Why Does God Allow Spiritual Warfare?
Aug 12, 2026Summary
Have you ever wondered why does God allow spiritual warfare? When you are exhausted from fighting non-stop battles in your home, it is incredibly easy to feel like you are being punished. You might wonder why God doesn't just instantly remove the trial or if He has completely abandoned you in the storm. If you are desperate to know if God is actively working in your hardship, you are in the exact right place!
In this episode of the Arise Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson is joined by prayer warrior Kari Anjewierden to unpack the divine purpose behind our heaviest trials. Kari explains the beautiful "sculpting process," showing how God uses painful spiritual resistance to chisel and temper us into a masterpiece.
We also explore a fascinating biblical truth from Judges chapter 3, revealing why God intentionally leaves leftover battles for the next generation to fight! Discover what the Apostle Paul's "thorn in the flesh" teaches us about weakness, and learn how to practically track God's hand in your life when you are completely exhausted. Tune in to see how our Savior Jesus Christ uses your deepest struggles to build eternal strength in you and your children today!
Episode Takeaways
- The Sculpting Process: Spiritual warfare is not a punishment. Just as a woodcarver uses a sharp chisel to carve a beautiful masterpiece, God allows opposition to stretch, mold, and refine you into the woman He created you to be.
- The Canaan Principle (Judges 2-3): Why doesn't God remove all the spiritual battles from our lives? In Judges, God intentionally left a remnant of enemies in the Promised Land to teach the next generation how to war. If God removed all resistance, our children would grow up spiritually passive.
- Paul's Thorn in the Flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9): When we plead for God to remove a messenger of Satan, He often replies, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Our extreme weakness is the exact place where we learn to stop relying on human muscle and allow Jesus Christ to make us complete.
- Track the Pocket Miracles: When you are in a six-month season of absolute exhaustion, it is hard to see God's hand in the moment. You must ask daily, "Where are you, Lord?" and physically write down the small ways He shows up for you.
Free Resource: A Woman's Guide to Spiritual Warfare
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
- When faced with heavy opposition, do you tend to view it as God's punishment or as God's "sculpting process"?
- How does the "Canaan Principle" change your perspective on the spiritual battles your children are currently fighting?
- What is one "pocket miracle" or small evidence of God's grace you can write down from your life this week?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Kari Anjewierden @karaleeanjewierden and @pocket.miracles
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:01.440 - 00:02:09.300
Hey, my friend, have you ever wondered why does God allow spiritual warfare? Because maybe you're exhausted from fighting non stop battles in your home and feeling like you're being punished.
And perhaps you're wondering why God doesn't just remove the trial to begin with. Is God actively working in your hardship or has he completely abandoned you? Well, my friend, if you've ever wondered these things, you.
You are in the right place.
And by the end of today's episode, you will know how God uses spiritual resistance to sculpt your character, why he leaves battles for your children to fight, and how our Savior Jesus Christ can turn your deepest weaknesses into divine strength. Stay tuned. Ordinary women extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes. Hello and welcome back to the Arise Women of God podcast.
I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson. And joining me today is a wonderful guest, Carrie Angewerden, a prayer warrior, wife, mother and seeker of pocket miracles.
And today we're going to talk all about why does God allow spiritual warfare? Here's what we're going to cover in today's episode. First, the sculpting process.
How God chisels us and tempers us through trials rather than punishing us. Second, the Canaan principle. What Judges chapter three reveals about how God leaves leftover battles for the next generation.
Third, what Paul's thorn in the flesh. And first Peter 5, show us about weaknesses and a key anchor. And finally, we'll talk about tracking God's hand in the exhaustion.
And we'll share practical ways to spot God's presence in in the hardest moments of your life. But let's begin by addressing the common feeling that spiritual attacks mean God is angry with us.
Let's listen to Kari explain what God is actually doing.
Kari Anjewierden
00:02:09.780 - 00:04:14.710
When he allows opposition, that is what God's doing, right? When he is allowing it, he is allowing us that opportunity to stretch and to grow.
And I love the scripture in James 1, in verses 2 through 4, my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. So there are things that he is molding in us. He is sculpting us. And that sculpting process is painful sometimes chiseling things out.
And I have a wooden bust that my dad carved, but kind of chunked out with these knives. And what has come out of it is beautiful. It's a head of an Indian chief, but it started as a block of wood and now there's this beautiful image.
But it took a lot of hewing to get to that place. And so God is doing that with us. He's tempering us, he's stretching us. He's molding us. He's moving us in the ways that he needs to move us.
And he needs us to know who he is also. And he needs us to know how much we need him in that as well.
And in First John, he talks about, you are of God's little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So the only way that we can combat this life, because it is a life about opposites, you have the good and the bad.
In order to do that, we have to have Christ on our side. He has to be with us. If he is not, we are lost. It's as simple as that. So God allows it to stretch us, to grow us, and to help make us His.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:04:15.350 - 00:07:47.870
I love that image Carrie shared of her father chiseling away at that block of wood until a beautiful image emerged. So often we ask God to take away the chisel because it hurts, but he knows the beauty he is bringing out in us.
When we wonder why God doesn't just instantly clear every spiritual battle out of our homes the moment we pray, Scripture gives us an amazing insight. In Judges chapters two and three, when Joshua died, God intentionally did not drive out all the pagan enemies from the promised land in a single day.
The text tells us that God left a remnant of opposition in the land specifically to teach them war. At the least, such as before, knew nothing thereof. End quote. Sister, think about what that means for us as mothers.
If the Lord Jesus Christ instantly removed every temptation, every trial, every piece of spiritual resistance from our lives, our children would grow up spiritually passive. They would never learn how to pray, how to stand on God's word, or how to wield the sword of the spirit.
God allows the battle because he is teaching us and our children how to own their faith and stand strong in a dark world. I remember reading a quote when I was a teenager that said, the greater the resistance, the greater the strength.
And I have continued to apply that principle in my life.
It not only applies in weight training, that the more that we lift, the stronger we get, but it applies in the principle of spiritual warfare as well. The greater the resistance, the greater the strength.
Not only does warfare train our children, but it also strips away our spiritual pride and forces us to lean on the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 7 through 9, the apostle Paul speaks about his thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him When Paul pleaded for God to take it away, God gave him this life changing answer. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
In the original Greek text, that word for perfect actually means complete.
Our physical and emotional weakness is the exact place where we learn to stop relying on our own muscle and allow Jesus Christ to make us complete in him.
When you feel like your knees are buckling under the weight of a trial, a trial that is settling into your soul as first Peter, chapter 5, verse 10, promises, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory, by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.
The battle, my friends, is temporary, but the spiritual stability and the grace grounding that our redeemer, Jesus Christ builds in your heart will last forever. Now what about those moments when the trial goes on for months and you feel completely exhausted?
Let's head back to Carrie as she shares how she found hope during the hardest six months of her life.
Kari Anjewierden
00:07:48.030 - 00:09:53.440
You know, I've just come off of a long six month back to back journey of highs and lows and everything in between. And I would say the roughest, probably six months of my life. It's been very difficult.
But as I am now coming down off some of that into a space of being able to be still and quiet and contemplate the things that I have learned over those six months, as I look back, I see God's hand in all of it, even in the difficult things. You know, I've had multiple floods in my house. I've had children moving, I've had kids getting married, I've had kids graduating.
I've had, you know, all kinds of things going on and travels in between there and then, the family dynamics and those relationships. And sometimes those are hard and sometimes, you know, that's a struggle.
And so to see God's hand in those places, bringing the people in that I need to support me or that, you know, specific people that are needed to help with the flood situation or this problem or whatever, looking back, I can see it in the moment, I can't see it. And so for me, it's holding on to that faith that he's there every moment and even getting to that place of asking him each day, where are you?
Sometimes I need to know, where are you? And then writing those things down, keeping a list of where is he showing up? How is he showing up?
And it may be grand and it may be something just tiny, it makes all the difference. But God is in those details. And he knows because he's also allowed Himself to live this life of spiritual warfare.
The Savior knows how to help us through that process.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:54.320 - 00:11:59.860
Looking back and writing down where God shows up is how we anchor our hearts when the storm is raging.
If you are are walking through an exhausting season right now and need a practical system to track God's hand and fortify your home against the enemy, we at Women warriors of Light want to put a powerful free resource directly into your hand.
Down in the description below, you'll find a link to download our new digital guide, A Mother's Spiritual Defense Guide six Empowering Steps to Fortify Home, Home and Family Once you get it, turn straight to step Number six, the Power of Remembering. It will show you how to create your own miracle moments. Journal and track where God is showing up in your family's daily life.
Also check out step number one, the Divine Partnership. It will teach you how to shift from feeling punished to partnering with God's refining power.
Download your free copy today and start recording God's goodness in your home. My dear sister, my dear friend, God has not forgotten you and he is not punishing you.
He is chiseling away the rough edges, building spiritual resilience in your children and teaching you that his grace is all you need. I bear my testimony that our Savior Jesus Christ knows every ache of your heart.
He has walked this path and he holds your hand in the dark and he will settle and strengthen you as you trust in Him. Stand with him and by him and until next time, may you arise and do it God's way. God Strong.
If today's episode helped you feel a little closer to God, please like and subscribe and subscribe. It helps us grow and ensures heaven's whispers stay at the top of your feed whenever you need them most.
