THE ARMOR OF GOD
I have found that the armor of God and spiritual warfare are two of the most overlooked points in Christian's lives today. In fact I am astonished at just how many Christians know little if anything about spiritual warfare at all.
For example, have you put your armor on today? Do you know how to put it on? Do you know
all of the parts of the armor? Do you know where in Scripture to find the description of it? Do
you know what each part is designed to protect? Do you know how to fight when you come
under demon assault?
Unfortunately far too many Christians think of Satan as merely a defeated foe, and think of him as someone who merely tempts us or causes difficulty in our lives. Consider this though. If Satan was harmless why would God give us His armor to protect us, and the sword of the Spirit as an offensive/defensive weapon against Satan and his angels?
Satan was indeed defeated by Jesus at the cross but he and his angels still have power in this world and will have power until Jesus returns and Satan is cast into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years;
REVELATION 20:1-3
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he
should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these
things he must be released for a little while.
And for those who doubt that Satan has power in this world, please read the following Scriptures;
JOB 1:1-22
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.
4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the Earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the Earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
9 So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house;
14 and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,
15 when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
19 and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
JOB 2:1-10
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the Earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the Earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”
4 So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
5 But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”
6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed
accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with
his lips.
(Those who may think that Job was an allegorical or mythical figure should also read
Ezekiel 14:14, 20 and James 5:11, in which God Himself and the apostle James affirm that
he was a real, living man who indeed suffered what was done to him in the Scriptures above.)
LUKE 4:1-13
1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.
10 For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,’
11 and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
On a side note, another primary reason why we should be familiar with God's written Word, is that in Luke 4:9-11 above, Satan quoted word for word Psalms 91:11-12 to Jesus, but he took it completely out of context. The actual Psalm reads;
PSALMS 91:1-16
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers; and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
The promises in this Psalm are from God to us, and does not mean that angels will literally hold us up so that we will not fall if we trip on a rock. It refers to the fact that God will have His angels protect us in our spiritual walk with Him. This also shows that Satan will use Scripture when it suits his purposes, but he will not always use it in context.
Also, this psalm does not mean that God has wings and feathers. It refers to birds hiding and
protecting their young from harm. Even so does God hide us from the destruction of the wicked.
Now, back to the point of this study.
In 1944 the Nazi High Command knew that Germany had lost the war, but it didn't keep them from fighting savagely to the end. The same will be with Satan and his angels. They know they have lost the war, but they will keep fighting to the bitter end and will try to take as many people to the Lake of Fire with them as they can.
They will not stop until Jesus comes and neither can we. It is a life-and-death struggle with eternal consequences, and we need to understand this! We are at war, and we can't fight if we don't know how to wage war spiritually and arm ourselves for the battle.
For those who may not think we're at war, you might want to read Paul's warning below;
2 CORINTHIANS 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
My family and I have faced physical and spiritual demonic attacks and only by claiming the armor and using the power and authority of Jesus Christ that He has given us were we able to win. But you must have faith and believe that you have power over Satan and his works or you will be ineffective and will lose the battle.
Yes, Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and took away his authority in this world, but not his power! He is still a powerful enemy to be reckoned with, and is not ever to be taken lightly! Ever heard the phrase, "Never underestimate your enemy"?
Scripture warns us of the power of Satan when it says;
1 PETER 5:8-9
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
One thing to note about lions. When on the prowl, they roar to intimidate their prey attempting to paralyze them with fear. But when they attack they are silent. Satan is the same way and attack without warning. Why should he use the direct approach when a silent unexpected attack would be just as effective if not more so? And who can successfully fight a lion without weapons and armor?
We sing "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war" and yet think little about this world being a literal spiritual battleground which is why so many Christians suffer when they don't need to. We beg God for deliverance from demonic attacks and yet we don't use the authority and weapons He has given us to fight with! In battle a soldier is expected to fight and use the weapons he is given to the best of his ability and God expects the same from us.
Jesus said to the disciples, and through them to us;
LUKE 10:19-20
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven.”
We are expected to use the power and authority given to us. I think many Christians fear spiritual warfare is because in any war there is a chance you'll get hurt. This is true, and Satan fights with very real spiritual and physical weapons. But believe me, if you don't fight Satan and take authority over him I guarantee you WILL get hurt!
And when Jesus said that nothing will hurt us, He meant that our spirits will not be harmed. He never promised us that physical harm would not befall us. In fact He warned us constantly about persecutions and there are many examples of persecutions of Christians both in the New Testament as well as secular history.
Now, let's take a look at the armor as quoted in Scripture, and see exactly what it is and what it does.
EPHESIANS 6:10-17
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 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.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
Ok, let's take it from the top.
Helmet of salvation: designed to protect the mind.
The mind is the gateway to the soul, and it is here that the doorway lies that gives Satan access and entrance into a person, especially in cases of possession. Once Satan enters he binds the human spirit and gains control over the soul (the soul generates our personalities). That's why as a person becomes demon infested their behavior starts to change. The infesting demons begin controlling the soul, or in some cases shove the human soul aside and take direct control.
Such were some of the cases of demon-infested people that Jesus dealt with. These people no
longer had control over themselves and when Jesus confronted them, note that it was the demons
that spoke through the possessed people, not the souls of the people themselves.
MATTHEW 8:28-34
28 When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.
29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”
30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.”
32 And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.
33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.
34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they
begged Him to depart from their region.
MARK 1:21-27
21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught.
22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,
24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”
26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is
this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits,
and they obey Him.”
Notice in the above Scriptures that it was the demons that spoke to Jesus. In the first case, it was
two violently insane men both who knew immediately who Jesus was even though He had
seemingly never been there before. The men didn't know Jesus, but their demon masters did. We
can't see into the spiritual world unless given special permission by God, but demons can see into
both the physical and the spirit worlds.
The same with the man in the synagogue. The controlling demon knew immediately who Jesus was, and spoke through it's human host.
The reason why God doesn't allow us to see into the spirit world is to protect us from what
we would see. For if we could see the demons we were fighting, we could become paralyzed
with fear both by their size and appearance. And by the same token it forces us to rely on
God in faith, believing in One that we cannot see to help fight an enemy we many times
cannot see either.
God gave us a logical mind to reason with, to distinguish the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and error, a result of Adam's eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For more about this subject, please see the study on the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in this Web site.
The subconscious mind believes everything it is told. It is well known that in cases of hypnotism that if a person is given a strong onion and is told that it is an apple, the subconscious believes it to be so, and the person eating it will believe it to be an apple because the conscious mind is "asleep" and cannot tell the subconscious differently. (Need I say more about the spiritual dangers of hypnotism to a Christian?)
The subconscious relies on the conscious mind to protect it from evil. Therefore the conscious mind is a barrier that Satan must get past to enter and conquer a person's soul. He must use temptation as a form of bait to get past the conscious mind for if the person accepts the "bait", the doorway opens and Satan, the ultimate lawyer, has a legal right to attack the person and will definitely use that in a petition before God to do so. And if a person continually gives in to the temptation, the door will open wide enough that Satan will enter and take control. And believe me, he will!
Remember, your conscious mind provides the "early warning system " of a demonic attack!
And if you don't know the Scriptures, how will you be able to use the sword of the Spirit to
defend yourself?
The author of Hebrews rebukes the readers of his letter for not exercising their minds in understanding the Scriptures when he says;
HEBREWS 5:12-14
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The author of Hebrews is saying that the people he was writing to had not grown in the Word, and were still stumbling over the foundations of Christianity, when they should have been knowledgeable enough in the Scriptures to teach others. Thus they were still "babes" in the Word, needing for someone to feed them “milk”, essentially the fundamentals of Christianity.
The apostle Paul reinforces this point when he says;
1 CORINTHIANS 14:20
20 Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in
understanding be mature.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind.
Therefore the helmet is designed to help us to resist the subtle influences and direct assaults of Satan against our minds in his attempt to gain control of our souls.
The breastplate of righteousness: designed to protect our heart.
Not necessarily the physical heart, but the emotions. When you are hurt emotionally and cry, your body is reacting to the emotions generated by the soul. When you are happy your body reacts to the joy that your soul feels with laughter and the like.
Satan is a master of manipulation and emotions are a favorite target. If he can access and control the emotions then he can circumvent the conscious mind and gain control of a person. Have you ever reacted emotionally and then realized later what you had done? Basically reacted without thinking? We all do.
Strong emotions many times seem to have a way of bypassing logical thought causing us to act impulsively, irrationally, or do something without thinking. Love, hate, fear, anger, lust, rage, jealousy, all strong emotions, all have a way of becoming intense enough to seemingly "short-circuit" the conscious mind and cause us to do things without thinking first, things which we many times regret later.
Scripture records numerous times where leaders brought trouble upon themselves because of this.
A good example of this would be the case with king David and Bathsheba. David reacted with lust for Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite and slept with her while Uriah was away at war. Then when she told him that she was pregnant with his child, he called her husband home from the war that Israel was fighting at the time and tried to get him to sleep with Bathsheba. That way Uriah her husband would think the child to be his own.
However Uriah being an honorable man, slept with the servants figuring that none of his comrades fighting the war were sleeping with their wives, so why should he sleep with his wife when they couldn't sleep with theirs?
David, growing more and more fearful, ordered Uriah back to the war and ordered Joab the captain of the army to put Uriah in the forefront of the battle, then retreat suddenly so that Uriah would be killed.
Joab did so, and Uriah was killed in battle. David then married Bathsheba to try to cover his sin, but the prophet Nathan revealed before all Israel both his sins of adultery and murder. David had reacted emotionally, rather than with logical thought which would have stopped him in the first place.
Therefore the breastplate is given to us to keep Satan from accessing our emotions and
overriding our conscious mind, causing us to sin without conscious thought warning us that
what we are about to do is wrong.
The belt of truth:
This piece of the armor is linked with the sword of the Spirit. Just as a belt is used to hold the
scabbard of a sword, the belt of truth holds the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,
which is itself, truth. The power of the sword is the truth which Satan cannot stand against as
there is no truth in him. More on the sword in a bit.
The shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace:
These are to protect our feet from the snares and traps that Satan lays in our path, trying to
disrupt our walk with the Lord.. Ancient gladiators used nets during fights in the arenas, trying to
snare the sword arm or the feet of their opponents so as to gain an advantage in the battle. Face it,
it's hard to fight effectively when your feet or arms are entangled!
Wait a minute, we're missing a piece. Where's the backplate?
Aha! Here we come to a vital point in this study. God seemingly didn't provide us with a backplate, as we are expected to face Satan in battle. If we turn our backs on him because of apathy, complacency, fear, laziness or the like he has an open target to attack.
However, if we face him fully armed and armored, and we have Almighty God standing behind us to back us up, there is no greater protection for our backs that I can think of! However this also brings up another important point.
Never, ever engage in a battle that the Lord has not sent you into! Many well-meaning Christians either get into a battle without the Lord's permission, actively seek battles just to prove the Lord's power or mistakenly believe they’re doing the Lord’s will.
Consider this, though. If you enter a battle without the Lord's permission, He will not back you up, and you will suffer defeat.
Case in point. When the twelve spies sent by Moses returned from scouting Canaan after the Israelites had left Egypt, ten of the spies brought horrifying stories of giants in the land and massive walled cities that were too fortified to be destroyed. Only two spies, Joshua and Caleb believed that the Lord was capable of bringing Israel victory over the Canaanites. As a result the Israelites rebelled against Moses and wanted to return to Egypt.
The Lord became fed up with their constant whining and ordered Moses to take Israel back into the desert, promising that the entire generation of Israel from the age of twenty years old and upward would die in the wilderness and would not enter the Promised land, except for Joshua and Caleb who remained faithful to the Lord as shown below.
Rebellious Israel decided to take things into their own hands. Scripture records;
NUMBERS 14:26-45
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
29 the carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.
30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.
34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.
35 I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”
36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land,
37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!”
41 And Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed.
42 Do not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah.
Because of their sin and rebellion the Israelites were not to enter into the Promised Land. Even so with us, we must keep ourselves free from sin. For when Satan prepares to attack he first looks closely at us to see what our weaknesses are.
If we have active sin in our lives, this shows up as a weakness in our armor, a weakness he can and will exploit. By the same token, if we are not close in our relationship with the Lord because of sin, complacency or whatever, he will use this against us also.
As was shown above, Moses knew that the Lord would not go before Israel to war against the Canaanites, so he and the ark of the Covenant stayed in the camp. And the Lord stayed in the camp also.
This is why we need to remain in close fellowship with the Lord, avoid sin, and ask for cleansing and forgiveness from Him if we do sin, just to remain strong spiritually.
By the same token, we are not called to fight all battles we come across. There have been many times where I wanted to fight for another Christian who was embattled, and the Lord forbid me. He chooses our battles for us, and if we go to battle presumptuously, He will not protect us and we will more than likely suffer defeat.
Some battles are for others to fight, and we should not question the Lord in this matter.
Case in point. Some years ago my wife and I were visiting a lady who is also a Christian. As we were visiting I suddenly sensed a demon presence in the back part of the house. Within moments we all felt it. So, I went down the hall and tried to cast it out, but couldn't.
I questioned the Holy Spirit, and he told me it wasn't for me to cast out, He wanted this lady to cast it out. She immediately protested that she couldn't do any such thing. We prayed about the issue and then instructed her as to how to put on the armor and cast the demon out. She then went down the hall, ordered it to leave in Jesus' name and I felt it go.
She came back totally astonished that she, through the power of Jesus Christ had been able to cast it out and I had to admire her for her courage and faith. Up to that point she had felt she wasn't strong enough as a Christian to do spiritual warfare and the Holy Spirit proceeded to teach both of us a lesson. The battle was for her to fight and she needed to believe that she could have authority over demons in Jesus' name.
Some dispute the idea of there being no backplate mentioned in Scripture, saying that the
breastplate was linked to a backplate and is considered as part of the armor. This may be the case,
although I find it interesting that no backplate is specifically mentioned.
Shield of faith:
This is the mightiest piece of defensive armor we have, and is also the most vulnerable. A warrior trusts in his shield as the first line of defense against attack, and if the enemy penetrates that shield the warrior is in for hand-to-hand combat.
Our faith in Jesus must be one of the strongest parts in our Christian relationship. If our faith is weak our shield is weak and we will fall to Satan's attacks far more than we should. Remember, faith is a requirement to pleasing God. As Scripture records;
GALATIANS 3:10-11
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that does not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident: for, The just shall
live by faith.
HEBREWS 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe
that He exists, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Therefore God expects our faith to be strong enough to be our first line of defense against Satan. And our faith is strengthened by reading and understanding the Scriptures.
Also, it is very important that you have a close personal relationship with the Lord if you expect Him to protect you. His arm isn't short that it cannot protect you, but you also need to understand several things.
The seven sons of Sceva in the book of Acts tried spiritual warfare without having a right relationship with the Lord or knowing about the armor, and learned a very powerful lesson concerning these issues. Scripture records;
ACTS 19:13-17
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on
them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Note several things here. First of all, they didn't have Jesus in their hearts. Secondly, they tried to use authority they didn't have. The demon was able to clearly see that they didn't have the Holy Spirit within them or the armor to protect them, so he wasn't required to obey them.
Next, the demon-possessed man attacked all seven of them at once and wounded them, so that
they had to flee from the house in terror, naked and ashamed. For those of you who think Satan
has no power in this world remember, this was after Jesus was resurrected!
The sword of the Spirit
This is the only piece of offensive weaponry that we are given. A sword can be used for defense and offense, and in olden days a mans life very often depended on his skill with the sword.
Even so, in a spiritual battle whether we win or lose the battle could very well depend on our skill with God's sword, namely the truth found in His word.
We don't seem to appreciate the power contained in God's word. By His word the universe and everything in it was created. By His word all things function, be it stars and galaxies or the smallest subatomic particle. By His word we live, or die.
To many people it seems ridiculous that we are required to use armor and a sword that we can't see or feel, to fight an enemy that we can't see or seemingly hurt. And on the surface, it does seem ridiculous.
But we also must remember that as Paul said in I Corinthians 5:7, we walk by faith, not by sight. And we also are in a spiritual battle, not necessarily a physical battle. And just because we can't see who and what we are fighting doesn't mean we are being ineffective or unfruitful.
And while the physical battle may be quoting Scripture, praying, or rebuking demons, our spirits are doing something far different! Our spirits are involved in the battle and occasionally that battle spills over into the physical world as I and others have found out.
But without a good knowledge of the Scriptures, you might as well be battling against an armed and armored enemy with no other protection than your bare fists. Not a good thought to contemplate, is it? And don't worry about the fact that you can't see the armor or the enemy. Do what God told you to do, and you'll win the battle.
The fact that the sword is a spiritual weapon is noted in Hebrews, which says;
HEBREWS 4:12
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
God's word is like a spiritual sword, cleaving down to the very essence of our beings. And from reading or hearing the Word of God comes the conviction that we feel in our souls as our thoughts and actions are laid bare before the eyes of the Lord.
And it is here that a true test of our faith comes. We believe in an invisible God, and yet we have difficulty believing in invisible armor and an invisible sword. And some Christians don't even really believe in an invisible devil or demons, strangely enough.
However, just because we don't see these things doesn't mean that they are not real. We can't see death but we believe it to be real. We can't see Hell but we're terrified of going there. We can't see Heaven but we hope to go there. We didn't see Jesus resurrected but we believe it happened.
We need to heed the words of Proverbs which says;
PROVERBS 3:5-7
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
We may not understand what we are doing in the spirit world, but that doesn't matter. God in His
infinite wisdom has cut us off from seeing into the spirit world after Adam's fall, and there must
be a good reason for it. We as Christians must accept that, and abide by it. Again, we walk by
faith, not by sight.
In summary, we need to claim the armor of God each day. I would suggest claiming it at night just before you go to sleep, as the armor will help protect you while you sleep and claim it again when waking up to protect you during the day. Satan has no qualms about attacking through dreams.
Memorize the parts of the armor, and what they are designed to protect. Also read Ephesians 6:10-18 which lists the parts of the armor, and memorize it as well.
Remember that the armor is used in the spiritual world but we don't need to see it, we just need to believe that it's there.
And remember;
JAMES 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
We have the power and authority of Jesus Christ Himself to help us as He Himself told us in Luke, in which we have been given authority over all the power of the enemy.
LUKE 10:19
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
This is not to be taken literally, it refers to having power to crush Satan and his demons spiritually through Jesus’ name and authority.
BUT, we are only to fight battles that He sends us into, not battles of our own choosing!
And remember also that the armor doesn't seem to have a backplate. We must face Satan to battle him.
The armor is indeed effective if we know and understand it's use. And once we become used to wearing it and using it, we can fight the fiercest battles with confidence for we will be armed, armored, and have Almighty God Himself protecting our backs.
Fathers, you are the spiritual watchman of your household. It is your responsibility to
remain close enough to the Lord to be able to protect your family against demon attacks.
You are the head of the household, and your family is under your protection both
physically and spiritually.
In cases where there is only a single parent, be it either man or woman, the same still
applies. You are the head of the household before God, and are responsible for your
family's protection.
Granted, there are people who are called to spiritual warfare as a ministry, but all of us should
be ready to fight in the spirit when called to do so, and we are all required to know the
armor of God and know how to use it. We especially need to know how to use the vital
defensive weapon of the shield of faith, and the offensive/defensive weapon of the sword of
the Spirit.
Soon Satan will be thrown down and to Earth to make his final stand, which means he will be personally directing things here on Earth. We will come under intense spiritual attack and physical persecution during that time, and we need to be ready and strong for the Lord.
The time to start training is now, not when the enemy is besieging the gates!
Lord Jesus, please open the eyes of your people in the matters of spiritual warfare!
Questions? Comments? E-mail: watchmen_777@yahoo.com
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