Sep. 12, 2014
Dress for success
A
couple of days ago when looking at prayer and spiritual warfare we looked at Ephesians 6:10-18. Today we will look again at this passage to see more of what it offers for our life.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having
put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18]With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance
and petition for all the saints,
Not everything we go
through or every challenge we face is rooted in a spiritual attack. Some things are natural consequences to our own actions or decisions, some things are consequences of other peoples decisions or actions and some things, like illness and disease, are
truly hard to explain or understand why they are allowed to touch us. But, regardless of the circumstance we are in our battle is not against flesh and blood. Even if a particular person or group of people seem to be responsible for all that is going wrong
in order to be victorious we must not battle with flesh and blood but with the spiritual root that empowers the negative situation we are in.
Paul
tells us that in order to engage this enemy we must dress for success. We need to put on the armor of God. Let's take a look at how these items protect us. vs 14 says stand firm therefore having girded your loins with truth. Some translations will say to put
on the belt of truth. The image Paul is developing here is of a Roman soldier. It is significant that Paul begins here in his instruction for putting on this armor of protection. The belt that the soldier wore protected both the midsection as well
as below the waist. If you've ever been hit or kicked there you know how it feels and that it causes you to double over and look down. This is often the devils first plan of attack. He hits you with a lie or an accusation that causes you to lower your countenance.
When you look down you can't see God, nor do you have the proper vision to see the additional attacks coming your way. The truth that we protect ourselves with is the truth of God's word. We need to know what God has said about us as His people collectively and
to us individually as His child. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Next, we put on the breastplate
of righteousness. The breastplate protects our heart. It is important to remember that it is only Christ's righteousness that has any value. Our righteousness is as filthy rags(Isaiah 64:6). A rag won't do much to protect us in battle. Understanding
it is Christ's righteousness we cover ourselves with protects our hearts from pride, which is another one of the devils primary weapons against us.
Then
we shod our feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Gospel means good news and the good news for us is that as we stand and walk through our daily battles it is God who will fight for us. Romans 16:20 Says " the God of peace will soon
crush satan under your feet. That works for me, thank you Lord, may it be.
We take up the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows
of the enemy. While the belt and breastplate are to primarily protect against close contact warfare as we struggle or wrestle as some translations would say. This shield of faith helps to protect us even from the longer range attacks that come from an unseen
foe. Faith will sustain us even against those things that are unexplainable and of unknown origin. We need to remember that it is not the amount or size of our faith that is important. Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 ...if you have faith the size of a mustard
seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. So it is not the size of our faith but rather the object of our faith that is important. Remember when Peter walked on water he was okay
as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, the object of his faith. So faith in Jesus will shield us from the long range attacks of the devil. Just as a soldier needs to raise up the shield at times to ward off the coming blow, we need to raise up our
faith by looking into the face of God.
The final defensive or protective thing we need to put on each day is the helmet of salvation. Just
as truth protects our midsection from the first attack, the helmet of salvation is our final line of defense. We have the confidence to know that even if we would lose our life, through Christ and His gift of salvation we have the assurance of eternal life
with Him. We can battle without fear knowing we can't lose, our mind protected by the promise of eteral life in Christ.
Having
prepared ourselves for battle we then take up the one offensive weapon listed in this passage, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We need nothing else to defeat the enemy. The word of God contains every promise and all the power and authority
we need. Revelation 12:11 says " 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. " We
to overcome by the blood of the lamb, the finished work of the cross, and the word of our testimony. Our testimony is declaring God's word and God's promises. The enemy can not stand against the truth of God's word. Jesus, the word became flesh (John 1:14),
has ... spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them... . (Colossians 2:15)
As you begin each day remember the need to dress for success.
Lord we thank you for the armor you have
provided. We put it on to fight the battle this day knowing that it is you who will do the fighting if we will stand firm.
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