Not Every Knock Deserves Your Attention: some thoughts on spiritual warfare in everyday life
There is nothing worse than putting your babies to sleep then somebody knocks on the door.
Ask any tired, weary parents.
One thing I’m not so in love with our neighborhood is the amount of solicitors we get at our door.
Sometimes it’s for solar, cheaper electric bills, cleaning products, Mormon missionaries, windows and doors, pressure washing, you name it- we’ve probably had them at our door before.
And countless times, we put our girls in a deep sleep when knock knock, chaos ensues.
It’s not so much that they’re such loud knockers that they wake the girls up.
It’s that we have a dog whose innate wiring is to protect us (lol I’m cracking up because I’m making it sound like we have a big scary dog but it’s just our little cockapoo Brody) and he goes off the charts barking.
I have to remember that this is what he’s supposed to do because sometimes it’s frustrates me.
Not only that, but the knocking comes along with having to listen to their whole schpeel about why they have the best product around and how the Jone’s down the road are using their product and because of that, we should too.
So finally, my husband decided that we would get a NO SOLICITING sign, in big capital letters.
He staked it in our yard right where they can see it.
And still, the door knockers keep knocking.
Trust me, i’m no stranger to knocking doors. I know what it’s like to have it be the only way you’re feeding yourself. I once did it for a living. My first job out of college was a sales manager for a solar company. I had the team huddles at the beginning of every week so I could go out into my marked territory and convert as many houses to use solar. I was on the tail end of healing from reconstructive foot surgery and limped my way up to these doors with a good ol’ walking boot.
So I have compassion for people who do this.
But when I start walking up to a house and see a NO SOLICITING sign - I skip right on to the next house. I wasn’t so hungry that I’d completely disregard people’s boundaries with their own home that I’d keep knocking.
Today while we were working on rearranging the house, my husband was munching on a snack in the kitchen when he saw a solicitor walk up to our door. They looked at the sign and went on knock on the door anyway.
Typically, he will open it and engage so that our dog doesn’t keep barking.
And there were times of course as the protector of our home, he has given them stern requests to skip our door.
But this time, he did something different.
He let them knock and completely ignored them.
He continued to munch on his snack and after a few seconds, the solicitor disappears.
Then he shared a thought he had that became a powerful lesson.
He related it to when you’re going through spiritual warfare.
There will be thoughts that invade your mind and try to take your thoughts captive.
Thoughts that come from out of no where, thoughts that you know do not belong to you.
Thoughts that try to hijack you from the present, peaceful, joyful state you’re at.
And when those thoughts come, you can choose to open the door and entertain them or you can choose to ignore them.
Entertaining them often leads you down a rabbit hole, pulls you into what ever it is that the dark thoughts are trying to sell you.
But when you ignore them, you don’t give them any power.
And they eventually disappear.
I love how he relayed that moment of watching the solicitor knock and leave to what happens when going through spiritual warfare.
One of the most powerful things I’ve learned about thoughts over the years is that we process 85,000-90,000 thoughts a day. 99% of them are unconscious. Just because we have a thought, doesn’t mean it’s a militant command that we need to obey.
We can observe the thought and we can watch it pass like a cloud in the sky.
We do not have to engage.
Or react.
Or let it cause us to be triggered.
We can simply witness that it’s there, acknowledge it and let it pass.
When you are experiencing spiritual warfare, it often doesn’t look dramatic or obvious. It doesn’t always feel like some big, internal battle.
Most of the times it’s quiet, subtle, sneaky, persistent and shows up as a knock.
Sometimes that knock happens right when things feel steady, good and calm.
Because the enemy rarely kicks the door down.
He knocks.
He knocks with doubt, fear, and insecurity.
And just like those solicitors, the timing is never convenient.
It’s often when you’re tired, when you’ve finally put your babies to sleep or when you’re trying to rest.
What I loved that my husband did in his response was this:
he didn’t explain, he didn’t entertain … he simply didn’t answer.
What he demonstrated was authority over his house.
He’s setting a clear boundary and showing that he’s in control of who enters his space.
He’s not obligated to respond.
He’s not opening the door to let them have any kind of influence or control over our time and space.
Ignoring simply means a loud “I’m not interested.”
And when it comes to the battle of the mind, this is spiritual authority.
We often think that spiritual warfare requires confrontation every time.
That we have to analyze the thought, debate it, trace it back or spiritually wrestle our way into submission.
Sometimes there’s a time and place for that—but often the powerful move is silence.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Sometimes the most powerful response is no response at all.
It’s time we take our thoughts captive and make them obedient towards what’s good and wholesome… what’s holy. Not listen to their elevator pitch in trying to sell the fear and the doubt. Not let them tour the house and tell us what’s wrong with it.
Because it’s true, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places— as Ephesians 6:12 says.
Choosing to not respond = boundaries.
And your boundaries matter in the spiritual realm just as much as they do in the physical one.
You already put the sign up.
God already marked your home.
Peace lives here.
Truth lives here.
Joy lives here.
Not every knock deserves your attention.
And eventually it goes away. That’s often how spiritual warfare ends too.
It’s not always a big victorious moment.
It’s often the fight of you choosing to not answer what wasn’t meant for you in the first place… again and again and again.
Once it tests your boundaries and realizes it can’t get in, they move on.
But your house stays quiet.
Your babies stay asleep.
And your peace stays with you.
So I dunno … maybe sometimes the holiest thing you can do is keep eating your snack…
and let the knock go unanswered.
🤷🏽♀️
Until next tomorrow
🍵
Warmly,
