WE ARE AT WAR. Every day, every moment. Who are we fighting? Satan. Who will help us fight? God. How do we fight? Well I'm glad you asked lol :) We need to train for this fight like it's the biggest fight of our lives! We need to train for this fight like we are being taught by Jackie Chan, the best of the best! We need to put on the full armor of God. Picture that you are in the movie Karate Kid and you have just begun training. Are you ready?
watch this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AlEspfsnUw
Eph. 6 says, "Be STRONG in the Lord and in his MIGHTY power." Be STRONG! I love the part in Karate Kid when Jaden Smith fights Jackie Chan for the first time. Jackie Chan says to him, "Strong arms!" WE HAVE TO BE STRONG TO FIGHT! We have to be confident! We have to believe in ourselves! And we have to believe in our trainer. Who is our trainer? God, Jesus, Paul, the Holy Spirit, fellow Christians. We have several!
There is POWER in the Lord. This concept gets lost in the modern church for some reason. But you can do AMAZING things through Christ's power inside of you! Do you believe it? BELIEVE it!
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you can TAKE YOUR STAND against the devil’s schemes." Satan's armies are lined up and ready to fight. Are you ready? Do you have what it takes? But don't try to do it in your own strength. You CANNOT take on a heavenly being in your own strength. YOU NEED JESUS!
"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." We are fighting angels! Fallen angels, that is. Do you REALIZE how powerful they are? Every time someone in the Bible saw an angel they were terrified! God's angels had to constantly tell people, "Do not be afraid." But the angels we should be afraid of are Satan's. Satan and his demons ARE REAL. They exist. And they are incredibly powerful. You are fighting against a very, very capable adversary. And he will kick your but if you are not prepared. So how do we prepare?
"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." That's pretty dramatic language don't you think? "Stand your ground." Like Satan might knock us over or something. HE DOES. He knocks us over all the time. Depression for example is Satan knocking us down. Anytime he can get us to lie, to feel anger at another person, he knocks us down, and laughs. Don't let him knock you down! STAND YOUR GROUND! BE STRONG!
"Stand FIRM then, with the belt of TRUTH buckled around your waist." TRUTH is the first thing that Paul lists. Why? Because Satan's first weapon is lies. He tries to infect our minds with a million lies. DON'T TAKE THE BAIT! Like the Sirens call from the island, he tries to draw us into the darkness. DON'T LET HIM! Stay in the light. REMEMBER, YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD. Satan cannot have power over you unless you let him!
"GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THEN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD."
We also need to stand firm "with the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS in place." Why is righteousness key? Because if we are not living righteously Satan does have logical warfare against us. He starts to bring up any sin we ever committed right? That is the main reason to live holy lives, so as to not give Satan ammunition to use against us! He knows EVERYTHING about us. He IS watching us EVERY DAY. He knows our weak points. He KNOWS our Achilles heal. And he is ready at the first opportunity to sling our sins in our faces. Don't let him. Live righteous and blameless lives, through the power of Christ within you!
"And with your FEET fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of PEACE." We are to be ACTIVE in going and sharing our faith! Why?
Philemon 1:6 says, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a
full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." We are to have our "feet fitted with the readiness" to share the gospel because that will increase our JOY. We will then know FULLY "every good thing we have in Christ." Also why does Paul emphasize that it is the gospel of "peace?"
2 Cor. 5 says, "All this is from God, who RECONCILED us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world TO HIMSELF in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to US the message of reconciliation."
God sent Jesus TO MAKE PEACE between man and himself. And he wants us to TELL THE WORLD! It is not about how much we can to impress God. The message of the gospel is that, "While we were STILL sinners Christ died for us." God does not care what sins we have, are and will commit. He LOVES us! That was why he sent his son to die for us! This is GOOD NEWS indeed yes? And it is news of PEACE. God and man can NOW be at peace.
Also, when God comes inside of us and regenerates us we can then have PEACE with those around us. The reconciliation is both vertical, between us and God, and horizontal, between us and everyone around us. PRAISE GOD!
"In addition to all this, take up the shield of FAITH, with which you can extinguish all the FLAMMING arrows of the evil one." Satan shoots FLAMMING arrows at us all day, every day, whether we want to recognize that they are from him or not. Why is it the shield FAITH? Because when Satan is trying to take us down WE HAVE TO BELIEVE it is NOT God that is against us. God says, "For I know the plans I have to you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." Do we really believe this? How many of us have a faulty view of God? What we SHOULD believe about Satan, we believe about God. Yes we do have a very powerful being set against us, but it is NOT God, it is SATAN. We need to have faith that God loves us, despite what we are going through. He does NOT want to harm us. Satan does. Remember that. :)
Lastly, "Take the helmet of SALVATION and the sword of the SPIRIT, which is the WORD of God." The Helmet of Salvation is significant is that it is on our head, over our minds. If we firmly believe that WE ARE SAVED, any lies that Satan tries to bring against us that we are worthless would be deflected. Any attempt on his part to make us think God does not love us, would not get past our defense of KNOWING that we are a child of God. God has adopted us as his own and HE LOVES US!
Secondly, the Sword of Spirit, which is the Word of God, is significant because that is what Jesus used to defeat Satan in the wilderness when Satan tried to tempt Jesus with power, comfort and fame. He spoke a verse ALOUD to combat each temptation. In doing this he was setting an example for us of what we need to do when Satan tries to attack or tempt us. Joyce Meyer said once, "When the devil tempts me to stay angry, when he tempts me to feel sorry for myself, I say, 'Devil, I'm NOT going there! I've been there and I don't want to be there anymore!" Amen? She talks a lot about the importance of speaking scripture aloud to make Satan flee. Why does it make him flee? Look at the following verse:
Heb. 4:12 says, "For the word of God is LIVING and ACTIVE. Sharper than any double-edged sword,
it PENETRATES even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow."
God's word is POWERFUL! Contrary to what most believe, the Bible is NOT JUST a history book. It is the living and active word of God. IT IS ALIVE!
SO USE IT! That is your most POWERFUL, tangible weapon against Satan. Write verses on post it notes and put them ALL over your house! Who cares if your family thinks you're crazy lol. Put them in your car! Put them everywhere so that you can have something to say aloud to Satan when he starts trying to get into your head and tell you lies!
May God protect you and watch over you this week! And may HE make you STRONGER and STRONGER every day!
GOD BLESS! :)
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