So how do we recognize the enemy and when do we engage in spiritual warfare?
1.
The primary weapon of the enemy is DECEPTION.
Therefore Christians must be solidly grounded in God's truth -- not man's ideas or philosophies. And the only way to know God's truth is to know the Bible thoroughly, and then to rightly divide (interpret) the Word of Truth. And that is why it is called
the Sword of the Spirit, and is one of the two offensive weapons of Christians against Satan and all his evil spirits. All Satanic deception can be countered with Scripture (see Matthew 4).
2.
Engaging in spiritual warfare includes two things (a) standing firm and (b) driving back or resisting the enemy.
A. DEFENSIVE: For standing firm God has provided:
(1) the girdle of truth (God's truth and our truthfulness)
(2) the breastplate of righteousness (Christ's righteousness and our daily righteousness
(3) shoes of the Gospel (our Gospel witness and adherence to the true and full Gospel)
(4) the shield of faith (trusting and believing God, Christ, and Scripture)
(5) the helmet of salvation (a saved and renewed mind, saturated with the Word of God, and with the assurance of salvation)
B. OFFENSIVE: For driving back and resisting the enemy through the Spirit:
(1) The Sword of the Spirit (the Word of God yielded by the Spirit of God through us)
(2) Prayer (Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints)
Satan uses the things of the world and its lusts to trap Christians and cause them to stumble. Therefore John tells us:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:15-17).