43 Bible Verses about Spiritual Warfare, Causes Of

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into the lowest hell and imprisoned them in chains of deepest darkness, holding them for judgment;

"How you have fallen from heaven, Day Star, son of the Dawn! How you have been thrown down to earth, you who laid low the nation! You said in your heart, "I'll ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I'll erect my throne; I'll sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north; I'll ascend above the tops of the clouds; I'll make myself like the Most High.'read more.
But you are brought down to join the dead, to the far reaches of the Pit.

"Son of Man, start singing this lamentation for the king of Tyre. Tell him, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "You served as my model, my example of complete wisdom and perfect beauty. You used to be in Eden God's paradise! You wore precious stones for clothing: ruby, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and carbuncle. Your settings were crafted in gold, along with your engravings. On the day of your creation they had been prepared! "You were the anointed cherub; having been set in place on the holy mountain of God, you walked in the midst of fiery stones.read more.
You were blameless in your behavior from the day you were created until wickedness was discovered in you. Since your vast business dealings filled you with violent intent from top to bottom, you sinned, so I cast you away as defiled from the mountain of God. I destroyed you, you guardian cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart grew arrogant because of your beauty; you annihilated your own wisdom because of your splendor. Then I threw you to the ground in the presence of kings, giving them a good look at you! By all of your iniquity and unrighteous businesses you defiled your sanctuaries, so I'm going to bring out fire from within you and burn you to ashes on the earth before the whole watching world! Everyone who knows you throughout all the nations will be appalled at your calamity and you will no longer exist forever."'"

He must not be a recent convert, so that he won't become arrogant and fall into the Devil's condemnation.

For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm.

God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves,

And when he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.

Then a war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels fought back. But it was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was hurled down to the earth, along with its angels.

No one can go into a strong man's house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man. Then he can ransack his house.

How can someone go into a strong man's house and carry off his possessions without first tying up the strong man? Then he can ransack his house.

He told them, "I watched Satan falling from heaven like lightning.

Now is the time for the judgment of this world to begin. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out.

Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (that is, the Devil)

The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing.

When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the boy.

Don't be afraid of what you are going to suffer. Look! The Devil is going to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested. For ten days you will undergo suffering. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the victor's crown of life.

It was allowed to wage war against the saints and to conquer them. It was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah, who is the image of God.

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom yet doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

Some people are like the seeds along the path, where the word is sown. When they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

while the field is the world. The good seed are those who belong to the kingdom, while the weeds are those who belong to the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the Devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

As you know, we suffered persecution and were mistreated in Philippi. Yet we were encouraged by our God to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.

Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men who belonged to the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), as well as some Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and began to debate with Stephen. But they could neither refute the wisdom nor withstand the Spirit by which he kept speaking. read more.
So they secretly got some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God." They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes. Then they rushed at Stephen, grabbed him, and brought him before the Council. They had false witnesses stand up and say, "This man never stops saying things against this Holy Place and against the Law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus from Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

While they were listening to these things, they became more and more furious and began to grind their teeth at him. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"read more.
But they shouted out loud, stopped listening, and together they all rushed at him, ran him outside of the city, and began to stone him to death. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Now Saul heartily approved of putting Stephen to death. That day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except for the apostles was scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen as they mourned loudly for him. But Saul kept trying to destroy the church. Going into one house after another, he began dragging off men and women and throwing them in prison.

They went through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish occult practitioner and false prophet named Bar-jesus. He was associated with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the occult practitioner (that is the meaning of his name) continued to oppose them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. read more.
But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye and said, "You're full of every form of deception and trickery, you son of the Devil, you enemy of all that is right! You'll never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord, will you? The Lord is against you now, and you'll be blind and unable to see the sun for a while!" At that moment a dark mist came over him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, because he was astonished at the Lord's teaching.

But when the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul also in Berea, they went there to upset and incite the crowds.

But when they began to oppose him and insult him, he shook out his clothes in protest and told them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the gentiles."

After several days had gone by, the Jewish leaders plotted to murder Saul,

Now when an attempt was made by both gentiles and Jews, along with their authorities, to mistreat and stone them,

Once, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling and who had brought her owners a great deal of money by predicting the future. She would follow Paul and us and shout, "These men are servants of the Most High God and are proclaiming to you a way of salvation!" She kept doing this for many days until Paul became annoyed, turned to her and told the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus the Messiah to come out of her!" And it came out that very moment.read more.
When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities who met together in the public square. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are stirring up a lot of trouble in our city. They are Jews and are advocating customs that we're not allowed to accept or practice as Romans." The crowd joined in the attack against them. Then the magistrates had Paul and Silas stripped of their clothes and ordered them beaten with rods. After giving them a severe beating, they threw them in jail and ordered the jailer to keep them under tight security. Having received these orders, he put them into the inner cell and fastened their feet in leg irons.

But the Jewish leaders became jealous, and they took some contemptible characters who used to hang out in the public square, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. They attacked Jason's home and searched it for Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the people. When they didn't find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials and shouted, "These fellows who have turned the world upside down have come here, too,

Now about that time a great commotion broke out concerning the Way. By making silver shrines of Artemis, a silversmith named Demetrius provided a large income for skilled workers. He called a meeting of these men and others who were engaged in similar trades and said, "Men, you well know that we get a good income from this business. read more.
You also see and hear that, not only in Ephesus, but almost all over Asia, this man Paul has won over and taken away a large crowd by telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. There is a danger not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into disrepute and that she will be robbed of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her." When they heard this, they became furious and began to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" The city was filled with confusion, and the people rushed into the theater together, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's fellow travelers from Macedonia.

and stayed there for three months. When he was about to sail for Syria, a plot was initiated against him by the Jews, so he decided to go back through Macedonia.

When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the Temple, stirred up a large crowd. They grabbed Paul, yelling, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against our people, the Law, and this place. More than that, he has even brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this Holy Place." For they had earlier seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple. read more.
The whole city was in chaos. The people rushed together, grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the Temple, and at once the doors were sealed shut. The crowd was trying to kill Paul when a report reached the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Immediately the tribune took some soldiers and officers and ran down to the crowd. When the people saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune came up, grabbed Paul, and ordered him to be tied up with two chains. He then asked who Paul was and what he had done. Some of the crowd shouted this and some that. Since the tribune couldn't learn the facts due to the confusion, he ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. When Paul got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because the mob had become so violent. The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, "Kill him!"

In the morning, the Jewish leaders formed a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink anything before they had killed Paul. More than 40 men formed this conspiracy. They went to the high priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn oath not to taste any food before we have killed Paul. read more.
Now then, you and the Council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to look into his case more carefully, but before he arrives we'll be ready to kill him."

and asking Festus to have Paul brought to Jerusalem as a favor. They were laying an ambush to kill him on the road.

The dragon became angry with the woman and went away to do battle against the rest of her children, the ones who keep God's commandments and hold on to the testimony about Jesus.

So Satan left the LORD's presence and struck Job with terrible boils from the sole of his feet to the top of his head.

"Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has asked permission to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail. When you have come back, you must strengthen your brothers."

Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in union with the Messiah Jesus will be persecuted.

Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the Devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.