Put on the Armor of God

Under God’s Protective Armor (Part 3)

Satan blinds the mind of an unbeliever (2 Cor. 4:3, 4). But even as we become a born-again Christian Satan still looks for an opportune time to tempt us (Luke 4:13). We as Christians need to be fully aware of the spiritual principalities and powers of this dark realm that wait for opportune times to advance their cause but not as those who live in fear but rather as those who are vigilant, living under the protection of truth and righteousness. The devil can be resisted since God has provided all the necessary resources for battle. Putting on the armor is putting on the light of Christ (Rom 13:12-14). In essence we put on the robe of Christ which replaces our flesh. The Gospel of John reminds us the prince of this world has no hold on Christ (John 14:30), so when we put on Christ, we are protected and Satan cannot touch us (1 John 5:18). O’Brien comments that Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16 speaks, ‘that you may be strengthened with the power of the Holy Spirit’, indicates believers do not empower themselves but rather are empowered with strength from an external source, the Lord Jesus. He is the person with whom believers have been brought into union with (cf. 2:21; 4:1, 17; 5:8; 6:1, 21). The fact also remains that Christ has been raised up and positioned at the right hand of God where He rules over every power and authority (Col. 2:10). As believers we have been marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13). This is our true position in Christ, this is our protection; this is our seal!

The Belt, Breastplate, and Shoes

Only after being enveloped by Christ in reception are we then commanded to put on the full armor of God to be able to stand firm. It is because of God’s victory in His Son that believers are in the battle at all.

Receiving Christ unites us with the truth, as Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). With the belt of truth we can discern Satan’s deceptions by comparing his invoking thoughts with the Word of God. Jesus prayed for his disciples safety from the evil one (John 17:15) by being sanctified in the truth; Thy Word is truth (John 17:17).

Receiving Christ covers us with His righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). As Satan is the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10) it is important we have the breastplate of righteousness to combat his lies and continual accusations. We cannot forget that although we have received Christ, sinning is still going to occur. We still have physical fleshy bodies and therefore sins in the flesh will happen. Although the new Spirit within us does not want to sin, the existing nature of our flesh does. God tells us if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus (1 John 2:1). Learning to confess our sins when we are immediately convicted of them restores our righteousness with God.

Receiving Christ unites you with His peace for He is the Prince of Peace: this establishes your new position in Christ (Rom. 5:1). Paul also informs us that we need to press on “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). After we have been clothed in Christ we are then commanded to put on the ‘full’ armor of God.

The Shield, Helmet, and Sword

Faith is established by God and His Word. Faith within the believer increases as knowledge about God increases. Faith comes by hearing the message (Rom 10:17). We deflect the lies and accusations of Satan with the shield of faith. To take up the shield is to trust in the promises of God alone for protection.

Satan will constantly try to deceive you by placing evil thoughts in your mind. He will challenge your faith by trying to get you to question your position in Christ. In 1 John we have complete confirmation as believers in Jesus that we have eternal life (1 John 5:13). As the serpent attacked Eve in the garden, filling her mind with doubt by questioning her about what she knew to be true, he continues to try on believers today. The helmet of salvation protects us from these attacks on the mind. The Holy Word reminds us we have been saved by the good works of Christ and that we are now united with Him and “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16).

The Word of God is our only offense against Satan’s attacks. Jesus illustrates this by addressing Satan with the Word of God and only God’s Word during His time of temptation. Jesus spoke out loud the Word of God as He was being attacked. It is imperative that the Sword of the Spirit is spoken out loud trusting that as we have hidden God’s Words in our heart through diligent study and intense meditation, the Holy Spirit will bring them to our mind and out of our mouth as we are confronted by temptations, lies and accusations from the evil forces in the spiritual realm! Again, we are not called on as believers to defeat Satan and his many evil forces, he has already been defeated; we are only commanded, so God can protect us, to put on His Armor and leave it on so when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand! These last three pieces of armor are available but it is incumbent on our part to seize them. God has provided us with His Word but He cannot study for us. He will join us in His Word but until we join Him there our spiritual growth will suffer. We have the gift of unity in Christ who has made us one. We need to exercise this gift of unity by praying and interceding for each other. We are called upon to pray in the Spirit for the brethren. The reader can be sure the discipline of prayer as requested by the Apostle has the power to move and protect God’s children.

Praying in the Spirit

Our prayers need to be Spirit-led because in all truth we often lack knowledge in what to pray for. Praying to God gives us an opportunity to line up with His works. God knows what is going on and if we want to be effective in the battle, we need to ask the Spirit to bring us into the presence of God’s movement; into His ministry. In Ephesians 1:18,19, we find Paul praying that the eyes of the believers heart may be enlightened in order that they might know the hope in which they were called, the spiritual power, authority, and protection which was their inheritance in Christ. Like Paul we need to be supportive of one another in our prayers, spiritually led before God so as to be certain our petitions and intercessions for others are received by the request of the Spirit. A major target for prayer from this perspective on intercession for others is against what Jesus called the “strongman” (Matt. 12:29). Rescuing people from the bonds of spiritual blindness cannot be achieved until we bind the strongman. Satan is powerless, but if a brother has any unforgiveness, resentment, or unrepentance of any kind in their heart Satan has access to them. As they belong to God, it is our duty to pray in the Spirit with certainty that what is bound on earth is already bound in heaven and whatever is loosed on earth has already been loosed in heaven (Matt 18:18). Our prayers may often go unanswered and denied because we ask amiss but the prayers of the Spirit are always answered with great authority from the kingdom!

Blessings,

Pastor, Jim Bringman

Greetings, brethren

The Battleground of Spiritual Warfare

The struggle takes place in within the hearts and lives of believers. Another fundamental truth in spiritual warfare is how we, the believer, allow the devil access into our lives. “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph. 4:26-27). According to this Scripture, anger is an emotion that if not spiritually controlled, can turn into a sinful action, leaving one in a state of sinfulness, where if left un-repented of, gives the devil open access into the sinners life. God told Cain, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Gen. 4:7). Again we can see how vulnerable we are to the works of the devil. God provides protection and a way for us to escape reminding us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We as believers have the choice, and in order to stay under God’s protection we must choose to repent when we sin and discover the devil has a hold on us! We must remember the works of the devil have been destroyed and in this truth we can know for certain that he has no power over us other than what we give him. However, we give him power often without knowledge of it and while enabling the devil may not affect our salvation, it certainly destroys our witness to others as well as the joy we can have in Christ while here on earth.

 The Wiles of the Devil (Deception, Temptation, and Accusation)

We are vulnerable to Satan because he is formidable and without the protection of God we are helpless to the prince of this world! Another major foundational truth about spiritual warfare comes to us from Paul’s teachings in Ephesians. “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” (Eph 6:10-12). Our battle is not with what or who we can see but with who and what we cannot see. Without spiritual discernment, God’s armor, we can and will be deceived.

Deception is an evil scheme, a purely evil practice. To deceive someone, is to get a person to believe something that is not true. Once in a state of deception it is easy to create a wall of lies, strongholds, that will eventually lead the deceived into temptation, action, and death (James 1:14, 15). We discover Satan’s strategy of deception in Genesis. First of all he appears as something he is not, a serpent, and in this lowly state of appearance he begins a dialogue with Eve. He starts by injecting doubt into the certain truth Eve has received from God (“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Gen 3:1)). This subtle tactic is very effective on the Christian who is not confident in the Word of God; questioning God’s truth plants seeds of doubt in the believer’s mind; leaving them with the thought that perhaps God’s Word cannot be trusted. If this method of deception gains a foothold, if Satan can actually control the way you think about the certainty of God’s truth, he can and will destroy you! Hosea proclaimed in his warning to the Hebrews, “My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Paul warned believers countless times not to be ignorant concerning the Word of God.

It is while in a state of deception that Satan then entices us with temptation(s). Once the devil had Eve questioning God’s truth, injecting thoughts of doubt into her mind about what God said, he then contradicted God’s warning of death to the disobedient, “You will surely not die” (Gen 3:4) he claimed,  therefore presenting the fruit as both harmless and desirable. Once the fear of death for eating from the forbidden tree was eliminated, Eve was comfortable with eating its fruit and sharing it with Adam. The lie was easy to proclaim to Eve in her state of deception and without the strength and protection of God’s Word to sustain her she was tempted and easily provoked to act on that temptation. This disobedience brought on by the wiles of the devil, coupled with man’s lack of trusting God by obeying His Word, is the essence of spiritual warfare. Deception is Satan’s number one tactic. It is his agenda to get mankind to trust in their own strength apart from God’s protection so he can boast to God of his cleverness over His when it comes to governing the affairs of mankind.

Lastly, Satan likes to remind the sinner of their faults and shortcomings; he is known as the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). It is an ongoing effort in these accusations to keep the sinner feeling guilty thereby keeping the act of repentance between men to God from occurring. Satan knows that repentance brings cleansing to the unrighteous sinner. So how do we stand firm in this world where Satan is the ruler of the air, against the principalities and powers? In James we are told to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7). How do we do that, resist him? The remainder of this paper will focus on our command to put on God’s armor, stand firm against the schemes of the devil, and pray for the brethren. It will do us well to remember we are not called to defeat the devil that has already been accomplished by Jesus Christ. We are only told to spiritually suit up, stand firm, and pray and as these are the prerequisites for protection in duty, we can be sure God has provided a way for us to exercise these commands.

In Christ,

Jim