By Dr. Amy Downey, MAComm, MATh, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Editor, and Contributor | August 17, 2025
NOTE: This is an abridged section from a chapter in Dr. Amy Downey's forthcoming book – When the Demons Are Not Under the Rock. The book will soon be available for purchase if you would like to dive deeper into this idea.
Thesis
We are sometimes asked to fight a battle alone in the world of spiritual warfare with no answers regarding the outcome because we are standing on holy ground, and we are fighting this battle for a holy cause.
Looking for a Fight
I know that when many Christian people of a certain age hear the two words “spiritual warfare,” their minds will often return to those classic or infamous (depending on your literary viewpoint) works by Frank Peretti — This Present Darkness (1986) and his sequel Piercing the Darkness (1988). However, and regardless of your viewpoint of Peretti’s predictable approach to Christian fiction, I do know a phenomenon began in the Christian world with these books, as it seemed that everyone began to look for a demon under every rock, and the words “spiritual warfare” were falling from everyone’s lips.
Obviously, I am not a huge fan of Peretti’s works. However, I do believe that the spiritual world is darker and far more dangerous than most Christians recognize. I do believe that “the forces of darkness” do seek to destroy the Christian witness at every opportunity available. I do believe that Christians need to be careful in the paths we tread and what we expose ourselves to in this world (i.e., movies we watch, books we read, music to which we listen).
However, I do not believe we should be looking for demons to fight or that we should be looking for those demons who may or may not be under every rock. Why? Those demons do not need us to come looking for them, as they will come looking for us! But … I do not go looking for them because they are ready to battle for me and you every minute of every day.
Barney Fife
Instead, I believe the real spiritual warfare that we engage in every day is one designed for our strengthening. Yes, you read me right … Spiritual Warfare IS a Good Thing! A perfect example of this truth can be found in the life and times of Barney Fife. Yes … that Barney Fife of “The Andy Griffith Show” that our grandparents watched when they were young, and can even now be found on reruns on Nickelodeon and other networks sometimes. Yes … that Barney Fife who was on TV when television was still black and white, and dare I say when television was still funny and safe and clean.
Barney was bumbling, stumbling, and a bit of a doofus, but he was always willing to go towards the battle/crime even when terrified because he learned something about himself and the law every time he went. He also became just a little bit braver with every experience. This can be true in the development of spiritual warfare for us in our Christian life as well.
A Fight Already Won
My favorite episode of The Andy Griffith Show describes this truth and concept perfectly. In “Lawman Barney,” Barney Fife sees two area farmers breaking a local ordinance by having a vegetable stand inside the city lines. At the beginning of the episode, he confronts them rightfully but without any power and with a great deal of fear masked by false bravado. They run him off from the vegetable stand, and in turn, he feels like a coward and a failure. The remainder of the episode is a series of events in which Barney discovers that true power is not within himself but in the badge he wears (i.e., the law).
In the closing scene, he confronts the farmers again, but with the power of the badge as his weapon, because he is no longer fighting them alone, as he has grown through the experience. He has discovered he is standing on ground that others have already fought over before him, and the ground he has under him is rock solid.
This is what we as believers in Jesus should remember as well. We must go through a spiritual warfare of development at times when we feel like cowards and failures and “Fifian” doofuses more than once along the way. But those often painful experiences are good things as they teach us something very important – self-reliance is not a good thing.
Joshua 15:13-15 – Fighting the Battle Even When You Receive No Answer
A few years ago, my Bible time took me to Joshua 5:13-15. Joshua 5 is the passage following the circumcision of the Israelites (ouch!) after they failed to do so during their forty years in the Wilderness and before the Battle of Jericho in Joshua 6. Joshua seemingly is off wandering alone when he encounters God in what we in those nerdy, theological circles call a “Theophany” – a pre-incarnate visit with Jesus
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord‘s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. — Joshua 15:13-15 (KJV)
Joshua asks a basic question in today’s language that would boil down to simply – “Are you for us or against us?” as his focus is on the battle ahead and what is seemingly impossible in human standards, taking down the impenetrable walled city of Jericho. He does not receive the answer to his question, but he does receive a command — “Take off/Loose/Remove your shoes for you are standing on holy ground.”
I can only imagine that Joshua was thinking to himself while he took off his shoes — “Are we going to win? My soldiers are hurting back there from a rather uncomfortable medical/spiritual procedure. And … I am scared.” However, did you notice that Joshua was never given, based on the passage itself, the answer to his question — “Are you for us or against us?” He was simply commanded to do what Joshua did, for the verb is in the imperative tense, which is a command in Hebrew, which is to remove his sandals because the ground was holy.
I have been where Joshua was at that moment (thankfully, minus the circumcision because I am, after all, a female), and I am sure you have been there as well … many times. But what I was told was my own version of — “Take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground.” And if you are like me, you want to say … “BUT … COULD YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION FIRST ALREADY?” However, the only answer I am given is, “Take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground.”
This reality of trusting God when we receive no answer or the answer we humanly do not want is a tougher battle in the spiritual warfare campaign than any demon might throw at us, because it involves trust. This is a tougher battle in the spiritual warfare campaign of the Christian life because it consists of believing even when the circumstances seem impossible. This is a tougher battle in the spiritual warfare campaign because we might lose a momentary battle, but we have to trust the General who has our best spiritual interests at heart. Yes, Spiritual Warfare is a Good Thing … even when we are scared to death (and even when we feel like Barney Fife and not Joshua) because we have to walk on “Holy Ground” with no shoes on.
About the Author
Amy Downey, MAComm, MATh, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Editor, and Contributor
Dr. Amy Downey serves as the President and Director of Tzedakah Ministries, a ministry devoted to sharing the Gospel of Yeshua with Jewish people (http://tzedakahministries.org). Originally from Lubbock, Texas, Amy surrendered her life to full-time Christian service at the age of 16, but still struggled with her call to missions. Afraid of the price she might have to pay, Amy decided to serve God but in her own way. However, and finally, at the age of twenty-eight, Amy followed the mission call to reach the Jewish people with the truth that Jesus (Yeshua) is the Jewish Messiah.
This mission call has taken her across the country to speak in churches and meetings across more than thirty states and four continents (8 countries) about the need for the Christian church to take on the responsibility of Jewish evangelism mandated in Romans 1:16 and 11:11-24. Amy has shared the truth of Jesus to Jewish people on street corners, airplanes, parks, restaurants, and even in churches. In addition, she spent three of the most spiritually challenging and rewarding years of her life in the heart of American Jewish life – New York City.
Amy has a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from East Texas Baptist University and a Master of Arts in Communication and Master of Arts in Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and was the first woman to complete a Ph.D. in Theology and Apologetics from Liberty University (May 2016). She is also the author of Paul’s Conundrum (2011), Maimonides’s Yahweh (2019), and Missions in the Minor Key (2024) along with numerous magazine articles and booklets that are available at https://tzedakahministries.org. Amy serves as a contributor and Associate Vice President for Bellator Christi Ministries.
