Got Your Armor On?

My team gets to have home church on Sunday mornings!!! This is a really sweet time where one of us gets to share a word the Lord places on our heart. This last week I got to share! The Lord really pressed the armor of God on my heart. I had done a really cool deep dive during my beginning time in Romania. I learned how we play a part in walking our armor out! The weapons that the Lord has given us are soooo cool and soooo powerful if you know how to use them! Let’s go!!! The armor of God consists of supernatural weapons with divine power that the Lord has given

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.“

There are 6 items that come together to cover you in the spiritual realm. I use to think that you just pray it on yourself and you are set to go. I have learned that this is not the case. Actually putting on your armor is not a passive act. There is action involved. Just as we are called to walk our salvation out, we are called to walk our armor out in order to protect ourselves. It can actually be rendered useless if we don’t activate the gifts we have been given. I want to walk you through each piece and what it can look like to walk in your armor.

“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 firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” Ephesians 6:13-18

Belt of Truth
In the Roman military armor, the belt went on first to hold the other pieces of armor up as well as the soldiers weapons. It created the foundation of the armor. In our armor, truth holds everything in place. When you know who God is and who you are to him, then you have a solid foundation for all your other pieces of armor. When you hold everything together with truth (God’s word), it is held firmly. The belt worn snuggly against the soldier’s body, actually supported their core as well. Knowing the truth strengthens you from within. You have to know the truth and seek it daily. Without that, you have no foundation to base your armor on. What is the truth? There is a lot of things that are true about God and just true…

 “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
1 John 4:9

“Therefore since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest, over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10: 19-23 

It is important that we are in the Bible daily and know what the truth is. Know your God, know his word, and know who you are. 

Breastplate of Righteousness
This piece of armor is vital. It protects major organs that are needed to sustain life. If you do not have the breastplate then you are really vulnerable and you become really easy to attack. In our armor, you guard your heart with righteousness. What does that mean? It is simply…

“walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Ephesians 4:1).”

We are called to live a righteous lifestyle and can because we are righteous in the eyes of God after salvation. That is part of the truth. It’s a gift we have unwrapped and have to choose to open it and to use. Putting on righteousness means that we walk in an honorable and pleasing lifestyle to the Lord in order to not open up your heart to sin. What does that look?

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15) 

If we don’t strive for these things, we can become easy prey to satan. He can get into our heart and mind. Also, ask the Lord to help you walk in righteousness and what that looks like personally. It is not easy to actively pursue righteousness. However, if we try to walk the fence we only get pulled to the wrong side. We have to strive for righteousness and choose these attributes everyday. It also poses the question of “what are the holes in your armor?” What causes you to not walk in righteousness or holiness? 

Shoes of Peace
The shoes the Romans soldiers wore actually had spikes that went into the ground. This allowed them to dig in during the battle so they wouldn’t be shaken against their opponent. This is what the shoes of peace do! The shoes we get to wear are the gospel! The peace that comes from knowing the gospel equips you to stand firm because you are fighting from victory. Death was defeated and Satan has already lost. We don’t have to defend the gospel because of the power it already carries! That secureness gives us peace. The confidence we can rest in, gives us boldness to share the gospel and walk into dark situations. Romans 8:31 says,

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Know the power of the gospel and let it speak for itself. Be bold and have confidence to walk into the hard things because Satan can’t win!

Helmet of Salvation
One blow to your mind can take you out on so many different levels. The Roman soldiers knew this and that is why they wore helmets. You have to protect your mind! I heard this concept the other day that went kinda like this… a one 10 second lie could rob 5 hours of your day. Salvation is the act of being delivered or pulled from sin and the consequences of it, which was death. It is a gift that we cannot earn but just have to receive. It is a gift that Satan cannot touch and we have assurance in it.

“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God (Jesus) protects him (us), and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18).” 

If we understand our salvation, we can protect our minds from the sinful nature that surrounds us and tries to encompass our minds. With the helmet…

 “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:5)” 

Satan knows that he has been defeated but still tries to knock our helmets off. We have to secure them. We are not of this world but in it. We cannot conform to it and must daily renew our minds so we know what is of God (Romans 12:2). We have to take our thoughts captive and examine them against the truth of God.

Shield of Faith 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1).”

The shield is a first line of defense for a soldier. When flaming darts (lies or accusations) start flying the soldier doesn’t have to fear because he has the shield. Faith is the confidence or trust in what you believe. The bible calls us to take up the shield of faith.When you choose to believe in what God says and what he will do, you are using your shield. It is an active task.

 “Faith recognizes the deceptiveness of his tactics and quickly extinguishes the arrows. When Satan accuses us, faith chooses to believe.” 

Faith chooses to believe that you have a Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind instead of fear (1 Tim 1:7). Faith sees the mistake you made but chooses not to condemn because there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).” Also, when the darts start flying our shields are large enough to cover others as well. We can block the dart headed towards others by speaking life into them and call out the things we see that are not part of their identity. 

Sword of the Spirit
The sword of the Spirit is the offensive weapon we have in our arsenal.

 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”         Hebrews 4:12

 It is a powerful weapon! When Jesus was tempted, in Matthew 4, he combatted Satan with scripture. We will struggle to fight against Satan if we do not have knowledge of scripture. We have to be diligent in reading the word and knowing what God says. Sharpen your sword and be ready to use it at a moment’s notice. 

We have to be so diligent in protecting ourselves by putting on the armor of God and standing firm in the foundation the Lord has instilled in us. We have to walk theses weapons out daily. If not Satan will attack because he only knows how to do that. He is really crafty and knows these weapons we were given. If Satan knows our weapons, do you?

Story Time!  
I felt like we should do home church at our favorite coffee shop. When we first got to our tiny city in Turkey we went on the hunt for a cute coffee shop we could vibe out at. We found one! At least one of us has been going basically everyday. We have made friends with the owners and their kids, the workers, and have even been in some of their promotional videos for social media. 

Anyway we went there and I taught off the notes from this blog post. After my team did a little activation where we designed our own armor and drew it out! During this time one of the workers who was Muslim sat down and asked what we were doing. Abigail got to explain that we are drawing the armor of God. She said she wanted to as well! Then the owner came in and wanted to take a picture with us and our art work. He then proceeded to post it on Instagram! We got the armor of God out on the web! Yessss Lord!  I’ll include the pictures of our armor because it’s super cute and a really awesome reminder!!!

Love,
Morgan Kate