What to Do When You're Under Spiritual Attack: The LORD Is My Banner

“Sounds like the enemy’s after you.”

A woman in the church lobby said it Sunday, with her hand on your arm. You nodded. You’ve turned it over every day since.

Now it’s 5:50 on Thursday. You’re crouched by the back tire at the gas station with the hose in one hand and the valve cap between your teeth, and the air machine just took your second quarter and never started. The tire light came on Monday. Tuesday the shop called with a number for the transmission: $2,140. Wednesday your son’s teacher emailed, subject line “Quick concern.” Last night you read the same psalm three times and couldn’t have told anyone what it said.

You stand up. Your knees pop. You screw the cap back onto a tire you didn’t fill.

The short answer: When you are under spiritual attack, do not try to win it on the strength of your own arms. Turn to God first, then say no to the enemy: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Then look at what is already lifted up over the fight. At the cross Jesus “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). You do not have to know for certain that it is an attack first; the response is the same. You fight under His banner, not your own.

Amalek Came for the Back of the Line

Israel’s first battle out of Egypt came out of nowhere. “Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.” (Exodus 17:8)

Forty years on, Moses told the next generation how it happened. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.” (Deuteronomy 25:17–18)

Look at where he hit. Not the front, where the swords were. The back: the mother with a toddler on one hip, the boy who stopped to shake a stone out of his sandal and is now fifty yards behind.

Tired and weary. That is the moment Amalek picked.

So the hits came the week you had the least left. Moses could have told you that is when they come.

Two Hills and Heavy Hands

Moses sends Joshua to pick men and fight, and he tells him, “Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” (Exodus 17:9)

So Joshua fights, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur climb to the top of the hill (Exodus 17:10).

“And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” (Exodus 17:11)

The sun slides west. His shoulders burn. Every time his arm drops an inch, the line below bends back.

“But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.” (Exodus 17:12)

A rock to sit on. Two men holding his wrists. Nobody on that hill pretends Moses is strong enough. By sundown Joshua has won (Exodus 17:13).

The Name on the Altar

When it is over, Moses does not raise a monument to Joshua. He does not name the place after his own arms. “And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-Is-My-Banner” (Exodus 17:15).

In Hebrew the altar’s name is YHWH nissî, “the LORD is my banner.” The word inside it is nēs, a banner, something lifted up on a pole so a scattered army can see from anywhere on the field where to stand.

Now turn a few pages. Later in the wilderness the people are dying of snakebite, and God tells Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8)

Pole. It is the same Hebrew word, nēs, banner. The banner over the fight with Amalek and the pole that held up the bronze serpent are one word.

And Jesus pointed at that pole. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14) He was talking about His cross: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (John 12:32)

So here is what is actually true. The banner over your fight is not your raised arm. It is the Son of God lifted up on a cross, where He “disarmed principalities and powers” and made “a public spectacle of them” (Colossians 2:15). The bitten man in Numbers 21 did not heal himself by squeezing the wound harder. He looked up.

So here is what you can stop doing. You can stop treating this week as a test of how long you can keep your arms in the air, or how loud you can pray before the next bad email lands. Moses’ arms gave out on that hill, and the altar still carries the LORD’s name. Yours can give out too.

That banner has a name, and here is what His name carries when you pray it.

Submit First, Then Say No

James puts it in order: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

Submit comes first. Before the email, before the enemy, your face turns to God. Resisting comes second, and it is not out-muscling anyone. It is a plain no from someone already standing under Someone Else’s banner. And the very next line: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

For what the cross won over the enemy, see what the blood of Jesus accomplished for you.

When Your Arms Are Down

I don’t have anything left to fight with.

You thought it at 2:20 on Tuesday afternoon, at the sink in your client’s kitchen, a dish towel over your shoulder. In the next room his oxygen machine clicked and sighed. Your phone had buzzed four times in your scrubs pocket: the landlord, your sister, the landlord again, a number you didn’t know. You’re a home health aide, fifty-three, the one families ask for when the last aide quits.

Now you dry your hands. You take out the phone, skip the landlord, and open to Exodus 17:12.

“so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it.”

The step stool is by the pantry. You hook it out with your foot and sit down on it. You read verse 15 under your breath so he won’t hear: “The-LORD-Is-My-Banner.”

The phone buzzes again. You let it.

Sit Down, Look Up, Say No

Here is the one thing to do today. The next time it hits, the email, the call, the third thing in a row, stop and, if you can, sit down.

Read Colossians 2:15 out loud. Then say two short sentences. To God: “Father, I am Yours.” To the enemy: “In the name of Jesus, no.”

Then get up and do the next ordinary thing in front of you. The tire. The dishes. The reply to the teacher.

Scripture to Keep When You’re Under Attack

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:10)

“You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth.” (Psalm 60:4)

A Prayer for When You’re Under Spiritual Attack

Father, my arms are down. I submit myself to You. Jesus, You were lifted up for me, and on the cross You disarmed principalities and powers. I am looking at You, not at my own strength. In Your name I resist the devil, and I say no to what he is doing here. Hold me steady until the going down of the sun, and show me the next ordinary thing to do. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Jesus: The Name Above Every Name traces the Name you stand under, from the burning bush to your ordinary Tuesday.

I saw where he hit you, child. At the back of the line, the week you had the least. I’m not asking you to hold your arms up till sundown. My Son was lifted up. You don’t have to hold yourself up. Sit down on the stone. Look at Him. It’s My name on the altar, not yours.

The battle was never named after your strength. The LORD is your Banner.