How foolish  of a General to send his army against a formidable foe and not give any armour or weapons! Many God’s people have been given armour and weapons but have never taken them out of the box. Shiny, new, powerful tools, but unused. We need to be well armed and properly equipped in battle. In Exodus 13:17-20, the people of God were afraid to fight although the have the weapons. Eventually, they were attacked anyway. The point is,  for us to gain victory, we need to stand and fight, and God has given us the weapons of war to do this.

It’s the Lord strength – Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His Might.

The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.  (NIV Version)

Relying on the Lord’s strength means that we are conscious that apart from Him, we have no power of our own  (John 15:5). We should never give Satan a stronghold by our pride. A good definition of HUMILITY in the New Testament is complete dependence upon God and high regard for others. A good definition of PRIDE is to wrap in smoke. Deception always comes as a result of pride because we are blinded by looking at ourselves.

We play a part – Our Role

Full participation

“Put on” (verse 11) in the Greek language means to put on once and for all. You are to put on and leave it on for the rest of your life. We are told to take it all. The Kingdom of God is an all or nothing business if we want the victory.

We are secure when WE STAND (verse 13)

Struggle Defined (Enemy forces)

Completely Shielded

It is important to have the “full armor and to stand repeated in verse 11 & 13. Our struggle is clearly defined. Verse 12 talks about our struggle or fight not of the forces in physical realm but of the forces in the spiritual realm. We fight  against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Rulers: The chief rulers or the highest rank of demonic beings

Authorities:Those who do the will of the principal rulers

Spirit world rulers: Rulers over nations and cities

World forces of darkness: Lower class of demons.

One of Satan’s greatest attacks is to deceptively render Christians powerless through laziness, apathy and lack of growth. He does not want us to be aware of his government of power. He wants to put us to sleep. He wants us to be more concerned with doctrine than with him. He loves when Christians fight each other.

Comfortable Armour 

Proven Powerful Armour  – 1 Samuel 17:38-40 

Saul tried to give David his armour and his sword. David refused because he has not tested tem. They were too big for him. He refused to go into battle with untested armour. You cannot with someone else anointing or weapons.

Try Your Armor

It is foolish to wait for disaster to happen before you try and make use the Armour of God! David used his familiar sling. It was his proven weapon. David learned by taking care of the sheep and he was ready to face Goliath. We must also GROW in our weapons.

Israel was comprised with farmers when David became king. Their enemies the Philistines were powerful warriors. The Israelites had no weapon – 1Samuel 21:8. David spent some time hiding as a mad man in the Philistine city after he returned; Israel began to fight with battles using weapons. In 1Samuel 25:13 over 600 were outfitted with swords. David apparently learned how to forge metal and came back and taught Israel to make weapons. Start with your sling but do whatever it takes to get a sword and use it.

The Armour of Light (Romans 13:12) 

Paul  says to put down the dark deeds and pick up the armour and pick the armour of light or righteousness. Not only the armour is light in the sense of being the opposite of darkness.

_____________________________________________________________________

Task:

1. Memorize and meditate on Ephesians 6:10-18