Spiritual warfare is real. I'm going to share
the most fearful frontal attack with demons that
I ever had. I don't mean to be dramatic. I'm
not trying to say anything beyond what's occurred,
but I've learned when I share this experience,
people line up and tell me, thank you, Chip,
that's happened to me. If you've ever had a scary
encounter with demonic forces, God has some answers.
Welcome to this weekend edition of Living on
the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are an international
teaching and discipleship ministry dedicated
to helping Christians worldwide live out their
faith for the glory of God and the good of all.
Well, this past week we wrapped up our series,
The Invisible War, based in Ephesians chapter
6. But today we're revisiting Chip's talk, How
to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win. In this
message, he explained the reality of spiritual
warfare happening all around us and shared a
few vivid examples he's witnessed personally.
Now, his stories aren't meant to scare or intimidate
you, but open your eyes to Satan's influence
and remind you of the ultimate power and victory
Jesus has over evil. So if you're ready, grab
your notes and go in your Bible to Ephesians
6, verse 16, as we settle in for Chips Talk.
This was now many years ago. It was our first
year in Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz is a place,
very new age, a lot of demonic activity. It's
2 a .m. in the morning. I don't know whether
I'm awake or I'm asleep. All I know is I can
look over and see my wife in the bed, and I know
I can't move any part of my body. And I'm thinking,
I must have a rare disease because this is really,
really weird because I can't move my hands, I
can't move anything, but I can move my eyes and
I can see my wife. And then I'm looking around
the room as much as I can and a sense of evil,
you know, the night is dark, but if there's a
darkness that can come over the dark, it did.
And then it was like a 5 ,000 pound... came on
my chest and started pushing down and pushing
down and pushing down, and I couldn't get my
breath. And then it was like someone grabbed
my windpipe and squeezing. And I don't know if
you ever remember as a kid when someone, when
you were at a pool and they were dunking you
and they held you under, and they held you under
and you were sure, you can't get your breath,
you can't get your breath. And that's what it
felt like. And I literally remember in my mind,
help Jesus, help Jesus, help, help, help. And
I just thought. How can you drown or die in your
bed and not be able to move your body? And then
just at the last minute before I kind of passed
out from not getting my breath, and then I sat
up in bed and I was literally soaking wet. And
if you've ever seen me play basketball, I mean,
when I play, I mean, I was drenched and the bed
was drenched and my wife was asleep over here.
And there's like evil in the room, like never
in the hairs on the back of my neck. And I'm
wondering, what is happening? And I'm terrified.
What do you do when some very unusual things
happen? First of all, you need to understand
there's four facts you need to know. And this
is the baseline. Fact number one, God has objectively
defeated Satan and his agenda. He has delivered
us from sin's penalty, power, and ultimately
will deliver us from sin's presence. In the interim,
we're involved in a guerrilla warfare with demonic
forces. Fact number one. Fact number two. As
believers, we have been transferred from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light with
all the rights, privileges, and position of being
a child of God and what that entails. Fact number
three. The spiritual battle that we fight involves
our responsibility on our part to put on the
spiritual protection God has provided for us.
We can and we will resist the enemy's attempts
to deceive, accuse, and cast out when we stand
firm by, number one, being honest with God, ourselves,
and others as a prerequisite to spiritual battle.
And we learned what? It's the belt of truth.
Number two, responding to the truth that God
shows us about his will for our lives or living
righteously. the breastplate of righteousness.
And number three, a clear understanding and a
readily sharing of the gospel, the message of
grace. Our feet shod with the gospel. Now get
this, and please, fact number four is very important.
The great majority of spiritual warfare never
need go beyond the regular practice of living
out your position in Christ by faith. Our practice
of Paul's metaphor of the spiritual armor protects
us from Satan's ongoing attempts to break our
fellowship with Jesus, and as a result, greatly
minimizes any impact by the enemy. And now, however,
there are times when we must move beyond standing
firm, and here's the key word, engage the enemy
in actual combat. There are times that are very
predictable when it will go from you have a great
defense, you're not being deceived, you're walking
with God, and there's some times when frontal
attack is likely to happen. Five examples. Number
one, when you're taking significant steps of
faith for spiritual growth. Second, when we're
invading enemy territory. The third time is when
you're exposing him for who he really is. We
as a staff knew we were going to teach on this.
We started a few weeks ago, and we really upped
our prayer and intercession, knowing this was
going to happen. Fourth is when we repent or
make a clean break with the world or a long -held
sin pattern or unholy relationship. And then
finally, when God is preparing us individually
or corporately for a great work for His glory.
You know, you read Nehemiah, and as Nehemiah
begins to rebuild the wall, A revival is going
to take place, and Ezra's going to come in, and
God's going to turn all of history around with
this business guy. And chapters 1, 2, and 3 are
pretty exciting, but chapters 4, 5, and 6 are
about opposition. And he gets general opposition,
and he gets personal opposition, then there's
an assassination on him. Jesus is ready to launch
his ministry. He's ready to be the savior of
the world and begin his formal teaching ministry.
And what happens? He's led by the Holy Spirit
into the wilderness and he's tempted by the enemy,
right? So those are times when we can expect.
The question is, once you're wearing your spiritual
armor, yet find yourself bombarded by spiritual
opposition, how do you engage the enemy and win
the battle? Well, we know that our battle is
not against flesh and blood, but it's against
the rulers, the powers, the world forces, the
spiritual darkness, right? Therefore, stand firm
in the Lord. Right? Put on the full armor of
God. And having what? Girded your loins with
truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
And having had your feet shod with the gospel.
In addition, verse 16, to all, taking up the
shield of faith, which you will be able to extinguish
all the flaming missiles of the evil one. and
take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God. So how
you engage that is I would like to talk about
these three armor pieces that we have that will
teach us how to engage in spiritual battle and
win. Taking up the shield of faith. Paul gives
us this metaphor, and the faith here is the absolute
confidence in God, his promises, his power, and
his program for our lives. Although rooted in
the objective reality of the gospel and our new
standing with God, justification, in other words,
saving faith, this faith refers to our present
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for victory over
sin and a host of demonic activity. That's a
quote from Kenneth Wiest. Its purpose is to quench
the fiery missiles. of the evil one, which kind
of raises the question, what exactly is a fiery
missile or a dart? Let me suggest it's the schemes,
the temptations, the lies, the deceptions, and
the attacks aimed at us, God's people, get this
down, to get us to shift our trust to something
or someone other than God. The goal, just the
goal is, don't trust God. It's impossible to
please him apart from faith. The number one agenda
of God in your life is this, will you trust me?
Will you believe in? When Jesus was asked, what
is the work of God? John chapter six, he said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on
him whom he has sent. There's only one time the
disciples are ever reproved by Jesus that we
have in the New Testament. Oh, you of little.
He wants us to believe. He's demonstrated his
power. He's given us his promises. In fact, here's
a question that in any situation, okay? Jot this
down. It's not in your notes. Maybe it's a challenge
in your marriage. Maybe it's a challenge in your
business. A challenge with one of your grown
kids. Maybe it's a physical situation. Ask this
question. What does it look like to trust God
in this situation? Lord? I don't know what to
do. What does it look like to trust you? That
changes the equation. Because here's what I know
is God's will. No matter what I'm going through,
an all -knowing, all -powerful, good and sovereign
God wants me to trust him. I may have a role
in it. I may not. But we tend to jump to how
do I fix this or how do I take control of it?
Or how do I manage it? Some examples of fiery
darts are blasphemous thoughts. Other things
that can happen, hateful thoughts, doubts, a
burning desire to sin, questioning others' motives,
unexplained waves of discouragement or depression,
often rooted in either questioning God's identity
or your new identity. You're listening to Living
on the Edge. And before we continue today's program,
let me quickly ask you, are you concerned about
the lies and temptations bombarding your kids
each and every day? Well, join us after the message
to hear about a valuable small group resource
that will help you as a parent equip your children
with the truth and the biblical armor they need
to stand victorious. Keep listening after this
message to learn more. But for now, here again
is Chip to continue our series, The Invisible
War. I shared, this would happen to me, I mean,
every Saturday afternoon for months and months
and months until I recognized what was happening.
The classic example, and let me encourage you
in this whole area of spiritual warfare, study
Genesis chapter 3 and study Matthew chapter 4.
The game plan hasn't changed. Did God really
say? There's always a doubt in his word. Notice
he doesn't come as Satan. He comes disguised.
So he comes disguised, almost always offering
you a good thing to solve a problem in your life.
But he's offering a shortcut or it's a good thing
in a bad way or at a bad time or in a way that
God has said this is not the way to do it. And
then after that, If you take a piece of the fruit,
whatever the fruit happens to be that he's shown
you and you know is wrong, then he will blow
over you with the condemnation for what you've
done and then convince you that you're unworthy
of any of God's mercy and any of God's grace,
and it's a downward spiral. As you would study
Matthew chapter 4, you'll find that Jesus is
tempted in three specific areas. And if you study
Genesis carefully, you'll find that they're tempted
in three specific areas. And those three areas
are found in 1 John. I want you all to open your
Bibles to 1 John, all the way at the end, 1 John
2. And in 1 John 2, he will identify the three
areas of temptation that faced our first parents.
The three areas of temptation. that Jesus faced,
and the three areas of temptation that you and
I will always face. These are like three verses
that would be of great profit to memorize. Verse
15 of 1 John chapter 2. Do not love the world
or the things that are in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. Okay, well what's the world? Is this
the physical world? No. This is the world as
in the culture, the society, and the values.
And who's the prince and the power and the governor
of this world? Satan. And so he creates culture
and society and norms and values to seduce. Here's
his goal. He's a seducer. He wants to seduce
you. from your love of Jesus and get you to love
you, yourself. And he tells you the way that
you can have all that you want. Remember what
Eve, this will make you like God. And we don't
want to admit this, but when we want to control
our world and our outcomes, we want to be little
gods. And so notice what he says. Well, what
is the world? For 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,
but is from the world. And then the next verse
is like perspective. And the world is passing
away, and also its lusts. But the one who does
the will of God abides forever. And by the way
here, this word for lust, lust of the eyes, it's
not necessarily a negative word. Literally, it's
the word desire. In this passage and others,
there's a little prefix they put to it. It means
an intensified desire. And so three things. Jesus
comes. An enemy says, first questioning his identity.
If you are the son of God, he knew who he was.
But it's prove it. Prove it. Turn these stones
into bread. Use your supernatural power. Rather
than trusting God, you take control. And it's
been 40 days and the text says he's hungry. He
has a... legitimate need for food. And the enemy
says, well then turn the stones and prove something
and you can meet your legitimate physical need
of the flesh now, my way in my time. And what
did Jesus say? It is written, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. The test, lust of the
flesh. Then he took him up to the top of the
temple. He says, throw yourself off. And then
are you ready? He quotes scripture. He quotes
the Psalms and says, the angels will catch you.
Here's the temptation, the lust of the eyes.
You want to look good in front of people. People
will know you're the Messiah. You'll be hot stuff.
And then third, look at all these kingdoms. You
can have power. You can have fame. You can have
glory. And guess what? There's no cross involved.
All you have to do is bow down and worship me.
Be gone, Satan. And each time it is written,
it is written, it is written. Sometimes words
like lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the
pride of life, they sound a bit biblical because
they are. Can I give it to you in our nomenclature?
Lust of the flesh, sex. Lust of the eyes, status,
greed, possessions. Is it wrong to have appetite
for food, a desire for sex, a desire for significance,
a desire for security? Absolutely not. It's how
you go about getting it and believing that that
will satisfy you. God says, Sex inside marriage
is one of my most precious gifts. Food, we all
need food. But there's one thing to love food.
It's another thing to live to eat. And so he
says to us that these desires for the flesh,
I want to provide for you. These are legitimate
needs. But let me provide for you in my way and
in my time and in the right way. And so the application
here. When darts of doubt and deception must
be immediately met with the shield of faith,
your active, present application of truth to
your personal situation, as soon as you recognize
the dart. And now, I hope you're thinking, okay,
what's that look like? I mean, practically. I
mean, how does this actually work? Let me give
you three examples. First, it's trusting in God's
character. On a card I have written the goodness
of God, Psalm 8411. The Lord God, Lord Adonai
Yahweh, is a sun and a shield. Unlimited source,
unlimited protection. The Lord God is a sun and
a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No
good thing will he withhold from those who walk
uprightly. And I've memorized that card, and
then I have a definition on the back of the card
of the goodness of God. Is that which aspect
of my heavenly father that longs and finds great
happiness in his people? And he wants to give
me the very best. When God revealed himself to
Moses, Moses said, show me your glory. Do you
remember what he said? I'll let all my goodness
pass before you. The Hebrew word for goodness
there, the root of it is generosity. The most
generous, lavish, caring, loving, compassionate
person in the whole universe is God. He's got
your back and he's for you. But the moment that
thought comes, Oh, he's not good. If I stay sexually
pure, I'll never get married. God's not good.
If I give my all and surrender to him, he'll
send me to some foreign country where there's
snakes and I hate snakes. And, you know, all
those are rooted in a lie. And the moment your
mind starts that way, you stop and you out loud
say, the Lord God is a son. and a shield he has
unlimited source of ability and abundance he
can protect me from anything he gives grace what's
grace that's getting what you don't deserve he
gives glory he wants to exalt he wants to lift
you up he wants to help you as you walk with
him by faith no good thing will he withhold from
those who walk uprightly This is Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening
to Part 1 of Chip's message, How to Do Battle
with the Enemy and Win, from our series, The
Invisible War. Chip will be back shortly to share
some helpful application for us to think about.
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, in this
eight -part study, Chip walked through Ephesians
chapter 6, explaining how we're to think about,
prepare for, and respond to spiritual warfare.
Our prayer is that through this teaching, you've
learned how to fight against our enemy and win.
Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any
part of this series by going to livingontheedge
.org or wherever you listen to podcasts. Well,
Chip's still with me in studio. And Chip, we've
received a ton of emails and messages recently
from young people who've been motivated by your
teaching or are using some of our resources.
And I know just how encouraging that is to you.
Well, Dave, you're right. I'm always excited
when high schoolers or college students, you
know, they'll write me and they'll... Tell me
that, you know, we've got a group at college
and we're listening to your messages or we've
done this small group or, you know, I've got
a couple questions or I read this book and I
get so excited because there are young men and
women that are making a difference, people in
their 20s, early 30s that love God that are digging
in. And if you're one of those people, here's
what I want you to know. Yes, it's very challenging
to be a godly young man or young woman. in our
current world, and you are in a battle. And here's
what I would encourage you to do. If you've never
done the small group series, The Invisible War,
what every believer needs to know about Satan,
demons, and spiritual warfare, I want you to
pause right now and think about who's a bunch
of guys or a bunch of gals or maybe a college
group or a Sunday school class or just some people
that you hang out with. And you say, let's get
together once a week. and let's study what the
Bible says about spiritual warfare. I want you
to know you're being attacked probably like no
other group, especially digitally and through
social media, and the temptations and the struggles
are overwhelming. I want you to know there's
victory, there's power, but you need to understand
what the spiritual armor is all about and how
you can live and overcome the very things that
are coming at you. There's few things that are
more important. than understanding where the
battle is that you've already won and how to
put into practice the weapons that God has given
you to win the battle each and every day. To
learn more about the Invisible War small group,
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. Have listeners
tap special offers. Well, with that, here again
is Chip to share a few final words. As you listen
to today's program, what came to your mind? What
darts are coming at your life? And let me ask
you this question. Can you, like Jesus, reach
into the passages of Scripture, quote that passage
with authority, know your standing, and put up
the shield? If not, you're in big trouble. I
praise God that I've memorized some key passages.
And some of you may feel overwhelmed and like,
well, I'm glad Chip knows these verses and Jesus
obviously did. I don't know what to do. Go to
the website and download these notes for free.
It's livingontheedge .org, and I've given specific
passages with the promises so you can pull up
the shield of faith. God wants to help you, but
you need to dig in and get a grasp of God's Word
in the areas where you need it the most. Good
challenge to leave us with today, Chip. Thanks.
You've been listening to a selected program that
we wanted to share from this past week. To hear
more from Chip's series, The Invisible War, go
to livingontheedge .org or wherever you listen
to podcasts. Until next time, I'm Dave Drewy
saying thanks for listening to this weekend edition
of Living on the Edge.