2010 Daily Bread - Ephesians 6
The Armor of God
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For 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. 13Therefore 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. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And 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.
As Paul concludes his practical applications of living a life worthy of the Gospel we have been called to, he finishes with this charge. He tells the Ephesians that their battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers of this present darkness. We would call this a spiritual battle.
As we seek to be effective Christians in the world being salt and light there will be opposition in the spiritual realm. The danger in talking like this is we often get spooked out by talk of the devil and other forces evil. Movies like the Exorcist have in general “freaked us out” when it comes to matter regarding our common enemy as believers.
This isn’t something someone made up but a reality this is talked about throughout the bible from the beginning in the book of Genesis, when the Fall is described in Genesis 3, to the Book of Revelation where the final defeat of Satan and all the spiritual forces of darkness is final.
So rather than being afraid or intimidated by forces of evil including the devil himself, we are told to take up the full armor of God. Meaning there are ways to protect ourselves from spiritual attack and actually go on the offensive. To the key weapons we have is praying in the Spirit and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. It would make sense if we are in a spiritual battle we would need spiritual weapons. As we pray in the power of the Spirit we are able to battle off temptation and other spiritual attack. As we correctly learn how to use the Word of God it can be sword that we can attack false arguments and schemes with.
The most effective tool our enemy has is lies. He uses lies to get us to rationalize and ultimately as we buy into his lies in our minds we make decisions that open ourselves to the influence of the evil one. But as we are equipped with the truth we can use the truth to set us free on all occasions.
This is why I am passionate about getting people into God’s Word on a daily basis and also memorizing the bible. It is of inestimable value as we seek to live effective lives where we can be of influence for good and not evil. Paul was certainly a huge target of the enemy as, Satan knew that Paul was influence many to come from the darkness into the glorious light of Christ.
Even in our Lord’s prayer we say, Deliver us from Evil. In fact another version is deliver us from the evil one. The two are one in the same but as we pray for deliverance and rely on God’s Word we have nothing to fear!
Jesus set us apart as we pray in the Spirit and take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Protect us from the enemy as we rely on your precious promises. In Your name we pray, Amen.
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For 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. 13Therefore 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. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And 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.
As Paul concludes his practical applications of living a life worthy of the Gospel we have been called to, he finishes with this charge. He tells the Ephesians that their battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers of this present darkness. We would call this a spiritual battle.
As we seek to be effective Christians in the world being salt and light there will be opposition in the spiritual realm. The danger in talking like this is we often get spooked out by talk of the devil and other forces evil. Movies like the Exorcist have in general “freaked us out” when it comes to matter regarding our common enemy as believers.
This isn’t something someone made up but a reality this is talked about throughout the bible from the beginning in the book of Genesis, when the Fall is described in Genesis 3, to the Book of Revelation where the final defeat of Satan and all the spiritual forces of darkness is final.
So rather than being afraid or intimidated by forces of evil including the devil himself, we are told to take up the full armor of God. Meaning there are ways to protect ourselves from spiritual attack and actually go on the offensive. To the key weapons we have is praying in the Spirit and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. It would make sense if we are in a spiritual battle we would need spiritual weapons. As we pray in the power of the Spirit we are able to battle off temptation and other spiritual attack. As we correctly learn how to use the Word of God it can be sword that we can attack false arguments and schemes with.
The most effective tool our enemy has is lies. He uses lies to get us to rationalize and ultimately as we buy into his lies in our minds we make decisions that open ourselves to the influence of the evil one. But as we are equipped with the truth we can use the truth to set us free on all occasions.
This is why I am passionate about getting people into God’s Word on a daily basis and also memorizing the bible. It is of inestimable value as we seek to live effective lives where we can be of influence for good and not evil. Paul was certainly a huge target of the enemy as, Satan knew that Paul was influence many to come from the darkness into the glorious light of Christ.
Even in our Lord’s prayer we say, Deliver us from Evil. In fact another version is deliver us from the evil one. The two are one in the same but as we pray for deliverance and rely on God’s Word we have nothing to fear!
Jesus set us apart as we pray in the Spirit and take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Protect us from the enemy as we rely on your precious promises. In Your name we pray, Amen.
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