Yesterday I called a friend to solicit prayer for something that was troubling me. She prayed and, among other things, matter-of-factly addressed the spiritual battle that was part of my struggle. Hmmm. Until she mentioned it, I had been oblivious to enemy interference. But once she did, it became as clear as day. I agreed with her and continued praying along those lines. Before long, my heart was settled and God had given me a strategy to move forward.

Today I met with someone who had experienced numerous baffling setbacks on the project I was trying to help with. It’s a good project, a kingdom project, yet it seems to keep getting hung up. There could be rational reasons for the setbacks. But the more we talked, the more I wondered if there might be spiritual reasons behind all the snarls. I mentioned the possibility to him. It resonated. So we prayed together and addressed some of the places where the enemy might have been able to get a foothold into things. Like me the day before, he had been completely unaware of the possibility that there might be more going on than met the eye.

As I pondered these back-to-back experiences, I realized the importance of relationships when it comes to spiritual battle. What soldier goes into battle alone? We can’t always see the arrows that are headed our direction. But a spiritually tuned-in friend might see the enemy schemes we are blind to and cover our backs for us.

How about you? Whose back are you covering? And is someone covering yours? I’m thinking it’s really important that we serve one another in this critical manner since, whether we like it or not, we’re in a battle.