A Winning Uniform
Ephesians 6:10-18 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 saints.
“Put on the FULL ARMOR of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Can I suggest that perhaps one reason some believers aren’t experiencing the stability and forward movement in their spiritual lives is because they aren’t wearing the full armor? Maybe they have parts of the armor on, but parts are missing which exposes them to the devil’s schemes.
Everything begins with the Helmet of Salvation. The Helmet of Salvation is the most important piece of gear you could wear because it will give you what you need in eternity as the blood of Jesus will cover your soul. That’s right. The Helmet of Salvation covers your soul.
It isn’t by accident that salvation is represented here by the helmet. Listen, God wants your mind to be protected at all times because what you think will impact how you feel and will define how you behave. .
The Belt of Truth-A belt is supposed to hold everything together, to hold everything in place. It secures our bottom half! Walking in truth is so important for us as believers. I think Paul listed the Belt of Truth first because it was truth that was under attack in the Garden of Eden. Satan came against Eve with lies, with the manipulation of semantics, trying to twist God’s words and trying to pervert her understanding of the truth. He wanted Eve to question the meaning of God’s Words and for her to rationalize and justify sinning against God.
When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating from the tree they were told was off limits, they tried to hide from God. Whenever we are trying to hide from God, we aren’t walking in truth. Whenever we try to rationalize and justify any behavior that God says is wrong, we aren’t walking in truth. Truth doesn’t change based on our feelings or our personal evaluation of whether we like the truth or not. Accepting the truth as it comes from God means we understand and accept that we don’t get to make the rules. He does.
Look at the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 86:11–Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
You can’t walk in truth with a divided heart. We can’t want to be a Christian and also want to run with the world. We can’t want to be a Christian and also bow to the god of our flesh whenever it flares up. The Belt of Truth ensures we are “all in.”
The Breastplate of Righteousness is next. The righteousness we wear isn’t our own righteousness. We can never protect our lives because of good works that we do. The Bible says that there is no one that is righteous; that our personal goodness or righteousness is as filthy rags. The righteousness we wear is the breastplate of Jesus’ righteousness. It is something that is gifted to us; imparted to us. We cannot stand against our enemy in our righteousness, but we can stand IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND POWER OF JESUS CHRIST. That is the righteousness we are talking about.
If we try to stand against the devil in our own righteousness, he will always find a way to find fault with something we say or do. Satan will always have a flaw or failure to throw in our face. We cannot keep the law perfectly, but Jesus did. We can point Satan to the perfection of Jesus and tell him to get behind us and be removed from our situation because we are covered by the perfect righteousness of Christ. Satan cannot accuse us of anything and win because when he does, if we have Christ’s breastplate on, he is not accusing us, he is accusing Jesus, and Jesus is the Sinless, Perfect, Son of God. Do you see how it works?
The next piece of the uniform we are to wear are the Shoes of Peace. Believers, God can enable us to stay on our feet during times of difficulty if we will stand in God’s peace. We can experience God’s peace that passes understanding. We won’t panic when the game of life gets rough. We can be steady on our feet as we wear the shoes of peace.
Satan promotes dissension. We are to promote peace. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the Sons of God.” Matthew 5:9
We are in the game and on our game when we are seeking to live at peace with people.
The Shield of Faith is next on the list. When Satan can’t take you down because you are thinking the way God wants you to think, when he can’t manipulate you with lies and get you to try to question God’s Word, when he can’t accuse you of wrong and condemn you when we mess up because you are standing tall in Christ’s righteousness, when he can’t get you to fall by disturbing your peace, he comes straight at you with fiery darts. Like, there is no more subtlety. He just launches an all-out assault.
You have got to have the Shield of Faith up in these moments because the darts of fire can come fast and furious. When our health is attacked, when Satan messes with our kids, when our livelihood is in jeopardy, when the other shoe drops, when we are persecuted and treated unjustly, when it is one thing after another, when we start to question the love of God or the value of our own lives, we have got to get up the Shield of Faith. This is when you stand on the Promises of God. You can’t stand on your own understanding. There will be times when life not only doesn’t make sense, but when it is harsh and cruel. You won’t make it if you don’t have your Shield of Faith up.
The Sword of the Spirit
Paul tells us that the believer’s Sword is the Word of God. The more exposed you are to it, the more you learn it, the more you quote it, the more you meditate on it, the more you rely on it for the answers of life, the more victory you will have in life. It will sink into your personality, it will transform your weakness, it will give you perspective, it will smooth off the rough edges, it will give you courage, and you will live in spiritual health. Imagine what could happen if we were as concerned about our spiritual health as we were our physical health. The Word of God has so much healing power and has total power over our enemy. How did Jesus defeat the devil when the devil was tempting Him in the desert? It was through the recitation of the Word of God. Child of God, you have a sword in your mouth. Open it and speak to declare the Word of God and watch your enemy be subdued.
The last thing Paul points to isn’t a piece of our uniform, but it is our communication with our coach, with our leader. He says prayer is a must if we are going to do battle. In fact he says in Ephesians 6:18 that we are to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit at all times. Prayer is an every day must. It is the breathe we need, the communication we need. It provides us with an empowering to stay in the game.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Do you have each piece of your uniform on believer? If not, it is time to get fully dressed. We have a game to win!
