Armor of God
Ephesians
6:10-20: 10Finally, be
strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. 11Put
on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil. 12For our wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Wherefore take up the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having
done all, to stand. 14Stand therefore, having girded
your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and having shod your feet with the preparation of the
gospel of peace; 16withal taking up the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17And
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God: 18with all prayer and supplication praying at
all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints, 19and on my behalf,
that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am
an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Let us break this down into the piece by piece of the armor
that Paul was telling us to put on! But first what is the main purpose of
putting on the armor in the first place?
Well Paul tells us that we may be able to stand up against the wiles of
the devil. What does that mean? That means that if we have our armor on that
he gives us like the military gives soldiers then we have an upper
advantage. A celestial advantage if you
ask me! Side note: MAYBE just maybe
because of this passage some of us like to refer to ourselves as Soldiers of
God! Anyways….in the very next verse he tells us exactly what that means…….He
refers to our fights not being against flesh and blood, translation we are not
to put on the armor of God because we have a fight with each other, that we may
not agree, or someone hits us and we start fighting back……NO…..that is not what
we are to do……..We are to battle against Satans evil wicked ways, the powers,
the rulers of the darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness…….pretty much
against our worst enemy and his little minions!
Our battle is to maintain our relationship with God. Not against each other!
1st piece of armor that he talks about is the
Belt of Truth. What is the belt of
truth. Well a belt is something that
holds up our pants yes, but there is a key word there……holds up. A normal everyday belt holds up your pants so
you don’t fall. Well the belt of truth help hold you up in truth so that you
may not fall all over your lies and or deceptions. Amazing isn’t it? We hold true to ourselves and to our
relationship in truthful speak, truthful actions, truthful heart. Sounds easy right…….well how many of us have
told little white lies of fibs as we called them……..even if it were to protect
someone? Well that’s how hard it really
is!
2nd piece of armor that we are to put on is the
breastplate of righteousness. Now what
does that mean? Well it means to put on
that armor that protects our heart.
Another word for righteousness is justice, and morality. We must have a righteous heart in the sense
that must have a sense of morals. You’ve
heard the expression “Live by your morals”
In the Christian sense being of a righteous natures means having Christ
in your heart. Not letting anything that
can bring down and essentially destroy our soul and spirit because Christ lives
there. Remember this phrase…”Do you
accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, God, and Savior into your heart. He died on that cross to pay for our sense
and take away the burdens on our heart so that he may live there and dwell
there. We must be ready to defend
ourselves spiritually. We cannot have
Christ in our heart if we are to simply keep following our own will, doing what
WE think is correct and right. We are
born again and have a new heart, a washed in the blood, redeemed heart. We should struggle every day and fight to
keep it that way. Are we going to sin
again? Yes is it’s in our nature. But
there are some sins that we KNOW not to do and should adhere ourselves to those
clean morals. So put on your breastplate of righteousness and protect your
heart.
3rd piece…..put on your feet the preparedness of
the gospel of peace. What is the gospel?
Jesus Christ and his ministry. We must
be ready to go out and evangelize to our fallen or unknown brothers and
sisters. We must be ready to share HIS
WORD to those who do not know him and or who have fallen away from his
grace. I personally have fallen away
from his grace. I knowingly and willing
took off my Armor of God and I believe it started when I took my shoes
off! I quit spreading his love. I had a nickname growing up due to my
favorite song at that moment. I was
labeled by my Christian peers as well as my non-believer friends as a ……………….yes
you may have guessed it……….”JESUS FREAK”
No one could stop me in my heyday, but one day I got tired. I
concentrated too much in the world and it’s deceptive ways and took off my
shoes to relax and enjoy life. I figured
it’d only be a moment. But the enemy was
readily and willingly welcoming me with open arms. And when all was said and done I spent 10-11
years out of Christ. I am happy to say
that I know he never left me because on many occasions he touched my life and
my heart, whispering in my ear trying to pull me back. After finally 10 years he put some beautiful
angel in my life and that was it…..I HAD to have that relationship back with my
God. And he accepted me back into his
arms with and even bigger open arms. He
also opened up my mind to understanding his Word and his ministry and
guidance. He has given me so many blessings
that I can’t stop. I am now ready to put
my shoes back on and start spreading the Gospel. That in many ways why I started this blog as
I have mentioned in a previous blog that this is a special ministry tool that I felt called to
do after watching a movie. I also heard
this song by a Christian rap group or a group of Christian rappers that formed
a motto, a moral if you based strongly on Romans 1:16….”For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for
it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews
first and also to the Greek” I absolutely agree and love
that way of life! So I encourage you to
put your shoes on and get to spreading the WORD.
4th…..The Shield of Faith. What is a shield? Something that protects you from whatever the
enemy is throwing, or trying to hit you with.
You put up your shield and protect yourself from danger. What is Faith? I always looked at it as a blind belief in
something. I had faith my family were
going to take care of me even when times looked like they couldn’t. One of my biggest acts or standpoints of
faith personally is that I have faith that I will never run myself into demons
and ghosts and other scary spooky stuff, that witchcraft and other forms of voo
doo type of stuff CAN NOT…I REPEAT CAN NOT work on my because I believe, I
have, and I will forever have Christ in my life, my heart, my soul. He gave it to me and now that I know who he is,
my faith is so strong in His Power, His Blood, His Miracles that nothing can
touch me because he doesn’t want that for me.
Now will I struggle with demons…….yes! Did you know that cigarettes,
porn, alcohol, cursing, using his name in vein is one of the many forms of
demons that Satan uses us to fall, to cause burden. By my faith I hope to stand firm, throw up my
shield, and protect myself from those things in the sweet name of Jesus Christ
my savior! Your shield of faith is what protects you and all your other
Armor. Another act of faith that many
non-believers try to throw up in your face is that You can’t see God….How do
you know. Same way I know the air is
there when I can’t see it………I feel it, I see how it affects other people and
other objects. I can feel God and his
presence, I see His effect on other people and things in life! Walk by faith my brothers and sisters, not by
sight!
5th is the helmet of salvation. I foresee that as where do you know that you
are saved. You mind changes, your mind
is focused on Him, your mind is what captures the information that you read and
stores it. Therefore you must put on a
helmet to protect your mind. I kind of
look at it riding a bike……..why wear a helmet, I know how to ride the best of
anyone I know…..well just like Christian life, you never know when life is
going to do the weirdest, unexplainable things and can know you down. You have to protect your head. It’s your key to understanding and knowledge. I think the bicycle analogy can be used with
the armor as a whole. You get knocked down
but you can get right back up and continue where you left off. You can get back up and persevere to get
where you are going. You have on all the
equipment you may have a few scars here and there, but you get back up and show
the world, God saved you even from the smallest of the smalls. Your salvation is guarded in your mind. You can remember the day you got saved, the
day you were baptized, the day you took that public stand to say that Jesus
came into my life at such and such place, at such and such time, and this is
who was there to witness it and tell the story with me. Protect it with your salvations. You have that helmet on and you focus on God!
6th and final is the Sword of the Word. This for me is the simplest of them all. But the hardest to accomplish. They say the best defense is a great
offense. Someone tries to convince you
otherwise hit them right back with a few verses from the BIBLE. Know that every answer to every life’s
question is right there in that little black book or the whatever style you
call your HOLY BIBLE!. But in order to do that you must study, and be able to back it up with
your life. You can just memorize a few lines, you have to study, dig deep in
there, find out the meaning to the message.
The end of that message it tells us that we are to pray and
pray like you never have. Prayer and application of these things will bring
about joy and peace. It also indicates that we are to constantly pray. Now how do you do that if I have to walk,
drive……True don’t go closing your eyes for pray while your in the middle of
driving. That Carrie Underwood song is
talking about “Jesus Take the Wheel” as driving your life as he sees fit, not
literally driving a car, if your not there he will be! As with anything with Jesus Christ, he may do
all the hard, hurtful work, but you have to put in your part as well. Or we all might be out of here! You can however pray constantly by the simple
things you enjoy in life and “aawww
that’s cute, or it’s beautiful out here, or wow look at the leaves” Know and remember that GOD did and made
those. WOOOOOW!” So also it tells us to
be open for God to give us the words to help us spread his Word, to share it. We can’t convince a person to become a
Christian, but God can use our mouths to give us the words. And my favorite , because we are called to be
ambassadors in chains to stand firmly and on what we believe! What do you think
of when you see bound in chains……..typicall a slave or prisoner, but instead of
believing in being and slave to the word, we are to be FREE slaves to God,
Jesus. Wha wha wha
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Yes be a slave to him in the sense we owe it to him
to go spread his word and try and bring him lost souls, our treasures in heaven! I pray that you find this insightful and
possibly useful. Remember I’m open to
criticism positive and negative and open to prayer request, testimonies please
email me at
I love you and God Bless You!
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