128. Spiritual Warfare Is Real: Facing Hard Times After You Choose Jesus

The moment you start following Jesus… why does everything suddenly feel harder?

If you’ve ever recommitted your life to Christ, gone back to church, or made a bold step of faith—only to be hit with anxiety, conflict, temptation, or chaos—you’re not alone. And you’re not imagining it.

In this episode, Danielle Venables breaks down what the Bible actually says about spiritual warfare, why the battle isn’t just about willpower, and how Ephesians 6 reframes everything.

We talk about:

•  Why things often get harder when you start chasing Jesus 
•  The difference between spiritual bondage vs. habits
•  How the enemy looks for footholds through fear, compromise, and doubt 
•  Why prayer is powerful, not passive 
•  A real, vulnerable story from my own family facing spiritual attack

You’ll also learn how to practically apply the Armor of God in everyday life:

•  Truth when lies hit 
•  Righteousness in your daily choices 
•  Faith when your mind spirals 
•  Salvation when you feel exposed 
•  The Word of God as your weapon 

Plus: Scripture you can pray over your children, your home, and your mind when life feels overwhelming.

If you’re a Christian mom trying to stay grounded in truth while everything feels like it’s shaking—this episode will anchor you.

👉 Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more families find real hope rooted in Scripture.

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Transcript

When Life Falls Apart After Faith

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So you've decided to follow Jesus, and all of a sudden your life is falling apart, you're really struggling mentally, everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong. And the question is, what the heck happened? Welcome back to another episode of Counterculture Mama Podcast. My name is Danielle Venables, and today I want to talk to you about a very real thing that happens, and I'm going to reference the Bible in this as well. Again, I try to keep everything that I teach on, everything I speak on grounded in truth. And the ultimate infallible truth is the Bible. So we're going to be pulling from that today, especially because I don't want to start to draw my own conclusions. I don't want to lead you into, you know, fear or or anything else. I really want to keep this rooted, but the Bible really is our weapon against the spiritual battle that is going on in today's world. So I want to kind of gear this episode towards moms, just because this is the Counterculture Mama podcast. And also between my life groups and my own personal experience, there is a lot of warfare that happens within the family unit, right? Basically, Satan hates everything that God creates. And his goal in life is to destroy what God has joined together and to steal God's children who are made in his image to steal them from heaven, right? He wants them to give their life to sin, give their life to unrighteousness, give their life to anything but Jesus, right? And that's why we're so prone to idolatry. That's why Satan tempts us with money and success and wealth and a nice house and a nice car and all the things, because he's trying to replace the one thing that is supposed to sit on the throne of our lives. And because we are created by God, we are created to worship God. And if we don't have God in our life, then we seek other things to worship. And Satan knows this and he uses this to lead us away from Jesus. So with all of that in mind, I'm just gonna start off in Ephesians 6. And this is from Ephesians 6.12. It says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. So right away, this letter of Paul's is explaining to us that there is a real enemy out there, and that you are not only fighting your battles in the physical, you are fighting against

The Unseen Battle Behind The Struggle

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demonic attacks, you are fighting, and the angels are at war against the fallen angels, aka demons, at any given point to you know, it's like this this gang war sort of of but of good versus evil that's going on in the unseen realm. And this is like a reminder that if you're struggling with something, if you're struggling with an addiction, if you're struggling with a coping mechanism, if you're struggling with an unhealthy pattern that you know isn't good for you, but you're still fighting, fighting it and trying to fight it with your flesh, right? Trying to fight it on your own just out of free will, trying to, you know, muster up the discipline to break free from something. There are some things that you are spiritually in bondage about. And the only one that can help break you free is Jesus Christ. You need the spiritual realm, you need to go to war in the spiritual realm. There's actually a movie called The War Room, all about the power of prayer and going to war in in the spiritual realm, the prayer of other believers, the and and just in general, right? Like reaching out to God and saying, I can't do this by my own strength, please help me. I can't break this porn addiction, please help me. I can't break, you know, my my relationship with food, my unhealthy relationship with food, my eating disorder. I can't get rid of it. Please, God help me. I have called on this a few times, even just with my language. When I first became a Christian, I had to work really hard at cleaning up my language, and it just kept happening, and it just kept happening, and it was like such a deep ingrained habit. And I didn't want to speak that way anymore. Not that I necessarily think that saying a curse word is sinful necessarily, and that's a podcast episode for another time, but I do think that as Christians, the Bible does tell us to speak cleanly, to speak kindly. And, you know, if curse word comes out in rage and you know, it comes from an unintentional place, or if it becomes so habitual to use profanity that you no longer have control over it. Like to me, I wanted the fruit of self-control, right? I wanted to be in a place where if I intentionally chose to use a strong word for a very specific purpose, that was one thing, but I really didn't want it to just come out of my mouth and even take me by surprise, which was what was happening when I was first saved. And so I was trying to clean that up and trying and trying and trying by my own will. And it took me reaching out in prayer to say, please help me. Like I can't do this. And that was when things started to clean up. Now, I'm not gonna say that if I'm hanging out with certain people, my language doesn't start to slip again because we do tend to emulate the behaviors of like what we surround ourselves with, but I was pretty much instantly delivered when I prayed that prayer, and it only came back like a week ago, like weirdest thing. Anyway, that's another side tangent, but but it's another thing that's like now on my radar, and now you know I can reach out to God again because it's it's more than likely not just a physical thing of I need to be more disciplined. There is something the Bible even says, like what is in your heart will flow out of your mouth. There's something going on there that is deeper than just having the self-discipline or just catching yourself doing it and being like, oh no, I didn't mean that. Oops, I take that back, right? So, anyway, that's those are just like some examples of ways that the enemy can come in and attack you, try to derail you. I was recently watching a reel shout out to Kayler Betts. If you don't know who he is, he has been like a truth seeker for as long as I've been following him anyway. And he speaks out against a lot of the unrighteousness and a lot of the, you know, just craziness of the world today and the corruption and and all kinds of things. And he recently started sharing videos about his faith journey. And he, you know, kind of he said like he he prayed a prayer asking God to reveal himself to him, and then

Why The Worst Week Can Hit

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nothing happened. And then he went to church, I think, and then proceeded to have the worst one of the worst weeks of his life, is what he said. Um that is one of those things that happens when you seek God, and it's not because God is punishing you. I will say God will allow you to walk through adversity if it benefits your strength, right? Like if it if it benefits your faith, if it benefits how how much you depend on the Lord, if it, you know, is gonna ultimately like form some kind of foundation in you, or if there's something that needs to be broken down in order for you to fully let God in. Like there's all kinds of different reasons, and those are just some examples, by the way. That is not an exhaustive list, but there are all kinds of different reasons why God would let you walk through adversity, and he never promises us to be free from adversity, but he does promise to walk through that adversity with you, right? And that's that's one of the ways that you know you might be being spiritually attacked by the enemy because you say, Okay, Jesus, I'm I'm giving my life to you, or I'm seeking you, or I'm curious about you, or whatever. And then you have the worst week of your life. And, you know, that's that's Satan playing checkers when when God is playing chess, right? That is Satan coming in and trying to derail you, trying to get you off that path, trying to show you that, see, the Christian life is gonna be miserable. Like, look at all the ways that your life went wrong this week. But ultimately we know that like that is not going to be the ultimate triumph because trials, this is in James somewhere. I can't remember the verse, but trials lead to steadfastness, they they lead to a firmer grip and a stronger grip to our faith. They strengthen us, they strengthen our faith. And so that's something to rejoice in, that's something to celebrate. And even Jesus told us that we were going to face tribulation. So when I say he didn't promise us a life without trials and a life without adversity, he says that in John 16, 33, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Right. And that's where that peace that Christians have, that hope, like it's it's not a hope on nothing, right? It's a hope that the God of the universe that has made promises to his people and proved himself to be faithful to his people for thousands and thousands of years, that when he makes a promise, he means it and it gets fulfilled every single time. So when Jesus tells us, I have overcome the world, he is more powerful than any affliction that you can face. He is more powerful than any attack that Satan can try to launch on you. He is more powerful than any hardship, even the really big ones, even the really hard ones, even the ones that feel like you're dying as you're walking through them. He has overcome all of that. And in Revelation, I believe it's 21.4, it says that in the end, times, like he will wipe every tear and there will be no more death and no more suffering. So we get to hold fast to these promises that God gave us even through the hardest week of our life, even through challenges. And I'm gonna like make this episode even more personal. I mean, I love Kaylor. I think he is great. I I think he shares so much truth and has so much conviction and has so much fire. And I think he's great, but he is not somebody personal to me. Like, you know, I'm watching him, I'm cheering him on, I'm praying for him, of course. But to to bring this on to a personal level, I'm gonna share with you what my family has been walking through. So, for those of you who don't know, I have three kids. My oldest is 12. And he recently, like around Easter time of this year, decided that he would like to get baptized. So he started to ask me about it. And my philosophy as a parent, like I'm a firm believer in what's called believers' baptism. So some denominations will do infant baptism, where it's basically like the parent dedicating to raise them in the faith. The denominations that I affiliate with the most do what's called credo baptism or believer's baptism, which is basically you believe

My Son Seeks Baptism Then Fear

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and then you get baptized to like seal that belief. It's like a it's like a public acknowledgement of I I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and that's like the action that accompanies that, right? It's like, so therefore I'm going to obey, right? Because he tells us believe and be baptized. So I'm going to walk in obedience. I'm also going to go public with my faith in terms of, you know, now everybody at church knows that you're baptized. And so there's like support that rallies around you in a really beautiful way. And then you, you in Romans 6, it talks about through baptism, through going into the water, it represents like Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, right? You're being, your old self is being buried in the water. And then when you come up, you're a new creation and you are like resurrected, you're a new creation in Christ. So there's a lot of symbolism with that, but I do believe that from the reading I have done on the topic, that there is great power in doing it after you have made that profession of faith. And so my parenting philosophy on that is that I'm never gonna push my kids. Like I'm not even really gonna suggest it. I'm gonna let them ask their questions. I'm gonna let them, you know, seek after Jesus in their own ways. They do come to church with me on Sundays. But it's really like when they feel like it's the next right move for them, I'm not gonna place that expectation because the last thing that I want is for my kids to look back when they're in their 20s and say, yeah, I only did that to make my mom happy. Right. So anyway, he told me that he wanted to be baptized on Easter weekend of this year. So I was like, okay, like, you know, that's cool. He's like, yeah, but I'm really nervous about it. I'm like, okay, well, like if if you're not ready, like you, you don't have to, you don't have to do it yet. Like, there's no pressure here. And he's like, no, like I think I I think I still want to. I'm nervous, but I still want to. I was like, okay, cool. I was like, maybe you can bring it up with your youth pastor the next time you go to youth group. So he goes to youth group and I pick him up. This was three days after our con our initial conversation. I pick him up and he gets in the car. He says, so I told Pastor So-and-so that I want to be baptized. And he said to talk to the lead pastor and who basically set up a time, and that's it. I was like, okay, cool. I was like, do you want me to email the lead pastor or do you, you know, want to meet with him, or or like, what do you want to do? And I just let him like direct things and worked in his time. So we did meet the lead pastor. And, you know, it was it was great, right? Like, here I am. I'm rejoicing. I am praising God. I am, you know, so excited that that my 12-year-old son decided that he wants to give his life to Jesus. Like, praise God for that. And then things took a bit of a turn, and he started to really struggle. He started to ask me a lot about demons. He started to have nightmares. He wasn't really sleeping very well. His mental health was starting to struggle. Like, there was all of this stuff that started happening. Obviously, like with that, like when you're not sleeping and you're struggling with your mental health and all that, like his attitude and behavior started to change. You know, there was just all kinds of stuff that that started to shift. And I was like, I sat down with him. I'm like, okay, like what's going on? Right. And he's like, nothing, nothing. He was like blocking me out, right? Completely shut down. Nothing. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Until one night he was like, hey, mom, like when you're done with what you're doing, can you come into my into my room to talk? I was like, okay, sure. And so I walk into his room and he asks me if I can like pray with him because he's been having these nightmares. He's been seeing, you know, these visions of this like creepy demonic doll. You know, he's felt a presence around him. Like there, there was just like stuff that was happening that I didn't realize. And this kid, like, I know some people be like, oh, that was just his imagination. He's just a kid. But this kid is not, you know, he's he's not someone that would make that kind of stuff up. And he's also somebody that would like tough it out. And if it wasn't real, it just he he wouldn't have brought it to me, right? Like he would have just dealt with it himself. He's pretty like independent in that way. But like when I tell you that like he was talking to me about what he was seeing and what he was experiencing and what he was sensing, and he was like shaking, he was crying. This kid does not cry hardly at all. Or if he does, he does it in private. Like he does not like to cry in front of people. He was crying, he was shaking. His eyes just had like this this look in them. Like the only way that I could describe his demeanor when he was telling me about everything that was going on was like tormented. Like that was the word that came to mind. He was being tormented. And so I I prayed with him, I gave him some scripture, I gave him sort of a a crash course on like, you know, if you're if you're feeling this. He was also getting sleep paralysis. I was like, if you wake up in the night, like and you can't move, like just say Jesus. If you can't say his name, then think it, think it as loud as you can, right? Like, but I know a lot of stories of sleep paralysis where that went away when people started to fight back with the name of Jesus. And so, you know, I I kind of like equipped him with those tools. I gave him some scriptures, which I will read to you. Like I said, especially as moms, like I just want to make sure that we're equipped with scripture in order to support our children because the enemy doesn't avoid targeting kids. In fact, he delights in targeting kids because they're the next generation, right? And so if he can get to them before they're fully formed, uh in terms of like their brains are fully developed, they, you know, are more rooted in their beliefs and things like that, like it's easier for him to take somebody over as a child than it is as a grown, fully mentally developed adult. And so, you know, he is targeting our kids, and we see that with the LGBT LGBT stuff in schools, we see that with the you know, drag story hours and things like that. Like Satan is targeting our kids, and it's no different, like, of course, those are the overt, outright attacks. My pastor actually says, like, you know, why is LGBT moving on to kids and moving into like schools and stuff? And he's like, Because every religion has a has a kids' ministry, and I was like, Oh, oh, you're right, and you can't unsee it once you see it that way. But anyway, he doesn't only attack systematically, he doesn't only attack politically, like there is no doubt that he is influencing the political realm in some ways more than others, or in some parties more than others, but he's definitely influencing that, you know, pushing pro-abortion stuff, pushing, you know, pro-LGBT stuff. I heard that there was some funding that went somewhere in South America from the Biden administration, and I'm not American, so like, you know, take this for what it's worth, but that the the Biden administration was sending funding to a very conservative Christian country in South America, and part of their terms and conditions for sending that foreign aid was you have to teach gender ideology stuff in your schools. You know, there's all kinds of super corrupt, even Canada. I heard, you know, they're sending funding to like Africa and stuff for gender studies and all kinds of crazy stuff. It it's pretty interesting to look at the way that it's impacted the political landscape and the way that Satan has has made his way into politics. Which is why everything is so messed up because we're no longer tethered to the objective, the objective definition of good and evil. Instead, morality is dictated on critical theory and feelings. But I digress. That is that is another podcast for another time. But I I want to make sure because he does, the enemy does attack kids. He does go after kids, and especially kids who are seeking Jesus, especially kids who love Jesus, who are reading their Bibles, who are going to church with their parents, who are seeking to be baptized, you know, those kids, the devil is going to throw them wrenches. And that's what happened with my son, with these, with these dreams and visions and nightmares and visions, and you know, this felt presence and just this overall unease, and that, you know, leads to the mental health stuff. It's like, and so when I was sitting in my son's room with him, having this conversation and praying with him, I asked him, like, how long have you been dealing with this? And he's like, for about two weeks. And so I pull up my phone. I think it was like a Monday or Tuesday night. I pull up my phone and I look back in the calendar. Two weeks ago, on that Sunday, we had met with the lead pastor about his baptism. And right away, the warfare started, right? He was seeking after God, and the warfare started. And so I think that's like a really important thing for parents to remember is that like there is a real enemy. And he is after your kids, and he is after you, and he's going to derail. If your marriage gets too good and it honors God too much, he's gonna attack your marriage. If your husband is leading too well, he's gonna attack your husband. If you know you're making headway and being a really good biblical wife, he's gonna come after you. He's gonna throw something at you to make you either think you're not good enough to, you know, cause you to revert

How The Enemy Targets Families

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back to old ways of relating to your husband. I can like speak from personal experience with this, with like learning biblical submission after, like I was a feminist when I met my husband. And over time, with his leadership and his provision and like a safe, beautiful love, I was able to like lay down that armor, and then I became very conservative, very anti-feminist, and then you know, began the journey into biblical submission, and that has blessed our marriage in more ways than I can even tell you. Same thing with parenthood, you know, if you're discipling your kids well, if you are pointing them to Jesus, if you are, you know, meeting their fundamental needs and showing them the love of Jesus through your actions and you know, having that positive influence on your kids, he's gonna attack your motherhood either with some sort of story about you not being good enough, or one of your kids is gonna act up and it's gonna make you think, oh my gosh, I messed everything up, I messed my kid up, I'm not good enough. Like, you know, there's gonna be all kinds of things and all kinds of ways that he comes after you if you are walking a path that aims to mirror God's intention for us. And that's why you need to be equipped to go to war spiritually. Like I said, I highly recommend the movie The War Room, but you need to be equipped to go to war in the spiritual realm as well as dealing with like the physical issues and the and the physical symptoms in your life. So I'm gonna start off by reading Ephesians 6. I already read part of this, but I'm gonna read verses 10 through 20. And this is called the whole armor of God. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm.

Putting On The Armor Of God

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Stand therefore, having fastened on to the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in spirit, with all prayer and supplication, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. So, a little bit of context, Paul is writing to a church in Ephesus, that is why it is Ephesians. And what I love about this passage is it he has the understanding that there is an enemy, and that temptation is not new, and the tactics that the enemy uses, God gives us protection against those, right? So the belt of truth. What is the truth? The truth isn't your truth, my truth, his truth, her truth, their truth. The the truth is God's truth. It is the truth of the creator of the universe. And I've said this before, and I'll say it again. You cannot have multiple truths because then truths will start to contradict each other. And if there's two contradictory truths, then it's not the truth, right? There is only one truth, and the only one that gets to define what truth really is, is God, the creator of the universe. So fasten the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is basically being right before God. It is walking, thinking, acting in alignment with what God deems to be righteous. And what this does, if you seek to live a righteous life according to what God tells us is righteous in the Bible, you don't give a foothold to sin in your life. Right? Like if you struggle with alcoholism, let's say, and drunkenness is a sin, drinking is not a sin. Drunkenness is a sin. And so if you know that you have a predisposition to drunkenness, that you know, you can't have just one, it just doesn't work, like been there, done that, you struggle with alcohol use, you can't just have like one or two drinks, it always turns into more, and potentially always leads to other sins as well, right? Sexual immorality, abusing a sp a spouse, like whatever it is, right? If if you know that that is where drinking is going to lead you, then the righteous decision is to just not have the first drink, right? Because even though that first drink isn't a sin, what it does is it gives the devil a foothold. And once the devil has a foothold, then he can go to work in your life, right? It's like opening a door and expecting him not to walk in. And so by by choosing righteousness when you're sober-minded, when you don't have a buzz, when you don't feel that initial, like, you know, slight whatever you feel when you drink, I don't know, then you're you're gonna be making decisions from a sober-minded place, and you're not going to be as likely to give in to the desires of your flesh. It's similar with relationships. If you have a wife or even a girlfriend for that matter, or a husband or a boyfriend, and you go to work and you meet somebody of the opposite sex, and they're kind of flirting with you, and you're like, oh, like you know, I'm I'm kind of flattered, and maybe you flirt a little bit back. That is giving the devil a foothold to the beginning of potentially an emotional affair, potentially just an inappropriate friendship, which pretty much is an emotional affair at that point, to potentially a physical affair, right? I I heard something from like a relationship specialist. I can't, for the life of me, remember who, but they were saying that most people, like statistically, the the highest number of affairs happen at work, like in the workplace. And statistically, like people do not go into it looking for an emotional affair, but they start to entertain things that they shouldn't be entertaining, and they start to cross lines emotionally, you know, telling each other about your problems, things like that, and then it evolves into feelings from there. And again, that's giving the devil a foothold, and then once he has a foothold, then he can attack you even harder. So that's the breastplate of right righteousness, right? It is armor, it is protecting your heart from sin so that you don't give the devil a foothold so that he can't lead you into bigger and more serious sin. Shoes for your feet, put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. This is just a readiness to move, it is a readiness to share and evangelize, and it's also a readiness that like Jesus promised us that he's coming back soon. And some people are gonna be like, Yeah, he said that 2,000 years ago. And you're right, but soon in God's time does not mean what we think of as soon. And even if you say, Oh yeah, like I'll be, you know, going to Mexico soon, is that tomorrow or is that two months from now? Right? Like soon is a very relative word. But you also just have to have to factor in that that God is not bound by by time. There's another verse, I can't remember where it is in the Bible, but it talks about how God isn't slow, but he's very patient, wishing that nobody should perish. That might be in one of the Peter's letters. I don't know for sure. But regardless, you know, his his slowness to answer a prayer, to come back, to deliver us from something, to X, Y, Z, it's not slow by his standards. He's patient because he knows what's best for all of us, and he's patient because he doesn't want to send people to hell. He wants people to have a chance to hear the gospel, he wants people to have a chance to repent and to choose him and and to turn their back on sin, right? So the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith. Again, when you have faith, then you know, if if Satan is hurling all kinds of lies and arrows at you of, oh, like this isn't that bad, you know, it's not that bad to look at porn or you know, whatever other lies he tells us that are actually harmful, but you can protect yourself from that with the shield of faith. Even things that, you know, he could he could be telling you, oh, you know, he's not actually real because he didn't answer that prayer about that one thing that you wanted. So, like obviously, God doesn't care or God doesn't love you, or God isn't actually real. You're just praying to nothing. It can be attacks like just all kinds of things. Anything that causes you to doubt, anything that causes you to question, it says, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, right? So it's saying he is actively going to hurl things at you that are gonna make you question your faith, and you're gonna guard it with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, again, another like protective thing. The interesting thing about the armor of God is you are only given one weapon, and that is in verse 17, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and you see this in I believe it's Luke 4, Matthew 4, might be both actually, but uh when Jesus goes into the desert to be tempted, which by the way is right after his baptism, so again, there's this whole like you know moving towards moving towards God, obeying God, and then being tempted. So that's a really interesting pattern that Jesus modeled for us as well. But he goes into the desert to be tempted, and Satan tries to twist scripture to make it seem like, see, you could have this. Here's here's the justification. Like, doesn't don't you don't you believe that? Didn't God say that? Like, and every single time Jesus fights that off by saying, Don't you know it is written and quoting scripture? So the sword, aka the word of God, is the only weapon that we are armed with, and it is one that we should know very well. It is one that we should continue to study and continue to look at like the big picture of like what does this mean? What do I know to be true about God? What do I know to be true about righteousness? What do I know to be true about the enemy? All those things so that we can fight back against his attacks. Yeah. So, and then it says praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication, showing us once again that prayer is beneficial, it is useful, it is something that we should be doing, and it is a way to also fight for ourselves and our loved ones in the spiritual realm, right? I pray protection over my family, like my husband and my kids every single day. And I, you know, I pray about everything, but especially protection, because we do live in a world with a very real enemy, and I want them to be guarded. So, this is one of those sections of the Bible that I gave to my son when we were having that talk in his bedroom. I'm like, you can pray the armor of God over yourself anytime. You can study the word of God, you can equip yourself with the word of God. You

Scriptures To Pray Over Your Kids

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know, you you can literally just ask God, please protect me with your armor. Those kinds of things. The next one that I gave him is first John 4 4. It says, Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And it's really that part. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world that we need to remember when we feel fear, when we feel like there's a weird presence in our bedroom at night because we're, you know, being spiritually attacked, those kinds of things, like he who is in you is greater than he who's in the world, and so you can rest in that because there is nothing in this world or in the spiritual realm that is beyond what God is capable of, and so when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you are filled with God's spirit, right? And nothing, nothing can ultimately touch you unless God says, okay. And even then, it is for God's will. You can look at the martyrs of of the Bible or even of like our modern day, you know, something like Charlie Kirk led to a huge revival. I personally know a lot of people who started going to church after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Stephen in Acts was stoned to death, and that led to a massive revival. So even if the outcome isn't exactly how we had hoped it would go for us personally on like a more personal scale, God can still redeem everything for good, and he can use anything for good. So he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Next, we have Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. Again, this is God promising that nothing that comes against you can truly win. You know, the enemy can attack, but he's not going to win. And that's a really important reminder. So I pray that one over my son as well. And I thought there was one more, but I don't have it open here. But regardless, like all of that serves as like, you know, reminders, scripture that you can take and quite literally pray over your kids. You know, I pray the armor of God over my kids. I pray that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. You know, like you can pray those things. It is super easy to do. You don't even need to have the verses memorized, like, literally, like print them out and have them, you know, or or copy and paste them into a note on your phone so that when you're feeling like, okay, maybe my family is under attack, you can quickly pray that over them. I will say, like, my son was going through all of that, and at the same time, like my husband had been starting to read his Bible, and I I was in a really good place. I felt like things were going so well, and then we had pardon my my maybe exaggeration, but like we had had like kind of a week from hell that week where it was like everything was happening at once. There was all kinds of different things. I was having one of the hardest emotional weeks I've ever had at work. We had a dog come and attack our chickens, and I was nursing our rooster back to health, and ultimately had to euthanize

Our Week From Hell And What It Meant

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him. So that was like taking up a lot of my time and my mental energy, and obviously, like emotionally very draining. We had some things going on with some of my son's friends that required our attention. Got a phone call from the school about something, like just all kinds of different stuff, on top of then my my son coming to me and saying, Hey, I I'm scared that there's a demon in my room, kind of thing. So, not that he like said those exact words, but you know, he'd been asking about demons all week, and then all of a sudden he like confesses that he was having these sort of supernatural experiences. So, all of that to say, it was like a huge heavy week that sent me into like this weird sort of depressive state. Like, I was just feeling like I couldn't get ahead, I didn't have motivation to you know, do the things that I normally do, even like getting into the word and stuff like that. And that is all to me, all signs pointing of like, okay, the people in my family, the people in my home are moving towards Jesus, and then we all get derailed like that. And that is an attack from the enemy. And again, as long as we remember that God has overcome it all, Jesus has overcome it all. We don't have to stay there. We don't have to like sit in fear and worry that, oh my gosh, there's a demon attacking my child, right? Like, because we have the protection, we just need to use the tools. So hopefully this like blesses and empowers some of you. I feel like this also ties into the Lake Point sermon from this past week. I will link it in the description. Below so that you can check it out if you want to. But basically, it was reading through Acts 27, and it was point they were pointing out like how calm Paul was in the storm because God, you know, calmed him in the storm, even though he was completely out of control, he had to place his faith in God. And you know, they they talk more in depth about sort of everything that I touched on as well. But yeah, like we really just have to remember that

Peace In The Storm And Final Hope

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when storms happen, again, he doesn't promise us that our life will be completely free from affliction, but he does promise us to walk with us through it, and he promises us that ultimately he will reign victorious over it. And those are the two things that bring us that peace that surpasses all understanding, you know. Philippians 4, 6, 6 through 7, you know, don't be anxious about anything, but bring everything to God with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving. And, you know, I'm I'm paraphrasing here. But then he will give you the peace that surpasses all understanding that can only be found in Jesus Christ. So that is what I hold on to in those difficult seasons. Faith just gives you when you truly know your savior, when you truly know your God, like there is just this firm belief that everything will be okay. And when it's not okay in the moment, you still know how the story ends, you still have an all-powerful father that you can pray to, that you can cry out to. In fact, he encourages that. And like I said, it's all for his glory, it's all for his purposes. And whether that's building a testimony so that you can share it with others, whether that is just building a strong faith so that you can pass that down to your kids. You know, no matter what his intentions are, he has intentions, he has a plan. We can fully let go and trust him with that plan, and we don't need to fear the enemy, even though we do have, you know, scripture and strategies for fighting back, right? Like you don't just have to be completely defenseless. He does give us those defenses, but most importantly, it's placing our faith fully in him because those weapons aren't gonna work if you don't actually fully trust and believe and submit to him. So anyway, I hope this helps someone out there, and I will catch you in the next episode.