We are in a battle

We are in a battle, every day of our lives. It’s no surprise then that YHVH has provided us with His armour to put on. We find this in Ephesians 6: 10-18.

“Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints...."

So why are we in a battle, who are we fighting against? We are fighting aginst the enemy and our battle against him is is not in the physical against flesh and blood, but in the spiritual against the rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. When we put our armour on, Satan knows that we belong to YHVH and he will naturally try to attack us as he has always done, however, with the armour we are able to conquer him.

So let’s look at each part of the armour, starting with the Belt of Truth:

BELT OF TRUTH: Historically, the belt held many parts of the armour together. It held the sword, breastplate and other weapons in place. The same is with the spiritual armour, Truth holds everything else together. Without truth, we cannot be righteous. The sword is the word of God, so it has to be true. If truth falls off, then everything else falls off as well.

Even if the belt was out of place, nothing would work, all the pieces of the armour would be out of place and therefore they would not be efficient. I’m sure you’ve all experienced that belt that doesn’t hold up your pants properly, it just ruins the whole day. The same is in our spiritual life, if our idea of truth is only semi-truth, we can only be half as efficient as what God would like us to be. Semi-truthful means that you are semi-righteous, semi-faithful etc. . 

We need to apply the word of God to our lives on a daily basis; otherwise we will not be able to fight. Remember how the belt holds all the weapons, well the truth is the word of God and the word of God is our weapon. We therefore need to attach it to ourselves. The belt was the first thing that was put on, in the same way we need to put it on every morning. When I first became a Christian many people told me, “It doesn’t matter how many times you read your bible, read it when you have time and prayer is important, but pray when you have time…” Well, let me tell you, that is a bunch of lies. The more we read our Bibles, the closer we become to YHVH. All that He has given to us in scripture, is from His heart, do you not want to know His heart? And prayer, well prayer is something we cannot go without. It’s the first thing we need to do in the morning and the last thing we must do at night. I don’t have time to talk about prayer now, there is so much to say, but keep my blog in mind, as I’m going to be posting something in the near future about prayer.

The great thing with technology is that one can have a Bible app on your phone. So on your way to school, work etc., you are able to read! This has really been a lifesaver for me, with my busy schedule as a student, there are some days when I struggle to scrape time together, but now, I’m able to meditate on scripture between classes. Psalms and proverbs are great to start off your day with. Do you know that there are 31 chapters, in Proverbs? One Chapter for each day.

If we don’t, we will not have anything to base our warfare against the enemy on. The Word of God is the first foundation. We are talking about absolute Truth which is Divine Truth. We have to be truthful, we have no choice. At times our truth is grey, but God makes no excuses, ever. Remember we are part of God’s Kingdom, not the worldly Kingdom. Of course none of us are perfect, but the purpose is to allow God to mould us. If we communicate with God on a daily basis, He will reveal Truths to us.

Is there anything that you are doing in your life that is untruthful? The minute we are untruthful, we lose the belt of Truth and we have to repent and put it back on. Yes our sins are forgiven by grace, however, we still need to repent of our sins, otherwise we are living lawlessly. Without the Belt of Truth, none of the other pieces of the Armour will work.

BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS:  What is Righteousness? We hear about it a lot and YHVH tells us over and over again how He loves the righteous heart.  The Greek word that is used in the New Testament is: dike; which means: justice and conformance to the standards. Now in the bible, conformance to the standards means following the ways of God.

God is the ultimate degree of perfection. When one stands with a breastplate on, one cannot bend easily, as it is stiff, if it were soft, then the enemies arrows would be able to penetrate us. So being Righteous means to stand up for God, even when it’s hard. Of course the enemy will try to jab you, but when you stand tall for God you won’t bend to the world’s ways. God calls us to be righteous and Yeshua says in Matt 5:6 “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they will be filled”. In Matt 6:1 he warns us “Take heed that you do not do your good works in front of men to be seen by them: otherwise you have no reward”. Righteousness must not lead to pride. What we do must Glorify Him, not ourselves in the eyes of men.

Look at these scriptures as well

Eph 4:24 = and that you put on the new man which God is created in righteousness and true holiness
Romans 1:17-21 = For therein is the righteous of God revealed from faith to faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

God knows our hearts and if we hunger to obey Him He will see that. We can live righteously; please don’t have this mentality:  I don’t sin, I just make mistakes. Mt6:33 =But seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (To find out what “all these things” are, go read Mt6)

So the essence is to put God’s kingdom first in everything you do. What you do today is it spreading His love and light? The things that we do show to whom we belong. Applying His commandments to our lives: EG. Someone drops their money, are you going to take it for yourself or are you going to give it back? WALK THE TALK

When we live in righteousness we are at peace with one another, as James 3:18 says “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, by those who make peace”. It’s no coincidence that the next armour piece is the shoes of the Gospel of Peace.

James 2:24 = You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. So how can you live a righteous life if you are lying, cheating, stealing etc. It’s more than just faith, it’s applying the principles, we need walk the talk. Standing up for what is right, even when we are persecuted; remember that when one wears a breastplate, it is not easy to bend. There have been many times that I’ve had to say no to my friends who want to go out drinking, and when I do go, it’s not pleasant, as I know that what they are doing is not righteous.

Y’shua said: you have not suffered until you’ve been persecuted

Rms 10:10 = For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The tongue reveals the evil that is in our heart. So speak righteousness. Words create things, God created the whole world by just speaking, what are you creating in your own life? I know I have to think many times before I say something like: my sister irritates me, or this lecturer, blah, blah, blah…

Rms 6:12-16 = Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your body parts as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God being alive from the dead and, your body parts as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, of obedience leading to righteousness.

We are saved by grace, through the sacrifice of Y’shua, but that does not mean that the law was cancelled out. We will never reach God through doing good works, however, we cannot reach Him either if we do not obey Him. One of the reasons that God has given us parents is so that we may learn to obey.

Righteousness itself is a weapon, with it Satan cannot harm us

SHOES OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE: Soldiers do not get very far if they have no shoes. A barefoot soldier can soon become immobilised due to rough terrain. A soldier’s effectiveness and readiness relies on his shoes. Of course we girls know that if we don’t wear the right shoes we will also be less effective.

Firstly, we need to be at peace with God, as this is our firm foundation, what we walk on in our Spiritual lives. Without Yeshua, we will have no peace. The Gospel is the foundation of everything, it did not only come into creation when Yeshua was sent to earth, it has been here since the beginning of creation. The whole Bible oozes with the Good news, not just the New Testament. We are enemies to God until we come into the right relationship with Him. Col1:21-22 = And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind, by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. We have to stand in the peace of God, stand strongly in those shoes.  1Peter 5:7 = Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. The Peace of God will become a reality when we stand in Yeshua.

We need to be at peace with God. If we don’t have peace, we lose faith. Remember when Peter walked on the water and fell? Well, he fell because he allowed fear to take over. Fear is the opposite of peace and removes faith far from us. So we need to cast all our fears on Him.

Peace seems like such an abstract thing, but it actually has so much substance. Where I’ve made the mistake before is to try and gain faith in order to have peace, however, it’s the other way round.

Is 52:7 = How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news (the gospel), who proclaims peace who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”. Always to be prepared, it doesn’t matter if you are in a good or bad place, allow Holy Spirit to teach and reveal to you.

Rm16.20 = And the God of Peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you, Amen. His peace is not the worldly peace. We are given a sound mind. The Hebrew word for peace is SHALOM, which means: May the evil be broken over you.

SHEILD OF FAITH:  You’ll see that this part of the armour builds on the shoes. Faith is the protection that God has provided us with for when we enter times of testing. Satan is always trying to sneek in, wants us to doubt. Doubting is the opposite of having faith.

With this we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  Just as a soldier is able to protect himself from the slashes and shots of his enemy.

Psalm 3:3; 28:7 – God is a shield for us, therefore my soul greatly rejoices. So many scriptures that talk about God being our shield from the enemy.  Faith = huge component.

Satan will and does tempt us into believing that his life is better, however, when we believe him then we are doubting God. We have to listen to God. Doubting goes back to the shoes for what so ever is not of faith is sin. Satan gets temporary victory over our lives when we give into his temptation. Rm14:23 = For he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith: for wahtever is not from faith is sin. 1John5:4 = For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. We too can overcome this world, as we are not of this world, we are a new creation. Not a citizen of this world, but a citizen of God’s Kingdom.

Faith is a working thing, to illustrate: Malachi 3:6 = For I am the LORD, I do not change…; in order to believe this we need faith to work. Or better said, we need to work out faith. Having Faith is believing 100%. God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. However, satan wants your mind, and will make you doubt that what God did 1000 years ago He will do again today in your life. Nothing is more grievous than a lost soul.

Satan is very clever; he makes man’s creations and science look better than God’s. Remember that whatever God does, satan will try and counterfeit. Only God the father is the redeemer and Christ has brought redemption.

Our faith can increase, when we listen to God’s words Rms 8:10 and this builds on the helmet. You need to listen with your spiritual ears, ask God to open them for you and for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you. Rms10:17 = so then faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God.

When I first became a Christian I struggled with doubt, but it was clear cut, I knew that it was doubt, I was on a camp and one of the teachers said that God wants me to stop doubting…. we have to stand strong. However, as I have been a Christian for a longer time, satan has become more and more sly and sneaky, sometime I dwell on something for a day or two, before I realise it’s doubt! That’s why it’s so important to fine tune into God’s radio waves.

A simple equation: If we believe = we have faith. Faith = we won’t believe what Satan says.

Ask God to open your spiritual ears. God talks to you! You just need to listen? God’s ways are not our ways.

So faith is BELIEVING!

HELMET OF SALVATION: A helmet protects the head from damage, in a fight, a single blow to the head can cost a soldier his life. The same is for our spiritual lives, the helmet is for protecting the mind. Since the beginning, Satan has tried to get to the human’s mind. Satan cannot force us to sin, he has to persuade us to sin. Our mind controls all, with our mind we decide if we are going to sin or not.  So it’s the perfect thing for satan to attack. That’s also why we need to have a  renewing of the mind daily, just as God’s mercies are new every day.

Satan uses a number of tactics to lure us away. All these tactics are designed to weaken us and draw us from God.  We have no choice but to guard our minds and to constantly hold onto God’s hand, as when we let go, satan can snatch us. Satan is the prince of the air. What are we filling our minds with and what are we processing in our minds? Your mind is like a highway, it never shuts down even when you are asleep.

He uses:

·         Deceiving with false doctrine 2Cor11.3; Rms16:8
·         Deceitful scheming Eph 4:14
·         Trivial doctrine disputes 2Pet1:16; 1Tim 4:7-8
·         Demons teaching false doctrines
·         Distractions with carnal interest 1John 2 – the more we give into temptation, the more our  minds are given over to the world

We are heirs of the King of the Universe, making us princes and princesses, therefore keep a kingdom mindset, log out of your carnal mind and log into your spiritual mind. We tend to think that because we don’t physically see our thoughts, we cannot control them, however, we are able to control them, it comes with practise, but they are controllable. Pray and ask Our Heavenly Father to help you.

Rms 8:5-7 = For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their mind on the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually mnded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity agaist God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.

One of the greatest things that satan wants to make us, is unfruitful, and being part of the world will make us unfruitful. Money, pride etc. are all things he uses as temptations. A friend to the world is an enemy to God.

God has set out prophecies, this time will be difficult and yes satan will rule the earth, however, we must still work for God.

Speak the helmet on with faith; focus on your thoughts with God, controlling our thoughts. PRAYER is vital

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT: Now we come to the last item, the Sword of the Spirit.

Demons shudder when they hear the word of God spoken, as they know that it is the authority.

With the word of God we can defeat the enemy. The Holy Spirit searches all things. Not going to reveal things to you if you go back and forth, we need to stand strong. YESHUA

Learning which scriptures are appropriate for the situation. You read your bible every day, and now you need to know your bible. So that you can use the sword effectively. It says that the enemies will be defeated by a word that Y’shua speaks. Our tongues are extremely powerful, so speak His word! Acts 4:24-31 Pray in the word, be bold, Acts 13: 38 preaching the word, Acts13:46-48 answering questions with the word, Acts16:25-34 sing the word. Daily quiet times, memorise key verses, the studying of scripture, is different from how we study our exam work.

 CONCLUDING: We see clearly that the whole armour is central to Y'Shua, so in fact, we could say that we are wearing Y'Shua! As Y'Shua is truth, righteousness, peace, etc.. We also need to remeber that the Armour of God is a concious thing, we need to live it out, do the actual deeds in our life.

The way the armour has been set out is for a reason, we cannot go backwards with them, if we don’t have one we won’t have the others. It's like a puzzle, all the pieces of the Armour fit together as as one and they cannot fit into other pieces.

To close: PRAYER, PRAYER, PRAYER,WITHOUT PRAYER YOU CANNOT PUT THE ARMOUR ON.