Be assured, spiritual warfare is a reality in the life of every believer. When you open the pages of the New Testament, there is no shortage of passages that characterize the Christian as a warrior and the Christian life as a battle. We are called to a grim struggle with unseen forces, and the fight is real.

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare (1 Timothy 1:18).

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life . . . (1 Timothy 6:12).

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier (2 Timothy 2:4).

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13).

Commenting on these passages, J.C. Ryle writes, "Words such as these appear to me clear, plain, and unmistakable. They all teach one and the same great lesson, if we are willing to receive it. That lesson is, that true Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and a warfare."¹

Know it or not, like it or not, you and I are in a war! And we need to begin living as if we were in a battle for our lives. Because, in fact, we are.² —Stu Weber

This article is an excerpt from David Jeremiah’s book Answers to Questions About Spiritual Warfare.

¹J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Chicago: Moody, 2010), 115.

²Stu Weber, Spirit Warriors (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001), 10.