There are times in your walk as a Christian when you will face extreme opposition by spiritual forces that can’t be seen. The enemy we face is not that of flesh and blood, but of powers of darkness in unseen realms that are seeking to destroy your faith, your hope, and your life. I have had many times where I personally have been extremely oppressed and I have gathered some useful weapons to help arm you to fight this spiritual battle.
First, before we go into the weapons of our warfare, I want to define what oppression is. There are many kinds of oppression, but I want to focus on unseen oppression that affects us mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. That means that you know there is something wrong but you have not root cause as to why. You have pain, infirmity, disease, depression, thoughts of death, hopelessness, rage, uncontrollable thoughts, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, sleepiness, etc., but there is no discernable reason why you have any of these symptoms or feelings.
In order to understand you are under spiritual attack, you will need to understand the way the enemy operates in your life. His attacks will not look the same for every person because he will customize them for your life and your weak points. For me, he targets the things I fear the most, such as being a horrible person who is evil and hurts people, which causes me to fall into depression, thoughts of death, and inability to connect with God. This is just one example of the many ways he targets me.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
In order to understand the weak points, he will expose in you, you must pray to gain discernment and wisdom from the Holy Spirit. That way when the attack comes you will be able to see that it is an attack and not fall prey to believing it is something to just accept. What I mean by that is, we become numb to certain things because they have happened for so long.
For instance, I used to get allergy attacks where my nose wouldn’t stop running. There was no trigger. It was not allergy season. There was no visible cause for my nose running. Eventually, I began to pray to renounce that I was a portal for human spirits and the symptoms would immediately cease. Over time that stopped working and I had to really get to the root cause of why it stopped working, but that is a matter of inner healing.
So we must not take everything at face value, but understand that there is a spiritual realm that has a great effect on our lives and if we continue to ignore it, the devil will use it against us. Another example is that I used to be prone to great pain in the middle of the month in my lower abdomen area. It happened every month for two years. I prayed and tried to work towards the root cause through inner healing, but I could not get it to stop. And yes I talked to a Dr. and that didn’t help either.
Yet the other day I used weapons of warfare and the pain left me and hasn’t come back. This is a huge victory for me because the pain was debilitating, and the best I could ever do before was lessen it some. To see it dissipate completely was an absolute miracle and that is why I want to share these weapons with you. There is power and victory through Jesus Christ, but it is a battle that we must fight.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
That is why God equipped us with these weapons. He does not expect us to fight alone, nor does He expect us to sit back while He does everything for us. It is through these trials and suffering that we are being stretched to grow and become all that God has made us to be. God is not allowing our suffering, He is using our suffering to strengthen us. So while in the midst of suffering we may think God has abandoned us, the truth is He is standing right by us, holding us up and giving us the will to keep going.
Think of it like this: when a young child wants to ride a bike, what is the best way to learn? An adult holds the bicycle for them as the child learns to balance on the bike, and how to coordinate their arms and legs to navigate and peddle. It’s really a very difficult task if you think about it. Then eventually the adult has to let go of the bike and allow the child to try to ride on their own. That is what our Father in Heaven is doing for us, and even though He has to let go of the bike He is still standing with us to watch over us and run to help us when we fall.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, we must trust that God is with us whether we can see it or not. And that is our first weapon of warfare. Faith. I am going to start this list from greatest to least, that means when you are under the greatest amount of oppression where you cannot praise, worship, or pray, to the least amount of oppression, which is a place where you can work on strengthening yourself for the times of greater oppression.
- Jim Banks Trauma Prayer. When I cannot pray for myself and I am extremely oppressed, this pray has worked miracles for me. I have gone from slummed over to sitting up and able to become more proactive in fighting for myself.
- Ask someone you trust to pray for you. I often ask my husband to pray for me, and his prayers have been a lifesaver, and have also helped him to become a much stronger warrior in the Kingdom of God.
- Pray For Yourself. I pray this prayer over myself daily, sometimes more than once, and it has been very helpful in lifting oppression.
- Pray Against Witchcraft. I have written a prayer to defend yourself from witchcraft attack, which is at the end of the article.
- Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a powerful weapon against the enemy as it says in Philippians 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” When you are under spiritual oppression and thanksgiving will align your heart and mind with God and bring peace.
- Worship. Worshipping our Creator, our Father, and God is the most powerful weapon we have against the enemy. We are taking the focus off of us and putting it on Jesus. We are aligning our hearts, bodies, and mind with His will. You can just proclaim your worship out loud, or put on worship music that is filled with truth and proclamation. It can easily change your mindset from victim to victorious!
And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his steadfast love endures forever.”And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.
2 Chronicles 20:21-22
- Praise. Much like worship and thanksgiving, praise is another way to align your soul with the truth of who God is. He is all-powerful, glorious, the Name above all names, and the supreme authority over all creation. Just saying those things out loud is a game changer!
- Proclamation. To proclaim or confess is speaking the Word of God out loud is to release God’s authority into your life, and any situation that can arise. When you proclaim God’s Word over your body, your life, etc., you are agreeing with the power and authority of God by faith. Proclamation has been one of the most powerful weapons of warfare I have come across so far and I use it daily. Some people use daily affirmations, I use daily proclamations. The book Prayers and Proclamations by Derek Prince has been an incredible tool in helping me to understand the power of God’s spoken word in my life and I have seen healing come from it.
- Repentance. For me, repentance is one of the most important weapons I have against the enemy. Ephesians 4:27 says “and do not give the devil a foothold.” Whenever you sin you are giving the devil a foothold and he will open the door and walk right in. I find myself repenting daily for the sin I still struggle with as I journey through healing all the wounds of my past. I cannot tell you how many times I have laid in bed unable to sleep and as soon as I repented for my sin I fell directly to sleep. The enemy uses our sin to usher in the demonic, human spirits, or just highjack our thoughts. When we are sinning, we are in agreement with him, and so we must use repentance, proclamation, praise, and thanksgiving to turn back to God and align ourselves with who He created us to be.
- Put on the full armor of God. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:11
There have been many times when I have suffered greatly because I did not have any weapons to use to fight against the enemy, so I pray that these tools will bring you the courage to stand firm and fight. It may not be the first proclamation or prayer that brings you out of oppression, but you must have faith and believe that God is working all things for your good. Do not allow the devil a foothold by giving in to the pain and fear, but continue to pray, worship, and proclaim and believe you will be delivered. I am standing firm with you in prayer. You can do this!