If there is one time period that I could go back to, it would have to be the medieval ages. Knights in shining armor, Prince and Princesses, Sword battles and the plague…you know good stuff. I am obsess with the medieval ages, but primarily there way of fighting. Today I think that guns are a lovely way of cheating, with a sword you need talent and skills. That’s right, not everyone could have been a soldier. With sword fighting you survived on your skills and strength, not your ability to pull a trigger. But why I’m so fascinated in this is because of Ephesians 6: 10-20:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
Long passage right! But it packs so much information that we need to understand. First thing to understand is that we are currently in a spiritual war. Demons are walking all around us trying to corrupt us from the beauty of God. Why are they demons instead of the devil coming at us? Because the devil is not God, he is not omnipresent. Some people tell me that the devil and God are like brothers just one is evil and the other good. This isn’t the ying-yang, there is only one mighty power and that is God. Remember the devil (Lucifer, Satan) used to be an angel of God, thus meaning that Satan and God are NOT the same.
So the spiritual war is all around us. Although if you believe and have faith in Jesus Christ you are promised eternal life, we are still engaging in this war. Why? Because Satan doesn’t want us to have faith in God. Think about it, the more faith that you have, the harder (it seems) your struggles are. We are constantly under assault, from Satan and the temptations of this world. As a Christian we are constantly struggling against more than one force, the forces of the world, the forces of temptations through the devil and his demons and sometimes even with ourselves. Verse 12 (for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms) this war isn’t a normal war, nothing in the spiritual mindset is ever ‘normal.’ The devil doesn't want our bodies; he wants our hearts, the same thing God is trying to protect and without the proper armor, were toast.
But fret not! Paul continues to write in the passage above about ways we can to stand firm. He talks about armor that will help us in the war. First he gives us encouragement to stand firm and on our ground and when you have done everything else, just to stand. Next Paul explains about we can protect ourselves. Alright people…let’s dress for war!
The Belt of Truth: Sometimes I wish the truth was more spectacular than a belt. You know what a belt’s function is? To hold your pants up! Not something you would really associate with truth. Okay let’s think about this deeper. Satan is always feeding us lies, some of them sound like truth. Often we buy into the lies that he sells to us. With the Belt of Truth wrapped tightly around us, we are able to see God’s truth. Belts securely wrap our pants around our waists, making sure that they won’t fall. The Belt of Truth wraps securely around our waists making sure that we only fix our eyes on God’s truth.
The Breastplate of Righteousness: Question! What is (spiritually) the most important organ in your body? If you said the heart you are correct! The function of a breastplate is to protect the precious organs, the lungs, liver, and kidneys but the most important organ its protecting is the heart. The heart is what both sides want. God wants to protect it, live within us, and love us and the heart, you could say, is where he sets up his headquarters. Satan wants to contaminate your heart, fill it with hatred, emptiness and fear. I bet you once Satan has your heart he’ll throw it to the curb and go looking for another heart to corrupt. The Righteous heart is filled with self value, respect and love that come from God. The breastplate protects our most valued treasure.
The Footgear of Peace: Okay let me just say, I didn’t make up these names. Footgear, you know, shoes, sandals even flip-flops. I think it has to do more along the lines of walking. If we walk without shoes our feet could get scared and ruined, shoes protect us. Shoes are one of the last things that we put on when getting ready for the day. We are getting ready but we are not fully ready until our feet are protected. Our feet push us forward; they carry a load from one place to another…To one country to another. Peace can also be the Good News that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. Some would say that people don’t want to hear it, that it’s useless to try but people try anyways. The people that do have the right footgear on. Satan will tell us everything he can to make sure that no one hears the Good News. Our feet motivate us to continue to move forward and share the Peace that everyone needs to hear.
Shield of Faith: Paul said that the shield will protect us for the flaming arrows of the Devil. The arrows could be insults, temptations and any kind of setback. The shield is the only true defense that we have before the arrows get to the rest of the armor. So far each piece has only protected one part of the person, but a shield can protect all of us. However, I do believe that some shields can be weaker than others. Those who have little faith in God will most likely have smaller, weaker shields. Those who faith completely upon the Lord will have stronger, much larger shields. It all depends on your own faith with your heavenly father. You can even say, if you have no faith in God then you don't have a shield. When we stand with unshakable faith, nothing is impossible because God said through him all things are possible. We are fighting a war where Christians are target because we have the truth, our faith is our main defense and our strong hold. I pray my brothers and sisters that you stand strongly rooted in the faith towards God.
The Helmet of Salvation: Commonly people ask themselves, “Am I Good enough to go to heaven?” While the real question should be, “Do I have salvation in the Lord?”Salvation is the understanding that you are going to heaven because you have committed your life to God and you have been washed clean by Jesus’ blood. The Helmet of Salvation protects our ears from hearing the doubt that Satan tries to feed us. That we are not worthy, that we are not going to heaven. HECK! Even things from this world can have that negative effect on us! Music that has degrading lyrics, media telling us that we aren’t being who we are made to be unless we have *fill in the blank* the helmet provides protection again such lies and helps us understand that we are worthy. From one of my favorite comedians Brad Stine said, “When the creator of matter [God] tells you that you matter, then you will have purpose.” God gives you a wonderful meaning to your life. The helmet of salvation helps us remember what he traded for our lives. He gave his son so that we might find life in him. That, my friends, is something worth protecting.
The Sword of the Spirit: The bible! YAH!! We have two weapons that we can use against the evil one, prayer and scripture. The sword is our only physical weapon against these attacks, and it’s the only physical weapon we need. Even Jesus used scripture from the Old Testament to cast away the devil when he was being tempted in the desert. In the bible, God fills its pages with promises of life and joy with him until the end of time. That, right there can turn into a powerful weapon. God’s promises are the offence against anything that Satan can promise us. But it all ties together. We have to believe in the bible (God’s promises) to have strong faith, through faith we find out that through God we have Salvation, through Salvation comes Righteousness, Righteousness comes Truth and with Truth we spread it to all nations of the world. Weird how things would out like that. J
Although the sword is the only weapon listed, there is something else we can do. Pray. Paul said to pray on all occasions. Prayer works in several ways. It keeps a strong communicating relationship with God, it helps us get rid of emotions such as fear, worry and doubt, it can relax the heart and the body and it can even help us find strength and courage we never knew we had. But prayer can also help us fight in this spiritual war. With prayer we can tell Satan to leave us alone, ask God to help us fight back, and sometimes when we trust and pray hard enough hearts can be changed and people are protected. Jesus said in the book of Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Prayer is a powerful thing my friends. The armor is only as strong as your relationship with God is, remember that we are in a spiritual war, and like any war it should be taken seriously. I pray that you all find the strength to stand and fight against the attacks from the evil one and remember that even though we fight in a war, the victory is already ours.
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