Today, we continue to look at the remaining weapons that the apostle Paul lists in this passage (Ephesians 6:10-20), weapons which are essential for enabling us to bring honor to God as we live out our Christian faith.
Helmet of Salvation
One of Satan's biggest lies is to cause us to doubt that we really belong to Jesus Christ. Another "biggie" is to cause us to believe that there is little we can do to further God's Kingdom. This is why it is imperative for us to remember two truths:
1. Once we have embraced Jesus as our Savior, we are His, forever and ever. Regardless of our emotional state at the moment, we are His. Regardless of how we wander, we are His. Regardless of the mistakes we make, He is waiting for us to turn back to Him in confession and deep repentance. He is waiting with open arms.
2. Every Christian is crucial to God's plan to bring Him glory. There is no such thing as an insignificant Christian. In fact, if Satan is slamming you up against a wall, very likely God wants to use you in a powerful way, and this is why Satan is opposing you so greatly. Never believe that you are insignificant. Some of you reading this may have physical limitations and believe that, because of that, you are finished, done, washed up. Well, my dear, that is a lie. As long as you can think, you can pray. We'll talk more about that later in this post. Get to praying, as often as you can. Satan hates that.
So, don't let Satan "get inside your head" about this and discourage you! Put on that helmet of salvation every day. You are a child of the King, a resplendent daughter (or son)! Get out there and GLEAM!
Sword of the Spirit - God's Word
Psalm 119:89-120
I was just reading this passage and I encourage you to go read it also. The Psalmist is painting a beautiful picture of how much God's written Word means to him. (Of course, at that time, the only written word he had was the Old Testament law, which is why he constantly refers to "your law".)
In Hebrews 4:12, the writer (whom many believe to be Paul, others Luke or James...it's disputed who the author was) tells us straight up how powerful God's written Word is:
"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart."
(Holman Christian Standard Bible)
The Bible is alive. How is that possible? What the writer is saying here is that the Bible can cause cataclysmic change in people's lives when they read it, just as if it were a living person.
In the Ephesians passage, Paul says that the Bible is the sword of the Holy Spirit.
So, the living Holy Spirit, the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity, uses this mighty sword to change lives. How amazing!
I love auto-biographies about how the word of God changed people. These are folks who were living lives faaaaaaarrrr away from God. But then, they began to read the Holy Bible and the Holy Spirit pierced their hearts with that mighty sword! See Sources: below to find some of my favorite books in which the authors testify to how God's Word radically changed their lives forever.
Christian, do not neglect the daily reading of this Book. Read it prayerfully and reverently and allow the Holy Spirit to change your life through the reading. The Bible is God's personal, special message to us, His Children. Don't under-utilize this powerful weapon, this "weapon of mass instruction"!
Prayer
How do you view prayer? In a previous post, I went into great detail about this topic and I won't rehash it here. But, please remember that prayer is one of your most powerful weapons, Christian - - a "super-weapon", if you will! Paul began this dissertation of spiritual weapons with Truth and ended it with Prayer. Bookend and bookend.
One thing I want you to notice here is that Paul, as a minister of the gospel, asks the Ephesians to pray for him, specifically that he would be given the necessary boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as he should. This is what every godly minister of the gospel hopes that his congregants will pray for him (vs. 19-20). Do you pray for your godly pastor? Please do! It matters. Boldly proclaiming the truth of the Word of God is a fearsome responsibility. Our godly men in the pulpit need all the prayer and support they can get. It always touches my heart when our pastor prays right before his sermon and asks the Holy Spirit to guide his words and not to let him stand in the way of what the Holy Spirit wants to say through him. I appreciate my pastor and hope that you appreciate yours too. If you don't, pray harder for him and about what you can do to support him. He is God's man for your church at this time and needs your prayers.
Love
Well, love is not mentioned in this passage, but I mention it here because love is the MOST super-weapon. In another letter of Paul's (to the Corinthians - - 1Cor. 13) he devotes a whole chapter to the pre-eminence of love. Jesus called love "the greatest commandment" in Matthew 22:36-40. See John 13:34-35.
Read these passages and reflect on how love should be in everything we do. No matter what spiritual weapon we wield, we should cover it in love. Just as faith without works is dead (James 2:14), wielding these weapons of spiritual warfare is useless, without love.
We'll talk more about love in a later post.
So, there you have them. "Put them on" every day so that you can walk in spiritual victory! Remember that The Message version tells us that we are engaged in a life and death fight to the finish. So, get out there and "smoke 'em (Satan's spiritual forces in high places)!"
"But, thank God! He gives us the victory over sin and death, through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Oh Father God, thank you for the precious instruction You give us in Your holy Word. Thank you for telling us how to please, honor, glorify, magnify You. Thank you for these weapons, with which we can claim victory over the Evil One, our Adversary. Thank you that "we can do all things through Christ our Savior, who gives us strength." Help us to be dedicated to use these weapons daily and throughout the day. Help us to remember to love You, and to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. We love You, Lord! In Jesus' name, amen.
Sources:
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, by Nabeel Qureshi
Out of a Far Country, by Christopher Yuan
The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel
and the one I'm reading now...
Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms, by Holly Ordway
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