The Invisible War - Spiritual Warfare 301: How to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win, Part 1

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 answers.

Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. And we're in the middle of our series, The Invisible War, based in Ephesians chapter six. And today, Chip vividly describes the real-life battles against the forces of darkness and shares a few he's been involved in personally. And these stories aren't meant to scare or intimidate you, but to open your eyes to Satan's influence and the ultimate power of God.

I'm going to start off with two true stories. I'm not intending to be dramatic, but we have learned from spiritual warfare 101 that there is an invisible world, that we're in a battle, that we have a foe that's formidable. We know that we respect him, that we're not afraid, and we fight from victory, not for victory. And then we understand that part of being protected is God has given us armor, and he's commanded us to pick up this armor and put it on, and he's given us armor that will protect us in many ways.

And he's going to protect us from condemnation, he'll protect us from doubt, he's going to keep us from deception with just the normal walking with God, being a man or a woman, renewing our mind, being in the body and community. There's frontal attacks, and we'll talk about when. 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 it was like someone grabbed my windpipe and squeezing. I 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, and the hairs on the back of my neck. And I'm wondering, what is happening? And I'm terrified. And now just for context, I went to seminary. I was discipled by the navigators.

I know some verses, you know? I'm scared to death, and I don't know what to do. And so I think this is evil, and I had some interaction, but nothing like this. I mean I think I'm inside of a Frank Peretti novel, and I don't know what to do. And then the thought comes to me, you need to command these demons or do something to get them out of there. And then I had this second thought, I'm sure it was my pride. And I looked over and I thought to myself, if I start talking out loud in the middle of the night, and my wife wakes up and I'm speaking out loud in an empty room, she's going to think I've gone over the edge. And so I battled, and then I did something, which I'll share with you a little bit later what I did and why.

No, it's important. I was a Christian, came to church now and then, a little bit more often than maybe Christmas and Easter, and was invited by a friend and said, hey, I think you'll kind of like church. It might be a little bit different than you're used to. He came for a few weeks, and then someone told him I play basketball, and this guy was a die-hard what we call gym rat. I mean, he loves the game. And so he comes up after like his third time at church. He goes, hey, how you doing? I said, great. He goes, I hear you play ball. I said, yeah, I do.

I love it. He goes, I do too. I said, what do you want to play sometime? He said, yeah. I said, two o'clock, my driveway today. He goes, really, what's your address?

I gave it to him. He goes, I mean, it is our tradition. I mean, I have three grown boys, a couple key friends. We go three on three, and it's almost to the death. In a good spirit of Christian love, of course. But I mean, it's so great, and it's intense, and we would go for a couple hours, and Dave shows up. And I mean, Dave's a player. And we just, we bonded.

We had a great time, had fun. After, you play, and you're sweaty, and you talk a little bit. And then little by little, Dave started becoming regularly. And then somehow Dave thought, you know, I'm a Christian, but I've never read the Bible. And he starts doing that, and pretty soon his life starts to change.

And fast forward about two, two and a half years. Everybody didn't show up, so Dave and I played like 5,000 games of one-on-one. And then we're exhausted, and he goes, hey, can I talk to you? And we're sitting in the driveway, both in a pool of sweat. And he said, man, something happened weird the other night.

I said, what do you mean? He goes, you know, if we put the kids to bed, and we put on this really, really old movie, and it's a chick flick, and my wife really loved it. And then you know how it is.

They want to watch one of those kind of movies, and they fall asleep. And so I had my arm around her, and she fell asleep. And I had one of those moments that I just looked down at her, and I see her life has changed. My life has changed.

Our Mary's has changed. And I looked down, and I thought, I love her so much. And then this thought came to my mind. She's going to die. It might be today.

It might be tomorrow. She's going to die. And he goes, I mean, it was weird. But my emotions, he goes, man, this was so weird. It was not like just a thought. It was like a doctor handed me.

She has terminal cancer and has 48 hours to live. It was that real. And then my next thought was, how could a good God let that happen to my wife? And then my next thought was, how could you trust a God like that?

That would do that to my wife? And then I realized. He goes, has anything like that ever happened to you? I said, yeah. He said, so what's going on?

I said, Dave, that's called spiritual warfare. He goes, well, what do you do? That's what we're going to talk about. OK? What do you do?

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 doubt 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 showed 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. 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. Dave went from a nominal Christian who intellectually believed in Jesus, who came to a saving faith, who began to get into God's word, found out he had the gift of evangelism, and when he began, he actually started a businessman's group in our community that people would come from, and because of his role and brothers in the community, they had a big role at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, pretty soon God is using his life.

Then his marriage began to change. Then I remember him telling me one day, you know what, I went to church, and when you were a kid, you put a quarter in, and you got to be like in junior high, you put a dollar in, and then when you're an adult, you gave five dollars, and if you had a really good sermon, you maybe give 20. He goes, I'm tithing. He goes, I've got a good job. And he just looked at me like, man, sometimes I look at the number that I write down, I go, dude, are you kidding me? I'm giving that money away? And then he says, and I've never been happier, and it's just lighting me up, and I see what it does, and God keeps giving me more.

I'll let you in. It was about five years later, he came on our staff. I mean, his life was having such an impact, he couldn't squeeze it all in in his day job.

And at this particular window, guess what? The enemy was trying to take him out. Because he was taking aggressive steps in spiritual growth. He was making a real difference. And when that happens, fear and some other things come at him.

And we'll talk about how he responded. Second, when we're invading enemy territory, I remember we would do major outreaches, especially in Santa Cruz, because it was such a pagan town. And it was in the day when musicals were really popular, and we had a very gifted church in that area. We might do eight or nine of these, and thousands of people would come, and hundreds of people would come to Christ. I literally remember at times having three or four appliances break down in one day right before that happens, and my car break down. I mean, you just can't do all that. We'd have just crazy stuff. In one of them, a lady's hair caught on fire, for real.

I mean, it was crazy stuff that was more than just coincidental. 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 in 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. Now, we were involved in a lot of celebrate recovery ministries. When someone's coming off of cocaine or a sex addiction or alcohol or often I would have a couple, and they'd come and love and grow, and then they'd come up and say, you know, we're living together, and God's shown us this really is not his plan, and so we're going to move apart for a season and get some counseling, and we're going to get married. And the moment they did that, I mean, everything could go wrong. There are countless men involved in either porn or affairs, and when they break off the relationship, just the battle, the enemy doesn't give up his own easily. So I don't say this in any way to make anyone fearful.

It's just you need to put your chain strap on. You just need to realize when you take certain steps, there's going to be opposition. And then finally, when God is preparing us individually or corporately for a great work force, for his glory. 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 I had a professor, Norman Geisler, and we built a relationship with him, and I had one friend that he majored in that, and we would try and get him to sort of let us come over for dinner, and we'd ask him questions and stuff. He goes, I'm really getting a lot of opposition in a lot of areas right now.

And then he kind of leaned back and said, I kind of take it as a compliment. You know, I think the invisible world knows a lot more than the visible world, and I figure that if I'm getting this kind of attention right now, there must be some good stuff ready to happen. And I thought, what a great perspective. 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's 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? 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 when taking up the shield of faith, I alluded to this when I was addressing the breastplate of righteousness. And so these are these like two and a half foot shields from about here down to here. They were made of iron.

Then they would have a leather on the outside, linen inside, and a gap like this. Seneca was an ancient writer, and he wrote of one warrior who came in and had actually 200 arrows in his shield. And the Roman armies, they would hook them together, and they just kept moving forward. And so 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 approved by Jesus that we have in the New Testament. Oh, you of little faith. 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? 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. My friend, my friend had a demonic spirit create overwhelming fear that he went in under 30 seconds from thankful for this beautiful wife and his new life to wondering if he could trust a God who was good or not. And it came completely out of the blue, and I mean it shook him up. He was as fearful as I was that night. 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.

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. You study 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. In 1 John chapter 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.

The three areas 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 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 it's lust, 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, well 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 and my time. And what did Jesus say?

It is written, man should 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 the 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. Lust of the eyes is we see something and we all want to look good. I mean everyone, I'm guessing, looked in the mirror today. Psychologists tell us if we walk by a department store and there's glass, every single person when you're walking by, what do you do? You look at yourself. And usually, right?

In elevators, if you get into an elevator by yourself, there's a mirror in the elevator, what do you do? Ooh wow. We are obsessed with how we come off. And it's so interesting because it doesn't matter if you're young, it doesn't matter if you're in a gang, it always is funny to me because we're all human.

You can be in a gang and to be cool, man, I got my bling, I got my stuff here, I get after your own bad self, and I got my hat like this. Or if I'm a worship pastor, I get these skinny jeans and I got holes in them here, I do it here. Or if I'm a member of the Atlanta Country Club, I have these loafers, but I don't wear socks.

And I have an insignia right here. Actually, I used to go to conferences and I'd say, okay, let's name the pastor. Hush puppies, from Wisconsin, probably a Mennonite. You got the guy, hair combed over, khaki pants, blue shirt, one of the Bible Church guys. We all dress and we have our groups, and there's nothing wrong in wanting to look good. But there is something very wrong when we believe that what we need to possess, and how we come off, and that our bodies are who we are, and that what kind of house we have, and what we see, and the desire. It's if and when I have that, or if I earn that. And then the final one is this whole idea of control and power.

The pride of life. I'm a somebody. Christ says you're already a somebody by whom I made you.

You're already a somebody because you're worth the death of my son. And so what I want you to know is that every temptation that will come your way, or my way, and the darts will come, will be around these three things. It's classic methodology. He'll disguise it, he'll cast doubt on God and his word, and your worthiness, and then he will provide an immediate alternative rooted in the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes. 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. My friend has an overwhelming fear that God's going to kill his wife that he logically knows makes no sense.

In that moment, he says to me, what do I do? I said, well, you've been reading the Bible quite a bit. Yeah. Dave, do you know Psalm 84-11?

Nope. Okay, let's get it out. 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. The moment that thought comes in, it's a lie about God's character. On a card I have written, the goodness of God, Psalm 84-11, 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.

All those are rooted in a lie. And the moment your mind starts that way, you stop and you out loud say, the Lord. 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. So he prompts you to make a special gift to someone or to help someone out.

And the first thought is, oh, if you do that, there won't be enough money left for you. And then you quote that out loud. God's a God of abundance. And as you quote that out loud, what you're doing is you're saying, I trust in God's character.

Chip will be back in just a minute with his application. You've been listening to the first part of his message, How to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win, from his series, The Invisible War, What Every Believer Needs to Know About Satan, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare. 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? Through this eight-part study, Chip shares some insights from Ephesians chapter six 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 and fight well. To learn more about the series, visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. Here now is Chip.

Thanks, Dave. Before we go any further, I want to remind you what we're learning in this series. There is a war happening all around us. We have an enemy whose purpose is to destroy us and our connection with God, and you have to know how to fight and to fight back effectively. I want to encourage you to get the small group study, The Invisible War, What Every Christian Needs to Know About Satan, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare.

It'll teach you how Satan attacks, how to put on your armor, and how you already have the victory, but you have to possess it. You know, we're in a battle, in my experience, over and over as a pastor. It's sitting around a table or in a living room with a group of people where you share, you pray, you share insights about what you're learning and where you're struggling, and you come together and put this into practice.

That's where real growth occurs. Let me encourage you. Don't just read the book or listen to the message. Get the small group, dig in, and say, Lord, you have given us the victory.

Would you now show us how to live it out day by 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.

App listeners tap special offers. With that, let's join Chip again as he shares a few final comments for us to think about. 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 you're 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, but 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. Thanks, Chip. And you'll find the message notes he just mentioned in a couple of places, either by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org and clicking the Broadcasts tab, or by tapping Fill In Notes on the Chip Ingram app. These notes contain an easy-to-follow outline, the scripture Chip references, and fill-ins to help you remember what you hear. Download them before you listen again at LivingOnTheEdge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. We'll listen next time as Chip continues our series, The Invisible War. Until then, I'm Dave Druey, saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.