The Secret to Having an Extraordinary Life

By Chip Ingram

Most of us spend much of our life telling ourselves, “I can’t do that because I’m not smart enough,” or “I don’t have the training,” or “I’m not bold enough” or “I’m not courageous enough,” or “I don’t know the Bible well enough…” The list goes on and on.

What we tend to forget is that God specializes in using ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Why? So that when the extraordinary happens, they realize it’s not them but God.

The pages of Scripture are filled with ordinary people. There were fishermen, prostitutes, the uneducated, the rejected, and people with marred backgrounds. God used all of these types of people in extraordinary ways.

And He wants to use you too.  

Perhaps now you’re wondering, “C’mon, Chip. How is this even possible? God uses people that are special in some way, right? How can He use me?”

For God to use you in extraordinary ways, He requires that one, simple, profound thing happens in your life. And it’s not dependent on your intelligence, your education, your giftedness, your background, your wealth, or your personality.

This one thing is available to every believer of every age without partiality.

This one thing can transform the most mundane and ordinary person of our world into a person who transforms and shapes history.

What is this one thing?

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Faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Without faith in God, life has no lasting impact. And without faith, we aren’t able to bring joy to the Father. God commands it, rewards it, and He takes pleasure in it.

In fact, the only time Jesus rebuked His disciples was when they failed to exercise faith.

What is faith? Faith is believing God. Not just intellectually, but also believing in who He is and what He wants to do.

I confess, I’ve had days and weeks in my life as a pastor that I wasn’t living by faith. I’d read my Bible and I’d pray, “Help me, God. Take care of this, take care of that.” But I was still trying to manage my stressors out of my own strength.

I was trying to live the Christian life not by faith, but by my own abilities. I wasn’t acting on and believing in what God has said or in the reality of who He is.

How do you get faith?

It starts with reading God’s word. Romans 10:17 says: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

It is absolutely impossible to live a life of faith unless your mind and your heart are literally soaked in Scripture. You need to soak your brain in truth and be so filled with God’s Word and understanding of the truth that when you watch CNN, ESPN, and read the paper, you will watch and read these things through a biblical lens. How you live your life, make decisions, and spend your time will be shaped by God’s truth.

It’s our job to build our faith, but it first must be birthed out of the truth of Scripture.

For more information on this topic, check out Chip’s audio series, Holy Ambition

Written By

Chip Ingram

Founder & Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram is the CEO and teaching pastor of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry. A pastor for over thirty years, Chip has a unique ability to communicate truth and challenge people to live out their faith. He is the author of many books, including The Real God, Culture Shock and The Real Heaven. Chip and his wife, Theresa, have four grown children and twelve grandchildren and live in California.

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