Have you ever been praying and had a wicked,
I mean a terrible thought just scream right through
the middle of your mind? Or have you ever been
driving your car and had an unexplained impulse
to do something crazy or evil? What's the source
of those wild, out -of -control thoughts? Well,
today on Living on the Edge, we're going to discover
where they come from, how to combat them, and
what to do when they enter your mind. You're
not going to want to miss it. Stay with me. Thanks
for listening to this edition of Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. We are an international
teaching and discipleship ministry that motivates
Christians to live like Christians. Today we're
diving back into our series, The Invisible War,
with the second half of Chip's message, How to
Do Battle with the Enemy and Win. Well, he's
got a lot of helpful insight to share, so grab
your Bible and notes as Chip begins by opening
up about his own encounters with the forces of
darkness and what he did to combat them. Let's
get going. I was finding myself getting acutely,
I mean, having a great day, having a great week,
and every Saturday between 2 and 3 o 'clock,
going to a dark place that I just couldn't figure
out what was going on. Doubts about my message,
doubts about me, doubts about the worthiness
of it, and fighting and struggling and fighting
and struggling. And we had an old, old... man
with white hair in his late 80s, godly, godly
man, and he would pray every Saturday night with
me. And before I could figure out what was going
on, I would go back with him and we'd pray together
and just like there would be an opening and great.
And finally I realized, wait a second, God has
promised my word goes forth and it won't return
to me void. Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not a
man that he should lie, neither the son of man
that he should repent. Has he spoken and will
he not do it? Or has he said it and will he not
bring it to pass? And so pretty soon I started,
that wall would come and I would just out loud
say, wait a second, I'm going to teach your word,
enemies, whoever you are, whatever you're trying
to do, God is not in my, and then I would just
quote scripture. Man, it's a dart. It would just
be like, put up the shield, put up the shield.
Third, trusting in God's program and timing.
You ever have a decision, you're afraid about
the future, doubts about, don't do that, that'll
never work out, don't leave family, don't relocate,
don't take that new job, and yet God's leading.
You know the plans that I have for you, Jeremiah
29 11, plans for good and not for evil, to give
you a hope and a future. Times when you feel
like, You know what, I just can't stay in this
marriage. I can't be this unhappy and this unfulfilled
any longer. Whisper. You know, you're not getting
any younger. He'll never change, or she'll never
change. When those become into your mind, then
you need to go to God's promise, 1 Corinthians
10, 13, about temptation. No temptation. Every
temptation or trial has come into my life except
as common to man. But with the temptation, God
will provide a way of escape that I might be
able to endure it. That's a lie. I'm not going
to believe that. Here's what you've got to get.
This is spiritual warfare. You know that thought
that creeps in like that? You know that thought
where you're just barely tempted and you start
down the path? You stop and you address that
with Scripture. That's spiritual warfare. Those
thoughts, those temptations, that second look,
that third look, that person that treats you
and then you find yourself knowing there's going
to be a meeting and maybe you dress up a little
bit nicer. I've had guys tell me, I started looking
forward to going to work and which meetings about
who's going to be in the room and I kind of have
a connection and things were kind of bad at home.
You're in the battle. That's where it's at. And
you don't try hard to get out of it. You have
to stop. Claim God's word. At the level of great
embarrassment, but possibly maybe a lot of help,
I did not grow up as a believer, and everything
I learned about dating, sex, relationships, was
not from the Bible. And I went to a school where
there was four girls for every guy. And I would
joke, ugly guys could get dates. and I was a
brand new Christian, and I was committed to being
sexually pure, which was very unpopular now,
and the sexual revolution had happened, and man,
I mean, a girl would come out of the guy's bathroom,
everyone was sleeping around, and I'm like, God,
are you kidding? But I thought, you know, I hate
hypocrites, and these are the kind of people,
and I'm struggling. So my behavior was pure,
and my mind was in the ditch. And I remember
literally coming to a point where, God, I don't
think I can ever win this battle of lust. And
I just, I guess I'm going to have to quit the
Christian life. And that didn't work. because
the verses kept coming to my mind, and God says,
you can resign from me, but I never resigned
from you, so get back up and let's... And I accidentally,
and this was a revolution in my life. My roommate
was a heavyweight wrestler, and we both kind
of came to the Lord at the same time, and I was
on the basketball team, and we had this sort
of good kind of competition, but he was very
big and very strong, and I was even smaller than
I am now. And I came to him and I said, hey,
you know what? I'm trying to get up in the morning.
Every night I say I'm going to get up and read
the Bible. And every morning I hit the snooze,
you know? And I can't do it and I can't do it.
And he goes, do you really want help? I said,
well, yeah, Bob, would you help me? He goes,
I'll help you. But you really want help? Absolutely.
You really want up? Absolutely. So the very next
morning the alarm goes off and I hit the snooze.
And Bob says, you're going to get up? I said,
no, maybe tomorrow. Anybody have this problem?
Maybe tomorrow I'll do it. This guy. rips off
my sheet, grabs me by the ankle, and lifts me
up like this, upside down. We had those communal
bathrooms, knocks open the door, turns on the
shower, and he swings me. And it's, I mean, this
is a true story. And I'm yelling, you, what are
you doing? But the guy's a heavyweight wrestler.
I mean, you know, I mean, I couldn't do anything.
And so I'm dripping wet, and he puts me down
on the bed. He goes, now. You want to be a man
of God or not? Or just shut up at night? Well,
shock you, I got up. And the competition went
on. And so Bob was going to go. They had these
training programs with the ministry. And you
would go for a summer. But before you could go,
you had to memorize these 60 verses. And I've
always been very competitive. And so Bob was
memorizing like one or two verses a week to get
ready for this summer program. And I wasn't going
to go to any programs. But he left the room and
he had these little cards. It was called the
topical memory system. Just little cards with
verses, which I thought paying back then $5 for
cards that you can write yourself seemed stupid.
So when he left, I took three by five cards and
I cut them as close as I could. And I copied
down all of his verses. And I didn't tell him
and I hid them. And then I decided that I was
going to show him how lame. wrestlers were, especially
of how he treated me in the shower. And so I
memorized a verse a day. And I reviewed them.
And because I knew you're supposed to say the
verse, then you say the title, like God's word,
2 Timothy 3 .16. You quote it, God's word, 2
Timothy 3 .16. So I knew if you don't do it,
that's the way you're supposed to do it. So I
did a verse every day. And then I had this amazing
blessing of a psychology class. that was perhaps
the most boring class ever given unto mankind.
And the tests were always the same. They were
right out of the book. You shouldn't even have
to go to class. And so I would put my book up
and sit in the back row, and I reviewed verses
the whole time. And then I remember, you know,
I jogged to baseball practice, you know, and
it was just like, hey, 60 days, I'm just going
to say, hey, Bob, how are you coming on your
verses? You know, I've been looking those over
myself, you know, and I'm going to nail 60, just
killing. Well, verse, I can still remember day
21. And, you know, I've now perfectly memorized,
and some of them were more than one verse, but
they were on God's word, purity, prayer, just
all the basics of the Christian life. And I came
around a corner in front of the library and a
co -ed that was very, very attractive and very
godly. And I... Sort of had a little crush on
her. And I'm just going to be real vulnerable
here. As a man, when you lust for women, you
can feel very guilty. And when you lust for a
godly woman, you feel overly guilty. And I just,
my mind, my mind was just, it was all those years
of all that trash that I put in my mind. And
so it came around the corner and we had this
conversation. And then she left and I left. I
didn't lust at all. I mean, my eyes were at her
eyes. And then I started to go to one cafeteria
where all the basketball guys, we would sit because
it was a girl's dorm and there were four floors,
and they would all walk by, 7 .5, 6, 9. I mean,
it was terrible. I'm just, okay, sorry, guys.
No, forget guys. You've all done this. Sorry,
ladies. I mean, and I started, and then I realized,
wait a second. I don't want to go to that cafeteria.
That's where my problem is. And I went to the
other one. And then day 22 was another verse.
I didn't know. the power of God's word. And then
this verse that I quoted, I found myself, no
one taught me this, but like I'd come around
a corner, and this was a day where girls weren't
wearing much. And my eyes, I thought, okay, first
look's not my fault. After that, I got to own
it. And then the second look, okay, and literally
out loud, sometimes, I'm not exaggerating, 40
times in a day, I might find myself go. Okay,
love not the world, nor things in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. And all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the boastful pride of life, is not from the
Father. And all that is the world is passing
away, but that it does the will of God abides
forever. You know, and they go around and they
go, oh, here we go. Love not the world. And I
didn't know it. I was doing spiritual warfare.
You know what happened? I got a clean mind. I'm
not going to tell you it's perfect. I'm telling
you. And then I understood. That's true of fear.
That's true of insecurity. That's true of afraid
to take a step. That's true of not having the
courage to talk to someone. What I found was
God's word quoted the moment you have an issue,
trusting his character, trusting his promises,
trusting his program. That was when we had major
marriage issues. And no matter how hard we tried,
it wasn't working. And yes, we went to marriage
counseling, but then it was, my God will supply
all your needs according to his riches and glory
in Christ Jesus. You need love to give her that
you don't have. And love isn't a feeling. Love
is giving another person what they need the most
when they deserve it the least at great personal
cost. So that's what I'm going to give you for
today. And there's been times where we took steps
of faith and we thought, oh, we can't do this
because we don't have any money or the ministry
doesn't have any money. My God will supply all
your needs. I can do all things through Christ.
You become a promise -centered Christian who's
rooted in your life as a life of faith. Faith
is not a feeling. Faith isn't, I feel good about
this. Faith is believing in the character of
God and the promises of God to the point that
you act regardless of how you feel. And when
you do that, guess what it is? God is what? He's
a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
He rewards faith. You will experience Him. So
often the fear is you take a step of faith. One
side of a coin is called faith. I'm going to
trust you. The flip of the coin is called obedience.
And you obey when you feel like it and when you
don't. And you quote scripture out loud as all
the thoughts bombard you. And you put up the
shield of faith and you quench these darts. Secondly,
it's the helmet of salvation. It says take the
helmet of salvation. Literally the word is to
receive the helmet of salvation. It's in a tense
that says you have to get this, allow it to be
given to yourself. And I love the metaphor because
it would be the last piece of equipment a Roman
soldier would have. It was bronze and it was
leather. It was the most protective. And you
actually wouldn't put it on yourself. Your armor
bearer would put it on you. And so he's saying
here, you need to receive the helmet of salvation.
And the definition is an obvious allusion to
our security that we've been saved and justified
as believers, safe from Satan's attacks. But
the focus now is on the present deliverance from
sin. The word deliverance or salvation, that's
what it means. You know, as you read the Psalms,
every time he says he's delivered, he's not talking
about justification. He's talking about, I got
away from Saul one more time. God delivered me.
The word salvation means deliverance. Our deliverance
from sin is our salvation. We're justified by
the grace of God. And so he's saying the helmet
of salvation is the certainty of deliverance
from sin and the protection of our minds in the
battle. It's not something you can do. It's something
you receive. but it's something you must allow
God to do in your mind. And this is where the
battle is. How does it happen? Renewing your
mind. Remember we read this passage, we don't
war according to the flesh, but the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal or fleshly, right?
But powerful for what? pulling down every speculation
and everything raised up against the knowledge
of God, and we're taking every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ. The helmet of salvation
is where we renew our mind and take every thought
captive. God's word protects us. When Jesus prayed,
and he was praying for us, but praying for the
disciples, John 17, 17, sanctify them or set
them apart by your truth, your truth. Word is
truth. Colossians 3, set your mind on the things
that are above, not on the things that are on
earth, where Christ is. Romans 8, 5 to 8, the
mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind
set on the spirit is life and peace. For the
mind set on the flesh is hostile to God and it
cannot please him. But the mind set on the spirit
brings life. Are you getting the idea? The mind,
the mind, the mind. Romans 12, 2. Don't be conformed
to this world. Be transformed by the trying hard,
going to church, being religious. Oops, that's
not what it says. But be transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you might prove or test or
experience what the will of God is, that which
is good, acceptable, and perfect. The only way
to take every thought captive is... Your mind
has to be soaked in truth and in the scripture.
And when it is, when things come, God can bring
to your mind so that you can do battle. And that's
what protects you. The deceit happens in your
mind and in your heart. The doubt is planted
in your mind and in your heart. The helmet of
salvation is the setting of your mind and the
renewing of your mind. I don't get up and read
the Bible in the morning or memorize verses.
Or for me, I find issues that I struggle with
and I write what I call desire cards. So part
of my giftedness is to see what's wrong. It's
a little bit of a, think of this in the right
sense, not telling the future, but a prophetic
gift to see kind of what's wrong and what God
might want and say, hey, let's do that. Let's
be God's people. Let's be Christians who live
like Christians, where you kind of have to analyze
what's not very Christian. That's the light side
of it. The dark side of that, in my personality,
when I walk into a situation or I meet people,
in my inner thinking, I see what's wrong with
everything. And that, oh, I'm okay there. Now
I go critical. Now when I was younger, I would
say it. It was bad. Now I just think it. Bad.
So how do I overcome? I mean, okay, you need
to understand your greatest strength will always
be your greatest weakness. You need to understand
the most gifted, brightest, lightest part of
how God wants to use you has a dark side. It
has a shadow. And the enemy knows that. And so
he'll push you, push you, push you and take you
to a place that's really bad. And so I have a
card. Because I want to renew my mind. And everything
doesn't amount to a verse. I have a card, and
I read it quite often. It says, I long to see
people the way God sees them. I long to view
them not through their external looks, appearance,
status, wealth, or position, but through their
need and relationship with God or not. And then
I have a verse. From 1 Samuel, God sees not as
man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance.
God looks on the heart. And so I sit in a business
class seat with a very powerful person who's
a CEO of some big thing. And my immediate reaction
can either to be intimidated or to compare or
I'm sitting on a bus. With a guy that's tattooed
up here, tattooed up here. He's got a nose ring
here. He's got something pierced here, something
pierced here. And I play a game all the time.
I'll look at that guy and I can think, you know,
a lot of people could think this guy's a really
out there guy. And you know what? He might be
one of those undercover Christians who's all
tatted up to reach people that no one else can
reach. And you think I'm messing with you. You
know why? Because I've met those guys. I'll never
forget, I was preaching and wrapping a message
up, and there was this guy on the front row,
and he started coming, and he had sort of, it
was almost like a dress, and he had the whole
Rastafarian hair and had sort of the beanie -type
thing that went to the side. Weird dude. And
then he had a flute, and when we did worship,
he would do this, you know? Like on the front
row. And, you know, it's Santa Cruz. So, you
know, it's like, hey, you know, whatever. And
so I get done preaching. And when I get done
preaching, I would always come down to the front
and just talk to people and hear what's going
on in their life. And he starts coming toward
me. And I'm thinking, we didn't have security
back then. But if we did, I would go, security,
security. And he comes to me. And we later called
him Dan Dan, the hippie man. And Dan came up
to me. oh, pastor. And he got about three feet
away and I could smell him. And then he got closer
and he wrapped his arms around me. He said, oh,
it's so good to meet you. I've walked across
America. I've been listening to your messages.
It's so good to be here. I would like to stay
for a few months. Let me tell you about my calling.
I live on the streets and let me tell you why.
This is what happened and this is how Jesus changed
my life. And Dan, help me remember, you cannot
judge a book by its cover. Okay, so do you understand
now? The moment, the moment I start to judge,
then I have another verse that says, do not judge
lest you be judged for in the same way that you
judge, your father will judge you. Do you understand?
It's just truth. Deception needs to get truth.
Doubts need to get stability. All the kind of
things where he's coming at you when you're tempted,
you need to pull back. This is who God is. These
are his promises. This is what I'm going to do
with my life. And it's engaging the enemy. I
need to move on. Practically, prayer, worship
music, scripture teaching, scripture memory are
all ways, I think, that we can renew our mind.
You're listening to Living on the Edge, and Chip
Ingram will be back to continue our series, The
Invisible War, in just a minute. But let me quickly
tell you that we are more than a broadcast ministry.
We're supporting pastors globally, developing
helpful resources, and sharing the gospel with
this next generation. So if you'd like to join
us in these efforts, become a monthly partner
by going to livingontheedge .org. And thanks
for your support. We'll hear again as Chip. In
1 Thessalonians, Paul calls the helmet the helmet
of hope. And it's this picture of deliverance
that all the promises of God are yes in Christ
Jesus. Application, you ready? Christians who
are not filling their minds with scripture are
like warriors going to battle without a helmet.
When we lose hope, we're defeated. Not just individually,
but as a group. And so now it says, take the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
You know, you see in the movies, sometimes they
have the really long swords or they have the
small sword. This is about a two -foot sword,
the word he uses. And this is for hand -to -hand
combat. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of
God. And most often in Scripture, we get the
word logos. Like in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was God, and the Word, right? Logos,
logos. This is rhema. This is the spoken Word
of God. Words given to us by the Spirit of God
to do close hand -to -hand combat with the lies
and the deceptions of the enemy. The truth of
God's word quoted and applied to specific lies
or deception of the enemy will allow you to take
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Jesus modeled this use of the sword of the Spirit
in Matthew 4, 1 -11. How can a young man keep
his way cure? By guarding it according to your
word. Your word I've hid in my heart that it
might not sin against thee. Let your light be
a light unto my path. A lamp unto my feet and
a light unto my path. The sword of the spirit
is both an offense and a defensive weapon. And
so you're probably thinking, so are you going
to tell us what happened that night? Yes. I'm
now sitting up in bed. My wife is asleep. I'm
drenched with sweat. I'm terrified. And I'm glad
for that bricklayer who discipled me. I'm glad
for scriptures I memorized and I had to overcome.
It doesn't really matter what my wife thinks.
I'm not sure what's happening here. And this
happened multiple, multiple times. In fact, later
on in our journey in Santa Cruz, there were times
where actually I would wake up and I would have
this experience and I could hear something happening
in every single one of the bedrooms with all
my children. And other occasions we had visual
manifestations of demonic activity. So all this
stuff is real. And actually my wife is more sensitive
than me and has had far more of these kind of
issues even than me. And they happen very...
regularly, especially when those five things,
when you're taking territory, et cetera. And
so, scared to death, out loud, said, greater
is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome him.
The blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony,
and they love not their life, even unto death.
I command you now, evil and demonic spirits in
my bedroom, in his authority, not mine, depart
from my room and my house and go where Jesus
sends you and do not return. Gone. Now, just
so you can be aware, as things got more intensified,
and again, this is sort of the chip experience,
not to be confused with scripture, but there
were some times later when I would pray that
and like... uh, uh -oh, like, are bigger demons
here? I guess we'll go with that again. And I
would pray for a season, and then they would
leave. And what I want to tell you is, you know
those verses I gave you? All of my kids memorize
those. And I literally heard my 10 -year -old
son do spiritual warfare. And literally have
this attitude. There was a time when we were
all petrified and angry. And then there got to
be a time where what happened? Oh, had one of
those satanic nightmares. It was terrible. And
you do what you're supposed to do. And they're
trying to make us afraid. And you know what?
In Christ, we're invincible. And yeah, it was
really loud. But the gun is filled with blanks.
And we're not going to let that address us. I'm
not going to live in fear. And you need to understand,
that's true if you're a child of God. Now, notice
in your notes there's something, summary to engage
the enemy in spiritual warfare. The prerequisite
is a healthy spiritual life. What I want you
to know is that if you've left yourself open
to things, it can be a lot more difficult. Second
is understand your position in Christ. You need
to understand, I'm a child of God. I've been
sealed with the Spirit. There's no doubts here.
Third is discern when demonic influence may be
the cause. You can't run to every problem you
have is somehow there's a demon behind every
bush. But you discern. And it gets pretty easy
over time. Fourth is claim God's promises out
loud. And yes, you'll feel silly. But it's way
better than being terrified. And finally, take
our authority and position in Christ and command
demonic forces to cease their activity and depart.
And they will. They will. I'm going to close
with an illustration that is the most... helpful
for me. It was one of those opportunities that
I had in Santa Cruz, and because it's a picture
that will help you. Because how do you take all
this truth? So I'm walking, there's a main thruway
in Santa Cruz, and it's where there's... street
musicians and it's wild, crazy, and there's a
bunch of bars, but it's a really cool place to
walk around, you know, and there's restaurants
and other things. So it's one evening and I'm
walking down and it's outside of a bar and there's
a couple really big guys in black t -shirts.
They're bouncers. They look really, really strong.
I think they can, and they're messing with this
one guy and they don't seem to be able to handle
him. And he's, and so pretty soon there's a crowd
and I'm just like everyone else. I just joined
the crowd. I want to see what's going to happen.
You know, like, ooh, you know what's going to
happen? Those big guys, and hey, he's saying
he's getting, you know, go ask for help, security,
and you know, and so more and more people, and
then someone called the police. And so it's getting
more and more rambunctious, and you know, the
onlookers are getting bigger and bigger, and
I wonder what's going to happen here, and those
big guys don't seem to be doing very good with
this guy, and he's thrashing around, he's telling
them this, and then a police car pulls up, and
I'm thinking, oh, what's going to happen? And
the door opens. Okay, ladies, now this is an
illustration in no way to diminish female police
officers. This is an actual story. Because I'm
thinking, these two big guys can't handle this,
and the door opens, and I'm telling you, if she
was 4 '11", maybe. Police officer. A woman. And
I'm thinking, oh my, this is going to be interesting.
Well, and you know, it's one of those where the
police car came and you know, like two wheels
are up on the curb and there's this ruckus and
the crowd is growing. I'm thinking, I wonder
what's going to happen. And she walks up like
this, sir, excuse me. They all get the tension,
the two bouncers and this guy's going crazy.
She goes, sir, stand down. And he looks at her
like this and she puts her hand on a gun like
this. Sir, I will say one more time, stand down.
I don't know how drunk he was or what he was
on, but he got very sober very quickly. And then
she said, sir, I want you right now to turn around.
And she walked over to him, you know, just like
on TV. Right, you know? Put his head down, get
in the car. Wow. And you know the metaphor for
me? You know what I realized? She had a badge
on. from the state of California and the authority
of the Santa Cruz Police Department to handle
that situation. And she had a weapon that I don't
care how wild he is, that .45 was much more formidable.
I don't care how big, I don't care how strong,
I don't care how drunk, I don't care how high,
but I will tell you this, this will outweigh
that. And if necessary, and what I want you to
know, Is it somehow you think this is a bunch
of weird stuff from missionaries or pastors or
super spiritual people? And I want you to know
if you're a child of God, you have the authority
of the living God. All power in heaven and earth
has been entrusted to you. And you don't have
a gun. You've got much more. You have the living
word of God. Hebrews 4 .12, for the word of God
is living, active. powerful, piercing the division
of soul and spirit, able to judge the thoughts
and intentions of the heart. And when you turn
this word loose, demonic forces must obey. You
never have to be afraid. God bless you. You're
listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.
And the message you just heard, how to do battle
with the enemy and win, is from our series, The
Invisible War. Chip will join us in studio to
share some insights from today's talk in just
a minute. Right now, there's a spiritual battle
happening all around us. We can't see it, but
it's an epic struggle for our hearts and minds.
So what are we as believers supposed to do? Well,
through this eight -part study, Chip shares some
insights from Ephesians 6 for how we're to think
about, prepare for, and respond to spiritual
warfare. Learn why we don't have to be afraid
because of the armor God's given us to fight
back and fight well. To learn more about this
series, visit livingontheedge .org or the Chip
Ingram app. Well, before we go any further, Chip's
with me in studio to share a quick word. Chip?
Thanks so much, Dave. I'll be back with some
application to today's teaching. But if you're
listening to this program and you or someone
you know is being blessed, I mean, God is using
it in your life. I'd like to ask you to really
pray about partnering with Living on the Edge.
Your financial investment allows us to equip
Christians here in the United States, all across
the world, to really live like Christians. Because
of your donations, we create materials, we get
God's Word to leaders, and we take the Bible
to the people in ways that help them grow and
transform their families and communities. So
here's my request. Would you help us reach the
hurting people in the U .S.? and around the world.
Help us to be a catalyst for change so that Christians
everywhere can live more like Christians. It
makes a huge difference, and thanks in advance
for whatever God leads you to do. Well, as you
prayerfully consider your role with this ministry,
I want to remind you that every gift is significant,
no matter the amount. When you partner with Living
on the Edge, you support and multiply the ministry
work we're doing all over the globe. Set up your
monthly gift today by going to livingontheedge
.org or by calling 888 -333 -6003. That's 888
-333 -6003 or visit livingontheedge .org. In
today's program, I told a story of a 4 '11 police
officer I believe is an excellent, excellent
picture of who we are in Christ, where the real
power is, and where our authority comes from.
But here's my concern. My concern is that police
officer went to the police academy. That police
officer put on that uniform before that night
and had a badge and was trained to use that weapon.
And my concern is that you're going to go out
and start trying to use a weapon that you haven't
been trained in, that you're going to say, I've
got this authority, but, you know, you haven't
done much research and you don't really know
who you are in Christ. And so this is not something
we play around with. This is real. My recommendation
is order the DVD, find four or five or six people
and say, let's go to the Spiritual Police Academy.
Let's figure out who we are in Christ. Let's
get our uniform on. Let's understand this badge
of authority that we have. And let's learn to
pull out the bullets, if you will, of Scripture
the way Jesus did and know how to put up that
shield of faith and wield the sword of the Spirit
in a way that is accurate. That's right, Chip.
So to get your hands on this resource, go to
livingontheedge .org. Join Chip in this vital
study and uncover the biblical weapons and armor
we've been given to withstand Satan's attacks
and stand victorious over him. Place your order
for the Invisible War small group by visiting
livingontheedge .org. App listeners tap special
offers. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drewy
saying thanks for listening to this edition of
Living on the Edge.