How To Know When Your Under Spiritual Attack

5. Feeling helpless and overwhelmed. Are you feeling helpless in the face of adversity? That could indicate that you're being targeted. Circumstance is made up of two words: circum (circle) and stance (stance) (stand). To put it another way, you're surrounded by what's going on. It doesn't take long for overwhelming feelings to turn into despondency. According to the Bible, “Hope that isn't realized makes the heart sick” (Prov. 13:12). It also informs us, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the proof of things unseen” (Heb. 11:1). If the enemy can persuade you to lose hope, he may persuade you to abandon your faith.

6. Old habits and ways of life surface. Old transgressions begin to emerge in your life as the sixth indicator that you are under spiritual attack. What is the definition of iniquity? Some others define transgressions as old habits that your spirit desires to revert to when things aren't going your way—things that feed the flesh. If this starts to happen, don't ignore the Holy Spirit's warning conviction.

7. Distancing yourself from Godly relationships. When old sins entice you, the next symptom of spiritual attack is likely to be a withdrawal from godly relationships. Take a look around. Have you withdrawn from relationships with folks in your small group or at church? Are you finding that your buddies are becoming more and more carnally minded rather than spiritually focused? If that's the case, you're bumbling around the battlefield, and the adversary has you marked as a target.

a fifth “Breaking the Enemy's Attack with “Do Nots” Here are five things to do once you've established a stand against the enemy's attack “You must remember the “do nots.”

• Remember who created you. God made you to withstand storms. You've been equipped by Him, and you'll make it through with His help.
• Don't forget to pray at the right time and in the right place. A time of prayer and a place of prayer are both essential components of a good prayer life.
• Do not underestimate the power of collaboration. It's beneficial to be among those who have lived longer, accomplished more, and can provide sensible advice.
• Don't forget to stay connected to pastoral care. I've often witnessed folks who are being attacked and tried to aid them, but they refused. Don't wait until the enemy is tearing you apart to seek the help of those who serve in a pastoral capacity.

What are spiritual conflicts?

• Over the last 30 years, psychological study on a number of spiritual issues has been done. Spiritual problems are one spiritual issue that has garnered a lot of attention.
• People are affected not only psychologically, socially, and physically by major life challenges, but also spiritually.
• Natural disasters, accidents, sicknesses, and other stressful circumstances can put people's spiritual lives in jeopardy or cause them to struggle spiritually.
• Spiritual coping problems are attempts to protect or transform people's relationships with whatever they consider precious, such as their connection to God/Higher Power, spiritual identity, and religious community connections.
• Terminology. Many studies on spiritual difficulty use the phrase “negative religious coping,” but we and other researchers have started to use the term “spiritual/religious problems.” Why?
• Spiritual conflicts can be watershed moments in human development or “forks in the path.”
• According to several research, persons who are able to resolve spiritual conflicts over time gain and grow from them.
• Others may choose to temporarily or permanently withdraw from spiritual challenges.
• Others who are stuck in their troubles emotionally and physically deteriorate.
• Even atheists and non-religious people may deal with spiritual issues such as feeling distanced from, unhappy with, angry with, or abandoned by God.
• See Constructs/Our Measures for more broad background information on spiritual problems.
• Spiritual conflicts refer to disagreements with God/Higher Power, oneself, and others over spiritual topics. Distressing feelings and doubts about one's spiritual journey in life arise as a result of these tensions.
• Internal/intrapsychic spiritual conflicts—inner conflict about spirituality or religion
• Spiritual conflicts with other family members, friends, clergy, community members, or the greater culture concerning spirituality or religion are interpersonal/communal spiritual challenges.
• The 7-item Negative Religious Coping subscale from the Brief RCOPE is most typically used to assess spiritual problems (Pargament, Feuille, & Burdzy, 2011). For the entire Brief RCOPE and lengthier scales to more fully examine spiritual problems, go to Constructs/Our Measures.
• For additional information on how we define these two overlapping concepts, see Defining Religion & Spirituality.

What comprehensive empirical research on Spiritual Struggles in Coping with Marital Problems has been conducted?

• Despite substantial research on spiritual issues in other areas, there has been essentially no systematic research on spiritual struggles in marriage. Nonetheless, the Relational Spirituality Framework emphasizes that serious or persistent marital issues, such as infidelity, can lead to private or communal spiritual challenges with God.
• Prior research on spirituality and marital problems has relied on indirect indicators to determine if people feel spiritual struggles as a result of marital problems, such as frequency of religious attendance or overall value of religion in everyday life. We employ definitions and measurements of spiritual challenges established in past research on non-marital stressors to stimulate more in-depth study on spiritual struggles with marital problems (e.g., natural diasters, health problems).
• In practice, we have concentrated our research on Divine Spiritual Struggles rather than Internal or Interpersonal Spiritual Struggles in relation to marital issues.
• When it comes to interpreting and reacting to marital problems, we characterize Divine Spiritual Struggles with Marital Problems as having a confrontation with God. It's helpful to define conflict before delving into this definition. We define conflict as an individual's internal or external conflicts over his or her life goals and/or paths to achieving those goals. When troubles emerge, humans can be in conflict with God, just as they might have internal or interpersonal conflict. Problems in marriage can jeopardize life ambitions. An individual may have a disagreement with God about why marital difficulties have arisen and what should be done to resolve them. These conflicts with God might lead to negative feelings and thoughts regarding one's relationship with God.

For psychological research, how do we measure Divine Struggles in Coping with Marital Problems?

• We used the following three sub-scales (three items each) from Pargament's R-COPE to assess divine spiritual struggles with marital troubles in our transition to parenting study. These nine items were mixed in with R-COPE sub-scale items from other sub-scales. For additional information on the history and development of the R-COPE and Spiritual Struggles Sub-scales, see Constructs/Our Measures.
• Instructions for dealing with marital troubles include the following: The sentences that follow outline particular ways that people might manage with the inevitable marital problems that arise from time to time. When you think about the challenges you've had in your marriage, how much do you use each of the following to deal with them? When I'm having marital issues, I…

How might Divine Spiritual Struggles in Coping with Marital Problems benefit or hinder a marriage or couple relationship?

• To the best of our knowledge, our study on the transition to parenthood is the first attempt to investigate how much married couples experience spiritual struggles as a result of marital difficulties, and what impact these divine spiritual struggles have on the marriage and each spouse's psychological or spiritual well-being. We are presently doing analyses and will report back when we have more information.

What is toxic spirituality?

The solution is far more straightforward than you might think. You are practicing toxic spirituality if you believe that you must always be positive and that anything negative is wrong.

What makes this notion so dangerous is that it prevents us from learning and growing by suppressing positive emotions.

Each of our feelings has information. This information is neither good nor bad; it is simply that.

Emotions Inform Us

When you have anxiety, for example, you are not a bad person or doing something wrong. Anxiety is trying to tell you something.

It could be a sign that you need to leave the house a few minutes earlier than usual since you dislike traffic. You escape traffic and, as a result, are less likely to develop road rage if you leave the house a few minutes early.

And no amount of meditation or prayer will alleviate the stress. It will almost certainly stay until you have learned the lesson and have left a few minutes early.

When you ignore or fail to gain information from your emotions because you've suppressed them for the sake of being “positive,” you'll either be stuck in your current circumstance or, worse, start self-medicating.

This belief that you must be positive at all times is harmful to your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

What comes after spiritual awakening?

After a spiritual awakening, the good life is to remember to turn inward for answers and, more importantly, the pure substance that makes life worth living. It is not how much we do in the world after a spiritual awakening that matters, but how much love can do within us. We are called to be a loving anchor.

How can I see my spiritual eyes?

• Pray with your eyes closed. You don't have to close your eyes, but there's something about tuning into God's realm and shutting out the earthly sphere that allows us to see what He sees.