledge of the word, but they miss the spirit of the word. Both are important when it comes to the word, not just being able to recite it, but being able to apply it.

You see, this word of God is alive. The Bible says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing ascender of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts. The first thing the scripture notes the word of God as is that it's quick.

That word actually does mean life. When God speaks, His word comes to be and comes to do whatever is necessary to accomplish what He sent it to do. It becomes alive.

And so there's a part of this word that yes, you can recite. Yes, you can quote, but to really know it, you have to know the spirit of what He's saying, not just the letter of it, because the Lord has called us away from the letter of the law. The Bible states in Romans 7 and 6, but now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

In other words, now He wants us to follow Him, not just because of a rule book, not just programmed if you would, but with the heart of the matter as well, with the heart of what He's wanting. So yes, He has absolutes and things we have to follow. We don't kill.

We don't steal. We do say children obey your parents. There's things we still do that we are keeping the letter of the law, but He wants us to do it also fulfilling the spirit of it, to not just do, but to do well, to do with love, to do in obedience to Him with the heart that's submitted.

The word is what He gave us to fight with, is what Ephesians is letting us know, this sword of the spirit. But how do you do that? How do you fight? How do you war good warfare? What does that look like? After listing all this armor, when you get to Ephesians 6, 17, you see that that verse ends with a colon. A colon helps you know that what's coming after this colon is going to add clarity to you and help explain what came before it.

And that clarity comes praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. How do I activate the word? How do I activate the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, having my loins girded about with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and my feet being shot with the preparation of the gospel of the peace? How do I do that? Because like I said, you can go to classes and workshops and take all these notes and then get home and still not know how to fight. But today I tell you what explains how to do all of that is He said praying always with all prayer and supplication.

Prayer is not something you just do part-time. Prayer is like the oil for your armor. It keeps it going.

It keeps it fresh. You have to pray. Prayer will teach you how to apply what the scriptures have said.

Prayer will teach you where God is in your situation. Prayer is how we go to war. Some people like to make it super deep when you talk about spiritual warfare.

But like I said to you at the beginning, everybody's in some type of spiritual warfare if you're saved. Can there be degrees of it? Somewhat. But essentially we fight ourselves or we fight the devil.

And I'm going to give you a tip. If you're out there and you can't win the fight against yourself, if you can't discipline yourself, if you can't make yourself shut your mouth when you shouldn't talk, if you can't make yourself obey God, there are two things that know when you're walking right with God. And that is heaven and hell.

And neither one do you get to fool when it comes to authority. Though there's some things God will do just because of his namesake, as he did in Acts 19 for the sons of Sceva, when he does it for his namesake, it still wears you out. With the sons of Sceva in Acts 19, they thought they were going to cast out a devil.

And they did. They did it in the name of Jesus who Paul preaches. And the devil came out.

But the Bible says it leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them. They got beat up that day. So did the devil come out because of the name? Absolutely.

But could they handle the devil that came out? Absolutely not. Because there's always two things that know when you're real, when you're walking with God, when you know who you're talking about and who you're talking to. That's heaven and hell.

That's how you get to Matthew 7, 22, when Jesus is saying to them, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils.

And in thy name done many wonderful works. And then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity.

So their works were casting out devils. Their works were prophesying and they did this in his name and that in his name. But at the end of the day, when they're not even saved themselves, just because God honors his name does not mean he's honoring you.

It doesn't mean you know him. So when we talk about spiritual warfare, I'm going to tell you, pick a side first, decide who you're with. You don't fight the devil and win if you can't even fight yourself and win.

But as you fight yourself, as you're learning to discipline yourself, as you're learning to surrender the things the Lord wants you to surrender, sometimes that's not sin. It may just be a sacrifice that he is prescribing to you as he did to the rich man in Mark 10 when he said, sell all your goods. You don't see him do that to anybody else, but that's what that man needed.

He may be telling you some things you have to surrender. As he does that, give it to him. As he leads you to pray and to fast, do it.

Because when the father brought his son who was a lunatic to Jesus and the disciples couldn't cast him out and they're wondering, why can't we do this? Jesus says to them, these kind come but by prayer and by fasting. You don't give steps when it comes to Christ without repercussions. Like I said, he may honor his name, but when he wants to honor you and know you too, he's going to give you increments of yes.

And one yes leads to the next yes. One win leads to the next win. He lets you grow in grace for the fight.

Finally, I'll say to you, stay focused. Don't get distracted. Because when you're really worrying, the Bible says, no man that worrieth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

You can't get so caught up in life that that becomes your priority. See, many people chasing many things. Takes much of your time and all of your attention and everything you chase is not wrong or sin.

But I decided, especially when I was considering going to law school, I decided that if that's not where the Lord best wanted me at this time, I didn't want to go. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with law school. I'm not talking about lawyers.

I'm talking about me. I'm talking about the time it would take. And I'm talking about the amount of focus it would have taken for me.

And I just prayed about it because in my heart, I was saying, God, I can do a lot of good for a lot of people if I go ahead and go to law school. It's something I'd always wanted to do. And I could see the avenue and the need for it in my community and all of that.

There's nothing wrong with that. But I felt the Holy Ghost not letting me do it. Why? Because I need to focus.

And as good as the degree can be, he didn't want that for me at this time. And that's okay. I have to focus.

I can't get too caught up in life. I can't get too burdened by life. Had to learn how to cast my cares upon him, how to throw at him the things I know I can't handle and the things I think I can and let him handle it for me.

Had to learn how to let my burdens be safe with him and come to him when I'm burdened and heavy laden and let him give me rest. I have to focus. And I'm telling you, you can't go into war scattered in yourself.

Focus. Because the way we fight and all the things he gave us to fight with, they require activation by praying always. Apply prayer to every fight.

Apply prayer to every strategy. Let prayer be your reflex. And watch that word saturate in your heart.

Watch it come to life. I pray today that this has helped you and that you will decide to pursue every fight God will give you. Not as one who is nervous or timid or scared, but as one who goes from victory to victory, from win to win.

And you will see and testify that prayer reaches every single situation. Have a blessed day. Join the movement.

Join the community. Like, share and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.