A Word to Pastors: Guarding Your Family and Ministry From Spiritual Attack

This is a clarion call to pastors. The enemy's assignment against a ministry rarely begins with a frontal
attack on the pulpit. More often, it targets what's closest to the shepherd: his marriage, his wife, and his children. A shepherd under pressure at home will eventually lead a congregation under pressure, and the enemy knows this better than most pastors do.

The Enemy Targets What's Closest to You

Many pastors' households carry a weight that looks different from ordinary family strain: unexplained heaviness, sickness that resists a clear diagnosis, seasons of confusion or emotional turmoil, and tension in the marriage that seems to intensify as the ministry grows. None of this proves any single person or cause. But it should move every pastor to bring his household before God in prayer rather than dismiss what he and his wife are sensing.

Scripture never says ministry exempts a family from spiritual warfare. If anything, it tells us the opposite: the shepherd and his household are often the first target, because striking the shepherd scatters the sheep.

Guard Against Ignorance

The greatest advantage the enemy has in any Church is a congregation and a leadership that has not been taught to recognize spiritual warfare for what it is:

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)

A pastor who avoids the subject of spiritual warfare, whether from discomfort, fear of controversy, or simple neglect, leaves his household and his congregation without the tools to recognize an attack when it comes. Teaching your people to test what they hear and discern what they feel is not optional. It is part of shepherding well.

Do Not Let Deception Creep In

Paul warned an entire church about exactly this danger:

"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1)

The word bewitched in this text suggests being placed under a spell or led astray from the truth. Paul's charge to the Galatians is a charge to every church: test everything, including prophetic words, against Scripture.

"Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21)

A word that produces fear, discouragement, or a sense of inevitable doom, rather than conviction that leads to repentance and hope, deserves careful testing before it is received as coming from God.

Vengeance Belongs to God

Where a pastor senses that harm has genuinely been done to his family, Scripture is clear about where the response belongs:

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19)

This is not a call to ignore what is wrong. It is a call to bring it to the only One qualified to judge it rightly, rather than turning suspicion into accusation without evidence, or turning hurt into a hunt for someone to blame.

The Solution: Repentance and Discernment

The solution begins with pastors examining their own hearts: repenting anywhere a personal agenda has been placed above God's plan, and anywhere leaders have been elevated for loyalty rather than character. Ask God to amplify your spirit of discernment, rather than leaning on feelings or first impressions alone. Ask Him for wisdom in who you place close to your family and your pulpit.

Gather genuine men and women of faith around you, and commit to a season of prayer and fasting for your household and your ministry: for protection, for clarity, for the removal of confusion, sickness, and division, and for God's covering over your family. Trust Him as the one who sees what you cannot, and who alone repays rightly.

Written by: Minister Kevin L A Ewing
ewinglakevin@icloud.com
kevinlaewing.blogspot.com
www.kevinlaewing.com