What Does a Spiritual Attack Feel Like?
Jun 17, 2026Summary
Have you ever felt trapped by a sudden, heavy wave of anxiety or crushing shame after making a minor mistake? You might be drowning in your feelings, desperately looking for an objective checklist and asking, what does a spiritual attack feel like? If you need to know whether you are experiencing normal human stress or a direct assault from the adversary, you are in the exact right place!
In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson sits down with heart-centered life coach and trauma recovery specialist Bonnie Randall. Together, we unpack the critical boundaries that separate healthy, God-given human emotions from negative spiritual interference. We explore biblical examples like King David in Psalm 42 and Elijah in 1 Kings 19, who both faced overwhelming despair after massive spiritual victories.
Discover how to spot the diagnostic boundary line between healthy "godly sorrow" and paralyzing satanic shame. Learn how the enemy strategically weaponizes normal human grief and difficult medical diagnoses, trying to push you "out of bounds" into chronic hopelessness and rumination. Tune in to stop drowning in self-blame, identify the enemy's psychological footprints, and learn how to confidently execute your authority as the spiritual guardian of your home!
Episode Takeaways
- The Normal Range of Emotion: God gave us human emotions (ranging from sadness to joy) for our growth. The adversary attacks by pushing us out of the bounds of that normal range, turning everyday stress into crushing despair. (See chart below)
- Guilt vs. Shame: Godly sorrow (guilt) is a healthy emotion that prompts you to repent and turn to Jesus for healing. Shame is an out-of-bounds spiritual attack that lies to you, telling you that you are a horrible, irredeemable person.
- The Grief Hijack: Feeling sad about a loss or a difficult diagnosis is normal human grief. However, when that grief spirals into absolute hopelessness, feeling stuck, or believing there is no way forward, the enemy has hijacked your emotions.
- The Purpose of Opposition: Opposition is actually a part of God's plan. It provides us with the necessary friction to actively choose Christ and learn to harness and regulate our emotions toward ultimate joy.
Free Resource
Ready to systematically track these emotional shifts in your own household? 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
- Can you identify a recent time when a normal feeling of guilt escalated into toxic, paralyzing shame?
- How does knowing that "out-of-bounds" emotions (like hopelessness and extreme rumination) are from the adversary change how you view your current struggles?
- What is one way you can actively choose Christ and bring "joy" back into your emotional baseline today?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Bonnie Randall @bonnie.randall
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:01.840 - 00:03:14.180
Have you ever felt yourself being almost trapped by a heavy wave of anxiety or shame that might press down on you after making a minor mistake? Perhaps you might be asking, what does a spiritual attack feel like?
Because you're drowning in your feelings and you need like an objective checklist of symptoms to know if this is just normal stress or a direct assault from the adversary. Well, take heart, my friend. You are in the right place.
And by the end of today's episode, you'll know how to spot the diagnostic boundary that separates healthy human emotions from negative spiritual interference. Stay tuned. Ordinary women, extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes. Welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
I am your podcast host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today.
And today I am recording with heart centered life coach and trauma recovery specialist Bonnie Randall to help you identify the enemy's footprints before he takes over your mood. We are breaking down three critical pillars. First, the emotional boundary line.
The exact physiological difference between a healthy human emotion and an out of bounds spiritual ambush.
Second, we're going to cover the shame deception, how to tell the difference between godly sorrow that heals you and toxic satanic shame that paralyzes you. And third, the grief hijack, how the adversary strategically weaponizes normal human loss or medical diagnoses to trap you in chronic hopelessness.
And let's kick it off by looking at scripture that validates these exact symptoms. In Psalm 42, verses 5 and 6, King David describes the heavy feeling of an attack when he cries out, why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me? Spiritual distress feels like that when your emotions feel cast down and heavy with maybe an internal unrest.
Even the great Prophet Elijah in First Kings, chapter 19 was hit with a heavy, overwhelming cloud of deep despair and suicidal isolation immediately after a massive spiritual victory. So you're not alone in this. The enemy capitalizes on our vulnerabilities to drag us down.
Bonnie is now going to teach that the absolute primary metric to identify an attack is by first understanding the normal range of human emotions versus the attack zone.
Bonnie Randall
00:03:14.730 - 00:06:38.780
But let's, let's take a moment and let's learn a little bit of psychology, okay? There is a normal range of human emotion that God has given us. Okay?
As a human being, we have come down here to have a body of flesh and blood, correct? And the whole reason we came here is to prove that we would follow God, right?
That we would praise him and love him and worship him and do his commandments and all of those Things. Things it's talked about a million times in the Bible. So as a part of that, he has given us human emotion and he has given us the opposition.
This is one of the most important things I could ever say to anyone. The opposition is a part of the plan. It is there to help us. It is an opportunity to choose Christ.
So the opposition gives us opportunity to choose Christ. So back to human emotion.
He's given us these human emotions so that we can choose him and become refined and become worthy to enter the kingdom of God and to enter heaven, right? And we do that through harnessing and regulating emotions. He talks about compassion and charity and love and.
And meekness and all of these other things all throughout the Bible. A lot of those have to do with regulating emotion. True, true.
So when we learn that there's a normal range of human emotion, there is everything from anger and sadness to joy, right? We have some of the lower, more base emotions that are more negative in nature, but they serve a purpose.
And then we have ranging to frustration and annoyance, to indifference, to amicableness, to whatever, right? It rises in freight frequency. There's a really great chart I can give you, Tamra, to throw in there to kind of show the range of emotions. Okay?
So we go from the negative up into frequency of positive, right? And joy is the ultimate emotion. And this, brothers and sisters, joy is the ultimate.
It is what we are trying to achieve because joy encompasses harmony and gratitude and love and compassion and charity. Joy is all of it. And joy and is what God wants us to feel, okay?
And that's the whole reason that he wanted us to come down here, was so that we could experience what he experiences, which is joy. That's the whole reason. Okay?
Like, seriously, if we distill everything down, it's so that we can feel the amount of joy and love and all of these feelings that he has and to learn how to have that with us. Okay, so back to the spiritual attacks.
Now that we understand there's a normal range of emotions, when you are out of that normal range of emotion, that is how you can recognize that you are under spiritual attack.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:06:39.580 - 00:06:57.840
That boundary line changes everything. Godly sorrow and human grief are completely normal and natural.
But watch how Bonnie clinically distinguishes where human emotion ends and the adversary's escalation begins.
Bonnie Randall
00:06:59.040 - 00:09:08.420
Let's take sadness or feeling bad or feeling guilty about a sin that I've made, right? This is one that I ran up against a lot as a life coach. I feel bad for what I did. I feel guilt. That can also Be akin to godly sorrow.
Godly sorrow turns us to repentance. It helps us recognize I made a mistake. I need to go to Jesus for healing and repentance. Right? I need to have him help me with this.
Out of normal range of emotion is shame. I now don't just feel guilt, but I now am blaming myself. I'm now thinking I'm a horrible human. I'm irredeemable. I'm hopeless. There's no fixing this.
I now have that shame. Shame is of the devil. That is lower than godly sorrow and guilt. Do you see where I'm going with this? Let's take another one. I feel bad. I'm sad.
I'm in this situation. I feel down about it. I'm upset that I got this diagnosis of cancer or whatever it is, and I feel really bad about it.
Being grieved is a normal human emotion. Loss is a normal human emotion. I now feel hopeless in the situation. I feel stuck. There's no way forward. I can't heal from this. I can't fix it.
I can't whatever it is, that hopelessness, that despair, but looking for an out, but thinking there is no out.
That is Satan attacking you and taking that grief and turning it into depression and hopelessness and suicide ideation and those ruminating thoughts, that is Satan attacking.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:09.620 - 00:10:46.920
Recognizing that shame and hopelessness are not your own thoughts takes the terrifying mystery out of the attack. You, my friend, are a guardian of your home. And now you can spot the enemy's footprints the moment he steps into your mind.
To help you systematically track these emotional shifts in your own household. Bonnie and I are excited to share with you this amazing resource, A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide. Six Empowering Steps to Fortify Home and Family.
And you can download your free copy at the link below.
When you open your guide, go to step number three, Mastering Discernment, where we talk about identifying when an atmosphere of anxiety or rage has escalated outside of normal bounds, along with the correct steps to then cast the adversary out in step four and calm down. So, my friend, you are normal. You're not broken. You can easily identify typical emotions from the adversary's attack. God is with you.
He won't leave you alone. Stand by him and with him as you fortify yourself and your family. And until next time, be 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.
