All spirituality takes place in the context of adversity (Ben Stuart.)
We are engaged in a spiritual battle. But take heart because all spirituality grows out of the soil of adversity.
You might think to yourself, ‘Well, then I don’t want to grow spiritually if I have to go through adversity.’
No, you misunderstand. There will be adversity (trials and tribulations) whether you engage in the battle or not.
The difference is, if you get into the battle, you will be victorious, come out of it stronger than you were before, wiser then you were before and closer to God then you were before.
BUT if you don’t get into the battle, you’ll will be defeated, be weaker than you were before, you’ll be discouraged and depressed and further from God then you were before.
Honestly? You don’t have an option. And do you want to know what the reality is? The battle that you face is you.
God said to Joshua, ‘Be strong and courageous. Be strong and very courageous.”
God also said to Joshua, ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.’
For both Moses and Joshua, the challenge was the same. ‘Be strong and courageous – trust Me. Just do what I say.’
The battle you face is making up your mind to be strong and courageous. Trust God and just do what He says.
You see, Jesus has already defeated the enemy. Jesus has already destroyed the works of the enemy. The battle is already won. Done and dusted.
The battle is to refuse to let the enemy steal the victory that Christ has already won for you. And this is where the armour comes in.
Eph. 6:10-18 – Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (How?) Put on the whole armour of God, (why?) that you 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. (He warns us again) Therefore, (because of whom we are wrestling against) take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
And how do we stand?
V14-18 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.
From this portion of scripture, we can, without a doubt, understand how very important the armour of God is to each one of our lives.
Putting on the armour is achieved by fixing our attention, focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ who IS the Word and what He has already achieved!
Let’s take a look at the pieces of our armour.
The belt that went around the Roman soldier’s waist was the essential part of their armour that held all of their weapons.
The Belt of Truth is where all of the Truths of the Word that we have been given are stored. Not just in your head but they are written on your heart by the Father, through the Holy Spirit. In order to keep these weapons sharp we remind ourselves of them by declaring them regularly. It is my privilege and my responsibility to accumulate these truths, these weapons, and to keep them in a good condition.
The Breastplate of Righteousness is a defensive part of our armour. It is about protection. It is knowing the Truth of the Word that states that you have been given the righteousness of God. You know that the only reason you can stand in the presence of God the Father is because you have been given His righteousness. You are not standing in His presence because of your own holiness or your own good works. It is the gift we received when we got saved.
Knowing this truth protects you when the devil comes to condemn you and tell you that your own righteous behaviour is lacking. He is trying to disable you by causing shame or guilt so that you won’t stand against him while he is trying to destroy you. And when he comes, the first thing I need to do is access the gift of repentance, ask God the Father to forgive me and voila! The enemy is disarmed. Now. If he tries to bring an accusation against me, the Father will look in the book and say, ‘No, can’t find a thing. There’s absolutely nothing here in My book.’
Your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
There are two parts to this.
Firstly, this speaks of your walk with the Lord. The gospel of peace is ‘the good news’ that brought you to salvation. Every day you must prepare yourself to walk out the ‘new creation’ life that you received from God through the gospel of peace.
Secondly, not only does it protect you. It empowers you and makes your life a light to your circle of influence. This is both a defensive as well as an offensive weapon.
Is. 52:7 – How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaim peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaim salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ (Rom. 10:14-15) Luke 1:76-79 (John the Baptist).
When I got born again, the change in my life was so obvious to my family, that after 6 months, my parents asked if they could come with me. I had never said a word to them except how much I loved going to church.
The shield of faith – Because you know and absolutely believe the Word, this is the defensive weapon that is raised as soon as your conviction is challenged. You intimately know, believe and trust your God. You won’t accept or tolerate any evil word spoken by the enemy.
If it is contrary to the Word of God, then it is an attack from the enemy.
Faith is the shield that quenches the fiery darts of the enemy, not knowledge. Faith.
Let me just warn you though. The enemy is not the person that the devil has used to speak this evil word to you. Don’t attack the person. Remove yourself from his or her presence and go somewhere where you can effectively immobilise the real enemy by lifting up the Word.
The Helmet of Salvation is knowing that what Jesus did for you has been done ‘forever’. You understand perfectly what the Lord has achieved on your behalf and that you are redeemed, have been reconciled to the Father and you are in the process of transformation.
What He has done can never be reversed!
As we have been studying the helmet of salvation, we know that we have to protect the gateway, the doorway to our heart, by taking responsibility over which thoughts we allow into our hearts. We choose what we allow in.
Be the commander of your mind. Measure all thoughts against the Word. Take authority.
The effectiveness of all of the armour begins right there.
The Sword of the Spirit – This is the ONLY weapon that effectively disables the enemy.
Lift up the relevant Word of God. Declare the glory of the Lord and His power and might and authority. Declare, ‘It is written… ’.
Now that your armour is firmly in place – you can stand. You will not be moved. You can quench every fiery dart.
It is time to take back what the enemy has stolen. Take back ground for the Kingdom.
Pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
We can see from this that all of the armour of God really consists of the Word of God.
The Word and the Lord Jesus Christ are one and the same. He is the living Word. The Word that lives. When He speaks, things happen.
The Word – our life and our light.
John 1:1-5 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him (the Word) NOTHING was made that was made. V4 In Him (the Word) was the life (Zoe), and the life (Zoe) was the light of men. V5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
What do we see here?
He, the Word, existed in the beginning.
He, the Word, was God.
He, who was God was also with God.
He, the Word, created all things.
In Him, the Word, was the life (Zoe). So, in other words, the (Zoe) life is in the Word. The Zoe life of God exists in the Word.
What does Zoe mean? The absolute fullness of life which belongs to God.
Therefore let’s read V4 again – In Him (the Word) was the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God … and the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God was the light of men.The life that is in the Word, is the light of men. So in other words – the Word is our light. When we get revelation (Rhema), from the Holy Spirit, by meditating on the Logos, we have received of the Zoe life (the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God) that is in the Word. Revelation deposits God’s own life in our heart – out of the Word.
The Word, who is our light – this Zoe life that we have received shines in the darkness and the darkness does not understand it.
Imagine with me for a moment. You are camping in the wilderness. It is overcast and the clouds are heavy. Someone has stolen your wood, your firelighters even your lighter. They have also stolen your lamp.
You are in pitch darkness. You have no way of making a fire and you have no light.
Then suddenly, a passing neighbour sees your plight and he asks if he can help. You invite him into your campsite. He brings you a really powerful lamp and it lights up the whole campsite. He also brings everything you need to make a fire, including a lighter.
Now, you and your family can make a fire. Later you sit in your tent and you have light. Out of this man’s abundance, you have light. It is his light and his light is transforming the circumstances of your family. When people look at your campsite, they are seeing the light provided by the powerful lamp that has been given to you.
When we invite Jesus, the Word, the life and the light, into our life, He comes to dwells in us. Therefore, it is Jesus, the light who dwells in us. It is Jesus, the Word, who now shines light in our darkness and we receive revelation from Him. And when the enemy sees the light from the revealed Word in us, they cannot understand it. They are looking at us and they are seeing Jesus, the revealed living Word. Our armour consists of the revealed living Word that has been written upon our hearts.
1 John 4:4 – You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
What happened when the Word became flesh? He took on a human form and in His human form, mankind beheld His glory. They witnessed the glory of the Son of God upon the earth in a human being!
Now, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is life and the light – through the process of transformation, is beginning to dwell in you and I by His Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
Bit by bit, He is coming to life in you.
Therefore, it is written in Eph. 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Col. 1:26-27 – The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Can we agree then that the mystery hidden from the ages is Christ in you, the hope of glory?
So then, what exactly is the enemy seeing when they look at us? The ones who are the believing sons of God and who are transformed by ‘the Word’. They are looking at us and what they see is Christ – in us – the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth and they cannot comprehend it.
So, just to recap, it is correct to say, that in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word – is the (Zoe) life which is the light of men.
The (Zoe) life that is in the Word has come to bring light, revelation, spiritual understanding and power to men.
And that light, that revelation has the power to transform them and birth Christ in them.
But the devil and his cohorts, who dwell in the domain of spiritual darkness, do not understand it.
Col. 1:15-18 – He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation. For by Him (Jesus), ALL things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in ALL things He may have pre-eminence.
The book, Behold the Bride, that I have written is a product of what God has put in me. It was in me and it is still in me. When you buy my book, you hold in your hand that which first lived in me. But, truth be told, my book first lived in Him.
Everything that exists first lived in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
Heb. 1:1-3 – God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things (how?) by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The written word is the Logos. We can read the Logos, we can know the Logos and we can even agree that it is true but that in itself is powerless. Logos remains just a matter of the intellect.
When the depth and the truth of the Word is revealed to you, by the Holy Spirit who is our teacher, it has become Rhema – the revealed Word – the word of His power. He is God. All of His Word is filled with power.
How do we know this?
John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life (Zoe).
Matt. 16:15-17 – But He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Peter had received Rhema from the Father in heaven. He could not have known this unless the Father had revealed it to him by the Holy Spirit. Peter wasn’t expecting it. He wasn’t praying for it. God gave it to him when the time was right.
Rhema, the revealed word, is the living word, revealed by the Holy Spirit when God tells Him to and it is filled with His power and authority. On purpose and for a purpose.
Luke 5:17 – Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Luke 4:32 +V36 – And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.
V36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, ‘What a word is this! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.’
Mark 16:19-20 – So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
The Lord was not there physically, but by the disciples preaching Rhema, the revealed Word which is alive and filled with His power and which has authority, the Lord was still present and working with them.
In the same way, whenever we receive Rhema, we must continue to meditate on that Rhema by studying it out. God gave it to you on purpose and for a purpose. Write it down immediately because if you don’t, the Word will pass you by.
Then when you are able, begin to study it out, and as you do that – God, the Holy Spirit writes it upon your heart.
Now, we are beginning to truly believe. There is a conviction within us that will defend the Rhema that we have received. This is faith.
And now when we speak the word, the Lord is present and working through us.
It is this faith in Him (the living Word), this conviction that we now have, that is the armour of God. Both our defensive and offensive weapons consist of Rhema – the living Word.
When the enemy comes to attack you, immediately, your conviction will arise to say, ‘NO! I reject that! That is a downright lie! I am not letting you in to contaminate my heart. I am not letting you in to influence my behaviour!
It is with conviction that you will begin to declare the Word, the living Word, into the heavenlies.
Knowing these truths – not knowing ABOUT these truths, means that you are fully persuaded and you have an absolute belief in His faithfulness to His Word. This is being dressed in the armour of God.
Rom. 13:11-14 – And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.
When we put on the Lord Jesus Christ – we are putting on the armour of light.
The Bride – Rev. 21:22-23 – But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
Let’s get practical.
The first thing we are going to do when we put on our armour is remind ourselves who God is. Why? Because God is your covenant partner. When the devil attacks you, he is defying your covenant partner as well. Remember David?
David didn’t go out into the battle against Goliath, in his own strength or might. He went out there because he knew that Goliath did not have a covenant with Almighty God. And he knew that he, David, WAS in covenant with Almighty God. God was his covenant partner. The enemy basically, was already defeated. Therefore, he was strong and courageous.
Secondly, he was strong and courageous because he knew that the battle was the Lords 1 Sam. 17:47.
So for us it is the same. When the enemy challenges you or comes against you, he is coming against God – our covenant partner.
Sharpening our weapons by declaring aloud.
You are the Great “I AM”, Indescribable, All Mighty, All Powerful, Immeasurable, All Sovereign and nothing can stand in Your presence.
You are Jehovah Elohim – the Eternal Creator.
You are Jehovah Elyon – the Lord Most High.
You are unequalled and unrivalled! There is none like You!
You are the source of ALL life. Nothing can exist without Your breath of life.
You are the Creator and we are the created.
The devil and every demon were created as angels by You first.
Their evil hearts corrupted the beauty that You created but still they are simply created beings. Only You alone have no beginning and no end.
You alone have ALL power and ALL authority!
Nothing, absolutely nothing can stand in Your presence!
You created the galaxies, the universe and every star was named by You. The heavens declare the glory of my God and I stand in absolute awe of You.
Thank You for wanting to create me.
Thank You for dreaming of me and writing my story into Your book.
You created me. You redeemed me. You reconciled me to Yourself. I am a child of God. Thank You for the plan of salvation!
Today I stand here because You determined it to be so. Hallelujah!
Father, I will look to You, and be saved. For You are God and there is no other.
You have sworn by Yourself, the Word has gone out of Your mouth in righteousness and shall not return to You void, but it shall accomplish everything You sent it forth to do. Isaiah 45: 22 – 23
I believe in Jesus. Therefore I am born of God and a son of God. I am in covenant with God Almighty. Jesus the Son of Man has taken back authority from the devil and has dominion over all the earth.
I am in Christ and He is in me.
As His Spirit led representative, His dominion is now to be enforced by me.
Greater is He that is in me, then he that is in the world.
Father, You raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at Your right hand in heavenly places. You have seated me with Him, FAR ABOVE every principality and power, every ruler of the darkness of this age, and every spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenlies.
At the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, every knee must bow, of those in heaven, and of those on the earth, and of those under the earth, and that at the name of Jesus every name should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Father, I thank You that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
Therefore, in the name of Jesus, I remind every lying and blinding spirit that they have already been defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ and their works have been destroyed. The power of sin has been broken and has no hold on me.
Now begin to replace the thoughts of the enemy by declaring ALOUD:
“You, my Lord, are my salvation. You are my strength, You are my defence. Your patience toward me is so wonderful. I am so grateful that I know this because it fills me with great peace. I am able to repent, sincerely, and know that Your love for me has not lessened in any way. You never lift Your hands in despair because I am slow to learn. Instead, You have given me Your Holy Spirit to be able to develop Your attributes in me.
OR if the enemy is using flesh and blood, then begin to declare ALOUD:
‘Father, I see the attack of the enemy. If I engage with these thoughts it will only lead to some form of destruction. I choose to forgive ______________ as they are not the real enemy. Instead I bind the spirit of division and strife, the spirit of fear, the spirit of pride, the spirit of infirmity, sickness, weakness and disease, the spirit of poverty (whatever the spirit is) and I release these spirits from their assignments against me and ___________ in the mighty name of Jesus, the One who has all power and authority. Amen.
Thank You my Lord God.
Pray aloud in the spirit, it helps to build up your holy faith.
If necessary, sing, ‘Waymaker’ until all doubt goes. This is how we overcome! We worship in the storm!
Peace really is the proof that you ‘know’ this truth and that your trust is in Him. This truth has been written in your mind AND put in your heart by His Holy Spirit. This peace and this ‘knowing’ is called faith. You believe.