The Armor of God
An email from a friend today reminded me of the armor of God.
In Romans 13:12 we read:
The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
The Amplified Bible reads as follows:
The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop (fling away) the works and deeds of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.
What Paul is saying here is that we are to put on God Himself. In 1 John 1:5 we see that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness. And we see in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16 that God is Love and he who dwells in love dwells in God. And God is Life itself; He is zoe, life eternal, forever and ever, without end, no beginning and no ending, never changing, always the same. What does that say to us? What does that tell us about what happens to us when we put on Him and His clothing, His nature?
In Ephesians 6:11-17 when Paul talks about the armor of God, it all points to Jesus. This must be established in our minds. Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith, Salvation—This is what Jesus is all about. He is the Word and the Word is the Truth. He is made unto us righteousness. He is our peace. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He brought salvation to us. We must allow Jesus to become our everything; we are enveloped in Him. He is our armor of light, our protection, our bubble of light where the enemy cannot get to us. We must be conscious of that at all times, especially in the days in which we live. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of who we really are, in Jesus Christ.
We put on the Lord Jesus Christ when we put on the armor of God. In Galatians 3:27 in the Amplified Bible we read: For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ.
Once again, back to Ephesians 6, we see in verse 11 the reason we are putting on the whole armor of God—to stand against the wiles of the devil. Isn’t Jesus the One who defeated satan and is in us to enforce that defeat through the power of the Holy Spirit? And don’t we have to be aware of what we are clothed with? If you don’t know what you are to put on for the day, if you are not aware of what you are wearing, how can you be confident that you are ready for whatever comes? Have you ever seen a little child when he or she is first learning to dress themselves and put the right outfits together? They have a rough time in the beginning, matching up colors and making things look right. And they even have difficulty putting on their clothing at first. But the more they practice, the more efficient they become at dressing themselves. And when we are adults, we don’t even think about having to concentrate on dressing ourselves. The same is true in the spiritual realm. We must practice putting on our clothing every day. The armor is our clothing. As we mature, we reach the point that we know how to dress and do it quickly every morning.
Let’s take a quick look at what we are dressed in every day in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the belt of truth around our loins. We gird ourselves with the belt of truth. We are prepared for active work. In 1 Peter 1:3 we are told to gird up the loins of our mind—renew our minds with the Word of God and we are prepared to stand our ground against the enemy. The breastplate protects our heart; we must know that we are righteous or we are already defeated. Our feet are shod with the preparation of the good news of peace (wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken) We know we are whole. Wherever we go in our walk of life and whatever we do, we are prepared for whatever because we know we are whole, complete. The shield of faith quenches all the fiery darts (wrong thinking) of satan. And where does faith come from? The Word of God. Think on the Word and your faith shield is up and quenches every wrong thought that comes your way. With the helmet of salvation on, we know we’ve been delivered. The Lord is spoken of as our shield over and over in the Word of God. There are too many places to list here. And we take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Sword is used here figuratively for power and authority. It is our offensive weapon.
We must protect our hearts (breastplate of righteousness) and our minds (helmet of salvation).
This is just a very brief, one-page teaching on the armor of God. Those of us who preach and teach know that this is a series of many lessons. I hope that this mini teaching prods you as an individual to dig deeper and study the armor of God for yourself. There are a lot of good books and teaching CD’s (and tapes if you still have them) on the armor for you to read and listen to.
Bon appetit!
In Romans 13:12 we read:
The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
The Amplified Bible reads as follows:
The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop (fling away) the works and deeds of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.
What Paul is saying here is that we are to put on God Himself. In 1 John 1:5 we see that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness. And we see in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16 that God is Love and he who dwells in love dwells in God. And God is Life itself; He is zoe, life eternal, forever and ever, without end, no beginning and no ending, never changing, always the same. What does that say to us? What does that tell us about what happens to us when we put on Him and His clothing, His nature?
In Ephesians 6:11-17 when Paul talks about the armor of God, it all points to Jesus. This must be established in our minds. Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith, Salvation—This is what Jesus is all about. He is the Word and the Word is the Truth. He is made unto us righteousness. He is our peace. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He brought salvation to us. We must allow Jesus to become our everything; we are enveloped in Him. He is our armor of light, our protection, our bubble of light where the enemy cannot get to us. We must be conscious of that at all times, especially in the days in which we live. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of who we really are, in Jesus Christ.
We put on the Lord Jesus Christ when we put on the armor of God. In Galatians 3:27 in the Amplified Bible we read: For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ.
Once again, back to Ephesians 6, we see in verse 11 the reason we are putting on the whole armor of God—to stand against the wiles of the devil. Isn’t Jesus the One who defeated satan and is in us to enforce that defeat through the power of the Holy Spirit? And don’t we have to be aware of what we are clothed with? If you don’t know what you are to put on for the day, if you are not aware of what you are wearing, how can you be confident that you are ready for whatever comes? Have you ever seen a little child when he or she is first learning to dress themselves and put the right outfits together? They have a rough time in the beginning, matching up colors and making things look right. And they even have difficulty putting on their clothing at first. But the more they practice, the more efficient they become at dressing themselves. And when we are adults, we don’t even think about having to concentrate on dressing ourselves. The same is true in the spiritual realm. We must practice putting on our clothing every day. The armor is our clothing. As we mature, we reach the point that we know how to dress and do it quickly every morning.
Let’s take a quick look at what we are dressed in every day in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the belt of truth around our loins. We gird ourselves with the belt of truth. We are prepared for active work. In 1 Peter 1:3 we are told to gird up the loins of our mind—renew our minds with the Word of God and we are prepared to stand our ground against the enemy. The breastplate protects our heart; we must know that we are righteous or we are already defeated. Our feet are shod with the preparation of the good news of peace (wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken) We know we are whole. Wherever we go in our walk of life and whatever we do, we are prepared for whatever because we know we are whole, complete. The shield of faith quenches all the fiery darts (wrong thinking) of satan. And where does faith come from? The Word of God. Think on the Word and your faith shield is up and quenches every wrong thought that comes your way. With the helmet of salvation on, we know we’ve been delivered. The Lord is spoken of as our shield over and over in the Word of God. There are too many places to list here. And we take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Sword is used here figuratively for power and authority. It is our offensive weapon.
We must protect our hearts (breastplate of righteousness) and our minds (helmet of salvation).
This is just a very brief, one-page teaching on the armor of God. Those of us who preach and teach know that this is a series of many lessons. I hope that this mini teaching prods you as an individual to dig deeper and study the armor of God for yourself. There are a lot of good books and teaching CD’s (and tapes if you still have them) on the armor for you to read and listen to.
Bon appetit!
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 5:42 PM
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