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Spiritual attack and demonic forces are contentious topics in the church. Some maintain that such things are very distant from the mundane considerations of modern believers, while others see spiritual evil in everyday hardships. In this episode, Gary Wilkerson and Joshua West discuss spiritual evil and the goodness of God as well as how those two aspects of the supernatural intersect with believers’ ordinary lives. Scripture is frank about the existence of spiritual forces, but how should we interact with them?
Key Points from the Podcast
• The term ‘goodness’ has been lowered in its meaning for modern culture, but it’s directly connected to God and God’s presence in a situation or blessings on a certain thing. It also isn’t a lesser force than the evil in the world; in fact, it’s much greater than any evil.
• Some people who attribute everything to spiritual forces to an absurd degree can turn more logical or reserved believers away from acknowledging spiritual forces, which is a shame.
• There is both a physiologic component and spiritual elements to mental illness and addiction and anything that destroys people’s lives.
• People often want to address spiritual evil through physical, fleshly means. Jesus didn’t model that in his life; he always addressed spiritual evil through supernatural power first.
• Spiritual forces in popular media are often seen as much more powerful than people, and yet we’re also left alone to resolve the dark spiritual forces that come against us, and the very opposite is true; God is far more powerful than anything that’s demonic, and while we have some work to do in spiritual battles, God is the one who resolves it.
• Acknowledging the spiritual realm does not excuse sin; even if demons couldn’t access humanity, we would still sin.
• When we confront spiritual evil, we must completely rely on God’s plans and goodness, even if we don’t see material results right away in the person or situation in front of us.
• The supernatural goodness of God extends beyond confronting demonic power. The gospel itself is a supernatural good because it comes from the Lord first but also it transforms people’s hearts and desires to align with God’s.
Bible Verses Referenced in the Podcast
Ephesians 6:10-12, Romans 12:9-10, 1 John 2:15
Resources Mentioned in the Podcast
The Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiser
Episodes in this Podcast Series
About Joshua West
Joshua West serves as the Pastors Network Director at World Challenge helping equip and empower pastors all over the world. Joshua’s desire is to raise up ministers who will correctly and boldly preach the word with passion and integrity. The point of all his work and writings is to preach the gospel, glorify God and to teach sound doctrine.