We’re at war. Spiritual warfare sounds like a strange concept to many of us, believed only by some camps within Christianity, when it should be believed by all of us. It’s the normal Christian life.

When we started to think about planting a church, a friend told us, “You’re going to go through more spiritual warfare in one year of church planting than in ten years of pastoral ministry.”

I didn’t have categories for what he said, but it seemed like the kind of thing that could be true. I made a mental note but didn’t think much about it.

We began the process of planting a church. Sure enough, we encountered more hardship in the first year than ever before in our lives. I don’t know for sure how much of it was spiritual attack, but it sure felt like it.

I could relate to what Paul wrote: “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8).

The Normal Christian Life

One day that year I came across a quote from C.H. Spurgeon: “When you sleep, think that you are resting on the battlefield; when you walk, suspect an ambush in every hedge.”

We’re at war. Spiritual warfare sounds like a strange concept to many of us, believed only by some camps within Christianity, when it should be believed by all of us. It’s the normal Christian life.

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (2 Timothy 2:3). “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil,” he says to the church in Ephesus (Ephesians 6:11).

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