the armor of god
Ephesians 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.
Spiritual warfare is not a topic taken very seriously by most American Christians. Yes, we love to make cartoonish artwork for kids as we teach them about the ARMOR OF GOD but we don’t really view our lives as a Spiritual Battle. If we are taken away from doing God’s work by job demands, sickness, or emergency; we just assume that life stinks sometimes and move on. We don’t naturally fall to our knees and pray that God gives us relief and strength to continue His kingdom work. In fact, many people have confused living the American Dream with accomplishing God’s will on the earth.
There is certainly no restriction on Christians being financially secure but as believers our primary goal should not be ‘hearth and home’ but ‘Jesus and his Kingdom’. That is perhaps the greatest spiritual battle we face as Christians in America. We need to separate worldly success from Kingdom success. That means souls saved, characters conformed to Christ, bible knowledge increased, and sinners loved by the Church in Jesus’ name. If you also become financially well off, then by all means accept the material blessings that come your way (and be generous with them). By no means am I encouraging or condoning those that may irresponsibly neglect the care of their family in a misguided understanding of holiness. Unfortunately the usual path is to pay little more than lip service to the work of God while people labor furiously to build their finances, pleasure or comfort on this Earth. We have a tendency to store up treasure here on Earth but not as much in Heaven. In short, we don’t even bother to fight spiritual battles. Therefore we tend to live defeated Christian lives, sometimes to the point of assuming that NO ONE can live a Christian life. In that assumption is the idea , however subtle, that Jesus just isn’t strong enough to sustain us in our Christian life. In other words, we don’t fight the fight because we don’t really believe.
While there is great value in delving into ALL scripture. I’d like to focus on the action Paul commands AFTER describing the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:18. He says to Pray! Our battle is largely fought in prayer. We cannot see the demons at work (though we may see the results of it). We have not the power to face them “mano-e-mano” but we do have a victorious Savior that has already defeated them!
Spiritual warfare is not a topic taken very seriously by most American Christians. Yes, we love to make cartoonish artwork for kids as we teach them about the ARMOR OF GOD but we don’t really view our lives as a Spiritual Battle. If we are taken away from doing God’s work by job demands, sickness, or emergency; we just assume that life stinks sometimes and move on. We don’t naturally fall to our knees and pray that God gives us relief and strength to continue His kingdom work. In fact, many people have confused living the American Dream with accomplishing God’s will on the earth.
There is certainly no restriction on Christians being financially secure but as believers our primary goal should not be ‘hearth and home’ but ‘Jesus and his Kingdom’. That is perhaps the greatest spiritual battle we face as Christians in America. We need to separate worldly success from Kingdom success. That means souls saved, characters conformed to Christ, bible knowledge increased, and sinners loved by the Church in Jesus’ name. If you also become financially well off, then by all means accept the material blessings that come your way (and be generous with them). By no means am I encouraging or condoning those that may irresponsibly neglect the care of their family in a misguided understanding of holiness. Unfortunately the usual path is to pay little more than lip service to the work of God while people labor furiously to build their finances, pleasure or comfort on this Earth. We have a tendency to store up treasure here on Earth but not as much in Heaven. In short, we don’t even bother to fight spiritual battles. Therefore we tend to live defeated Christian lives, sometimes to the point of assuming that NO ONE can live a Christian life. In that assumption is the idea , however subtle, that Jesus just isn’t strong enough to sustain us in our Christian life. In other words, we don’t fight the fight because we don’t really believe.
While there is great value in delving into ALL scripture. I’d like to focus on the action Paul commands AFTER describing the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:18. He says to Pray! Our battle is largely fought in prayer. We cannot see the demons at work (though we may see the results of it). We have not the power to face them “mano-e-mano” but we do have a victorious Savior that has already defeated them!
So I invite you to join us as a Prayer Partner and fight this battle alongside us as we advance the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus described it, into new territory.
