Able Church Message
Learning to Use the Armor of God
We are continuing to look at the armor of God as a part of our messages on Fear, Worry and Anxiety. As we said last week, our battle against fear, worry, and anxious thoughts are all a part of the bigger war against our enemy satan. Ephesians 6:13 (CEV) So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm.
God’s word tells us to put on all the armor of his supply, so we are able to defend ourselves and in the end, left standing strong. God has supplied us with this armor described and we are told not put on half of it or most of it but all of it. We wouldn’t expect to go out into battle anywhere without utilizing everything availed to us to win the battle and here too with our spiritual warfare we need the full complement of armor all the more. We shouldn’t be naive in how scripture tells us satan comes at us as a roaring lion. But, in our favor, we have everything at our disposal to be well-equipped lion hunters and therefore have what it takes to defeat him.
The armor we have includes many pieces of defense and even one piece for sure of an offensive weapon. Let’s list those and a brief description.
Shoes of Peace – Ephesians 6:15 (NLT) 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
A soldier needs good shoes when fighting the good fight. But what does these shoes represent? Peace in the life of the believer. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and he throws out anything and everything to get us discouraged. The Good News mentioned here in this scripture is the gospel of peace that we all need in our life to experience.
Jesus says this in John 14:27 (NKJV) about peace – Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The shoes of peace is a spiritual defensive weapon to reminder to us that the only way to find peace and freedom from worry and anxiousness is to cling to Christ and allow Him to hold us up in the midst of this troubled world we all live in.
Shield of Faith – Ephesians 6:16 (NLT) 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.
A soldier of Jesus’ day carried a shield into battle that would protect a soldier of arrows or anything that was assaulting him. A shield is mentioned in God’s armor because we too need a shield of faith to protect ourselves from the lies Satan is going to shoot our way.
Without our shield of faith, we can fall victim to those lies and become easy prey to his tactics. But we know that faith comes from hearing the word of God, so we exercise our understanding of God’s word and stand strong with our faith when fear, worry and anxious thoughts come our way.
Helmet of Salvation – Ephesians 6:17 (NLT) Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Every believer needs to guard his mind against the enemy who uses things like doubt, despair, and discouragement to bring on the fear and anxiety we battle continually.
But as said in 2 Corinthians 10:5 when we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ – the victory is ours.
The Sword or Word of God – When we are fighting the battle over fear, worry and anxiety, the most effective weapon that God has given to us as believers is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Matthew 4:4 (NKJV) says that Jesus answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” And here we have an example God provides for us. We must fight the battle in the same way Jesus did – calling on the word of God to overcome fear, worry and anxiety.
These are just some of the places we’ll be visiting in our discussion at Able Church this week but remember for each of us, our starting point in being equipped to do battle is to know who our commander and chief is and his name is Jesus.
God bless and remember if you need someone to pray with or understand Jesus better with please contact us at The Able Church 920-497-8022.
If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, I encourage you do that today. Pray this simple prayer – Jesus I know I’m a sinner and I need the forgiveness your blood gives me when you went to the cross. Please cleanse me of my sins and be my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for you every day going forward in Jesus’ name – Amen.