In this cosmic battle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness, God has given us armor to protect ourselves from the fiery darts of our enemy. To safely engage in this battle, we must take the time to do some simple things to protect ourselves with this armor.
Engage in the Spiritual Battle
Today we continue our series regarding the unseen struggle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness. So far in this series:
- We have tried to help everyone grasp the big idea that even though the spirit realm is unseen, it is very real. Jesus’s death and resurrection prove how real this spiritual battle really is.
- Last week I described Satan, our real and personal enemy. I explained how he attacks us with accusations, deception , and temptations.
For several weeks I have tried to open your eyes to the unseen battle raging all around you for souls – yours, your family’s, your neighbors’ and your co-workers’.
So far we haven’t talked about what it actually means to fight in this Cosmic Battle. I’ve described the battle and identified the enemy, but I’ve offered few specific application points on how we are to engage the enemy in battle – exactly what we can do.
Today all that changes. Today I want to demystify the battle and give you some very practical instruction in how to stand firm when under spiritual attack.
We have been given weapons for this war, but for far too long many of us have ignored those weapons and made spiritual war out to be for the super-spiritual or the crazy charismatics. Maybe you have felt that if you don’t pray to cast out demons, you don’t know how to actually fight in the spiritual war you now know is all around us.
While it’s true that we battle the unseen, we have a lot more weapons than just prayer and hope to use as we wage war. Our weapons are the types of things you might already be doing without realizing they prepare you for the battle.
Your Spiritual Weapons
Last week we looked at Ephesians 6:10-12, which told us that our power comes from God, that the Devil is real, and that we are in a spiritual battle. One of the big things to realize is that we aren’t fighting against people – not against a spouse or a difficult boss or those nefarious politicians. Our war is against the forces behind the conflicts – against the schemes and deception that put us at odds with other people.
Today’s scripture follows these verses and details the armor God gives us:
Ephesians 6:13-18 – 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.
These are the protectors God gives us so that every day we can practically and tangibly prepare for the battle by putting on His armor.
Belt of Truth
You may be a surprised that the first item on the list is a belt. Some of your Bibles might not even mention a belt, but say “Having girded your loins with truth….” What is this getting at?
At the time this letter was written, Roman soldiers wore belts around their robes. When it was time to fight, a soldier lifted the bottom of his robe off the ground and tucked it into his belt so he was ready to fight. That’s what was meant by “girding the loins.” The belt had an additional function: it held the shield and the sword. Yes, it seems odd to begin the description of the armor of God by mentioning a belt; but, as you can see, the belt was the crucial piece of equipment everything else depended on.
In the same way, Truth, the truth we know about God and about ourselves, is the crucial component we require in order to be prepared for spiritual war. Since we know Satan’s primary means of attack is through lies and deception, it only makes sense that truth is our most valuable and most basic defense. We don’t stand a chance in this battle if we don’t know the truth about God – how He works, what His character is, or how He relates to us.
We must know what’s true! That means we need to know what’s in the Bible. For instance, let’s say something bad happens to you and you don’t know the truth about God. Instead, you think God is the cause of every single incident on earth (good or bad), and you will blame God for the tragedy in your life. Meanwhile, Satan, who caused the chaos, laughs at your naiveté.
You also need to know God’s character so that when thoughts pop into your head, you are able to discern whether the thoughts sound like God or not.
- “You are such a screw-up! Fix that sin problem before coming back to my church.”
- NOT GOD.
- “Stop living for your own comfort. Life is hard, but it’s what I planned for you.”
- GOD.
- “You would look better, and people would care more about you if you lost a few more pounds.”
- NOT GOD.
It’s like when you hear a rumor about a good friend. You know instantly if it’s a lie or not because you know your friend. You know whether he or she would do or say something like that.
In the same way, we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of Truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the Truth and the Life.” If we know Jesus – if we have a relationship and walk closely with Him – then we will know the truth and can be confident we are wearing our Belt of Truth.
Breastplate of Righteousness
Next on the list is the Breastplate of Righteousness. The breastplate is a large piece of metal that covers the torso from the neck to the waist, protecting all the internal organs. Obviously, it is extremely important.
The Breastplate of Righteousness points to APPLIED truth. This means taking what you know to be true and obeying it. It means living out your beliefs, which removes opportunities for Satan to hurt you. If you never lie, he can’t catch you in a mess. If you don’t make foolish decisions with your time or your money or your diet, he can’t humiliate you with self-inflicted failure. If you treat people with kindness, you’re less likely to cause relational drama.
This essentially means avoiding the traps that give the Devil a foothold into your life. I don’t want to blame you if you have been facing some real spiritual warfare in your life, but if you have a problem with managing your money or trying to control any other area of your life, but your refuse to get help, guess what? You are making it easy for the Devil to attack you and wound you with a critical blow. You are opening yourself up for attack by failing to put on your Breastplate of Righteousness.
While some people think it’s pharisaical to tell people to live a holy life, free of sin, it actually is the basis for protection in the spiritual war we find ourselves in. Yes, God judges us on the righteousness we receive from Jesus Christ when we put our faith in Him. However, our own willingness to obey God and follow His commands is how we put on the Breastplate of Righteousness God offers to us each new day.
Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
As a kid, I always thought this piece of armor was way less cool than the rest. Shoes. Isn’t that obvious? Then I came across something that described the shoes of Roman soldiers. They were the first to put spikes on the bottoms of their sandals. Also, their sandals were purposely laced all the way up their calves. The spikes, combined with the greater connection up their legs gave them better traction in battle.
It works like this. Suppose you put a truck with a huge engine – one that goes 100 miles per hour in five seconds – in mud. If it can’t grab any traction, it doesn’t matter how fast it can go, it’s not going anywhere! In the same way, a strong, battle-tested soldier was useless if his flat-bottomed shoes slid all over the sandy ground in hand-to-hand combat.
That’s the image described here. If you are to stand your ground – firm and immovable – you need cleats, and the cleats that give you the traction you need are the Gospel of Peace. Your whole foundation is rooted in:
- your understanding of God’s grace
- the forgiveness we find in Jesus
- God’s adoption of you into His family through no effort or accomplishment of your own but solely because of His love for you.
While you are in combat, your feet are grounded in the knowledge that ultimately the assured PEACE of God will be experienced in its fullness. Understanding this Gospel and sharing it with others gives you the firm footing that will keep the enemy from pushing you around. Remember, our strength is found in the Lord. If you don’t even have a relationship with Him, you’re on slippery footing! Your firm footing must be set upon the Rock, Jesus Christ, and the peace that comes from a relationship with Him.
Shield of Faith
Next on the list is the Shield of Faith. This probably refers to the type of shield used by Roman soldiers at the time. It was attached to the belt and was large enough to protect most of a soldier’s body. It was the first line of defense against the enemies’ attacks, especially against the common attack of the day – arrows with the tips set on fire.
We see exactly the same imagery in the tactics of our Enemy. His lies, accusations and temptations are like fiery darts coming at us! Just like soldiers, we need our faith to act as a shield to protect us from those lies and actually extinguish them. Our first line of defense when we are attacked by lies is our rock-solid faith in Jesus.
Part of the Enemy’s hope is that as the fiery darts come our way we will take our eyes off Jesus and, instead, focus on the darts, the trials, the lies, the conflict. Then, while we’re not looking – while we set down our shields to look at the fiery arrow – he shoots another, wounding us deeply.
If our faith is unshakeable, though, and we have absolute confidence that we will win this battle, then no lie or temptation or accusation will cause us to lose sight of God. No attack, no matter how hard we may take it, will have the power to overtake us if we have relentless faith in God’s promise to us. Sometimes in the storms – in the tough times, in the heat of the battle – we feel like we don’t have much left to fight with. Remember, if we hold onto faith and keep our eyes on our God rather than our problems, then we WILL survive and win!
Helmet of Salvation
The Helmet of Salvation protects our heads and our minds. A blow to the head can easily be fatal, and so helmets were of absolute importance in battle. It’s interesting to note here that the helmet is SALVATION. What covers over your mind and what you believe is your very salvation. This makes total sense because our salvation is not something we fight for, or something we earn, or something we have to pass a test to achieve. Our salvation is based purely on our BELIEF that Jesus came to earth and died for us to forgive us of our sins.
With that belief, we guard our minds and protect ourselves from the alternative beliefs the Devil tries to make us fall for. Satan tries to draw us toward idols and make us believe he can show us all sorts of things to give us true and lasting happiness. We hold to our single belief that salvation and true, eternal peace come only from the Lord. As we hold on to that belief, the allure of all the false beliefs Satan tries to wave in front of us all falls short.
Sword of the Spirit
Finally, we are given a single offensive weapon that can do damage to our enemy. This is not a weapon of our strength, but comes into use when we speak God’s words to our adversary. It is the message of the Gospel of Jesus, the promises we find in scripture, and the hope we have for when we win our victory and the battle ends.
Satan doesn’t want to hear about his soon-coming defeat! He doesn’t want to hear that we know where our power comes from or that we believe the promises God has given to us. When we remind him “we are more than conquerors” and “greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world” it lands a blow against the powers of the dark world who are trying to push us back. When we pray the blessings of God over our lives and remind ourselves that we are God’s beloved children, our Enemy wants to slink away.
The next time you feel that you are facing some weird feelings of guilt of shame, or that nothing you are doing actually matters, speak the words of scripture over your life. Allow the Word of God, which is alive and active, to pierce your enemy and free you from those lies.
Application
I want you to see today that fighting in this spiritual war doesn’t require some super-spiritual actions on your part. It’s as simple as putting on the armor God has made available to you, and you put on this armor when you live out your faith in basic, yet profoundly effective ways simply by:
- Reading your Bible and learning the truth about God;
- Living in relationship with Jesus and knowing His voice;
- Holding onto your faith in God even under the pressure of attack;
- Believing that your salvation comes from God alone;
- Attacking the lies and the strongholds of the Kingdom of Darkness through the power that comes from the very words of God.
This is how you clothe yourself in every piece of equipment I have talked about today.
How foolish you would be to decline the offer to take up God’s armor, especially knowing that there is a real enemy whose mission is to destroy you.
- You open yourselves up to attack if you are too lazy or unwilling to spend the time it takes to put on this armor in preparation for the battle..
- You can be easily deceived by lies and led astray if you never take the time to fasten your Belt of Truth, to learn the truth about God from His Word.
- You’ll experience pain and heartache if you fail to strap on your Breastplate of Righteousness. If you fail to obey God, you leave your heart exposed to the consequences of your sinful choices.
- If you never put on your Shoes of the Gospel of Truth, and fail to grab hold of the Good News of Jesus, you’ll never find the footing you need to fight in God’s strength.
- If you put your faith in anything other than Jesus and the power of God, you are essentially laying down your shield, removing your helmet, and letting the enemy shoot his darts right at you.
- And if you never learn what God’s word says for your life, you lose the opportunity to strike a devastating blow with your sword to make the enemy leave you alone.
Pray in the Spirit
Before I wrap up this message, I must remind you of the final imperative Paul gives to us all:
Ephesians 6:18 – And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Yes, we have armor to put on to defend ourselves; and yes, we have the Word of God to fight back. Even more than that, though, we have access to the Holy Spirit who constantly intercedes for us and who is answering our prayers. Yes, God answers our prayers, and He wants us to bring all our needs to Him, but that’s a message for another day. Suffice it to say that our final weapon of war – although it was not given a piece of armor to represent it – is the power of prayer and direct access to God.
Conclusion
If we are to win these battles, we must follow the example set by our leader, King Jesus, who the prophet Isaiah tells us has already put on this very armor:
Isaiah 59:15-17 – Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice…. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head.
Think about that for a moment – this very armor we are instructed to wear is exactly what Jesus himself has put on as He leads us into battle! He now makes this same armor available to each of us – His followers. This is why we can have such hope and expectation for victory. The battle isn’t just up to us and our strength. We are strengthened by God, and we never fight alone! As we put on this Armor of God, we are simply joining Christians everywhere who hold the fort as the Kingdom of God advances around this world.
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