Wherefore take unto you the whole
armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all to stand.
Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
And your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints.
Ephesians 6 verses 14 – 18
In Ephesians 6 verses 10 and 11 Paul said “be
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of
God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” This is not suggested – it is a command! To “stand against” literally means to stand
in front of and in opposition to the forces and plans of evil. It means to be the one standing after the
battle. It also means to stand in
preparation for the next battle.
Standing against the wiles of the devil certainly doesn’t mean do nothing. If we are to do nothing until He comes, why
do we need to wrestle against the enemy?
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Why does Jesus give us spiritual weapons to withstand evil forces if he
doesn’t want us to use them? We war not
against people but against a spiritual hierarchy of invisible power. The forces of evil are invisible powers with
a structure and specific levels of authority.
We are not only to use our armour to protect and defend ourselves from
them but also to go on the offensive against them as well. When we do that, we close doors to the enemy and
open doors to the will of God to be done on earth. We advance God’s kingdom. Every soldier knows exactly when the time is
right to put on his protective battle gear.
Prayer warriors need to put on the armour of God every day because the
war is always going on. New battles
continually need to be fought so that evil will be driven back, the kingdom of
God advanced and the will of God be done.
Our spiritual armour not only protects us from the enemy, it also gives
us what we need in order to push against him.
We must first identify what the
armour is. Paul talked about how to
identify and battle the forces of evil using the Roman soldiers as his model. They were by far the most powerful army of
that time, and he relates the pieces of armour they had with what God has given
us in the spirit realm.
-
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with
truth
-
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness
-
Having shod your feet with the preparation of
the gospel of peace
-
Above all, taking the shield of faith with
which, you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one
-
And take the helmet of salvation
-
And the sword of the Spirit which is the word of
God
-
Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit
-
Being watchful to this end with all perseverance
and supplication for all the saints
The enemy is still there – he is
a defeated enemy but he is still waging the war. We must have the whole armour of God
protecting us at all times so we can stand successfully against the enemy’s
plans for not only our life, but also the lives of others.
GIRD YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH –
verse 14
Roman soldiers girded their waist
with something similar to what a weight lifter wears to give him strength and
support so he won’t hurt the core of his body.
It enabled the soldiers to stand stronger against their enemy. We too must tightly surround ourselves with
truth and not allow for anything other than the truth to enter into our
thinking or situation. It means asking
God to keep us undeceived so that we never allow deception to take root. Knowing the truth liberates us from all
possibility of deception and illuminates any darkness in our lives. This doesn’t mean just know about the
truth. It means know it so that it
becomes part of you and you live it. And
it is not just any truth that sets you free.
It is God’s truth. When we wrap
God’s truth around us, it protects us by strengthening our core being. The enemy uses lies to confuse people and
fill them with anxiety and fear. The
enemy’s lies completely mess up our thinking and weaken us if we believe
them. Every day we must combat his lies with
God’s truth.
PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS – verse 14
A Roman soldier’s metal
breastplate covered his chest and kept him from being fatally wounded in the
heart. Jesus’ perfect righteousness is
what covers our heart and that is what God sees when he looks at us. But we still have to put on righteousness
like a soldier puts on a bulletproof vest.
That means we must choose to live God’s way. We cannot be protected if we deliberately
walk outside the ways and will of God.
Our decision every day must be to live a righteous life – not in our own
strength, but by the enablement of the Holy Spirit in us. We must acknowledge that we depend on God and
choose to live our life for Him. Even
though we are a new creation, we still must decide to live like we are. When we make that choice every day to live in
a righteous manner, our life is covered and our heart is protected. Our breastplate of righteousness is the
righteousness of Jesus in us. It
protects our heart from any mortal wounds and assures us that the enemy can
never destroy us because of sin. Every
day say, “Lord show me anything in me that is not right in your eyes so I can
confess it before you, because I choose to live your way.”
SHOE YOUR FEET WITH THE
PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE – verse 15
The Roman soldier has special
shoes or boots for protecting their feet.
They were strong military shoes studded on the bottom of the soles in a
way similar to cleats. Properly shod
feet can stand strong against the enemy and keep from slipping. As a prayer warrior we need to have the
foundation we walk in to be solid and protective. Having peace with God and
peace in God is an unshakable foundation from which we can defend ourselves and
stay standing strong. The word
“preparation” means that the gospel of peace has already been
accomplished. It is already prepared for
you! You just have to walk in it. God has peace for us that is beyond our
comprehension. It is not that we can’t
imagine having peace; it’s just that we can’t imagine having that kind of peace
in the midst of the things we experience here on earth. The enemy wants to steal our peace and keep
us stirred up, anxious, fearful, upset and always in a stance of waiting for
something terrible to happen at any minute.
The enemy wants us unable to forget he terrible things that occurred in
the past and instead remember them as though they happened yesterday. God has healing for upsetting memories. It’s not that he gives us amnesia. We still remember that it happened, but not
incessantly and not with the same pain and torture. Jesus made it possible for us to have the
peace that passes all understanding – the kind that carries us, stabilizes us,
grounds us, and keeps us from slipping.
TAKE THE SHIELD OF FAITH –
verse 16
In Roman times, the weapons used
were arrows and swords. The soldiers
sometimes shot flaming arrows and darts over protective walls to set people and
their dwelling places on fire. In the
same way, the enemy shoots spiritual arrows and darts at us designed to piece
our heart with discouragement and make us fearful, anxious, uncertain or
incapacitated. The shield we have
against these arrows of the enemy is our faith and it is a powerful protection
from all that. We all have faith in
something or someone. When we put our
faith in God and his son we start out having small faith, but our faith grows
stronger as we read the word and spend time with God in prayer. God’s word says that it is our faith in God
and his faithfulness to us that becomes a shield for us. When we put our faith in God and his word, he
is our shield and defense. We can still
depend on the faithfulness of God to cover us and increase our faith as we hide
ourselves in him. When the enemy comes
to test your allegiance to the Lord, focus on God, his word and his
faithfulness to do what he says. Faith
dissolves fear and makes us courageous.
Faith opens up unlimited possibilities.
Our faith must grow strong enough to believe for the impossible because
we believe in the God of the impossible, and with him all things are possible.
TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION –
verse 17
The helmet protects a soldier’s
head. Our spiritual helmet protects our
head too. What do we need protection
from? The lies of the enemy of course.
The enemy wants to keep you from understanding – and living in – all
that salvation means for you. He wants
you blinded to everything Jesus died for you to have. He wants you convinced that you are
worthless, rejected, weak, bad, unimportant, hopeless and unlovable. Or if he can’t get you to think that way, he
tempts you to go in the opposite direction and be full of pride. Either way you fall. The devil wants to fill our minds with
feelings of guilt, helplessness and misery.
He doesn’t want us to understand all that Jesus did for us on the cross
because he knows when we put on that helmet of salvation and are transformed
through the renewing of our mind, we will be able to see ourselves as God sees
us – someone worth dying for. You are
the adopted son or daughter of God, who is the Creator of all and King of the
universe. This means you are royalty. Jesus sacrificed his life for you to wear the
helmet of salvation which is like a crown on your head distinguishing you as
regal. We put on the helmet of salvation
the moment we receive the Lord, but we must constantly remember what Jesus
saved us for and from and who we are in him.
TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT,
WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD – verse 17
Satan tried to destroy Jesus when
he was born by inspiring wicked King Herod to kill all the babies in
Bethlehem. 30 years later when Jesus was
baptized and led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Satan attacked him
again. Jesus’ weapon against him was
God’s word – which is the “sword of the Spirit.” No spiritual battle can be fought and won
without our greatest weapon – the Word of God.
God’s word was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is God breathed. Each writer of the bible was moved by the
Spirit as his gifts and intellect were used by God to speak to them and through
them. The word of God is so powerful
that is a double-edged sword in our hands.
That means it is a defensive as well as offensive weapon. As prayer warriors we need both. Once you receive the Lord, the Holy Spirit in
you brings the word alive to your mind, soul and spirit every time you read
it. The Bible is alive. It is living and it has power for today. Every time you read God’s word it will become
more firmly planted in your mind and heart.
From there it will protect you from attacks of the enemy. Put on the word like a protective garment
every morning. Speak the word, pray the
word, live the word, and let it live in you so it becomes part of your armour.
God wants us to be persistent in
our praying. That’s what it means to
pray without ceasing. It is not
intermittent start-and-stop-whenever-I-am-desperate kind of praying. It is deliberate. It is with knowledge of what we are doing and
why. It is not random
throw-it-up-and-see-if-sticks kind of praying.
It’s praying always, with every kind of prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, which means it is Holy Spirit ignited.
It is important to pray according
to the will of God. The way to do that
is to pray with the Word of God woven into our heart and our prayers. And it is to pray with the leading of the
Spirit. Jesus said keep asking and keep
praying.
When a soldier is on active duty,
he sleeps in his battle gear. He stays
dressed in case of a surprise attack. We
do the same. We don’t take our armour
off when we go to bed at night. It is
protecting us while we sleep. But in the
morning we need to put it on fresh and new – polished, so to speak – so that we
have maximum protection for the day.
Part of our protective armour is
our own praying. There is a blessing for
us when we are praying. Great rewards
are given to us when we pray in response to the call of God on our lives. The now-and-then praying doesn’t do
that. It is the everyday, consistent
praying that seems to build up rewards for us in a holy bank in heaven. We keep making deposits and when we need to
make a big withdrawal on earth, we have enough to cover it. Our prayers are not answered as a way of
rewarding us for good behaviour. Our
obedience to God is evidence that we are in alignment with his will. The most important thing is not to get wheat
we want in prayer, but to accomplish what God wants. We delight ourselves in him first. We make him our priority and our greatest
desire is to please him.
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