The Armor of God

The Lord gave me a revelation about the armor of God. But before I share this I should establish just what the armor of God is. Forgive me for the use of some terms; I am a military minded person so some of the terms will reflect that.

First of all, putting on the armor of God is not a request, it is a command. In Ephesians 6:11 is says "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." God is not saying put on some of the armor, or put it on if you feel like it. God commands us to put on all of the armor. Now in order to do that we should know what the armor is and why we are to wear it.

Let's start with the feet, "fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." We are walking everyday in the enemy's' territory. So it behooves us to wear good foot protection, and it does not get any better than Godly protection.

Next is the belt of truth. In John 14:6 Jesus says "I am the way the truth and the life." Therefore Jesus is the belt that girds our waist and gives us His protection.

The breastplate of righteousness is protection for our heart. We wear the breastplate to stop any attacks that get past the sword or shield. But the Bible only talks about the breastplate, it does not mention a back plate. Why? Ephesians 6:14 gives us the answer. "Stand firm." We are ordered to stand firm, and if we do the enemy will never see our back. It is when we turn to flee that he has a clear shot. The word of God tells us in James 4:7 to "resist the devil and he will flee from you." If we stand firm and resist the devil, then he will flee from us and not the other way around. It is a promise of God. And remember Jesus has got your back.

We are also told to take up the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. Now, faith is a relative thing: some people have more than others. But the word of God says that even if you only have faith the size of a mustard seed you can command a mountain to get up and throw itself into the sea and it will. So even that small amount of faith is enough to use as a shield to protect yourself.

The helmet of salvation serves a similar purpose to the breastplate in that it protects our thoughts. When we are saved we undergo a change. We change the way we think and the devil would like nothing more than to get into our head and mess with our thoughts. That is why we must all don the helmet of salvation daily.

Last but definitely not least is the sword of the Spirit. The sword of the Spirit is different from the rest, in that the rest of the armor is defensive whereas the sword is offensive. When the Lord was revealing these things to me I found myself asking "Why a sword?" And the Lord answered me. We were not given a long-range weapon such as a bow even though we could use it from a distance in relative safety. The devil uses arrows (Ephesians 6:16) and can hit us from a great distance. We are given a sword because we are to bring the battle to the enemy. We are not called to stand back and shoot at the enemy. We are to get in his face and let him taste the sword of the Spirit. The enemy does not have a sword, the word of God describes him as using arrows. As you can imagine, it is very hard to shoot arrows when someone is swinging a sword at you. God gives us a sword because he does not want passive Christians, He wants fighters, real men who will stand up to the devil and force him to flee.

Now, putting on the armor is not enough. You need to know how to fight. In the days of swords and armor when you fought you had to keep your eyes on your target so that you could see what he was going to do. In a spiritual battle this is the worst mistake you can make. The devil fights dirty; he will try to fake you out and get under your guard. If you try to watch the enemy to anticipate his moves you will fall for the fake every time. We are to keep our eyes on God in all things, but even more when the devil comes in and wants a fight. Now I know that this sounds strange because as humans our mind does not understand how we can fight someone without looking at them. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus and not the devil then Jesus, who knows all of the devil's schemes, will tell us how and when to block or thrust. If we watch and trust our Savior then we cannot lose, because as the Creator of the entire universe there is nothing that God cannot do. He knows all of the devils schemes and only He can warn us of them in advance, but if we are not focused on Him then how can He tell us what we need to know. If I might borrow another military analogy, God has the map to all of the devil's landmines and traps. If we look to Him then He can tell us how to side step them. It is when we look down to see where we are stepping that we will step on a mine.

There are to many so-called Christians that go to church religiously but all they do is fill the seats. Too many people do not even know what the armor of God looks like let alone what it feels like to wear it. So put on the armor of God and do not be afraid to use it. God gave us this armor to use, not to put away in the closet. So get up off your lazy butt, drag out your armor, clean it up, put it on, be a real man of God and FIGHT!

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