Spiritual Warfare

This February 7, 2025 Fourth Edition of Spiritual Warfare: Christians, Demonization, and Deliverance, again published by Cross Training Press, is the newest edition of this book. It includes a new preface and a two-page outline contrasting Offensive and Defensive prayer placed in the back as a third appendix. With these minor additions, the content contains the same twelve chapters as the previous edition.

The Bible is clear that we face three different types of opposition while attempting to successfully navigate life as Ambassadors for Christ. Our opposition is identified in Scripture as "the world" (1 John 2:15-17), "the flesh" (Romans 7:15-25), and "the devil" (1 Peter 5:8-9). The sad reality is that too many Christians lose more battles than they win and endure their walk with God rather than enjoy it because they often don't recognise how opposition through spiritual warfare actually works.

More importantly, they have no idea how to effectively and efficiently respond to these attacks. Scripture nowhere indicates that a wish, a hope, a cliché, or a sincere guess represent adequate responses to attacks from these three very real enemies. Christians must be strategic in their responses to these clearly defined enemies, learning how to fight biblically rather than just sincerely.

In Spiritual Warfare, Dr. Karl Payne—pastor of Leadership Development and Discipleship at Antioch Bible Church and former Chaplain for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks—has written a battle manual for recognising and responding to spiritual warfare that is simple, biblical, and transferable. Pragmatically speaking, the materials in this book are biblically sound, battle-tested, and they work.

As Christians, we are supposed to live life as victors, not victims. It is past time we learn how to consistently walk our talk in the midst of conflict rather than passively sing songs or daydream about courageous Christian living.