FAITH OVER FEAR | Episode 11: The Battle Is Now: Surviving the Fire of Spiritual Warfare

This episode is not polished—it’s unfiltered. Fresh off the pages of my life, I lead you through the intense spiritual battle I’ve walked over the past three weeks - especially the last 72 hours.

On June 1, I wrote my Substack post, “No More Gray: The Enemy Is Real and the Battle Is Now,” It was scheduled for posting on July 7 and so today it posted.

In this post I wrote about the moment you choose Jesus, you become a marked person. But I had no idea what was coming for me… until I found myself under relentless spiritual attack from friends, family, and community.

This past July 4th while encountering a crushing, physically, mentally and spiritually draining episode, I cried out in desperation: “God, take me home, or I will.” I felt like I was in Gethsemane: sweating, weeping, broken. I’ve pleaded the blood of Jesus over my home, bed, body, and mind… yet the attacks didn’t stop. The cloak of darkness still presses, trying to suffocate my peace and my purpose.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• • What spiritual warfare really looks like (and it’s never just “little things”)
  • Why the enemy uses people closest to you—those he knows how to hurt you through
  • The deadly danger of isolation and how fighting alone plays right into his hands
  • How to wage war—and how to win— using community, prayer, Scripture, and spiritual tools
    

• This is no fluff. This is the war zone. And friend, God is bigger than it all. You may feel targeted, but you are not alone. The battle may feel insurmountable—but the war has already been won through Christ. His victory is our victory.

  
  

  The Prayer of Salvation. Call Jesus into your life.

  Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, that He died on the cross for my sins, and that He rose again. I turn away from my sins and invite Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for your gift of salvation and eternal life. In Jesus' name, Amen.

  And if you prayed that prayer, you have been set free. Cleansed and forgiven for your sins. You have started a relationship with Jesus Christ.

  Some next steps for you would be to:

  • Find a church: Connect with a local Christian community for support and guidance.
  • Study the Bible: Begin learning more about Jesus through scripture.
  • Pray regularly: Communicate with God through prayer.
  • Live a life that reflects your faith: One day at a time…

  
  

  Resources & Next Steps

  • Read the original Substack post “No More Gray” to grasp the prophetic weight behind this season - and to connect with a community of fighters.
    

  • Join Abide & Arise, our prayerful, supportive sisterhood, where we uphold one another in real-time warfare.
    

  • If you're new to walking with Jesus, you’ll want those prayer tools and Scripture lists I promised - start with Faith Over Fear on Substack and then come over to Abide & Arise.
    

  You are not fighting alone. Together, we stand.

  
  If this message resonated with you, leave a comment, subscribe to the podcast, or share it with a friend.

A Life of Striving, A Heart in Transition, A Faith That Heals

What do you do when your whole life has been about striving - to be loved, to be seen, to be accepted, and suddenly, God asks you to stop? To cease striving and just… be?

In this deeply personal episode, I open up about the journey from a lifetime of emotional starvation to the slow, painful process of spiritual healing and surrender. I grew up feeling invisible, unwanted, and blamed. I learned early that striving was the only way to survive - striving to please, to perform, to become whatever I thought others needed in order to love me. When that didn’t work, I stopped trying and leaned into the identity they gave me: the black sheep. The problem. The one who never measured up.

Striving became my default setting - my means of survival. I chased attention, validation, and affection in places that broke me more than they built me. I was starving for love and consuming anything that looked like it might fill the void. People, relationships, roles, achievements - it was never enough. I was never enough.

And then trauma hit. The kind that changes you at your core. I lived through things no one should have to experience - abuse, abandonment, violation - and still, I kept going. Still striving. Still searching. Still aching.

Until I couldn’t anymore.

Becoming a mother shifted something in me. My children became my mission, my purpose, my healing balm. I poured my love into them the way I had always wanted someone to pour into me. And yet even in that, I was still striving - striving to be the perfect mom, the best wife, the most dependable employee, the star student.

The addiction to being enough was still alive and well.

And here’s the hard truth: even after walking with God for over 20 years, I still find myself striving for His love. I know He loves me. I know I don’t have to earn it. But after a lifetime of trying to prove my worth, letting that truth sink deep - past the wounds, the trauma, the memories - that takes time. That takes surrender. That takes a willingness to feel the very things I’ve spent decades numbing.

Healing is not a moment. It’s a process. It’s a transition. It’s a slow letting go of what was in order to embrace what is being made new.

And right now, I’m in the tension, the in-between. The space between the old patterns and the new promises. Between striving and surrender. Between surviving and being still. Between doing and simply being.

And maybe you are too.

This episode is for every one who’s ever felt like they had to fight to be seen. For the one who’s tired of performing. For the one who’s addicted to proving. For the one who knows the truth of God’s love but still feels like they have to earn it.

You don’t.

God is doing a new thing in you. Even if it’s messy. Even if it’s slow. Even if it still hurts sometimes.

You are not who you were. You are becoming. And that is holy ground.

Scripture: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up - do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18–19

If this episode speaks to you, please share it with someone else who needs to know they don’t have to strive to be loved. God already calls them enough.

Check out my writings on Substack at Whyfaithoverfear

Seen, Known, and Still Searching: Wrestling with Loneliness and God’s Presence

Description:
Have you ever felt unseen - even when surrounded by people? Have you reached for God in prayer, only to wonder if He's still near?

In this deeply personal episode, I reflect on my own season of emotional and spiritual loneliness and the soul-deep longing for belonging, connection, and meaning.

Through vulnerability and scripture, I wrestle with the ache of feeling invisible, the struggle to wait on God, and the paradox of being faithful in a season that feels silent.

You'll hear honest questions like:

• What do I do when I feel unseen?

• How do I keep believing when God feels far away?

• Is this waiting season wasted?

You’re not alone in these questions - and this episode is your reminder that even in the silence, you are seen.

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Psalm 68:6

“God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”

Lamentations 3:25–26

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Psalm 42:1–2

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

Thank you for spending this time with me today. If this episode spoke to you, would you consider sharing it with someone else who might need a reminder that they are not alone?

Leave a comment, a review, subscribe, or just reach out and let me know how God is working in your life. I love hearing from you. You can also find me on Substack at Why Faith Over Fear.

Episode 8: Shift Your Perspective

What if the thing that’s wearing you down isn’t the weight you’re carrying… but the way you’re seeing it?

In today’s episode, I invite you into a quiet, honest moment that began on an evening walk and turned into a divine whisper: “Shift your perspective.” Not your role. Not your circumstances. Not the people around you. Just your perspective.

Through the lens of caregiving, unmet expectations, and emotional exhaustion, I unpack how tunnel vision can lead us into bitterness, isolation, and assumptions. But what if the silence we hear isn’t rejection—but God’s invitation to see differently?

This episode explores:

• The emotional toll of unspoken expectations

• The power of reframing pain through God’s truth

• The danger of isolation and assumption

• What it means to see like Jesus and serve with compassion—even when we feel unseen
  

Scriptures referenced:

Romans 12:2 (NIV): “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Philippians 2:3–4 (NIV): “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV): “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I share how one whisper from God began shifting everything - not my situation, but my mindset, and how that same shift may be exactly what you need today. I also share a powerful moment I had with my daughter that confirmed the message wasn’t just for me, but for someone else too.

If you've been sitting in silence, stewing in unmet needs, or waiting for someone to notice your pain - this one is for you. God might not be trying to remove your burden, but to reveal something sacred within it.

Tune in now and ask yourself: What if this hard place is actually holy ground?

Leave a review, share this episode, and reach out if this message resonated with you.

Let’s keep walking this faith journey together - shifting fear into faith, one perspective at a time.

What do you do when the tears won’t stop? When life keeps shifting, stretching, and breaking your heart in places you thought had already healed? In this deeply personal episode of Faith Over Fear, I share the raw reality of what it means to live in the in-between—a place where peace and chaos collide, and faith becomes an act of daily surrender.

From the overwhelm of caregiving to the ache of parenting adult children to navigating emotional cycles that revisit without warning, I open up about a moment in a parking lot—sparked by TobyMac’s song “Goodbye”—where my pain bubbled over in a flood of tears. But it’s in this vulnerable, tear-streaked moment that I encounter the nearness of God—not to fix everything, but to sit with me in the silence.

Through scripture, personal story, and gentle reflection, I invite listeners into the sacred space of not being okay, and still trusting anyway. If you’ve ever felt undone, stuck, or like you’re still wrestling with the same wounds in a different season—this episode will remind you that you are not alone, that your tears are seen, and that healing is rarely linear.

This is a tender, unfiltered conversation about grief, faith, depression, and the hope that holds steady in the unraveling. Because maybe… just maybe… the breaking is part of the healing.

Featured Song: Goodbye by TobyMac

Scripture: Psalm 56:8 – “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle...”

Join the conversation on Substack or inside the Facebook Community: Abide & Arise - A Sisterhood in Christ.

Obedience isn’t always easy. In fact, sometimes it costs us everything we once used to keep the peace—silence, suppression, self-protection.

But what if healing required us to stop hiding? What if surrender meant allowing others to misunderstand us for a season while we finally come home to the truth of who we are?

In this episode, I open up about the burden of silence I’ve carried for years—the pain I suppressed to keep the peace, the stories I swallowed because they were too uncomfortable for others to hear. But God didn’t create me to live in the shadows of someone else’s comfort. He called me to heal. He called me to speak. And He called me to obey.

I talk about what it means to walk in obedience when your healing shakes others. About releasing stories not out of blame, but out of surrender. About being misunderstood, hurt, and still choosing to trust God’s process. I share how caregiving for my mother is opening up unexpected layers of grace and insight, and how I’m learning that truth-telling and love can co-exist—even when it’s hard.

If you’re wrestling with what it means to obey God when others don’t understand your healing… this episode is for you.

🔑 Scriptures:

• John 15:10–11 — “That My joy may remain in you...”

• Isaiah 43:2 — “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned...”

Let this be your invitation to surrender more deeply, speak more boldly, and trust more fully. There is joy on the other side of obedience—even when the path is painful.

If this episode stirred something in you… don’t push it away. Sit with it. Pray through it. Write it out. And know—you are not alone.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do. And share this with someone else who needs the courage to obey, even when it hurts.

If this episode stirred something in you… don’t push it away. Sit with it. Pray through it. Write it out. And know—you are not alone.

Leave a review, write a comment, or send me a message. Let me know how this resonated with you and what steps you're taking to walk in obedience.

I hope you leave encouraged, reminded that faith really does overcome fear — one small step, one surrendered heart at a time.

Stay rooted in His Word, anchored in His love, and confident that God is working in every part of your story.

Take care, friend —

"Until we meet again, may you always choose faith over fear."

For more words of encouragement, check out my writing on the ⁠WhyFaithOverFear⁠ Substack.

Episode 4 - Sacred Adversity: Walking the Hard Road of Faith

Description: What if suffering isn’t a sign you’ve gone the wrong way — but proof that you’re following in the footsteps of Jesus?

In this raw and hope-filled episode of Faith Over Fear, Kimberly Dunham invites you to consider that adversity can be sacred. That the suffering we endure in this life isn’t wasted. That our heartbreak, our exhaustion, our battles — they are not signs of failure… but sacred moments of surrender.

Drawing from her own experience of exhaustion, discouragement, and yet relentless faith, Kimberly explores what it means to walk the hard road of faith with honesty, courage, and hope.

She reminds us that Jesus warned us this road would be difficult — and still, He promised we would never walk it alone.

This episode is for the weary one. The one who wonders if God sees. The one holding a heavy cross and praying for strength to take the next step.

You are not forgotten. You are not fighting alone. And your Savior has already overcome the world.

Scriptures Referenced:

1 Peter 4:12–13: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed

Romans 5:1–5: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

John 16:33: “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Matthew 16:24:“Take up your cross and follow Me.”

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

As we close, I want to invite you into something simple but powerful:

Find one scripture that speaks life into your weary soul today.

• Write it down.

• Pray it aloud.
• Let it become your sword for whatever battles tomorrow brings.

For me it will be:

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

If this message touched your heart today, would you share it with someone else who’s struggling to let go?

Subscribe to the podcast and my Substack - Why Faith Over Fear and leave a comment letting me know how this resonates with you.

Stay rooted in His Word, anchored in His love, and confident that God is working in every part of your story.

Take care, friend — "Until we meet again, walk boldly, live surrendered, and may you always choose faith over fear."