Chapter 7: Daily Resistance
Written by: Gary Sheng
I used to think spiritual warfare was something that happened occasionally.
A big attack. A crisis. A dramatic confrontation with evil. And then you win, move on, and go back to normal life.
I was wrong.
After witnessing Apostle Delmar's supernatural power firsthand (watching him heal the sick, cast out demons, operate in words of knowledge that left people stunned), I became obsessed with understanding how this worked. How does a man walk in such authority? What does he know that most Christians don't?
That curiosity led me to study the generals of faith: the men and women throughout history who walked in the same kind of supernatural power. Smith Wigglesworth. John G. Lake. Kenneth Hagin. Kathryn Kuhlman. I devoured their teachings, their biographies, their sermons.
And one truth kept surfacing that changed everything for me:
Spiritual warfare isn't an occasional crisis. It's a daily, perpetual condition.
The enemy doesn't wait for dramatic moments. He wages a constant, subtle campaign designed to keep you from your purpose, drain your energy, cloud your clarity, and delay your destiny.
Steven Pressfield's concept of "Resistance" in The War of Art offers a powerful analogy for understanding this reality. Pressfield describes Resistance as an invisible, internal force that systematically sabotages creative, spiritual, and personally meaningful work. It manifests through procrastination, self-doubt, fear, perfectionism, and distraction, all designed to keep things as they are and prevent growth.
As Pressfield writes:
"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."
"Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work."
What Pressfield describes as an internal creative force, believers recognize as something more: a spiritual enemy who exploits these same patterns. The devil works through Resistance. He uses procrastination, fear, self-doubt, and distraction as his primary weapons against your calling.
Here's the key insight: the more important something is to your soul's evolution, the more resistance you'll face.
"Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it." — Steven Pressfield
If you're facing intense resistance right now, it might be a sign you're exactly where you need to be.
Understanding this, and more importantly learning to systematically and repeatedly overcome it, is the foundation of a flourishing Christian life. It's also a core pillar of the Way of Fire.
Defeating the devil daily is not optional for those who walk in fire. It is the Way of Fire.
This is the warfare of the everyday. The daily devil. And it demands daily resistance.
The Reality I Didn't Want to Accept
The most sobering truth I encountered was this: resistance is not something you forever overcome and move past. It's something you live against every single day for the rest of your life.
Pressfield captures this perfectly:
"Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day."
Resistance is an ongoing lifestyle, not a one-time event. The moment you lower your guard thinking the battle is won, the enemy strikes.
Peter writes with urgency:
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith." — 1 Peter 5:8-9
The imperatives there assume continuous action. Keep watch. Keep sober. Keep resisting. Never stop.
Lester Sumrall captured this powerfully: "I've never met a defeated praying man." Yet millions of believers live in perpetual defeat. Not because they lack strength. Because they lack awareness of what they're resisting.
The enemy's greatest victory is making you believe resistance doesn't exist. Or that it's simply "how life is."
What the Daily Devil Looks Like
When I started paying attention (really paying attention), I began recognizing patterns in my own life that I'd been dismissing as "just the way things are."
The devil doesn't come to most believers as a visible apparition. Smith Wigglesworth famously encountered a demonic presence in his room one night and said, "Oh, it's only you," then went back to sleep. He knew who he was dealing with. He knew who had the authority.
But for most of us, the enemy operates through subtler means. Through constant pressure that can manifest in symptoms that have spiritual roots:
Unexplained fatigue and heaviness. One of the most insidious signs of spiritual resistance. You sleep eight hours and wake up exhausted. There's a spiritual sedative being applied to your soul, designed to keep you from stepping into your next assignment. Sometimes what feels like depression has spiritual roots: oppression masquerading as a mood disorder. (This doesn't mean all depression is demonic. But when fatigue appears suddenly, without medical explanation, coinciding with a new calling or breakthrough, pay attention. For an example of how Apostle Delmar addresses harassing spirits and fear in a real ministry session, see Appendix C: Ministry Conversations.)
Mental cloudiness and confusion. Things that were once crystal clear become uncertain. Strategic plans fog over. Spiritual understanding dims. Your mind becomes a battlefield where confusion replaces clarity. That's exactly where the enemy prefers to work.
Procrastination and delay. This isn't a personality quirk. It's a demonic strategy. Procrastination partners with the spirit of delay, a spiritual sedative that tells you there's more time, that obedience can wait, that delays are harmless. Every delayed obedience is a missed appointment with God.
Norvel Hayes emphasized this: you must "attack it with authority every day" and don't let up. The moment you do, whatever is coming against you gets stronger.
Loss of desire for God. Satan's primary objective is to pull you away from God. When your passion for prayer and Scripture dims without explanation, when intimacy with God becomes tedious rather than joyful, spiritual attack is at work.
Division and relational pressure. The enemy targets your family, your team, your ministry partnerships. He knows isolated believers are vulnerable believers. Attack on relationships is attack on your effectiveness for the kingdom.
Doubt masquerading as wisdom. Fear presents itself as prudence. What-ifs disguise themselves as rational thinking. Your mind becomes a liar, and you believe its deceptions.
The Attacks Are Personalized
Here's what really struck me as I studied this: the devil's attacks are personalized to each person.
He knows your weaknesses. He knows your patterns. He knows exactly which buttons to push.
The resistance I face is different from the resistance you face. The thoughts that torment me may not be the same thoughts that torment you. The temptations designed for my destruction are custom-built for my vulnerabilities.
This is why some believers struggle with lust while others struggle with fear. Why some are attacked through pride and others through depression. Why some face financial warfare while others face relational warfare.
The enemy isn't using a one-size-fits-all playbook. He's studied you. He's assigned specific forces to your destruction. And he's been at this for a long time.
But here's the good news: you're not alone in this.
Every believer faces their own personalized warfare. Every person on fire for God encounters resistance tailored to stop them. The attacks are different, but the war is the same. And the weapons God has given us work against every scheme of the enemy.
When Daily Resistance Escalates
Sometimes daily resistance stays subtle. Other times it escalates into seasons of intense pressure. When you're advancing the Kingdom significantly, the enemy doesn't always stay subtle. He brings everything he has.
This is still the same daily resistance we've been discussing—just intensified. And the same principles apply: recognize the attack, refuse agreement with lies, speak truth, and do not relent.
Your Resistance Is Proof You're a Threat
Here's the reframe that changed everything for me: what if the resistance you're experiencing is proof you're exactly where you need to be?
I have a friend named Ida who has become like a spiritual mother to me. Her life is one giant testimony of overcoming the enemy's attacks.
When Ida was born, her legs were inverted. Doctors had to break them so she could walk. From birth until eleven, she had a disease doctors said would kill her. Her family prayed constantly. At puberty, it vanished. Healed.
Years later, she went to minister at the Uvalde massacre memorial. While praying with families, her insides twisted. The next day she woke up unable to move. Every joint locked. Burning pain. Doctors couldn't explain it. The illness lasted years. People told her she would die. She said: "I rebuke that in the name of Jesus." Eventually she was healed at a revival.
Why so many attacks on one woman? Because Ida has been in ministry since she was a teenager. She led a Christian revival where two thousand kids showed up and hundreds gave their lives to Christ. She spent decades working with kids from gang life, incarcerated parents, abuse, addiction, suicide. Over forty years pulling people toward the light.
She told me something I'll never forget: "If you're not a threat, nothing's going to happen in your life. If you're a threat to him, you're going to be attacked. Period."
The devil tried to stop Ida before she could walk. Before she could reach puberty. At Uvalde. But she's still here. Still fighting. Still winning.
The Mystery Illness Isn't Random
Sometimes the resistance is extreme. A mystery illness appears out of nowhere. Doctors can't explain it. Tests come back normal but you're suffering.
If you've been walking in obedience, if you've been advancing the Kingdom, if you've been stepping into your calling, recognize what's happening. This is the devil's attack. Do not relent.
The enemy attacks what threatens him. If you weren't a threat, he wouldn't bother.
Instead of asking "why is this happening to me," ask: "What is God preparing me for?"
You are being refined. You are being forged in the fire for greater and greater missions. The resistance is targeted because the enemy knows what's on the other side of your obedience. He's trying to stop you before you get there.
Don't let him.
If Ida gave up when she was born, she wouldn't have saved those thousands of kids. If she gave up during that illness, she wouldn't be on the path to transforming Christian education as we speak.
What are you giving up on that you shouldn't?
The devil has no real power. He only has lies. He wins in your mind. That's the battlefield. When you recognize the attack for what it is (targeted resistance against a real threat), everything shifts. You stop being the victim and start being the warrior you were made to be.
The Architecture of Resistance
The generals recognized a consistent architecture to how the enemy wages daily warfare.
John G. Lake identified that long-term cycles of defeat are not broken through willpower alone. They're broken through understanding where the actual battle occurs.
The battleground is not your circumstances. It's your soul: your mind, your will, and your emotions.
This is why two believers facing identical situations can have completely different outcomes. One surrenders to despair. The other stands in faith. The difference isn't external. It's the soul's posture.
Here's a principle I've come to understand: the devil can't read your mind, but he can hear your mouth. Whatever the exact mechanics, the pattern is consistent: thoughts are offered, agreement gives them power, and spoken truth breaks agreement.
The enemy operates through deception. He presents thoughts, mixes them with your flesh and worldly pressures, and tries to get you to take ownership of them as your own thoughts.
Fear is faith in the devil. Faith is faith in God.
When you agree with a lie, you give it power. When you refuse to agree and speak truth instead, the lie loses its grip.
This is why forgiveness is so critical. Apostle Delmar teaches about "quantum entanglement." When someone hurts you and you don't forgive them, you remain spiritually connected to them. They keep hurting you. But when you say "I forgive" (snap), the chain is broken. They can't hurt you anymore. (See Appendix C for how this plays out in real ministry.)
Submission Before Resistance
A critical principle appears consistently across every faith leader's teaching: you cannot resist effectively until you first submit completely.
James 4:7 gives the order explicitly:
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
The "therefore" is crucial. Submission is the prerequisite for authority.
Smith Wigglesworth understood this deeply. Authority doesn't come from your strength or your spiritual achievements. It comes through absolute submission to God's authority. "Under His authority I have authority," Wigglesworth taught.
When you humble yourself, when you stop trying to control and fix and force, when you place yourself under God's rule, you gain access to His unlimited power.
Kathryn Kuhlman taught believers not to fight in their own strength but to surrender their battles to God: "Stop fighting battles that belong to Him."
This sounds passive, but it's the opposite. Complete surrender to God is the most aggressive stance a believer can take against the enemy. It aligns your will with God's infinite power.
When you submit to God, you're saying: "God, I can't do this. Your way is better. Your timing is right. I choose You over my understanding, my comfort, my fear."
This posture of humility positions you to receive grace. And it's grace that gives you authority.
The Weapon of Words
The faith giants were unanimous on one point: your voice is a spiritual weapon.
Words aren't just communication. They're creative forces in the spiritual realm.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He didn't mentally refuse Satan's offers. He spoke. "It is written," Jesus said aloud. Again and again.
You resist with the Word. You don't resist with tears. You don't resist with feelings. You don't resist with human strength. You resist by saying what God said.
When a symptom tries to return, you don't say, "Lord, please take this away." You speak with authority: "In the name of Jesus, I resist this symptom."
This is why daily declarations aren't affirmations or positive thinking. They're spiritual warfare.
When you declare, "I am seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus," you're not trying to convince yourself. You're announcing a truth in the spiritual realm that the enemy is trying to suppress.
When you say, "Fear, I refuse you. I don't belong to you. I belong to Christ," you're exercising authority over a spirit.
The Daily Pattern
The most important shift in understanding daily resistance is moving from crisis mode to lifestyle mode.
You're not trying to reach a point where you no longer face resistance. You're building a way of life that anticipates, recognizes, and systematically overcomes resistance every single day. This is the Way of Fire in practice—not a one-time decision, but a daily walk of victory.
Aimee Semple McPherson taught that authority comes through clear calling. When you know God has called you to something, you resist whatever opposes that calling with the full authority of that calling.
Resisting is an ongoing lifestyle. Some people resist once and think it's over forever. No, this is a daily walk.
Every morning you wake up, you're stepping into a new day of warfare. The enemy hasn't surrendered overnight. He will present new temptations, new deceptions, new forms of resistance.
This is why the famous generals built their lives around a consistent rhythm:
Morning engagement with God. Prayer, Scripture, declaration of authority—before you head out into the world.
Continuous vigilance. Recognizing attacks as they come, not passively accepting them.
Immediate resistance. Speaking truth, invoking authority, refusing agreement with lies.
Evening review. Assessing where you held ground and where you need to strengthen.
Perpetual renewal. Never becoming complacent, always deepening your relationship with God.
The Daily Spiritual Disciplines
Through my time with Apostle Delmar, through studying the generals, and through my own experience, I've come to understand the daily spiritual practices that keep believers victorious:
Daily Scripture Engagement
Hide God's Word in your heart. Meditate on it. Speak it aloud.
This isn't optional reflection. This is spiritual nutrition and weaponry. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and you must know it to wield it.
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." — Psalm 119:11
Daily Declarations
Speak the Word over your life before your feet hit the floor. Don't wait for crisis to start speaking truth. By then the muscle isn't built.
Apostle Delmar sets reminders every thirty minutes throughout his day. Each alarm prompts him to meditate on a piece of Scripture. He's constantly snacking on the Word. Constantly feeding his spirit.
Brenda Gentry, one of the elders at Encounter Church who first introduced me to Apostle Delmar, speaks Psalm 91 verbatim every single morning. She also speaks it before she goes out for a drive. This is how she puts on spiritual armor. By declaring God's protection over her life before she steps into the world.
Here's the Psalm she speaks:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
— Psalm 91 (KJV)
Consider making this one of your daily declarations too.
Militant Prayer
Prayer isn't weak begging or passive hoping. It's bold, authoritative, aggressive intercession that directly confronts demonic assignments and declares God's will.
Lester Sumrall taught that prayer, when used as designed, "is the greatest source of untapped energy the world has ever known."
When you need to pray for deliverance—either for yourself or for someone else—use the Deliverance Prayer in Appendix B. Don't converse with demons, command them. By the authority of Jesus' name and blood, you have the right to command unclean spirits to leave.
Submission to God's Order
The soul—mind, will, emotions—must be brought into submission to your spirit, which is joined to God's Spirit.
John G. Lake taught that sanctification of the soul—having the mind of Christ and submitting your will to His—is essential. When your mind is renewed with God's Word daily, the deceptions of the enemy lose their power.
Spiritual Covering and Community
You're not meant to stand alone.
Surrounding yourself with believers who understand spiritual warfare, who will pray for you when your faith is weak, who will speak truth when you're tempted to believe lies—this is essential.
"You really need to be hooked up with a body of believers that know how to pray that you can count on," as Don Smith put it in his testimony. "I can call on Pastor Delmar and he's on it. He's praying for us. It's not just talk. It's real."
The Victory Already Won
Here's the paradox that every faith general understood: the war is already won, yet you must still fight daily.
Jesus defeated the enemy at the cross. Satan is a defeated foe whose authority has been completely stripped. Yet in the already-not-yet of God's kingdom, the enemy still prowls, still schemes, still opposes.
Your daily resistance is not about earning victory or convincing God to help you. Your daily resistance is about enforcing the victory that is already yours in Christ.
When you speak truth, you're enforcing what is true. When you pray, you're aligning yourself with what God has already decreed. When you refuse the enemy's lies, you're taking back territory that belongs to you.
That's why Wigglesworth could roll over and go back to sleep when the devil showed up. He knew who had won.
The devil is real. Resistance is real. But the outcome is settled.
Your job is to live from that settled reality every single day.
A Final Word
When I first started taking spiritual warfare seriously, I expected it to feel like constant battle—exhausting, draining, overwhelming.
But here's what I discovered: when you build the daily rhythms, when resistance becomes lifestyle instead of crisis, something shifts.
You stop being surprised by the enemy's attacks. You recognize them. You know what to do. You speak the Word. You stand in authority. You refuse agreement with lies.
And the attacks that used to devastate you start bouncing off.
Lester Sumrall said something every ambitious Christian needs to hear: "The more you're advancing God's Kingdom, the more resistance you'll face."
This isn't cause for despair. It's confirmation of effectiveness.
If you're not facing resistance, you're not threatening the enemy's territory.
So take heart. The daily devil comes for you every day. But so does the daily victory that belongs to you in Christ.
This is the Way of Fire: not a mountaintop experience you had once, but a daily walk of supernatural authority. Every morning you defeat the devil. Every day you enforce the victory Christ already won. Every moment you stand in the fire that burns away every scheme of the enemy.
Stay vigilant. Stay in the Word. Stay in prayer. Make your declarations. Stay connected to spiritual covering.
And watch the enemy flee.
Your daily rhythm: Before your phone, before the world gets a word in—speak Apostle Delmar's 54 declarations. Or start with Psalm 91 like Brenda. That's your sword. Every morning.
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." — Romans 8:37