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There
is only one God. The Bible teaches that and we
believe it. Because God loves us, He came to earth
in the form of a human man. This was Jesus Christ.
God came to earth as Jesus Christ so He could
teach us about Himself and teach us how to live.
God wants to encourage us so that we do not feel
hopeless.
Jesus ran into
a lot of opposition. Many people did not like
what He was saying. They liked things just the
way they were, and did not want to change. As
you know, it is the same way today. Nevertheless,
Jesus continued telling people the Good News of
how to have eternal life by believing in Him.
The leaders of organized religion disliked what
Jesus was saying so much that they finally had
him killed.
The apostle
Paul also ran into a lot of opposition when he
stood up for Jesus. In the book of Acts, chapter
22, when he shared the good news of the gospel
of Jesus in Jerusalem, it caused a riot. The only
way Paul escaped was when the Roman Army came
and rescued him from the angry mob who was trying
to kill him.
So Jesus and Paul knew from
their own experience that on earth we face serious
problems. You may have learned that from your
own personal experience, too. I know that I have!
One day Jesus was talking to
his disciples. They were so discouraged that they
wanted to quit; to give up; to return to their
former -lives as if there was no Jesus. When we
get discouraged in this same way, Jesus will speak
to us in exactly the same words that He used to
talk to them. How do I know Jesus will use the
same words? Because they are in the Bible. Jesus
told them...and He tells us:
Yes,
I know that here in the world you will suffer
trials and tribulations, but be encouraged, because
I have overcome the world.
Just like the
apostles, we often want to give up and quit because
-the world is full of serious problems. But God
loves us and wants to encourage us. He gives us
teaching about theses problems all throughout
the Bible. In the book of Ephesians, chapter 6,
there is a section that tells us where these problems
come from and that God gives us armor to protect
us from these problems.
First of all,
in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11, we are told
that our problems come from the Devil; from Satan
himself. Paul writes to us that we must stand
firm against the strategies and tricks of the
Devil.
Next, Paul
tells us who we are to fight against:
For we are
not fighting against people made of flesh and
blood,
but against the evil rulers and authorities of
the unseen world,
against those mighty powers of darkness who rule
this world,
and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
Notice that
this verse says that Satan possesses “mighty
powers of darkness” and that Satan does
his work through evil authorities who “rule
the world”.
So we have
a powerful enemy. But we know that God is even
more powerful. He gives us a protective uniform
to wear when we go into battle against these mighty
powers of darkness, evil rulers, and wicked spirits.
The Bible calls this uniform “The Armor
of God”.
Ephesians
6:13 tells us to: Put on the full
armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,
you may be able to stand your ground.
Do you see the picture
here that God presents to us? It is a picture
that we are soldiers in battle who are being attacked.
But, please see this in the scripture passage,
we have on the protective armor that God gives
us...so that we are able to stand firm in our
faith.
The armor that God gives
us is made up of several separate pieces, which
are:
- The belt of truth.
- The breastplate of righteousness
- The shoes of peace.
- The shield of faith
- The helmet of salvation
- The sword of the Spirit
- Prayer
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| When
we look at each piece of armor individually we can
learn something from each one of them. |
| Belt of
Truth |
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| In
the times of the Bible, soldiers wore a
wide leather belt, and used it to hold everything
together and to carry their sword. The belt
of truth represents a life and mind that
is pulled together and ready to serve for
the glory of God. It speaks of integrity-truth
in the inner being.
Satan
fights with lies, and sometimes his lies
sound like truth; but only Christians have
God’s truth, which can defeat Satan’s
lies. |
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| The Breastplate
o righteousness |
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| Satan
attacks our hearts-the center of our emotions,
self-worth, and trust, but a Christian’s
heart is protected by the breastplate that
is God’s righteousness. It is God’s
bulletproof vest. Righteousness means that
we have a right relationship with God. This
comes when we believe in Jesus. Satan can
not rule our emotions or destroy our self-worth
when we have a right relationship with God
because he just can not penetrate the breastplate
of God’s righteousness, no matter
how hard he tries. |
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| The Shoes
of peace |
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| A
soldier must have good shoes in order to
stand firm even when the ground is unstable
and the circumstances are difficult.
The shoes of peace here
in Ephesians 6 represent the Christian being
ready to go anywhere to spread the Good
News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan
wants us to think that when we tell other
people the Good News, we are wasting our
time and that this is a worthless and hopeless
task. Satan wants us to believe that the
size of the job is too big and the negative
responses that we get are too much for us
to handle.
But the shoes that God
gives us motivate us to continue sharing
the true peace that is available through
Jesus Christ-news that everyone needs to
hear. |
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| The Shield
of Faith |
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| Satan
attacks us with the flaming arrows of: Fear,
Doubt, & Confusion.
Frequently Satan fires
flaming arrows of insults, setbacks, and
temptations at us. Or flaming arrows of
sickness; or of financial loss; or maybe
of a broken relationship... and then, just
when our defenses are down, Satan hits us
with his emotional arrows of anger, fear,
doubt, depression or self-pity.
But the Lord has given
us a shield to ward off these flaming arrows
and it is the shield of faith.
Besides protecting the
soldier, the shield of faith also protects
the rest of the armor. You may be asking
yourself this question:
Why do I need to protect
the armor?
If I am wearing all the armor,
including the breastplate of righteousness,
the belt of truth,
and the shoes of peace, isn’t that
enough to protect me?
The answer to this question
is that all the other pieces of armor depend
on faith. Look at Hebrews 11:6: Without
faith it is impossible to please God.
Your faith is vital to
your protection from Satan. That is why
Satan attacks you faith so often. He will
do everything he can to keep you from the
Word of God. He will try to make you worry
about everything that happens. He wants
to make you confused so that you lose your
confidence in God... Then when you lower
your shield of faith; Satan’s flaming
arrows can do serious damage to you. |
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| The helmet
of salvation |
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| In
war the two most vulnerable targets are
the heart and the head. For this reason,
a helmet is just about the most important
piece of the soldier’s armor. The
helmet of salvation protects your mind from
the attacks of Satan. For example; Salvation
involves your mind. In order to be saved,
a person must first repent. Right? Of course.
What is repentance? It is a change of mind
and a change of direction. Deciding in your
mind to change direction.
We must use our minds to grow into the likeness
of Jesus. Satan wants to attack our mind
to make us doubt God, doubt Jesus, and doubt
our salvation. When we put on our helmet
of salvation it is our assurance and confidence
that we belong to the Lord God Most High,
and He protects us. |
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| The Sword
of Spirit |
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The
sword is the only offensive weapon in this
list of armor. There are times when we need
to take the offensive against Satan. For
example, when we are tempted, we need to
forcefully resist.
Ephesians 6:17 describes
God’s word as “the sword of
the spirit”. The Bible was inspired
by the Holy Spirit. It was given to us through
the ministry of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter
1:21). The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches
us the Word of God (John 14:26), and who
guides us into all truth (John 16:13). It
is the Holy Spirit who reminds us of what
we have learned and who enables us to practice
what He has taught us (John 14:26). So we
can see that this means that our sword of
the spirit is the word of God...the Bible.
Because we are in a spiritual
battle, only a spiritual offensive weapon
will be effective. The Word of God is a
spiritual sword that never becomes dull.
Unlike an earthly sword, which has no power
without the hand of the swordsman, the Word
of God contains its own spiritual power.
Hebrews 4:12, says:
The word of God is living and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword.
The power of the Holy Spirit
is in the Word of God.
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| Prayer |
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It is not enough for
the Christian soldier to know the enemy
and to put on the equipment. We must have
the energy to face the enemy and to use
the equipment. This is where prayer comes
in. Notice that immediately following the
description of the armor, Paul makes an
appeal for prayer in verse 18, he says:
Pray at all times and
on every occasion in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in
your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
Prayer is the power of
the Holy Spirit that gives the Christian
their strength. When we stop praying, we
lose our energy to withstand Satan. Prayer
gives us energy in 3 ways. |
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| A
prayer gives us the way to put our armor
on |
| If
we will look back on verse 18 we just
read, it says: Pray at all times.
In
the original Greek manuscript is actually
reads this way: By means of praying.
In
other words, Paul was saying that
the way to put on the belt of truth,
the breastplate of righteousness,
the helmet of salvation, and the other
pieces of the armor is by praying. |
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| Prayer
reveals the will of the god |
| How
does God reveal His will to us and
accomplish His will in us? One way
is through prayer. Before we put on
the armor, we should present our body,
mind, and spirit to God. Then, by
faith, we should prayerfully put on
each piece of the armor. I can not
put your armor on you, and you can
not put my armor on me. But once we
have put on our own armor, something
wonderful happens. We find that God
has equipped and prepared us for battle
that day. If we do not put it on,
it isn’t on! |
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| Prayer
enables us to help the entire army of
christ win the war |
| In
Ephesians 6:18 we are instructed to
pray for all the saints-not just for
ourselves. Sometimes we think that
we are the only ones fighting this
battle with Satan. We are not alone.
Every Christian is involved, and we
need to uplift and encourage our fellow
believers by praying for them daily.
Only the Holy Spirit
can give us victory, and the Spirit’s
power is released through our prayers.
We are all encouraged when we know
that other Christians are praying
for them. Let us pray together now. |
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| Concluding
Prayer |
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Heavenly
Father, we come before you with thanksgiving
for all you have done for us. Today we prepare
for victory over Satan by putting on the
whole armor of God, which you graciously
give to us.
We
put on the belt of truth. May we stand firm
in the truth of your word, so we will not
be a victim of Satan’s lies.
We
put on the breastplate of righteousness
so it will guard our hearts from evil.
We
put on the shoes of peace so we will stand
firm in the Good News of the Gospel so your
peace will shine through me and be a light
to all I encounter.
We
take the shield of faith so we will be ready
for Satan’s fiery arrows of doubt,
denial and deceit.
We
put on the helmet of salvation so Satan
will not have a stronghold on our thoughts.
We
take the sword of the Spirit so it will
be ready in our hands to expose the tempting
words of Satan.
We
put on the armor of prayer as we pray all
this in the name of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen!
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