Spiritual Warfare 101 | How The Enemy Targets Believers And How To Fight Back

Some battles don’t start in your schedule, your bank account, or your relationships. They start as a thought you never challenge, a fear you keep feeding, or an offense you refuse to release. We talk about spiritual warfare with a steady head and a strong spine: not blaming the devil for every problem, but also not pretending the enemy isn’t real or organized.

We walk through what spiritual warfare actually looks like for believers, why the mind is such a target, and how deception can make a lie feel “obvious” while God’s truth starts to sound questionable. Tabatha shares her personal story of being set free from depression after years of coping methods that helped but didn’t cure. That testimony opens a bigger conversation about identity in Christ, spiritual authority, and why the Word of God matters when you’re facing anxiety, discouragement, temptation, or confusion.

We also get practical. We break down Ephesians 6 and the reality that our fight isn’t against flesh and blood, then lay out clear tactics the enemy uses: offense, isolation, distraction, compromise, and weariness. We end with direct, faith-filled prayers to renounce depression, anxiety, addiction, fear, and any occult doors, plus steps to stay submitted to God, stay in community, speak truth out loud, and rest when you’re tired. If you want a biblical, actionable guide to Christian spiritual warfare, deliverance, and resisting the devil, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe for more, share this with someone who’s in a fight, and if this helped you, leave a rating and review so more people can find it.

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Transcript

Not Everything Is The Devil

Ken Claytor 0:00

We are not the kind of people that thinks the devil is in everything. We're not like, oh, the lights go out. You know, the devil's in the lights. No, you didn't pay your light bill. But at the same time, a person who doesn't understand that we're living in a fallen world. There's an opponent of our soul. His name was Lucifer. He was kicked out of heaven because of pride. He attacks your mind.

Tabatha Claytor 0:17

Don't give the devil more power than what he had. He can't do anything to you unless he's allowed. What you focus on will expand.

Ken Claytor 0:25

We understand that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but I'm not more focused on the devil than I am on the Lord. Hey, what's

Why Spiritual Warfare Still Matters

Ken Claytor 0:36

up, everybody? Hey everyone. Welcome to another edition of Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha. Pumped to have you guys join in today because we are going to strengthen you today. We are going to equip you today because you have an opponent to your soul, and in his name is the devil, but he is a defeated foe. And so we're going to help you today. If you are new to our podcast, make sure you hit the subscribe button very quickly, hit the alert icon. We want you to hang out with us. You know, our goal is to create a community of believers where we're sharing our good and our bad, our ups and our downs, and hopes that you can grow closer to God and closer to the people that God has placed in your life. And so, welcome everybody. Today's episode is called Spiritual Warfare 101, How the Enemy Actually Attacks Believers. Okay. And I'm excited about today because we want to bring clarity, not fear, because a lot of people, they either blame the devil for everything or they ignore spiritual warfare altogether. But the Bible is clear that we have an enemy, he has a strategy, but believers, we don't have to be afraid. We just need to be aware.

Tabatha Claytor 1:40

I think sometimes we're not aware. And I don't, you know, I honestly think that most things that we encounter as believers, it's going to be spiritual warfare. But I do know that not everything is spiritual warfare. Yeah. You know, so like if you go to the doctor and he diagnoses you with like high cholesterol or diabetes or something like that. It could be spiritual warfare that this is generational and you're living a healthy life, and so you need to come at this spiritually. It also could be that you eat, you know, fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You don't drink water, you don't exercise, you don't do anything that you know you're supposed to do to not get sickness and disease in your body. That's not spiritual, that's natural.

Ken Claytor 2:21

I think it's great that you started right there because I want our audience to know that we are not the kind of people that thinks the devil is in everything. We're not like, oh, the lights go out. The devil, you know, the devil's in the lights. No, you didn't pay your light bill. Right. You know, there's a a screech in the speaker. Oh, the devil's in the speaker. No, somebody just messed up the EQ on the speaker. Um, but at the same time, a person who doesn't understand that we're living in a fallen world, there's an opponent of our soul. His name was Lucifer. He was kicked out kicked out of heaven because of pride. Now him and um his demons do evil bidding to cause a um a level to steal, to kill and destroy. The scripture says in John chapter 10, verse 10. And a lot of times um in the marriage world and business world, people don't know that, you know, especially in business, it's ministry. If you're a kingdom builder, marriage is ministry, and you have an opponent that wants to stop your ministry and he wants to kill, steal, and destroy. And we need to know how to have victory. And so I love today. I think it's gonna be really, really good. Um, I want to start off just let me ask you a few questions. When you hear spiritual warfare, for you, what comes to mind?

Tabatha Claytor 3:24

Uh,

A Warfare Mindset And The Word

Tabatha Claytor 3:25

I think of, you know, scripture. I think of binding and loosing, I think of prayer, declaring. I think of um, you know, angels, you know, um getting involved and fighting on our behalf.

Ken Claytor 3:39

Yeah, I think of like the different perspectives on life. So there's there's a warfare um perspective of life, and then there's like a blueprint. A lot of people have a blueprint mentality, like whatever happens in life is the will of God, God is sovereign, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Tabatha Claytor 3:56

Yeah, I don't have that perspective.

Ken Claytor 3:57

I don't have that perspective. I have a warfare perspective of life that God is good, the devil is bad, I'm living in a fallen world. God has promises, but they don't, those promises don't fall in my lap. I have to contend for them by faith. Right. I have to have the full armor of God, I have to know how to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. I have to know how to submit to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee. So when I read the scripture, I see more of a warfare blueprint, which means that I we are soldiers in the army of the Lord, and I need to know how to use my offensive and my defensive weapons.

Tabatha Claytor 4:29

Right. Uh and I love what you said. So, you know, before I got saved, and actually I was saved for a couple of years, and I didn't know the Bible. It's so important. We're believers, we believe the Bible. We should know the word of God.

Ken Claytor 4:43

Why, though? Because the word of God is the sword of the spirit. So, in the full armor of God, you got one main offensive weapon. I mean, you can use your shield of faith from an offensive perspective, but the one offensive wevel that we got, weapon that we got that cuts the devil coming and going is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So our relationship with the word is very important.

Tabatha Claytor 5:04

If you don't know the word, and if you haven't read the Bible, you don't know that you're in spiritual warfare. Right. For the because the Bible says the um that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, right, but against powers and principalities. And so this isn't like a flesh and blood thing, you know, most of the time. But there is spiritual warfare. I did not know that before I was uh a believer, and then for the first few years of being a believer because I didn't know my word. And

Tabatha’s Freedom From Depression

Tabatha Claytor 5:31

so I got saved. And, you know, at salvation, I was delivered from the spirit of suicide. Like the God just did that for me. I'm so grateful. God can do it, He can do so many things. But I got born again. I no longer wanted to kill myself. I no longer, I mean, I just came out of it, but I was still depressed. I still had this spirit of depression that I did not know what to do with and couldn't break out of. I thought what the doctors told me, this is just something that you're gonna have to deal with for the rest of your life. Right. This is just natural, your so serotonin levels. This is just, and they gave me all of these natural, supposedly scientific, you know, things of this is how you're going to be.

Ken Claytor 6:11

And we're not against doctors and we're not against counseling, but at the same time, you can't counsel a demon.

Tabatha Claytor 6:16

That's right.

Ken Claytor 6:16

You got to cast out a demon. That's right. And it's very important to know the difference between a natural problem and a spiritual one. Go ahead.

Tabatha Claytor 6:22

And so I, um, as a believer, for the first couple of years, I just put up with depression. I took medication, I did all of these things. I wasn't happy. My life was not good. You wanted to divorce me. It wasn't good.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Right.

Tabatha Claytor 6:36

But then once I read the word, okay, we joined a church. They taught me about the word of God. I started reading my Bible and I realized that God gave me power, right? That I didn't have to just sit in the earth and just let the devil beat me up.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Come on.

Tabatha Claytor 6:50

He gave me dominion and authority in the earth. And so I took that power, dominion, and authority, and I spoke to the spirit of depression because I realized this is not a natural thing that I'm facing. Right. This is a spirit of depression. And I rebuke you, spirit of depression, I renounce you, spirit of depression, I break you off of my life, I cast you off of my life, leave in the name of Jesus. And I grew in my authority. And I don't know, a little while into that, I was set free from the spirit of depression. That was spiritual warfare. In the natural, medicine couldn't do it, counseling couldn't do it. I did hypnotherapy where they hypnotize you. I did group therapy. I did pictotherapy where you draw pictures of the traumatic events that happened in your life. Medicine didn't help me. Therapies didn't help me. They didn't cure me.

Ken Claytor 7:42

They helped you, they didn't cure you.

Tabatha Claytor 7:44

Right. But spiritual warfare cured me. It healed me, delivered me, set me free.

Ken Claytor 7:48

And how long have you been healed now?

Tabatha Claytor 7:50

Over 24 years, 24 years.

Ken Claytor 7:51

24 years, 24 years. No more depression, no more counseling. I mean, we go through counseling now, but not because of depression. And so don't tell me that God can't do it. Yes, sir. Um, when our marriage was headed for divorce, that was warfare. I didn't know it. I thought that I made a mistake, that we got married too young, or I married the wrong person. I didn't know I was being lied to. So now we've been married for 26 years. We're best friends, and we have a podcast where we help a lot of married people. The devil was fighting me back then for what we would become right now. And I just feel like there's a lot of people that you're in a fight, you're in a battle, and sometimes there's natural elements, but many times there's a spiritual element, and you have to um you have to know how to war in the spirit to bring about God's best in your life. And so, do you think um many believers, do you feel like they over-spiritualize warfare, or do you feel like they under-spiritualize it?

Tabatha Claytor 8:43

I think most probably under-spiritualize it.

Ken Claytor 8:46

Yeah.

Tabatha Claytor 8:47

But I do know a few that over.

Ken Claytor 8:50

Well, this is what we want you. Don't be so spiritual, you're not earthly good. Write that down. Don't be so spiritual, you're not earthly good. I know people that pray for 15 hours but can't hold a job.

Tabatha Claytor 8:59

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 8:59

Please, guys, you got to be able to do both.

Tabatha Claytor 9:01

And and you don't want, don't give the devil more power than what he has. Right. He can't do anything to you unless he's allowed.

Ken Claytor 9:08

You know, understand this is like if you if you're listening to us, you're doing life with us, um, we don't like to fantasize and romanticize the devil. Now, there are some people that's all about the devil, the devil, the devil, and they're always devil chasers. I'm not focused on the devil, I'm focused on Jesus. And when I'm focused on Jesus, devils are scared of me. So I'm not like looking for the devil everywhere. If the devil shows up, we're gonna cast them out. That's right. We understand that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but I'm not more focused on the devil than I am on the Lord.

Tabatha Claytor 9:38

And the truth is that, see, I grew up believing, I didn't grow up believing in God, but I knew that there was a devil, and the devil was like really big.

Ken Claytor 9:45

Really big.

Tabatha Claytor 9:46

And then God was over here, like, you know what I mean? Because the devil was, my focus was on the devil and what he's doing. Right. And what you focus on will expand.

Ken Claytor 9:54

Let me share this with you. Listen, this is an interesting thought. Um, in scripture, you'll never see an instance where God really fought the devil. Right. You'll never find where God fought the devil. It's good. He always uses us to fight the devil. God is so powerful that one little eye, one little flick would knock the devil out. He is a creative being. He was created um holy and right as a worship leader, Lucifer in heaven, until iniquity was found in him. And so he is the power of the devil is nothing in comparison to the power of God, so much to where God doesn't even fight the devil. He actually gives us the authority to do it on his behalf. Come on. And I want to do a good job. I want to keep him underneath our feet. That's right. I want to see people get set free. And so, why do you think people either become fearful or obsessed with the enemy? I feel like there's extremes in spiritual warfare. Yeah. Why do people come become fearful? Like, oh my goodness, the devil made me do it. Or they almost become ups, uh, you know, like obsessed with the enemy.

Tabatha Claytor 10:51

Um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I I don't know. I would say uh if uh uh maybe a couple of things. I know for me in the past, um, this is it was ignorance for me. I made the devil bigger than what he was because I didn't know God.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Okay.

Tabatha Claytor 11:10

And I didn't under one of the reasons why it was so easy for me to believe that there was a God is because I did believe that there was a devil. And so growing up for me, I saw all of the horror stories. I saw the movies, the the horror movies, you know, the Michael Myers, the Freddy Kruger, Freddie Krueger, Jason, Friday Thursday, like all of this extracists. Yeah.

Ken Claytor 11:33

I never watched any of it. Thank God for my mom and dad. My mom and dad had a PG-13 rule, and I never watched any movies like that. I remember trying to watch Children on the Corn with my cousins, and I was not.

Tabatha Claytor 11:43

Oh, it was a you didn't need to see that. I saw it, it was a bad one.

Ken Claytor 11:46

Five minutes, I was like, uh-uh. No. I never ever watched a horror movie because I don't know why people would enfear themselves. God's not giving me a spirit of fear. I understood that as a little kid. My son understands that now.

Tabatha Claytor 11:56

He's but I think it it's entertainment for people, you know. So it's it's entertainment. It's like, oh my gosh, the people like to be, uh, you know, and it's you know, it's fun that you were afraid. And I'm like, that's a lie. The devil wants you to think that that's funny. He wants you to think that that's made up. Like, no.

Fear Entertainment And Occult Doors

Ken Claytor 12:12

I don't play around with the demonic devils, the occult witchcraft, Ouija boards, horoscopes, anything that comes from black magic, sorcery, or the demonic is underneath my feet. It is not a game. I do not open those doors because I'm anointed.

Tabatha Claytor 12:26

Exactly.

Ken Claytor 12:26

And if you want to be anointed and walk in authority, I'm not giving any inch for the devil to be able to come in and sift me like we. No way, no how.

Tabatha Claytor 12:34

So I think, you know, some people give, you know, they they give the devil more power or they become fo so focused on the enemy because um they don't realize how small the enemy is compared to how big God is?

Ken Claytor 12:52

There's a scripture that says that at the end of the ages, we're kind of gonna look at him and say, This is the one who's Is that him? That's him who caused all of this havoc? I I you I should look it up. Maybe you guys know it. Put it in the comment section, but that's it's interesting. And so, how have you over your life stayed rooted and grounded instead of being paranoid? I know that you're a person who have studied spiritual warfare. I know you love casting out devils, I know you love prophecy, the working of miracles. It's even been prophesied over you that you would raise the dead. I know I see what you be listening to, and it's always something that has to do with spiritual warfare. Y'all need to know that about her. She's always in something that's in that vein. How have you stayed grounded? You know, some people get in that vein and they get weird. And I think that we've seen people, even people that's been close to us, as they start to get into the prophetic or the deeper things of God, it's like they they just develop the wrong tone. They just get over into a little bit of weirdness.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 13:57

Because and the devil don't mind you being saved or filled with the spirit if he can keep you legalistic and attacking the body of Christ. How have you stayed grounded?

Gifts Versus Maturity And Accountability

Tabatha Claytor 14:06

You know, the number one way for me is that I have always I keep myself accountable to other people.

Ken Claytor 14:14

Wow.

Tabatha Claytor 14:15

You are a big reason why I stay so grounded. You know what I listen to. You know, I mean, I'm what you mean, I'd be challenging.

Ken Claytor 14:21

Yeah, you challenge me.

Tabatha Claytor 14:22

Yeah, like who are you listening to? Um, you know, what are they saying and why do you say that? And, you know, I I answer you, but I keep myself in in accountable to you, to, you know, other pastors and leaders that we have in our life. Like, I think that's number one. That's a huge thing. Um, and then also just I don't, I think some people go looking for the fruit of the spirit of God or the um the gifts of the spirit of God without looking for God first. It's like if you if you find him, you'll find what's in his hand to give to you. And if you're just looking for the miracle, signs, and wonders, you very you are very likely to go astray. You're very likely to be fooled. Because if you don't know the gift giver, but you have know the gifts, there's gonna be a disconnect there. And I think that's them, that's the number one thing that I would say because there are people who are so prophetically gifted, they're so discerning. And and God, even in this time that we live in, I mean, we're seeing even in our church, we are raising up, you know, sons and daughters, men and women who are powerful. I mean, they pray for you and you will experience encounter with God. And that's gifts, not to make you special, but that's for every believer. But the key is to search for God. Yeah, find God, and then all of those other things are gonna come.

Ken Claytor 15:47

You know, um, I heard someone say recently that gifts are free, but maturity is expensive. Let me say that again. Gifts are free, but maturity is expensive.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 15:59

And I feel like we live in a day and time where people are enamored by a person's gifts. And the gifts of God are giving without repentance. But the gifts are free, but it's the maturity that's expensive. So, you know, if you follow the body of Christ, we've been through seasons where there was someone who started prophesying wrongly or going to people's Facebook and trying to prophesy from people's Facebook and all these different things. And it's because many times we uplift the gifting over the character, the charisma over the character. And I think one thing that has helped us stay grounded is that it's always been about God first, yeah, and about the fruit of the spirit, temperance, patience, long-suffering, mercy, grace, accountability, submission, humility. And I'm just not impressed by gifting.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 16:48

Matter of fact, you know, we have a yearly conference, and there's someone who's really, really popular right now. And I'm not gonna invite them right now because they're just popular. Not that popular is bad, that person is anointed, God's hand is on them. But I'm just not impressed with popularity. I want to see, are you still gonna be walking in this in 10 years? So we gotta come to the place where even those of you all who are gifted, yes, your gifts are are free. God gives you gifts. You ain't gotta do nothing to earn it. But your maturity is expensive. And you want to pay the price not to be called, but to also be chosen. And so, sweetheart, what do you think is like some of the greatest tactics of the enemy? So

Deception Media And Spiritual Weapons

Ken Claytor 17:29

if we are in warfare, so whether you believe this or not, there is an enemy of your soul. There are demons that want to target you, they want to destroy your marriage, they want you to live in poverty, they want you to be sick, they want you to be confused in your sexuality. There is an antichrist spirit that has information and propaganda that's everything anti-Bible, anti-church, anti-Christianity. Demons are not disorganized, they are organized to where they want to influence through the prints of the power of the air, they influence movies, they want to influence music, they want to influence politics, they want to influence the business world, they want to influence all of these different things. Let's talk since we know that we have this enemy. What are some of the common tactics of the enemy?

Tabatha Claytor 18:19

The first things comes to mind what you just said, through music, okay, through entertainment, um, through what we read, through what we listen to, through other podcasts, through, you know, it in in the form of entertainment, through the news. Um and so another thing is through fear, um, the enemy will enfere you to either keep you from doing what you should be doing or to silence you from saying what you should be saying or to uh get you to do something that you wouldn't normally do, but you're doing it out of fear.

Ken Claytor 18:55

Right.

Tabatha Claytor 18:56

That's a big one.

Ken Claytor 18:57

It's a big one.

Tabatha Claytor 18:58

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 18:59

For me, I think that there are there's a bunch of tactics perversion, lust, murder, mayhem, hatred, racism, division. The one that I kind of come to mind for today would be deception. You know, the scripture says that Satan is the father of lies.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 19:14

And so what he says, the opposite is actually true. So when it comes to the marriage relationship, he wants to lie to you about your spouse. When it comes to the single person, he wants to lie to you about your identity, your worth, your value. When it comes to a person, even in their sexuality, he wants to lie to you about how you've been born and how God made you and what you like and what you can get out of. He's just a master liar. So what he loves to do is make a lie look like a truth, and a truth look like a lie. So the truth is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. So he works to make that look like a lie. Oh no, that's not that that's not really, you know, the Bible has been changed by man. The Bible was written by man, the Bible is not true. Believe this over here. You don't have to tithe, you don't have to give. What is he doing? He's working through the spirit of life. And watch this. Any deception, if you're good at it, you take a lie and you make it look really, really true. And that's the challenge that we have when people get all of their information offline because it looks like the truth, but it's not the truth. And it doesn't make free, it creates bondage. And so that's a big one for me, would be deception. But I want to define what spiritual warfare is. Tell me what you think about this. It is the ongoing conflict between God's truth and the enemy's lies over the hearts, minds, and obedience of believers. What is spiritual warfare? The ongoing conflict between God's truth and the enemy's lies over the hearts, minds, and obedience of believers.

Tabatha Claytor 20:43

That's good. Um, I like the word ongoing. Not to make it like, oh man, this thing's gonna last forever, but it is something that it's not like you fight one spiritual battle and then you're done.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Right.

Tabatha Claytor 20:58

Right?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Right.

Tabatha Claytor 20:59

There's continual spiritual warfare. The enemy is continually building up a case against us. And so we have to be aware of that, that we don't grow weary, like the Bible says. We're not gonna grow weary in this, but we do pray daily. We do, you know, um, pray in the spirit, pray in tongues in your spiritual language as a means of fighting warfare. I pray all the time in the spirit because I don't know what to pray. And there's some times that I'm busy, and it's almost like a multitasking prayer, if that's even biblical or a thing, because it could be like uh uh I'm like driving and I'm doing something and my kids are talking and I'm supposed to be listening to them, but I know in my spirit, I know all this stuff is going on right now, but I feel the need to pray, and that's spiritual warfare.

Ken Claytor 21:48

Yeah, yeah. We hear you pray in tongues. I mean, you'd be in the kitchen. I'll be like, okay, what's going on in the kitchen? But it's your spirit, man, connecting to God, and so um, I think it's Important. Matter of fact, that would be a clue that I would give anybody. Yes. Like, don't just pray in tongues at church or when your favorite worship song is over. Pray in the spirit all the time that you possibly can. Yes. And your spirit is praying the perfect will of God. And so I don't know. I'm I I got some things that I want to share. I think I want to just jump into a few scriptures because I want to give this a biblical foundation. Okay. Tell me what you think. Ephesians 6.12, it says, For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. And then it gets begins to kind of list the rankings of demons, principalities, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. But Ephesians 6.12, anything stick out to you? We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against these demonic forces.

Tabatha Claytor 22:43

Um I think this is so good, especially when we look at the world today. You you look on the news, there's people fighting in the streets. Oh my God. It's crazy. And everybody wants to fight against each other. You know, something goes on. I mean, even little things like, I mean, it's not little, but um, little league baseball games and basketball games. Parents are on the sidelines fighting each other. It's crazy. The battle's not against flesh and blood. It's not against even husband and wife. We're fighting, you're so busy fighting each other, but the devil's got you both. He's the one winning. And so, you know, it's just like we're as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. And that's why, you know, we have to be careful at about talking about other men and women of God, you know, other people, even, you know, when you disagree with it. Yeah, like it's just we're so devil. We're so busy beating each other up. We're not fighting the team.

Ken Claytor 23:37

It's almost like the Satan is sitting back in this corner laughing at the amount of tribalism, racism, at the political debate. The Republicans hate the Democrats, and the Democrats hate the Republicans, the blacks hate the whites, the whites hate the browns, the browns hate the yellows, the Muslims hate the Christians.

Tabatha Claytor 23:53

It's all flesh and blood.

Ken Claytor 23:54

Satan is sitting back like, look at these fools. They're wrestling against each other when I'm the author of all the confusion. So, what Ephesians tells me is that your spouse is not your enemy, your boss is not your enemy, your leader's not your enemy, your pastor's not your enemy, you have an enemy too. And we got to identify the devil is the author of all the confusion. And when I understand that, I'll stop fighting people and start and start connecting with people to fight the enemy.

Tabatha Claytor 24:19

Do you know how much you can win in life with that one revelation that it's not against flesh and blood, and you put your focus on the enemy, then you silence the real enemy. Yes, it right? You silence everything. Um, for me, in my life, I found out that that the the it wasn't against flesh and blood. It wasn't the person who sexually abused me. It wasn't this person who physically abused me or verbally abused me. It wasn't the person who, you know, um was racist against me growing up as a child. It wasn't those people. There was a spirit of racism, there was a spirit of abuse, there was a spirit of abandonment, a spirit of rejection.

Ken Claytor 24:56

And they were probably abandoned that way. And so now people are pawns in the hands of the enemy doing his bidding.

Tabatha Claytor 25:01

Yeah.

Ken Claytor 25:02

And I don't want to be no pawn when God's in the world.

Tabatha Claytor 25:04

And that's spiritual warfare. And what we don't understand is that, okay, so let's say something's going down. There's some people fighting. It's funny, this kind of happened in our kids' school. There's a um two people get into a fight. And then what happened? Another fight broke out, and another fight broke out. 12 fights broke out within the school in one in in one day, the period of time. And our daughter was saying, so, and I was saying, okay, so that's the natural people were fighting because one two girls were fighting over a boy. There were some football players fighting. I said, Okay, you told me the natural, but what was going on spiritually?

SPEAKER_01 25:36

That's it.

Tabatha Claytor 25:37

And and and so I was teaching her that this was spiritual warfare, baby girl. You better pray in the spirit, is what I told her. I said, You have power, dominion, and authority. You start binding that spirit of that riot to spirit of anger. Yes, anger rage.

Ken Claytor 25:53

Yes. And one little boy says something about the boy who died, and it turned into a riot to where the school was on lockdown, the police got involved, pepper spray. I mean, like a big deal. And but people don't know that it ain't between those little boys. You have a spirit of anger that is manipulating and playing people like Pond.

Tabatha Claytor 26:10

And that's spiritual warfare. And so what happens is sometimes those spirits, it's contagious. Why contain it to two per people when I can get 20 people and 200 people? So in one day, in a moment of hours, so many fights broke out. That was a spiritual problem. That was not a natural problem. And so in our lives, we have to understand, and that's what I realized.

Ken Claytor 26:31

If they called the police, they should have called the intercessors.

Tabatha Claytor 26:35

And I told, I told our daughter, I said, baby, you are um, you are an agent for God in that school. You can pray. Nobody else has to know it, but you can pray in the peace of God, love of God.

Ken Claytor 26:50

Second Corinthians 10 4 says that the weapons of our fight, the weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. So the weapons we fight with, they're not natural.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Right.

Ken Claytor 27:07

They're spiritual weapons. And I think too many times we fight spiritual battles with natural means and want to know why we have no victory. You have spiritual weapons, and as a spirit being, you got to know how to win, how to use them.

Tabatha Claytor 27:20

Yeah. And you have to value those spiritual weapons. I think, you know, if you look at, you know, now we have guns, you know, those are weapons that we're afraid of. We're afraid of knives. If somebody pulled out a weapon on you, you would be afraid of those things. And we don't feel the same way when it comes to number the name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah.

Tabatha Claytor 27:41

There's nothing more powerful than the name of Jesus. When we say pray, sometimes it's like, oh, well, you know, yeah, they, you know, Christians say that you just pray and that's all you can do is pray. No. Okay, if when you pray, that might be like when I pray, angels are being put on assignment. Yes. Right, right, right.

Ken Claytor 27:59

So prayer is like, oh, wait, we gotta do more than prayer. Well, I get that. Right. But it's gonna start in prayer.

Tabatha Claytor 28:05

We have to, when the Bible says that we have spiritual weapons, we better receive it as a weapon that is powerful.

Ken Claytor 28:13

Yeah. James 4, 7 says, submit yourself then to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee. So I do believe that every believer in warfare needs to know how to resist the devil. Like, I'm not a weakling, I'm not giving into temptation, I'm not a dog in heat. I have to learn how to resist the enemy in spiritual warfare. 1 Peter 5.8 says, be alert, be alert, be of a sober mind, because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring line, looking for somebody he can devour. So that means that the enemy has a target on our back. It doesn't mean that we can get taken out. He's looking for who is the weakest link so that he can devour. So it says, be alert, be sober-minded, be on your toes spiritually, be locked in, be dialed in. Ephesians 6 and 11 says, put on the full armor so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. So, you know, you you you were in a lot of fights growing up. I was in a few fights growing up. There are some people who've never been in a fight before, but you were in a spiritual fight, and you got to know how to take a stand against the devil's. You know, that's the one thing that I would teach Christians like toughen up. Yeah. Like you are soldier in this army. Put on the full arm of God, have your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Have on your helmet of salvation, have your breastplate of righteousness, put up your sword of the spirit, put up your shield of faith, which is, you know, that quenches every fiery dart of the enemy. You're not a weakling in this.

Tabatha Claytor 29:42

It's so funny, you know. I'm laughing because you just showed this to me. You sent me this clip. It was um an Instagram clip of a man. Um, there was a kangaro that got the man's dog, and some of y'all saw this. The kangaroo had the dog and wouldn't let it go. And so this man comes up and the kangaroo's like, what with his dog? And the man goes like this and punches the kangaroo in the face. And the kangaroo let go of the dog and was like, you know, like, whoa, I just got smacked in the face. You know, like it didn't know what to do, and then it just ran away.

Ken Claytor 30:14

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Kangaroo's a wild. I thought the kangaroo would come back out with his blue blue.

Tabatha Claytor 30:18

You sent that to me. You didn't send it to me.

Ken Claytor 30:19

I don't remember. I send you a lot of things.

Tabatha Claytor 30:21

Listen, that I was just like, oh my God. So he punched the kangaroo in the face. Yes, he punched the kangaroo in the face. But I think a lot of believers, like, that's what the enemy does. Like the enemy got your kids, he got your stuff, he got your health, he got your finances, and you're walking around like, oh no, you know, like I can't do anything. You better smack the enemy in the face. How do you do that with the sword of the spirit? Yeah, with the word of God.

Ken Claytor 30:43

Overcoming evil with good. Yes. Yeah, turning the other cheek.

Tabatha Claytor 30:46

Yes, and and and and what that does is it uh makes the enemy release what you have. The enemy has to release your children, release your health, release everything he took, he take, he stole from you, right?

Ken Claytor 30:58

Yeah, yeah, so good, so good. Um,

Seven Attacks And Ten Counters

Ken Claytor 31:01

so I want to give what I call seven ways the enemy attacks believers, and then I'm gonna give you some answers for how to overcome warfare. Um, and he attacks your mind, number one. He plants thoughts like God doesn't care, you'll never change, you're behind, you're alone, this will never get better. Lies become strongholds. A stronghold is a mental thought pattern that goes against the word of God. Strongholds can only be brought down by the word of God. So he attacks your mind. And so one of the things you have to do to win in warfare is you have to take your thought life back, okay? And don't believe the lies of the enemy. Number two, he attacks your identity. He tries to disconnect you from who you are in Christ. He'll say, You're not really saved, you're a hypocrite, you're too broken. Because if you're gonna confuse your identity, he can control your behavior. Now, most people they sin because they don't know who they really are. I would never, I'm not a drinker, I don't smoke, and I'm not going to a nightclub because I'm too anointed to do any of that. Everything I need, I get from God. When you know where your value and your worth comes through, you don't fall for decoys. Number three, he attacks you through a fence. Unresolved offense opens doors, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. It gives the enemy access. We live in a very offended generation because it's a cousin to pride. Oh, you didn't even see me. You didn't even email me back. You didn't text me back fast enough. You just walk right by me. And now you're offended. Now you're offended. What's that? It's a stumbling block. It stops you from going in to what God has for you. Number four, he attacks you through isolation. He pulls you away from community, pulls you away from church, pulls you away from accountability, pulls you away from godly voices. And so I think when you when you're around a church like ours, ministry like ours, that is more like life transformative or like carrying revival, Satan's gonna war against you to get you out of relationship with us, out of covenant with us. I've seen people that I know should be in relationship with us, but they can't handle the lies of the enemy because they under, they don't understand the enemy's coming after the relationship because the divine connection is what's bringing them into the next level of living. And so, number five, he attacks them through distraction. This is a big one in our day: busyness, noise, endless scrolling, constant chaos. Because if he can keep you being distracted, he can keep you shallow. Number six, he attacks you through compromise, small compromises, small things, tiny justifications, slow drifts. Nobody plans to fail, they just drift. And number seven, he attacks you through discouragement, weariness, hopelessness, fatigue, burnout. The enemy doesn't need to destroy you. He just needs to wear you down little by little. Seven tactics to warfare. We got to overcome. What stuck out to you?

Tabatha Claytor 33:53

Um, uh all of it. Yeah, just we could just go back and preach everyone again. Um, but it's true.

Ken Claytor 34:02

It's true. Yeah, yeah. And so let's get practical. And I want to give you just some ways to win in warfare. Are you ready? If you're ready in the comment section, just put I'm ready. Okay. Now, you guys in our audience, you might have some others to add to this. I want to hear from you. Please just you got to share this episode. Just take a moment right now, share this with somebody that's in a battle. And really, we're all in a battle, and so we all need this. So make sure that you share it. Like, comment. Um, here's some practical ways to win in warfare. All right. Stay submitted to God because authority flows through submission. Okay. Um, number two, guard your thought life. Don't let lies sit unchallenged. One of the greatest ways to deliverance is you break up with a lie. Sometimes deliverance isn't like we casting the devil out of somebody and they rise or flowing back in the back of their head. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's just when you break the lie and you replace it with the truth. Right. Freedom is found. Number three, stay in community. Isolation makes you vulnerable. That's why the devil hates church. He does everything he can to get you not going. Number four, keep short accounts. Repent fast, forgive quickly. Number five, stay in the word because truth dismantles lies. The truth of God's word is your sword. Number six, pray consistently. Prayer keeps you alert. Number seven, speak truth out loud. There's power in the spoken truth. Life and death is in the power of your tongue. Number eight, close open doors because compromise invites conflict. You know what I'm saying? Live a holy life is what that means. Do what the word of God tells you to do. Don't give any place to the enemy. Number nine, rest when you're weary. Exhaustion lowers resistance. And number 10, remember who you are. You fight from victory, not for victory. When you accept Jesus, you've already been given victory. You're already healed. The chains of poverty have already been broken. Everything that he's already done, but now you have to contend for that which Jesus has done for you. And that's how you win in warfare.

Tabatha Claytor 36:08

So good. I think, you know, one of the ways, one of the easiest ways to win in warfare as well. You talked about controlling your thought life, not meditating on lies, and a couple of other things that you stated there. I think this will help guard your eyes, guard your ears, guard what goes into your heart. Because you can control your thoughts a lot better when you guard what's going into your heart. You cannot be offended a lot better when you guard yourself. And a lot of that is what we listen to, what we watch on TV, and the people that we hang around. Guard your relationships, um, guard the conversations that you partake in, is what I, you know.

Ken Claytor 36:49

I ain't hanging out with the gossip crew. I'm not hanging out with the the whisperers or the fault finders or the or the critics. I understand construction, critic, constructive criticism, but there's that's different than having a critical spirit. I don't hang out with people who have a critical spirit. You're either gonna make movies or be a critic of movies. I would rather make movies than be a critic of movies. You sitting back on your doing nothing, talking about what other people are doing. I don't want that spirit on me.

Tabatha Claytor 37:14

Absolutely.

Ken Claytor 37:14

All that's warfare. Yeah, let's win in warfare. Let's win in warfare. Um, let's let's let's pray together if you don't mind. Those

Prayers Of Renunciation And Next Steps

Ken Claytor 37:21

of you all who've been battling depression and anxiety, just say this with me. I renounce the spirit of depression, the spirit of anxiety, leave me now, in the mighty name of Jesus. Those of you all who've been, you've opened the door to black magic, uh sorcery, the occult witchcraft, um, say this with me. I renounce um occult practices and anything that is demonic. Doors that I've opened, I close now. I renounce it all in the mighty name of Jesus. Um, those of you all who've been um battling an addiction, generational addictions, uh repeat this after me. I renounce the spirit of addiction, and I'm free right now by the mighty the power in Jesus' name, in the mighty name of Jesus, whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. Um, those of you all who feel like you have um what we call night terrors and like you just feel like the devil is around you, say this I renounce um night terrors, the spirit of fear and warfare in the mighty name of Jesus. No weapon formed against me will ever prosper. Lord, I ask now for legions of angels to keep me in all my ways, the number of my days I will fulfill. Say this, I shall live and not die. Okay. Now, people of God, we can go through a lot of prayers like this, but whatever your situation is, where there has been warfare, I guess our thing is just you have to take authority. You know, Jesus says, My words are spirit and life. So you have authority in the words that you use. Faith is released by what you believe, what you speak, and how you act. Begin to believe what God has said about you, speak what God has said about you, and act like what God has said about you before you ever see it. And that faith will bring God's best into your into your life. All right. I want to pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, we come against the lies of the enemy, against your people. We declare that Satan is underneath their feet. Um, we declare that generational curses are broken. The blessing is being released right now. Those who are sick, we prophesy healing over you in the name of Jesus. Inflammation go away, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis be healed right now. In Jesus' name, back pain be healed in the mighty name of Jesus, even STDs that you are shameful about. God wants to heal you because he loves you in the mighty name of Jesus. And I declare that an authority rises up on the inside of them. And right now, I also pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and power. Fall on them right now, Lord. Give them great power and boldness to be able to stand up against the lies of the enemy. And we call you victorious in Jesus' mighty name.

Tabatha Claytor 40:14

Amen.

Ken Claytor 40:15

Hey, if uh you prayed that prayer with us and God has touched you, moved in your life, let us know right now, man. We want to celebrate you. Because that's really what this whole podcast is about. Um, this is about us doing life together. That's why it's doing life with Ken and Tabitha. We want to hear your story. Email us, comment right now, share it below, subscribe if you're new here. We release a new episode every Thursday at 3 p.m. We got a conference that we would love you to come to. It's in Orlando, Florida. People come from all around the world, literally, for the first week in November. If you give us three days, we believe it could change the next 30 years of your life. We believe you can be filled with the Spirit, healed, delivered, and God would just encourage your faith if you make this investment into spiritual things. For more information about a live conference, uh, you can check out our website in the show notes. And just know that you're not alone. Me, her, our team. We're all praying for you. We're believing for God's best in you. We'll see you next Thursday.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Peace.