The Invisible War - Spiritual Warfare 301: How to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win, Part 2

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. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry motivating Christians to live like Christians. Well in just a minute we'll share the second half of Chip's message, how to do battle with the enemy and win. And to help you get the most out of this program, let me encourage you to download Chip's message notes. They contain his outline, scripture references, and much more. Get them by going to the broadcasts tab at Living on the Edge.

App listeners tap fill in notes. Well with that let's continue our series, The Invisible War, based in the book of Ephesians chapter six. We talked about the worthiness of it and fighting and struggling and fighting and struggling. We had an old, old man with white hair in his late 80s. Godly, godly man. He would pray every Saturday night with me. Before I could figure out what was going on I would go back with him. We'd pray together like there would be an opening and great.

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 a man. And then I would just quote scripture.

It's a dart, it would just be like, put up the shield, put up the shield, 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.

She'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 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 gonna believe that. Here's what you gotta 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 gonna be a meeting and maybe you dress up a little bit nicer.

You know, I've had guys tell me, I started looking forward to going to work and which meetings about who's gonna be in the room and I kind of have a connection and things were kind of bad at home, that 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 a 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's 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? And 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 gonna 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 resign 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 said, I'm gonna 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 gonna get up? I said, no, maybe tomorrow. Anybody have this problem?

No, 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 wanna 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 seems 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 gonna 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, I jogged the baseball practice and it was just like hey, 60 days, I'm just gonna say hey Bob, how you coming on your verses? Ah.

Ah. You know, I've been looking those over myself and I'm gonna 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 gonna 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 girls' dorm in the four floors, and they would all walk by, 7.5, six, nine, I mean, it was terrible. I'm just, okay, sorry guys. Forget guys, you've all done this.

Sorry, ladies. I mean, and I started and then I realized, wait a second, I don't wanna 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 gotta own it. And then the second look of the, 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, and the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father's not him. And all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful right of life, is not from the Father. And all that is in the world is passing away, but then it does the will of God who bites forever. You know, and they'd go around another door, oh, here we go, love not the world, you know? And I didn't know it, I was doing spiritual warfare.

You know what happened? I got a clean mind. I'm not gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna trust you. The flip of the cord 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 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. 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 word is truth. Colossians three, set your mind on the things that are above not on the things that are on earth where Christ is. Romans eight, five to eight. 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 two, 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, I'm okay there. Now I go critical. Now when I was younger, I would say it. 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.

So 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 to, 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 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, you know, the whole Rastafarian hair, and had the sort of the beanie type thing that went to the side, and weird dude. And then when we, 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, eh, you know, whatever. And so I get done preaching, and when I get done preaching, I would always come down 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 caught 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, 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 gonna 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. 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, the word was God, 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, one to 11.

How can a young man keep his way cured? 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 into my path, a lamp into my feet and a light into my path.

The sword of the spirit is both an offense and a defensive weapon. And so you're probably thinking, so are you gonna 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 on 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, like, 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 believe. 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 know, 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 gonna 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. I mean, 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 know, 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 gonna 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 Thirwey 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 handling him. And he's, blah, blah, and so pretty soon there's a crowd, and I'm just like everyone else. I just join the crowd. I wanna see what's gonna happen. You know, like, ooh, you know what's gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna happen? And the door opens, and 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 four foot 11, maybe, police officer, a woman, a woman, and I'm thinking, oh my, this is gonna 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, and I'm thinking, I wonder what's gonna happen? And she walks up like this, sir, excuse me!

They all get detention, 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 the 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, and you know, just like on TV, you know, 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 that somehow you think this is a bunch of weird stuff for 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. Chip will be right back with his application for this 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. 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 US 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.

Thanks, Chip. If joining the Living on the Edge team is an idea that makes sense to you, we'd love to have you partner with us. Your support multiplies our efforts and resources in ways only God can do.

So if you'd like to be a part of that, let me encourage you to become a monthly partner. You can easily set up a recurring donation at livingontheedge.org or through the Chip Ingram app. Or if it's easier, text donate to 74141. That's the word donate to 74141.

Well, with that, let's get to Chip's application for this message. In today's program, I told a story of a four foot 11 police officer I believe is a 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 gonna go out and start trying to use a weapon that you haven't been trained in, that you're gonna say, I've got this authority, but 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 and true and based on what we really believe. I'm very concerned for God's people and I want you to study it for yourself, dig in, and I think the most effective way to do that is in a small group. Great advice, Chip. So to learn more about these insightful tools, visit livingontheedge.org. Join Chip as he uncovers the biblical weapons and armor we've been given to withstand Satan's attacks and stand victorious over him. Place your order for any of our invisible war small group resources by visiting livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap special offers. Well, for Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. We'll see you next time.