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……..
ARMOR OF GOD
I had a very heavy conversation with a gentleman going through a nasty divorce last week and he was trying to understand how it was possible as a Christian to not hate the person that was causing him the most pain he has ever experienced before in his entire life; his wife. I told him that the only way that I was able to get through my situation and not hate everyone involved that spoke lies, prevented me from seeing my kids or exaggerated truth to no end, was to fully understand the “Armor of God”. Being confronted with the truth of my sin was bad enough but when it was piled on to no end, it was overwhelming. He told me that he did not believe in spiritual warfare, and I had to share with him the first time that I realized it was not only real but that it is EVERYWHERE.
Spiritual Warfare is Alive and Well
I believe that this world could be a different place if people understood that most of the problems in this life, especially those directed towards Christians, come from the attack on us from the war raging in heaven over our families, our souls and our salvation. The problem is we don’t believe that this war exists, and we spend our life walking around in the middle of a battle that we don’t even know is happening. Let me explain to you how I knew unequivocally that this war is real by sharing a story from my personal life.
During the worst time of my life, I remember the pastor explained to me that the only way I was going to make it through this was going to understand that I was not allowed as a believer to hate anyone. We are supposed to love the unlovable. He went on to say that I was supposed to pray for those who persecute me (Matthew 5:44) and I was supposed to especially pray for the spiritual warfare that was going on against my family (Ephesians 6:10-20). That was particularly hard for me, because at the time I was “prevented” from seeing my children and I had to be subjected to one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I was told that I could only see my children under the supervision of a third-party, and that was the only way that I was “allowed” to see them. What made it even more humbling was that it wasn’t “mandated” and yet I found myself at the will of human control and power. I’ll never forget the first time I saw my children in that setting after weeks of not seeing them at all. All I got was one hour. And at that hour my kids probably cried for at least half of it. The worst part came at the end. I prayed for my children, and I prayed that God would protect them and keep them safe through this ordeal. Once they got in the car and left, I was pulled aside, and I was told that “I could no longer pray for my children”, and that “this wasn’t a place of worship”. I’ll never forget what came over me. Immediately, my response came out of my mouth and it had to come from God above. I said “I will continue to pray for my children as much as I want to and I can’t think of a place that needs more prayer than this place right here”. You can image how that went over. From that day forward, I began to pray for the people that work there, the people that were “in control” of how and when I get to see my kids and who those illegitimately were preventing me from seeing my children. Something amazing began to happen as the people who once were so against me and were telling me that I’d be in big trouble if I continue to pray for my children, became some of my biggest advocate and helped me get out of this horrible situation that I would not wish on any human being. That situation was so impactful to me and proved to me, without a shadow of a doubt that spiritual warfare does exist AND that God is in control of all things. so much so that I added a tatoo of the armor of God to my arm so that I would never forget it. You do not need to fight that battle with words, actions, fights, or any other sort of earthly weapon. If you learn how to fight With the Armor of God, you will not only see that the battle belongs to God, but it also will be won by him eventually. Believe it. So the question is how do you like God fight your battles?
How to fight the battle
I wrote a blog about this time in my life quite a while ago explaining what I had learned and what I knew to be true about the Armor of God you can read more about that here. For now, I’d like to cover what I feel are the three most important points of the Armor of God. While they are all important, I learned that having the “breastplate of righteousness” in your life is huge. There is a lot of scripture that tells you that if you are in opposition to God, are currently sinning against him, and are living a life that does not honor him, he cannot answer your prayers (Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 28:9, psalm 66:18, Proverbs 1:29-29, Isaiah 59:2, James 4:3). Notice that the Bible says “righteous” and not perfect. The Bible defines a righteous man as someone who fears the Lord and repents to God of his sins (Psalm 112). I knew that I could not go back the life I led and the sins I used to commit and still expect God to answer my prayers. That leads me to the next important piece that HAS to be in place in your life.
The “Shield of faith” for sure is one of the most important pieces of the armor of God. The lord says a double minded man is good for nothing and that he should expect nothing from God (James 1:8). This is where I began to pray with a purpose and truly believe that God can do anything he wants while for the first time in my life believing it. I could share tons of stories in this alone but if you pray for something and then thank God as if he has already answered that prayer, miracles happen. Try it and believe it.
Maybe the most important element is the only weapon that God says we have against the evil one. The “Sword of the Spirit” is the word of God. And if we don’t read the Bible and understand it how can we fend off the evil attacks and the “flaming darts” of the devil and his angels? Jesus gave us the best example of this when He was tempted in the dessert by the devil. Each scheme that the devil threw at Jesus was met with “it is written” and Jesus used the word of God and Old Testament scripture to slay the evil one (Matthew 4:11). We can do the same. This was true for me when the devil screamed in my ear that “you will never see your kids again” or later on when family members went on record saying “he should never have any custody of these kids”. Such things are a sin against God himself and his order for the family (Genesis 27:19, Deuteronomy 21:17, Ephesians 6:1-3, psalm 103:13, Ephesians 5:23 & 25-30, Colossians 3:20, mark 10:44) and so many more ….) and God would not allow this to happen to a man who had given his life to Christ. I prayed, I believed. I repented and God answered my prayers. I now enjoy tons of time with my kids and the lies of the evil one were crushed. What the evil one wanted to use for bad, God used for good! That is the power of the Armor of God!
Summary
The summary for this is simple. All Gods word proves true. He cannot lie and if we lead a life that honors and obeys Him, He will fight for us just like any parent would for their children. He will not abandon us. He will not forsake us. And he will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). God can right any wrong and forgive any sin if we follow Him according to His law and remember always that the battle has already be won by God (Genesis 3:15)!
For more details on the Armor of God Biblical teaching check out this 6 part series from Tony EVANS here.
