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“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Eph. 6:10-11
There is no such thing as the Christian's armour. In our own strength, we are defenceless against a ruthless enemy. In the war in which we are involved, God has given us His armor. We are not fighting in our own armor and weapons or our own strength. We do not choose which armour pieces appeal to us and ignore the rest. We need the whole armor of God; nothing less will do. Verse 10 emphasizes this: Strong IN the Lord, Power of HIS might. We do face Satanic opposition, but not on our own.
If you have read about the Blood Covenant in our Love Covenant course, you will know we are in a Blood Covenant with Jesus Christ. Part of that covenant is that He guarantees to stand with us in every situation. He is there, and He has given us the armor of God - His ability - to stand against the enemy. As we rely on Him and master His spiritual weapons, every foe will fall.
God promised Canaan to the Israelites, but He did not give it to them on a silver platter. They had to go in and fight to gain their inheritance. In the same way, God does not drop all the blessings of the Covenant into our laps. We must strap on the armor, sharpen the sword and go into battle. God guarantees victory as we fight His way and with His weapons, but fight we must.
Sometimes, we read about our fight not being with flesh and blood and get “super” spiritual. We imagine seeing demons and all sorts of “spiritual” manifestations. We can engage in all kinds of foolish and useless activities, thinking that we are doing something great, while all the time, we are being distracted from the real war. Looking at the context of Eph. 4-6, you will discover that Paul deals with very down-to-earth practical stuff: husband/wife relationships, parent/child relationships, employer/employee relationships, lying, laziness, etc. These are everyday situations and struggles in which we find ourselves.
The first and most significant battle we have is within ourselves. Our minds are influenced to evil; our nature is to sin, and we desire to have our way. This does not mean we are demon-possessed, but it does mean, in those areas, we are either warring against sinful desires or under a dark deception. We need the armor of God to align our lives with the word of God, to escape the wiles or deception of the enemy. Every time we are tempted to disobey the Word of God, we are in warfare. We cannot give up or allow sin to win.
This means that when we disagree with our spouse, we must ensure our attitudes and responses align with the Word of God. We need to make sure don’t drop the armor of God and try to solve the problem on our own. It is so easy to respond to negative or hurtful situations in the natural. Satan wants us to act and live in violation of the Word of God. It doesn't matter to him if it is something small or big. He is just as happy with liars sitting in church as the drug addicts on Skid Row. We are not warring against our spouse [flesh and blood] but with our own attitudes. Are our attitudes submitted to the will of God, or are we being deceived by the wiles of the devil to act in an unGodly way? The same principles apply to every area of life. We need to honestly examine how we treat our spouse, our children, our boss, the waitress, etc. In this way, every aspect of our lives needs to go. under the microscope of God's Word.
This is very practical. Our war is exposing the lies of the enemy in this world...beginning with the lies we have believed and acted on. We need to walk in the armor of God every day and beware of the ‘little’ stuff - that is what usually gets to us. Pride is the fastest way to melt away the armor of God and leave us defenceless against our cruel and hate-filled foe. Keep your eyes on Jesus and guard against pride.
For details on fighting this war, you can take our course on Spiritual Warfare. You may be surprised to learn how very practical this warfare is. Reality blows away Hollywood-style imaginations. The only cost is the textbook.
For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.
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