When You Are 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 Have you withdrawn from relationships with folks in your small group or at church?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 is a spiritual conflict?

• 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 is spiritual decline?

Then we looked to see if spiritual growth, spiritual decline, and meaning-making could mediate the link between religious struggle, anxiety, and life satisfaction. People who try to understand their struggle and whose struggle is a source of positive changes in their world view, relationships, and goals or sense of self are more satisfied with life and have less anxiety, according to the hypothesis (spiritual growth). Anxiety rises and life satisfaction falls when struggle leads to negative changes in an individual's world view, relationships with others, or life goals (spiritual decline).

For four types of struggle, we discovered that the mediation impact was significant: demonic, moral, interpersonal, and theological doubt. Spiritual progress and spiritual decline were important mediators in demonic and moral conflict. As we expected, demonic and moral problems can lead to increased life satisfaction, but spiritual decline can lead to increased anxiety. Spiritual decline was found to be a key factor in the link between interpersonal conflict, anxiety, and life happiness.

We conclude that the impact of moral conflict on anxiety and life satisfaction is determined by how moral pressures are addressed. When people are confronted with moral flaws and personality deficits (religious struggle), noticing positive changes in self-perception, perceiving the world, and perceiving others increases their satisfaction with life. Moral conflicts, on the other hand, cause anxiety since they lead to unfavorable alterations in self-image and view of the world. Some psychological theories (e.g., Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development or Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development) emphasize the role of moral conflicts as a transitional stage that can lead to both regression and maturation, as well as a higher quality of life (e.g., Erikson 1968; Kohlberg 1976).

Strengths and Limitations of the Study

The study's primary flaw is its cross-sectional design, which precludes any inferences on cause–effect relationships. The interpretation strategy used in this work is based on theoretical assumptions. Longitudinal research are needed to determine the health and well-being effects of religious conflicts. Because the study relied on people's self-reports, there was no way to control for response bias. It's possible that the findings are influenced by social desirability. However, the fact that respondents completed the measures anonymously and were questioned about positive and negative results may mitigate this potential. They wouldn't have supported negative outcomes if they were aiming to present themselves in a favorable way, right? Regardless, studies in the future should include scales that assess social desirability, and if required, control for it. We also assumed that the survey instruments' performance characteristics were unaffected by their translation into Polish.

How do you deal with spiritual conflict?

It's heartbreaking to see a relationship fall apart, especially one between a husband and wife, mother and daughter, or father and son. A happy family relationship goes a long way toward making our lives happier, and a broken family relationship is exceptionally traumatic and has long-term consequences.

Here's some advise on how to deal with relationship disputes whenever they arise.

1. Stay away from confrontational postures.

We must approach every conflict resolution from a perspective of wanting reconciliation rather than hostility. If we start with a confrontational strategy, we'll almost certainly fail to resolve the problem.

Many individuals really want to resolve their issues with their loved ones, but they are unable to do so because they are ignorant that every time they try to talk things out, they are pitted against each other as if they were in a battle. They armed themselves involuntarily with a brick wall, folded arms, and a threatening posture.

2. Take the ego out of the picture.

The ego was implicated in every quarrel that arose. Our ego has a mental tendency of wanting to win, be right, point fingers, and pass judgment on others. The ego refuses to understand that continuing to practice this habit is harmful to not only this relationship, but all relationships. That is why, despite changing partners, friends, professions, and homes, we continue to end up in conflict situations. Conflicts are caused by internal factors rather than external events, circumstances, or individuals. The true culprit is our own mental perceptions.

To resolve any disagreement, we must be consciously aware of this and, as a result, remove our ego from the equation.

3. Be wary of the mental habit of blaming or judging others.

Nobody enjoys being blamed or condemned, not you nor the person with whom you are having a disagreement. When settling a problem in a relationship, we must be careful not to go back into our old mental habits of blaming or condemning. Blaming and judging the ego naturally activates the ego's defense mechanism. Unconsciously, many people's best defense is an offense. As a result, they launched an attack without realizing it, escalating the conflict rather than healing the wounds.

4. Concentrate on the solution rather than on the desire to be correct.

We stopped desiring to be right, blame, or judge when we removed the ego from the problem. Rather, we concentrate on finding a solution that is acceptable to both parties. In most circumstances, if the ego is willing to give way to a rational approach, a solution may be found for each problem.

Our pride frequently prevents us from achieving a beautiful and loving relationship. We want things our way and would rather ruin the connection, although subconsciously, than not get what we want.

Many relationships have been irreparably damaged throughout history due to pride. Would you rather have your relationship saved or have it included to the statistics? Doesn't it actually depend on what you value most in your life?

5. Be willing to forgive and let go.

The willingness to forgive is probably the most significant aspect in settling any problem. To forgive is exactly the same as letting go. What do we give up? We let go of our propensity of holding on to resentments, aches, and hurts in our minds. We let go of our tendency to blame, judge, and carry grudges. We let go of our need to be right or have our way in life. We simply let all of them go.

The ability to let go of our mental habit of holding to our resentments, aches, and hurts is not only beneficial for resolution, but also necessary for our own mental, emotional, and physical health. The instant we forgive and let go, we begin to heal.

Finally, it's crucial to understand that not all relationships should be retained in their current state. It may be preferable to end the connection or turn it into something else at times. Even when it is in both of our best interests to end a relationship, we can choose to do it amicably and remain friends rather than rivals.

What does spiritual resilience mean?

• The ability to retain a positive attitude in the face of hardship is referred to as spiritual resilience. In order to get through challenging conditions, you can seek support from a “higher” power (independent of your religious membership).

What happens when you have a spiritual awakening?

As Kaiser argues, this is the start of your spiritual journey, as you begin to doubt everything you previously believed. You begin to purge certain aspects of your life (habits, relationships, and outdated belief systems) in order to make room for new, more meaningful experiences. You may sense that something is lacking, but you aren't sure what it is. It's common to feel disoriented, confused, and down during this time.

How do you pray against the enemy?

I command the storm of destruction to gather upon every satanic power that is against my health IN THE MIGHTY NAME OF JESUS! I decree and declare great casualty upon witches and wizards operating in my neighborhood, the judgment of God shall torment the powers of darkness working against me both at night and in the morning, the night shall carry terror and anger against all satanic powers that are standing against me, the night shall carry terror and anger against all satanic powers that

RIGHT NOW, IN THE NAME OF JESUS, my prayers have become earthquakes and storms in the devil's camp that is against my life; the Lord shall gather his armor against powers that are against my intellectual growth; all sickness in my life, known or unknown, receives heavenly storm; all conspiracy against any part of my body receives destruction now!

I order the deep wells inside me to be freed and broken forth in the name of JESUS!