How to Overcome Attacks from the Enemy

By Lauren Rose Correa, May 26, 2025

Do you struggle with something that you feel is a spiritual attack? It could be a temptation or a mental health crisis. Perhaps you are wondering how to overcome attacks from the enemy. When I first became more serious about my relationship with God, I started experiencing an onslaught of challenges. These came in the form of intense anxiety that seemed to come from nowhere, panic attacks, and even some scary and very vivid nightmares and night terrors.

I asked God to help me understand where all this was coming from, and I felt that he showed me it stemmed from a demonic influence in my life. From a young age, I struggled with dark thoughts and even the occasional intrusive thoughts. I began to realize that I needed to deal with the power that the enemy had over my life.

Through the years I was overcoming these things little by little and seeking God, but in the meantime the enemy was coming against me. I ended up experiencing three episodes of psychosis before finally starting to experience a greater level of freedom from this influence.

How does the enemy gain control of our minds?

There are two main ways that the enemy gains access to our minds.

Ancestral Sin

Sometimes we inherit a predisposition to a sin from our ancestry. We are all born with a sin nature, and it makes sense that sometimes we inherit things from our family. However, we can’t be free by blaming the sin on someone else. If you’ve taken on a struggle that you inherited from your parents or grandparents, you need to repent and turn away from that sin, because it has become your own.

Our Own Sin

Whenever we sin, we give the devil a foothold in our life. Sin that has not been repented of gives the devil access and a right to torment us or tempt us.

“In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV

How should we respond to an attack of the enemy?

Here are three things that we need to do in response when we feel we are under attack, whether it be an attack on our mental health or temptation.

Examine Ourselves

When the enemy attacks, he doesn’t attack in our area of strength, but in our area of weakness. I already had a predisposition to experience psychosis, and I was completely unaware of that until I experienced it for the first time.

It’s easy to try and separate yourself from the attack by blaming the devil. The truth is, each attack reveals to us what our weaknesses already are. Instead of blaming anyone else, use it as an opportunity to present your weakness to the Lord and ask him to help you fix it.

Repent of Sin

The Lord promises that when we repent of our sin, he will cleanse us of all unrighteousness. When your area of weakness is revealed, repent of your sin, which means to feel sorrow for what you’ve done and then to stop doing it. We need God to cleanse us, or else we will only return to the same sin. As we do this, the enemy will start to lose his control and we will gain victory.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 NIV

Resist the Devil

The Bible tells us that if we resist the devil, he will flee! This is helpful to remember if you are being tempted or wrestling with wrong thoughts. No attack lasts forever. If you submit to God and resist the enemy, he will eventually run away.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 NIV

Can Christians be affected by the demonic?

The answer to this question is yes! Christians can struggle with this realm, and we are told over and over again to protect ourselves from it. A struggle does not mean you don’t have God, but there is something we need to recognize. The enemy only has power in our lives and can only have a stronghold in us if we have unrepented sin, which can include wrong thoughts and beliefs about God.

Just because you don’t experience an immediate victory also doesn’t mean you don’t have God. Victory can take time as the Lord reveals to us the areas we need to surrender. We need to offer grace, not judgment, to believers who are wrestling with this arena. We need to be patient and trust the process if we ourselves are struggling.

How to Overcome Attacks from the Enemy: God is More Powerful

I believe that God allows the enemy to attack us so that we can clearly see our weaknesses and can surrender them to God and experience freedom. It’s important to remember that God is more powerful than the devil.

““See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 54:16-17 NIV

“The destroyer” in this passage is referring to the devil. This is God reminding us that the devil is a created being. He has no power over God whatsoever, and he was defeated when Jesus died on the cross. In Christ, we have all the tools we need to learn how to overcome attacks from the enemy.

This passage carries a promise: no weapon forged against the believer will prevail. We are going to have victory over the devil. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, this is a guarantee!