Armor Of God: The Sword Of The Spirit

"...and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."  ~Eph. 6:17

After several posts about the "defense" in our armor of God, now we shall look at our main source of offense, The Word of God.

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ~Hebrews 4:12

This being the last post in this series, I feel this one is important as we get to back to school time.  This is a time, especially for Christian in the education system where there is a massive increase in pressure, trials, and temptations

Wielding the Sword

So the question is worth asking, how do we use the Word?

The best way to illustrate this was during the temptation of Jesus in the desert,

"The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” ~Luke 4:3-4

We see Jesus trusted in the promises of the Word of God.  He showed and remembered how God promised to provide, so the temptation is not worth giving into.  Satan tried to tempt the patience of Jesus, and we see His trust in the Fathers provision.

Then we see Jesus acted on the commands of the Word:

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

Just simply obeying His command, even though the offer of sin is greater, is great growth for a Christian.  Once again, Satan tempts Jesus' patience to be glorified at the right hand of the Father, and once again, we see how Jesus uses the Word to spur up affection for the Father.  "He is greater then anything this temptation has to offer."  Through the Word, the Spirit gives perspective.

The Armor Of God: Fitted Feet

"and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." ~Ephesians 6:15

As I write this, I begin to prepare my heart to take the Gospel to the streets. A team will be down at a weekly local downtown festival in Owensboro to pass out tracts and engage in conversation. Our team would appreciate our prayers, that God would give us boldness and open the hearts of those we talk see and grant salvation to even just on tonight.

God calls us to "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15)

What comes to my mind when I think of "fitted feet"? Well, one sermon I had just recently heard talked about the prophet Isaiah, and what he said I think fits with this well.

I think the best way to keep our "feet fitted with readiness" is to never turn our phone off. What do I mean by that? Well, always be ready to be faithful to God's mission and purpose, no matter when, where or how it comes about.

How then does this connect to Isaiah? While most preachers will preach out of Isaiah 6, most won't finish it.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? ”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ~Isaiah 6:8

But, look at what the Lord is sending Isaiah to preach:

He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused;make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
~Isaiah 6:9-10

He is saying, "Go preach to a people who will not listen to you and do it because you love me and wish to be faithful." Will we be ready to be faithful to God's mission even if it means going to a hostile, hardened people? God calls us to plant and water seeds, but its God who grows the seed of salvation. (1 Cor. 3:6)

God Bless!

The Armor Of God: The Breastplate of Righteousness

"...with the breastplate of righteousness in place..." ~Ephesians 6:14

We come to the heart of our protection, the breastplate. This plate is meant to protect our heart, in the most spiritual sense. What is the cause of most heart break and disappointment in the Christian life? Forgetting our identity in Christian. We can easily forget that our righteousness and identity is not in what others think about us, or what our current situation looks like, but in who Christ was, is and will always be through the Cross.

Your relationships, or lack thereof, do not define you. You're broken family does not define your identity if you are a Child of God.

The Gospel defines you. The moment you were regenerated, repented of your sins and put your Trust in Christ, you became an adopted, chosen, loved, Child of the Creator God of the universe, our Father through Christ on the Cross.

So, let's put righteousness in it's place, the center of our thoughts, hearts and minds, so we may wages war against discouragement and the devils schemes.

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. " ~2 Cor. 5:21

The Armor Of God: The Belt Of Truth.

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist..." ~ Ephesians 6:14

Paul, here, where the battle with the devil and against sin begins. Do we hold firm to the Truth? Well, first we know what the Truth is.

Christ is Truth. (John 14:6)

The Word is Truth (John 17:17)

The Gospel is Truth. (Titus 3:3-8)

The moment we begin to forget who we as born-again Christians, are to God through the Gospel, there is noway we can walk in the victory that is promised to us. Just like once we forget that the Word is Truth and defines the world around us, and our view of it, ultimately we become a foolish builder (Matthew 7:24-27).

Think about it, the belt holds everything up, without it, we will, as the infamous song puts it, be "lookin' like a fool with out pants on the ground".

Don't look like a fool. Remember, that in a Christ we have every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3) but we have chosen, loved,(Eph. 1:4) adopted (1:5), redeemed (1:6), and given God Himself through the Holy Spirit as a "deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (1:14). These are just some of the glorious gifts given to us through the gift of Grace.

Also lets not forget that apart from Him we are dead (2:1), disobedient (2:2), objects of wrath (2:3), darkened in our understanding and without hope (Eph. 4:17-19).

Don't be a fool. Love the Truth, preach it too yourself, continue in it, buckle it to your side and stand firm in it. There is a battle between us and sin, are you ready to fight?

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ~John 8:32

The Armor Of God

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. ~Ephesains 6:12-13

Paul comtinues in Ephesians to explain the "why" behind the armor of God.

He explains that "our struggle (refering to our temptations, seens in 'schemes of the devil' in verse 11) is not against flesh and blood" but against something far greater.

We battle against the authorities of the evils realm, the rules and against the powers. Now, think, who are you?

This reminds me of the account in Acts 19, where several people tryed to take on these powers alone.

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. ~Acts 19:13-16

I think sometimes when we try to overpower these forces on our own they begin to ask the same question, "Who are YOU?" Who are too beat these forces on our own? We need He who overcomes, Jesus Christ. We need to as, Ephesains 6:13 says, "put on the armor of God" and why? So we "may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

Not only so we can stand our ground in battle, but stand even we've doen everything we can do. This is essential in our battle against the kingdom of darkness, and in our struggle for holiness.

Next post we will begin to look at each piece of the "armor of God". God Bless!

The Armor Of God.

As Paul is composing the end of his letter to the Ephesians, he begins to write about the unity in the body of the Christ (4:1-16), living a holy, Christ-imitating life (4:17-5:21) then goes on to apply the Truths of the Gospel to marriage (5:22-33), parenting, (6:1-4), and servitude (6:5-6:9) and finally he writes about those facing temptations from Satan. God has really used this passage in my life recently in regards to my fight with sin, so I thought we’d walk through what Paul has to say about the “Armor of God”. Let us begin today with verses 10 & 11.

”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. “

When we see a word like “finally” in the Bible (much like therefore and many other phrases) we need to consider the context. We see the importance of the words to following because of how general the statement is. In the passages before he refers to wives (5:22), husbands (5:25), children (6:1), fathers, (6:4), slaves (6:5) and masters (5:9), but this “finally seems to have a unifying effect as he gives the command “be strong in the Lord and his mighty power.”

He is making statement about the power of those receiving his letter. It doesn’t say, “be mighty in your power!” or “You can do it guys! I believe in you!” This seems to carry a much different effect. He is saying, “Guys, you can’t do this on your own, don’t even try.” Much like Jesus statements through out the Gospel, but especially in John 15 where He says, “Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Then Paul gives the command, “Put on the full armor of God,so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. “

Paul seems to carry with him two reasons why this command is given.

1) So they can be “strong in the Lord”

2) So they can “take there stand against the devil’s schemes.”

How much more is this important for the Christian of today? Don’t realize that Satan seeks to destroy you (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8)? We need to be on alert.

The only question left too ask is, “Are you ready for Battle?”

Most of the Church is too caught up in the world to worry about the war, which is just where the enemy wants them, in a comfortable Christianity that makes no advance in the kingdom of God and makes no assault on the kingdom of Darkness.

Over several posts, we will look at what Paul supscribes in the Armor of God to help us fight Satan, our temptations, and to kill personal sin in our lives.