How to Recognize Spiritual Warfare
Jun 11, 2026Summary
Have you ever walked into your home after a long day and felt an unexplainable weight press down on you? Maybe you've watched your usually sweet child spin into unprovoked anger, or caught yourself going from 0 to 60 in pure rage over a spilled drink. If you are exhausted from trying to solve spiritual problems with physical solutions and find yourself asking how to recognize spiritual warfare, you are exactly where you need to be.
In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson and licensed clinical social worker Wendi Christensen map out the exact indicators that flag an emotional shift from normal stress to negative spiritual interference. We dive into the biblical examples of King Saul's sudden mood shifts (1 Samuel 16) and the apostle Paul's sharp discernment (Acts 16) to understand how the adversary leaves psychological footprints in our homes.
Wendi shares her absolute number one metric for spotting an attack—the "feeling off" gauge—and vulnerably discusses her own journey of overcoming a sudden, terrifying "mom rage." Tune in to learn how to identify the four primary footprints of darkness, stop fighting your family, and start executing your authority as the guardian of your home in the name of Jesus Christ!
Episode Takeaways
- The "Feeling Off" Metric: The number one gauge that you or your child are under spiritual attack is simply feeling "off" or "not like yourself." When natural emotions are amplified beyond reason, it is often a spiritual escalation.
- The Four Footprints of Darkness: The adversary leaves specific psychological footprints: sudden heaviness (a fog), sudden mood shifts (0 to 60 rage), deep discouragement, and sharp, biting words meant to cause division.
- When in Doubt, Cast it Out: As the spiritual guardian of your home, you do not have to tolerate this heaviness. When you recognize an attack, vocally cast out the spirit of anger, anxiety, or overwhelm in the name of Jesus Christ, and invite His peace to fill the room.
- The Ultimate Litmus Test: God’s ultimate goal is love and connection; the adversary’s goal is division and isolation. If the atmosphere in your home is pushing your family toward isolation, the enemy is actively running interference.
Free Resource
Ready to sharpen your spiritual vision and track these indicators in your own home? 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
- Look back at a recent moment when you or a child suddenly went from "0 to 60" in anger. Could that have been a spiritual attack exacerbating a normal frustration?
- What does "feeling off" look like for you personally? How does it look for your children or your spouse?
- Which of the four footprints of darkness (heaviness, sudden mood shifts, discouragement, division) do you notice most frequently in your home?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Wendi Christensen @wendichristensencounseling
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.880 - 00:03:20.310
Have you ever walked into your home after a long day and felt an unexplainable weight just seem to press down on you? Or maybe you've watched your usually sweet child spin out of control into unprovoked anger?
Or you caught yourself going from 0 to 60 in pure rage over a spill on the counter? You look at your family and wonder, what is going on with my family today?
Perhaps you're typing how to Recognize Spiritual Warfare into your search bar because you are exhausted from trying to solve spiritual problems with physical solutions and you need to know if you're dealing with a behavioral issue or a direct, invisible attack on your home. Well, take heart, my friend. You are in the right place.
And by the end of today's episode, you will be able to immediately identify the four primary psychological footprints the adversary leaves behind when he enters your household, allowing you to stop fighting your family and start executing your authority as a guardian of your home.
We're going to help you solve the pain of home instability by mapping out the exact indicators that flag an emotional shift from normal stress to negative interference. We're moving from blindly reacting to operating with sharp discernment. 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 today, Tamara K. Andersen, and joining me today is the fabulous Wendi Christensen, who is my co founder of Women warriors of Light and has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 30 years. And and we are going to be tackling the vital question of how to recognize spiritual warfare.
Recognizing the enemy's footprints isn't an optional skill for a Christian mother. It is our absolute line of defense. Scripture shows us that spiritual attacks can look like normal emotional shifts.
In First Samuel, chapter 16, verses 14 through 23, we see King Saul Paul plagued by a distressed spirit that brought overwhelming sudden changes in mood and provoked anger and deep discouragement. Yet when David played beautiful praise music, the environment suddenly cleared and the mood calmed.
Isn't it great to know that we can use beautiful music to help remove the forces of the adversary from ourselves and from our home? In can instantly shift in Acts, chapter 16, verses 16 through 18, the apostle Paul encountered a girl whose words sounded fine on the surface.
But through spiritual discernment, he recognized that the spirit behind her was entirely off and deceptive, prompting him to command it to leave.
Wendi is now going to share from a clinical vantage point what is the absolute number one metric, the key phrase you need to listen for to see if an attack is happening Right now,.
Wendi Christensen
00:03:20.630 - 00:04:52.650
A lot of times you are going to feel off. That's something that I will hear when I'm working with people. They'll start saying, they'll come in and they're like, I just feel off.
I don't, I don't feel like myself. And I haven't felt like myself. I think that's the number one gauge to know that, that Satan's working against you.
You may feel more down, you may feel more sad than usual. Or it could even be I've started recognizing it in the important people around me, like my kids and my husband. They say those types of things too.
Where a kid comes home and you get to know your kids and how they really are and their personality and their behavior. And I'll start seeing that they don't seem like themselves either. And they may not recognize that you may not recognize it.
So sometimes you even have to listen to what those closest around you are saying. Like, you don't seem like yourself. You, you seem like something's really bothering you or something doesn't seem right for you.
Listen to that, pay attention to that. And you can start recognizing it too with your kids and your spouse too. Do I feel like myself? Do I not feel like myself?
Does something feel off kilter? There's usually something going on in those moments. So really start spotting the patterns and recognizing those patterns that you can see.
There's four primary psychological footprints of darkness that we kind of talk about in our booklet. Our booklet is a great resource. You might feel some sudden heaviness where there's like. Like you're in a fog.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:04:53.290 - 00:06:30.900
So if you feel off or notice amplified emotions or maybe a fog, it could be the adversary. Follow this principle. When in doubt, cast it out.
Just recently, our sweet son Nathan, who has low functioning autism, was playing a Wheel of Fortune game on his old Nintendo ds. He was having a hard time guessing the word and became incredibly distressed.
And he was yelling and angry, which is completely opposite to who he usually is. I stepped in to try to help him solve it. And as I tried to help him, even I started becoming agitated.
I suddenly realized this is not just Nathan or me. This is an adversarial attack. That was my cue right there.
I vocally cast out the adversary in the name of Jesus Christ, including the spirit of anger and anxiety and overwhelm. And I called in God to fill us with light and peace and a sense of calm.
The climate shifted instantly and we were able to work together to solve that Wheel of Fortune puzzle.
It is vital to Remember that the adversary may be hiding behind a physical vulnerability like situational grief or monthly hormone cycles that he magnifies it. He makes it worse than it normally would be. That can be another indicator.
Wendi is now going to share a personal example of how this spiritual escalation manifested in a sudden, terrifying rage in her early years as a mother.
Wendi Christensen
00:06:31.460 - 00:09:03.780
I remember when I was a young mom, I never thought I ever had an anger problem or an anger issue until I became a mom. And then all of a sudden, I went, holy cow, where did this anchor come from? I have never in my life been this angry, and I loathed it.
As a new mom, I hated when my kids, even as they were toddlers, these moments of rage would come, and I would get to the point where I would hate myself because I would blow up or explode at my kid. And then I would feel extreme shame.
Not just guilt, because guilt is like, I would feel bad that I did it, but then I would feel like, you worthless piece of you. You are this horrible, horrible mom. And I loathed myself. And I remember begging the Lord, please help me to change this.
Please help me to get rid of this anger and this rage. This is not me. This is not who I am, and I hate it.
And when I started learning about spiritual warfare, I started recognizing when I would go from 0 to 60 with rage. I knew Satan was attacking me in those moments, and that was my key identifier to go, he's attacking you.
And once I saw it and I recognized it, I felt so much relief because I felt like I could control it. All of a sudden I'm like, I know how to control this now. I'd have to recognize it quickly and really fast.
And that took some practice and some experience, because I wouldn't always recognize it in the beginning. But as I kept trying and working and processing it, I started recognizing quicker and faster how to see it and to go, satan's working on me.
Okay, get rid of it quickly, Wendy. And then you start learning, and we'll teach how we do that. I started recognizing it and casting him away and casting it out.
My kids started noticing a difference. I noticed a difference, and I became the mom that I wanted to be. Not perfect.
Still will even have moments where I'll explode at times, and I recognize and go, whoa. When they step back. But it's helped so much.
Sudden heaviness, sudden mood shifts, that 0 to 60 rate I was talking about, yeah, he can help with that deep discouragement. You'll start to notice division, sharp, biting Words that are meant to isolate family members from each other.
Those will often be ways that he will attack you. And you have to see them and recognize them for what they are and call in the Lord to help push out the adversary.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:04.320 - 00:09:37.720
As you were talking, it just became crystal clear in my mind. If God's hope for all of us is love and connection, then the adversary's goal is division and isolation.
And so if we can look at it that way, how does your home feel right now? How do your relationships feel right now?
If it's connected and you know, you've got that we're working together towards something, those feelings are coming from God. If it's division and isolation, then you know that Satan's attacking, right?
Wendi Christensen
00:09:38.360 - 00:09:39.080
I love that.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:39.400 - 00:11:28.100
So, my friends, once you recognize the footprint, you hold the keys to changing the entire atmosphere of your home. You don't have to sit back and watch your family be torn apart by isolation or rage. You are a guardian. A guardian of your home.
And you can stand in the power of Jesus Christ to help you sharpen your spiritual vision and actively track these indicators. Wendy and I have detailed this diagnostic framework inside our new resource guide, A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide.
Six Empowering Steps to Fortify Home and Family. You can grab your free copy in the link below. When you download your manual, turn directly to step number three. Mastering discernment.
We have built out Wendy's clinical checklist, the counselor's question to help you quickly assess yourself and your kids the moment someone feels off. Then move directly into step number four, the cast out and calm down Scriptural protocol.
Sweeping out the negative tools out of your rooms, out of your family, and filling it with light and positive peace. Your home is a holy sanctuary and you can stand your ground when you stand with God, who is your general in this battle. Remember, you're not alone.
And you can call on angels to stand with you and by you. And call upon sister warriors to help pray for you when you're facing an intense battle. So, my friend, 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.
