The Armour of God

 

Image: Unsplash

I was watching Pilgrim's Progress the animated version recently and I especially loved how they visualised Christian's battle with the dragon. It is entertaining and it drives home how important the armour of God is. Here is a passage from something else I am writing on this topic: 

“To stand a chance in this spiritual war we must wear the armour of God. At the time that I am writing this chapter, I have been reading the Iliad, which recounts the famous battle of Troy. Every time a soldier prepares to go out to battle, he places on his armour so that he will not be defenceless. No matter how skilled the warrior is he does not go to war without his armour, otherwise he is vulnerable to attacks from the enemy. In one of the scenes Homer describes, a warrior throws their spear at the hero, Hector, and it says that the spear hit him straight in the head, where his helmet took the full force of the projectile. This is what good armour does.   

I know many people believe you should pray on the armour every day, and this is good to do. If you do this, don’t let anything I say dissuade you from continuing this practice, because it will reinforce in your life the importance of living as God wants us to live. But I do not think this is Paul’s implication from the passage. Rather every aspect of the armour of God is an aspect of how we should live our Christian lives to frustrate the Devil’s schemes. We should:

Fasten on the belt of truth. If you live in lies you cannot defeat evil, it will consume you. Jesus is The Truth, his people must be people of truth. If you allow yourself to believe lies, if you allow lies of any kind to fester in your life, then you will be easy pickings for the devil, who used lies to bring down the first man and woman with incredible success and ease.

Put on the breastplate of righteousness. Fight hard for righteousness in your own life. We should be motivating ourselves to aim up in personal sanctification. If we allow sin in our lives we give the devil a foothold, as Paul told us before, as Balaam shows us as well. We also need to recognize that true righteousness comes from being found in Christ, and therefore we must lay hold of his righteousness by faith and work out the righteousness he gives us in faithfulness. The confidence we have to live holy lives actually comes from knowing that we have been made holy by him and not by our own efforts. We have been washed clean, we do not need to live in guilt and defeat.  

Be ready with the gospel of peace. The gospel which breaks down the kingdom of darkness and extends the kingdom of Jesus. The gospel message is peace to those who are being saved. But to the enemy it is a terror because it tells him that he has been defeated, he is being defeated, and he will be defeated. Therefore, the people of God can hold their heads up high and walk in godly confidence, because they know that their enemy has been defeated, and the devil is defanged for all who believe. We need to be ready to share this message of freedom from sin in every context that we can.

Hold the shield of faith. The kind of faith which saves us is also the kind of faith that sustains us, not because of what is in us, but because of how it directs us to God and relying on him in truth and in power. Trust God, ask him to work in your life, trust him to protect and surround you with his guardian angels. Believe in him and believe him because doubt can be consuming, it can steal your joy, your confidence, your sense of God given purpose and drive. We need to be people of faith, because our Lord Jesus was a man of faith, and faith is the only way we can take hold of the power of God in our lives.  

Helmet of Salvation. Do not forget how you have been saved and in whom you have been saved. You have been rescued from the power of Satan and brought back under the power of God. Keep coming back to the fact that you are rescued from Satan’s power, he has no more legal right to you, he can no longer accuse you, he has no hold of you. Give him no opportunity.  

Sword of the Spirit. Practice with the sword of the Spirit regularly, knowing that Jesus defeated the Devil with scripture. Too many Christians are poorly versed in the word of God when the Bible is actually their most important weapon for counteracting the attacks of the evil one. The world is full of lies, so washing your mind with the sword of the Spirit is a vital way of counteracting these lies and allowing your faith in God to grow. It will help change how you think, and when you think different you can act different, and when you act different you can reject the ways of this world passed on to you by you forefathers.  

Prayer. If I was asked, what is more important, praying or reading the Bible, I would answer: “Pray the Bible, that is most important.” Pray regularly, Paul says without ceasing. This means always default back to prayer and never give up on it. Because prayer enables you to tap into divine power, that you otherwise could not access. It unleashes blessings in your life and enables you to resist the evil one and his temptations.”  

Christianity has been so successful for so long not because it has contained within it secret techniques that can make you more powerful. But because it is a simple faith that can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, at any time. It is a faith you can take with you to work, to school, to the shops, or on vacation, and on holidays. It does not require mystic abilities or incredible intelligence. It simply requires you to practice the simple and basic disciplines that every faithful believer from its foundation has practiced. And when you don’t get these perfectly right, you can come to the Lord in prayer and repent, and he will forgive you and empower you for a new day.

Christianity succeeds because it is thoroughly reasonable, but it points to something far beyond reason, that we are in a spiritual battle and the more diligent we are to follow the way of our Lord, the better off we will be. Apply the armour of God to your life so that you are not vulnerable to the evil one. We are currently living in his domain and need every advantage that we can get.