e to our second study on the battlefield of the Christian life, this study focuses on the armour of god. when Paul wanted to help the Ephesian church to defend themselves he naturally thought of the roman soldiers who wore certain pieces of armour such as belt, breastplate etc. Of course it wasn't enough for the soldier to have his armour, he had to keep it clean and serviceable, and keep his sword sharp. The last thing the soldier needed to worry about in battle was whether his armour was in good condition, he needed to see to that beforehand. So do we.
In this study we are going to do something different from the usual way I do things, we are going to take the armour piece by piece. We'll have some bible verses that relate to the different pieces of armour that Paul mentions, as well as the verses from Ephesians 6 that deal with this. The verses marked v13 or v14 are from Ephesians, hopefully that won't confuse anyone.
Firstly though, let's review Ephesians 6 verses 10-13:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
You see, we must prepare, we can't just hope that we'll be able to stand when the battle starts, we need to do all to be ready before we are able to stand firm. let's take a look now at the armour of god in all it's parts. May God bless us as we study!
v14:
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,
bible verse:
"if you continue in my word then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
What truth should be our belt? The truth about who god is, what he has done for us and who we are in god, based on truths found in god's word. We have to continue in god's word for it to set us free.
One of the enemies most effective weapons that he uses against us is lies. If he can get us to believe lies like:
"god doesn't really love you"
or "You'll never be any good,"
Then he has won a battle against us. We find the truth in the Bible, and when we can tell the Devil what God says about us in his word, using the sword of the spirit against him, and not believing his lies, we win.
We need to know what the truth is before we can apply it. We need to know what god says about us in his word. That's why daily bible reading and study is so important, so that we know what is true and won't be deceived by satan's lies.
v14b:
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Bible verse:
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
[Isaiah 58:8b]
The breastplate keeps the heart safe. The righteousness referred to here is not our own efforts to be good, rather it is the righteousness given us by God. The bible says:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
When Jesus died on the cross for us, an exchange was made. He took our filthy dirty garments of sin and replaced them with robes of righteousness, his righteousness. That doesn't mean he is any less righteous, no, he is perfectly righteous, but he has enough to share with us. The bible says:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[2 Corinthians 5:21]
On our own we can't be righteous but in his power and by his help we can start to do good things and live rightly before god. We won't be perfect this side of heaven but if we can be free from habitual sin that's what God wants from us.
Don't let the Devil keep you down by reminding you of past sins, they are forgiven and God doesn't remember them anymore. When the enemy tries to make you feel bad for past mistakes, remind him that you are a born again, set apart child of god and you have had your heart sprinkled with the blood of the lamb and quote a scripture like this one:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
v15:
as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
Bible verse:
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those
who bring good news, who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
One of our jobs as Christians, in fact the most important job we have, is to tell others about Jesus, and what he has done for us. The enemy will do his best to stop us from doing this important work by telling us things like
"They'll think you're crazy"
"They won't want to be friends with you when they know what you believe"
"They'll laugh at you."
But if we are willing to obey God, he will help us.
He will help us by his Holy Spirit to find the right words to use and show us the right time to speak out and when to be silent and just let our lives be an example. Notice from our Isaiah verse some of the things we are to do, to bring good news and good tidings and to proclaim peace and salvation. God has given us a life of freedom and joy, we are to share the good news with those he brings into our lives.
v16:
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
bible verse:
Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.
[Hebrews 11:1 NCV]
In the old days soldiers would carry a shield which they would use to protect themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Our faith is in God and faith for Christians is vital because without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is believing and trusting
in what god says .and not believing the Devil's lies or our own feelings and emotions, or even our own circumstances. for example, if I have a headache and I pray for it to be healed I need to believe that if it's god's will he will do that and if the headache continues i still have to keep believing god will help. the bible talks about the faith of Abraham. god told him that he would have a son and years and years went past while Abraham kept believing although he didn't see the answer to his prayers. finally he got to the age where it was impossible for him to have a child and his wife was too old to bear one. He was 99 and she was 89 when god visited them one day and told them that the next year they would have a son. What was their reaction? They laughed at the unlikeliness of it but they kept believing anyway and a year later Sarah nursed a baby son, Isaac.
Faith helps us when we are under attack from our enemy. It is called defensive faith. some of the flaming darts he sends our way are lies. We must choose not to believe what he says about us, rather we must believe what god's word says about us, that's faith at work. there are other ways that the shield of faith protects us such as when the enemy tries to get us to doubt God's love or goodness and we choose to believe in what God's word says rather than giving into our own feelings or believing the enemy's lies.
The bible says:
So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).
[Romans 10:17 Amp]
Faith comes from hearing the word about Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us. That's why it's a good thing to red bible verses out aloud since faith comes by hearing. it's also good to go to church and listen to Christian teaching, this will also help to increase our faith. After all, we don't want any of those flaming arrows the enemy sends to hit their target, do we? Our shield of faith needs to be strong to prevent that.
v16b:
and take the helmet of salvation,
bible verse:
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
[Philippians 2:12b-13]
The helmet keeps the head safe. The enemy will try to make us doubt that we are really saved, that we will really spend forever with God, that our sins are truly forgiven and forgotten by god and other things like that. However, if we have asked Jesus into our hearts and if we believe in him, then we are saved, no matter what the devil tells us.
the helmet protects the mind. we need to be so careful about what thoughts we allow in our minds. Bad thoughts lea to bad speech and bad behaviour. We talked in our last study about taking every thought captive, that's something we need to do the moment we realise that a thought has entered our minds that doesn't line up with the truth of god's word. the Holy spirit will help us, if we ask him to.
v17b:
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
bible verse:
so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do]."
[Isaiah 55:11]
God's word is a very powerful weapon. When Jesus was tempted by the devil during his life on earth, he would always fight back using god's word,
like this:
Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. The devil came to Jesus to tempt him, saying, "If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread."
Jesus answered, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says.' "
If we want a weapon that the enemy can't fight against, then we need god's word. It will really help us to memorise bible verses then when we are tempted, we can fight back in the same way Jesus did. The word of God is very powerful. the Bible says:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
[Hebrews 4:12]
v18:
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
Bible verse:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
[James 5:16b]
we have seen before that one of the things that helps us in our battles is prayer. The bible says:
And this is the boldness we have in God's presence: that if we ask God for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us. If we know he hears us every time we ask him, we know we have what we ask from him.
[1 john 5:14-15]
The enemy will stop us from praying if he can,by distracting us when we try to pray, by reminding us of some important things we need to do or by convincing us that we aren't in a right frame of mind to pray and maybe tomorrow will be better so we should wait till then. we shouldn't let him have the victory over our prayer life. The Holy spirit is also called the Spirit of prayer and he will help us to pray to god effectively if we will let him.
We should pray for our friends and family to come to know Jesus; and we can pray and ask God for help at any time when we feel overwhelmed or when we are tempted or just when we feel like spending a quiet moment with the Father. it is also good to set aside some time each day for prayer and bible study.
Chuck Missler calls prayer our heavy artillery. Another pastor that I met once said that when we mention Jesus' name, he mentions our names. That is, when we pray in the name of Jesus and talk to God about what is on our hearts, Jesus intercedes for us to the Father. the Holy spirit also intercedes for us as the bible says:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I hope this study on the armour of god has been helpful to you. May God bless us as we apply the things we have learned to our lives. amen.
Questions:
These questions are just some things to think about, just between you and God.
1. Can you think of a time in the past when using the belt of truth would have helped you?
2. why do you think it's so important to deal with wrong thoughts as soon as we are aware of them?
3. Have you noticed how difficult it can be to keep your mind on your prayers when you are talking to god?
4. Who are the enemies we are fighting against?
5. What piece of the armour of God do you feel you need to work on and strengthen? If you don't know, why not ask god to show you?
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