Are My Struggles Personal or Demonic?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, why does it so often feel like we do? Pastor John explores the demonic designs in human opposition.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When it comes to the devil, there are a lot of questions to work through, and there are a lot of questions that we have worked through over the years on this podcast.
0:12.2	Is Satan real? Is he powerful? Where did he come from? How did he first sin? How did he fall? Is he limited in some way? Can he devour true Christians?
0:23.6	Can he make us physically sick? How do we fight him? Just paging through the APJ book on that section on pages 331 to 353 makes you realize just how much there is to ask and answer about the demonic realm.
0:36.4	And we're not done because today we have a question
0:39.6	about a text in our Bible reading tomorrow, Ephesion 612, which tells us that our struggle
0:45.1	is not against flesh and blood. So how does this apply when it seems like our enemies are
0:50.9	only flesh and blood? People who are causing our relational, emotional,
0:56.0	physical, or mental pain. Here's the listener email today. Pastor John, hello, and thank you for
1:00.5	taking my question on Ephesion 612. It reminds me that our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
1:06.0	but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. In real life, how do we apply this when we're facing tangible
1:11.8	everyday struggles, whether relational, emotional, or mental, where the people involved seem
1:17.2	like the problem? When we feel attacked by others' words or actions, how do we discern the
1:22.3	spiritual roots behind the conflict, especially when it feels so personal? How do we respond in a way that reflects Christ's love and truth without treating others as the
1:31.2	enemy?
1:32.1	How can we fight invisible battles while dealing with visible consequences in our relationship,
1:36.7	work, and personal lives?
1:38.2	And how do we balance all of this without seeing demons lurking around every corner
1:42.3	or reducing every tension to just interpersonal
1:44.8	struggles. How do we maintain that balance?
1:49.6	This question is not artificial in any way. It's right there in Ephesion 6. It demands our attention.
2:03.6	It's a good question. I like it. I like this kind of question.
2:13.0	The question is, do we not actually wrestle against human adversaries as well as supernatural demonic adversaries? So here's the text that raises the problem. Put on the whole armor of God
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