Summary

Have you ever looked at a massive crisis in your home—like discovering a child is struggling with a heavy addiction, an eating disorder, or paralyzing anxiety—and immediately felt a crushing wave of guilt? When chaos hits, your default instinct as a mother is likely to blame yourself. You look in the mirror and think, "If I were a better mother, my family wouldn't be going through this." If you are searching for what are the causes of spiritual warfare because you are weaponizing your family's trials against your own worth, take heart. You are not alone, and it is not your fault!

In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson and licensed clinical social worker Wendi Christensen pull back the cosmic curtain to look at the root causes of spiritual warfare. We explore the stories of Job and Jesus in the wilderness to understand the strategic reasons behind the adversary's timing.

Discover why the enemy specifically targets women who are aligned with Jesus Christ, and why spiritual attacks often happen right before or right after a massive blessing. We also dismantle the toxic phrase "God doesn't give you more than you can handle," and share the ultimate scriptural secret to carrying weights that are clinically impossible for you to handle alone. Tune in to move from maternal perfectionism and self-blame to sovereign security!

Episode Takeaways

• You Are a Target: If you are striving to build a home filled with light and peace, you automatically have a target on your back. The cause of spiritual warfare is often not your failure; it is your potential. The enemy is terrified of a mother fully aligned with Jesus Christ!
• The "Job" Boundary: Look at Job chapters 1 and 2. While the adversary may target you intensely, God maintains a strict sovereign boundary around what the enemy is permitted to do. Satan cannot touch your life beyond what God allows for your ultimate growth.
• The Vulnerability Strike: When Jesus was attacked in the wilderness, it wasn't because He did something wrong. He was attacked because He was physically vulnerable (starving) and had just experienced a massive spiritual validation (His baptism). The enemy often attacks us when we are exhausted or right before a breakthrough.
• With His Help: God does give us more than we can handle—but He never gives us more than we can handle with His help. The cause of the crushing weight is not to break you; it is to break your reliance on your own isolated strength so you will yoke yourself to Jesus.

Free Resource

Ready to stop blaming yourself and start fighting back? Get our free A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide: 6 Empowering Steps to Fortify Home & Family downloadable PDF here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/A-Mothers-Spiritual-Defense-Guide

Reflection Questions

• When a spiritual attack or crisis hits your home, is your default instinct to blame yourself or question your worth as a mother?
• Read Job chapters 1 and 2. How does it change your perspective to know that God places a strict boundary around what the adversary is allowed to do in your life?
• Are you currently carrying a weight that is too heavy for you to handle alone? How can you actively "yoke" yourself to Jesus Christ today?

Host & Guest

Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson

Wendi Christensen @wendichristensencounseling

Transcript

https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/blog/what-are-the-causes-of-spiritual-warfare

Have you ever looked at a massive crisis in your home?

Maybe discovering a child struggling with pornography, an eating disorder, or a heavy paralyzing wave of anxiety or depression, and immediately felt a wave of crushing guilt? You look in the mirror and you think, if I were a better mother, my family wouldn't be going through this. What, did I screw up?

Maybe you are searching for what are the causes of spiritual warfare because your default instinct is to blame yourself for the chaos hitting yourself and your perimeters. Well, my friend, take heart. You're not alone in this battle, and there is a way to solve it.

And by the end of today's episode, you will understand the strategic reasons behind the adversary's timing and learn how to completely stop weaponizing family trials. And against your worth as a mother.

We're going to help you solve the pain of maternal perfectionism and blame by pulling back the cosmic curtain on why the enemy targets women who are so fully aligned with Jesus Christ and sharing the ultimate scriptural secret to carrying weights that are clinically impossible for you to handle alone. We're moving from self blame to sovereign security. Stay tuned. Ordinary women, Extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.

I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today is my co founder of Women warriors of Light, Wendy Christensen, who happens to be a licensed clinical social worker and has been doing that for over 30 years. So. So I'm so excited to have her with me as we tackle this heavy question, what are the causes of spiritual warfare?

And when we dive deep to look at the root causes, we have to realize that the enemy is relentless in attacking anyone trying to follow God. If you are striving to build a home filled with light, freedom, agency and peace, you automatically have a target on your back.

Because Satan wants darkness, subjection, contention and isolation so he can dominate the world. But Scripture reveals two vital keys about why these battles happen and how they are bound. First, let's look at Job, chapters one and two.

When we pull that cosmic curtain back, we see that Job was intensely targeted by the adversary. But while that happened, God maintained a strict sovereign boundary around what the adversary was permitted to do.

Satan cannot touch your life beyond what God allows for your ultimate growth. Although sometimes those trials feel hard and heavy and they stretch us to our limits.

And I'm going to share a personal story about that in just a couple of minutes. Second, let's look at Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus was immediately attacked after being validated by the Father at His baptism.

What a spiritual experience that must have been. But the adversary attacked when he was physically starving after spending 40 days in the wilderness.

The cause of the warfare wasn't that Christ did something wrong. It was because of his infinite divine potential and his physical vulnerability. That same principle can be applied to us today.

Sometimes Satan attacks after powerful spiritual experiences or before them. And he's attacking because of who you divinely are as a daughter of God. And he likes to attack when we're physically exhausted.

The challenge is sometimes when crisis strikes, we as mothers naturally internalize the problem as a personal failure. Wendy is now going to talk a little bit about this so that we don't misinterpret the cause of the battle.

I think sometimes in that landscape of opposition that comes, sometimes we think, I must be doing something wrong. I'm not doing things right because I'm being attacked. Or we kind of come in with this perfectionism of, why me? Why? Why is this happening to me?

What am I doing wrong? What am I screwing up? What am I messing up? That I'm being attacked or that my family's being attacked? And we weaponize that against ourselves.

And you have to be really careful because we might think, oh, if I was a better mom, then my teen wouldn't be struggling with drugs or sexual activity or, you know, looking at pornography or struggling with an eating disorder. And we think, if I was better, then they wouldn't be doing this or this wouldn't be happening.

So, my friend, we have to completely uncouple our worth from the imperfect circumstances of living in a broken world.

Wende is now going to share how the reality of an adversarial attack are often triggered because we're striving so hard for the light, not because of your mistakes.

The cause isn't always your failure as a mom. Sometimes it's this strategy of an adversary that's working on a mother who's fully aligned with Jesus Christ and doesn't want her to succeed.

Sometimes it's darkest before the brightest. I was talking to a client recently. She's like, why is all this? Why am I being attacked so much?

And I'm like, sometimes it's because good things are coming. There's good stuff that's coming that the Lord is delivering. And sometimes we get those attacks right before the good things because those.

Those challenges, those trials, those struggles stretch us, and they help us to grow, and he uses them for good. So just because you're being attacked doesn't mean you're bad or that you're horrible or you're awful or you're failing.

No, that's Satan working on you.

Oh my goodness. Hearing that is so incredibly freeing. The attack isn't proof of your failure, it's proof of your purpose.

Years ago, when I was a young, very stressed out mom managing four young children, two on the autism spectrum and two with adhd, I was doing my best to manage and juggle so many things, but I was exhausted and getting very, very little sleep.

We lived in the American south at the time, and every single time I seemed to take my kids out in public, a well meaning person would inevitably look at my chaotic cart full of kids and say, oh honey, remember God doesn't give you more than you can handle.

One afternoon, pushed to my limit, I looked up at heaven after someone made this exact comment and said, oh yes, he does give us more than we can handle because I am not handling life very well right now. Right there in that exhaustion, the spirit reschooled my heart.

I quickly learned to rewrite that phrase to say God doesn't give us more than we can handle with his help. The question is, are we turning to him to help us with our struggles, with our battles? The cause of the crushing weight is not to break you.

It's to break your reliance on your own isolated strength so that you can yoke yourself to Jesus Christ. Whatever your family is going through, he can handle it.

When we step out of self blame, God takes the very trials the enemy meant for your destruction and repurposes them into structural tools for your growth. As we read in Romans, all things work together for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. All things.

Wendy's now going to wrap up this episode with a perspective on why God allows these stretching seasons.

Sometimes it's to strengthen you to to stretch you, to bless you. Or maybe you're learning a lesson that's going to help that child and help them in a certain way and you're getting an answer.

Or maybe sometimes it's to bless and benefit people later on.

Because I know trials I've gone through can sometimes be a lesson and a blessing for my child where I'm able to teach them tools because of what I went through.

You never know what it could be, but it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you or you're screwed up that comes from Satan because you're never that way.

You are a divine, beautiful woman that is Christ, and He loves you and your heavenly Father loves you and he's always there to help you through that spiritual warfare.

Oh my friends, the cause of your spiritual warfare is not that you are a bad mother, it is that you are a dangerous mother to the kingdom of darkness. The adversary is terrified of your potential and your alignment with the Savior.

You are the guardian of your home and with his help, you are fully capable of handling the attacks on you and your family. But just don't try to do it alone.

To help you navigate these attacks without succumbing to burnout or self blame, Wende and I have mapped out this amazing booklet, A Mother's spiritual defense guide 6 Empowering Steps to Fortify Home and Family and you can download it right now for free at the link below. When you open your copy, go directly to step number one, the Divine Partnership. Read through the Principle of Agency on page three.

It will clinically and spiritually free you from the trap of trying to force or control your loved ones choices, teaching you how to trade your anxiety for God's sovereign guidance. Then use step number five, wielding God's word to speak scriptural truths directly over your struggling children.

You, my friend, are a divine Daughter of God and he is standing right beside you and will empower you as you battle forward and up to win the battle. You are loved, you are not alone, and you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you and until next time, may you arise. Do it God's way.

God Strong. If today's episode helped you feel a little closer to God, please like and subscribe.

It helps us grow and ensures heaven's whispers stay at the top of your feed whenever you need them most.