Is this fallout actually from me?
The overlap between spiritual warfare and the flesh
This is part 3 of a 5ish-part series on spiritual warfare. We discussed:
Now we’re examining whether it’s always the devil or if our flesh plays a role, and full disclosure: this is the post that’s bringing a ton of breakthroughs for me personally! Each week, I pray you feel more and more confident in your battle against the enemy.
This question is a strange one for me. It’s both really common and really grotesque. Common because I’m perpetually wondering who’s responsible for the struggles in my life. And really grotesque because it’s like standing wondering if there’s blood on my hands because I’m wounded or I did the wounding. Too much?
This isn’t some amnesiac horror movie we tune into for fun. This is a real tension we face in our day-to-day struggles.
Is this pain the result of an enemy who’s picking at the open sores of my struggles? Or am I sabotaging myself with bad habits and sinful patterns?
It’s hard not to ask, who did this? And it’s not a bad question. How we answer that initial blame game alters what we do next. Here’s what tends to happen if we make an assumption one way or the other.