Jonathan Pokluda is on a mission to help people “identify spiritual warfare” and “defeat the enemy.”
Pokluda, pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, is tackling the topic of spiritual warfare head-on. In describing the roots of his interest in discussing the spiritual realm, the preacher appealed to his own story being raised Catholic and interacting with multiple denominations.
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All of that faith exposure, though, didn’t prepare him spiritually for what was to come.
“[I] lived the kind of crazy college life,” Pokluda says. “They say, ‘Drugs, sex, and rock and roll.’ In my case, ‘Drugs, sex, and hip hop.’ And, then … I graduated. I was in the world. I was at a club. Someone invited me to church. I went, hung over, sat in the back row, and surrendered my life to Jesus.”
From there, Pokluda “went all in with Jesus,” but as he embarked on the journey, he realized something: many people were missing a key piece to the spiritual puzzle.
In fact, some Christians weren’t fully aware — or even seeking — answers about the overarching spiritual battle raging between good and evil that Paul describes in Ephesians 6.
“Being raised Catholic, I would see statues of angels and demons, and I was taught in religion class about the spiritual war that was happening around me,” he said. “And I knew the story in Genesis 3, the fall, you know the tempting of Satan in the Garden of Eden.”
Pokluda continued, “But, if this war was happening around us, I knew very little about it. And I didn’t know what could happen.”
The preacher said he was shocked to realize many people in the Christian community seemed “comfortable not knowing” these answers. This led Pokluda to do an in-depth exploration of what the Bible actually teaches.
“It really was a three-year journey,” he said, noting he eventually went on to do a teaching series about the topic at his church, helping others discover what he learned from Scripture.
Ultimately, Pokluda said it’s essential for Christians to understand Ephesians 6 and the battle between good and evil, warning that “spiritual warfare has implications for everything we do.”
“It’s a foundational truth to the Christian faith,” he added.
To read the full story, please visit our content partners at Faithwire.
Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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