Every believer should be prepared for spiritual battle. Therefore, every believer should put on the whole armor of God.
Here are six signs that you’re missing a part of the armor of God. Let’s go to the scripture.
Ephesians six will read verses 10, 11 and 12, word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in heavenly places.
Notice here that in verse 10, we are commanded to be strong, we are commanded to put on the armor of God.
So you bear at least some of the responsibility in equipping yourself. God has made the armor available.
You must make use of what God has made available.
Now, notice all in verse 11, that the scripture tells us that if we put on all of God’s armor, we’ll be able to stand against all the strategies of the enemy.
This tells us that God does not leave us lacking for the battle.
If we obey what the scripture says, and we apply the armor of God, then we will be able to stand against not some but all of the strategies of the enemy.
Verse 13. Now therefore, put our every piece of God’s armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.
Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm. Routine is the key to resistance.
What do I mean by that? Well, look here, the scripture tells us to put on God’s armor first.
So that in the time of battle, we’ll be able to stand, we’ll be victorious.
This means that you have to be living with the armor already on so that when the conflict arises, you’re prepared for that spiritual conflict and you’re prepared to take the spiritual victory.
Many believers attempt to put on the armor of God in the moment of conflict.
This is why I say routine is the key to resistance because you prepare for the spiritual battle in the lifestyle that leads up to the moments of conflicts.
I want you to write this in the comment section, right? Make me ready. Type that in. Don’t be ashamed.
Let that be a bold public declaration, a prayer that you’re making, asking the Lord to make you ready.
And now we look at the armor of God. Let’s start with verse 14.
Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness for shoes, put on peace.
That comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared.
So far, we see the belt of truth, the body armor of God’s righteousness, the shoes of peace. Verse 16.
In addition to all these hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
Number one, we look at the belt of truth. What is the scripture describing here? Well, what is truth?
Jesus is the truth? John chapter 14 verse six says Jesus told him I am the way the truth and the life.
No one can come to the father except through me. God’s word is truth.
John 17 17 says sanctify them thy truth, thy word is truth.
So the belt of truth, when you apply this, this is to be grounded in God’s reality.
This is to be grounded in truth.
Now, here is a sign that reveals if you are missing the belt of truth. Sign.
Number one, you are swayed by worldly opinions, strange doctrines and your own thoughts and emotions.
Those who have applied the belt of truth ground themselves in what God has said.
They are not swayed by worldly opinions, they are not swayed by strange doctrines.
They’re not even swayed by their own thoughts or emotions So if you’re easily swayed by public opinion, if you look to what the world says, instead of what the word says, this is a sign that you have not applied the belt of truth.
Now, we look to the second piece of the armor that’s listed, this is the body armor of righteousness.
Now, this righteousness is the righteousness that was gifted to us.
When we placed our faith in Christ, believers have received Christ’s righteousness when we believed on his sacrifice.
Here’s what the Bible says in Romans 43, for the scriptures, tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.
So we don’t earn our righteousness.
We place our faith in Christ and we are gifted this righteousness, however, we can still live lives that don’t take full advantage of this righteousness.
Now, something that should be pointed out here, the armor that’s being described in Ephesians chapter six is describing either Israeli or Roman armor and knowing this, we actually can see historically speaking that the body armor was held in place by the belt.
Therefore, righteousness is held in place by the truth in which we stand.
So sign number two, that you’re missing a piece of God’s armor, you compromise with sin again, righteousness is a gift, but some believers aren’t taking full advantage of living in that righteousness on this side of eternity.
And that righteousness is held in place by truth. If you are lacking righteousness in your life.
This means that you’re under deception in one form or another.
If you are lacking righteousness in your life, then you are lacking grounding in truth.
So the second sign, you compromise with sin is a demonstration that you are not fully equipped with the body armor of righteousness.
Number three, shoes of peace, the shoes of peace, speak of the readiness of the gospel, not just to preach it but to believe it and to live it in your own life.
Now, this piece of armor is interesting because it’s actually somewhat defensive and somewhat offensive.
You have to believe the gospel yourself. So in that regard, it’s defensive.
But then you also take the gospel and you spread it around the world and in doing so you play on the offensive side of the spiritual battle.
And so we don’t conquer in the manner of worldly conquerors.
The believer conquers and expands the kingdom of God and tears down the Kingdom of Hell through the spreading of the gospel message.
That’s the power of the shoes of peace.
And by the way, it’s interesting to me that they’re called the shoes of peace because we’re taking territory with peace.
We don’t take territory by worldly means, we take territory by winning souls by rescuing souls from the kingdom of Darkness, snatching them from the pit of the enemy’s lies by applying the truth of the God Gospel, by living it by believing it by declaring it.
We are walking with the shoes of peace. So you know, you’re lacking the shoes of peace.
When number three, your witness is weak, your witness becomes weak when you don’t believe or understand the gospel for yourself.
Your witness becomes weak when you live in hypocrisy.
Because now you lose the ability to share that gospel with others while also demonstrating it with your life.
Your witness is weakened also when you refuse to declare the gospel message of Jesus Christ Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel.
It’s the power of God unto salvation. We mustn’t be ashamed of the gospel nor should we live in hypocrisy.
So again, sign number three, your witness is weak.
That’s a sign, a demonstration to you that you are not properly applying the shoes of peace.
Number four, the shield of faith.
Now the shield being described here is one that would cover the entire body of its holder and the fiery darts that are being thrown at the individual holding the shield represent the lies of the enemy.
These are the deceptions that he throws your way when he tells you something like God has rejected you or God won’t forgive you or you’ll never make it or you’ll never do well or nothing good is ever going to happen to you or you’ll always live in spiritual defeat.
Those are lies, those are fiery darts that are being launched at you.
So what then is the shield of faith.
How then do we hold in the spirit, the shield of faith to protect us from those fiery darts, those fiery darts, by the way, if they’re not dealt with, if they’re not quenched, they leave a fire that actually begins to spread.
Well, isn’t that how deception works? The enemy starts with one lie.
And if we don’t handle that one lie, then that fire begins to spread and overtake everything.
But we hold up the shield of faith. How do we do this?
We hold up the shield of faith by putting our faith, our belief, our confidence in what God has said when we believe what God has said over what the enemy tells us over what the world tells us.
And sometimes what we tell ourselves then and only then are we actually applying the shield of faith?
So then sign number four, a demonstration that you’re lacking this piece of armor is that you believe the lies of the enemy.
Without question, there will always be this inner struggle of what to believe.
Spiritual warfare is simply the fight to believe God’s truth over the enemy’s lies.
But those who have the shield of faith can at least quench those fiery darts. Yes, the lies get launched.
But remember a lie doesn’t become deception until you believe that lie.
If you are not holding up your confidence in what God has said, then you will fall for what the enemy says that’s how this works.
And it’s not just the lies that the enemy tells us, it’s also the reinforcing lies that we believe about the lies.
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say the enemy tells you, God hasn’t forgiven you.
And this is just one example. I just wanna show you how reinforcing lies work.
Let’s say the enemy tells you, God hasn’t forgiven you and you hold up the shield of faith, you’re able to block that line.
Ok? I know God has forgiven me and then the enemy comes back with a reinforcing lie and says, yes, you may believe in God’s forgiveness, but you must know that God’s forgiveness doesn’t apply to your specific situation, your specific sin, your specific circumstance in which you sin.
And that is more believable because it’s not as direct as the other line.
And so we have to be careful of these lies, not just in their direct form but in their subtle forms.
And the only way we can do this is by holding up our belief, our confidence in what God has said.
Number five, the helmet of salvation. Now, luckily, we have another reference to the helmet of salvation in scripture.
And it gives us clarification as to the helmet’s spiritual meaning.
First Thessalonians chapter five verse eight says this, but let us who live in the light, be clear headed protected by the armor of faith and love and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
The helmet of salvation is your confidence in your salvation.
Many believers fall for the line that they have to earn their salvation.
They don’t recognize that salvation comes by grace through faith. Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying.
I’m not saying you can go on sinning. I’m not saying there are no consequences to sin.
So let me be very clear.
Sin has no place in the life of the true believer and the true believer, the one who has genuinely placed their faith in Christ will have a desire to be rid of sin once and for all.
So I’m saying that so no one tries to take advantage of God’s grace. We mustn’t abuse that grace.
But still on the other hand, we must also recognize that we haven’t earned our own salvation.
Our confidence is in what God has done.
Our confidence is in his ability to save in the strength of his arm, not in the strength of our arm.
We put our faith, our hope in what Christ has accomplished on the cross, not in what we accomplish in everyday life.
So sign number five, this is how you know your missing or at least you’re not making use of the helmet of salvation.
Number five, you’re constantly questioning your salvation. You live every day in a paranoid state.
Constantly looking over your shoulder, constantly wondering if your last mistake was your final one.
Wondering if God is running out of patience with you.
You’re walking on eggshells or you feel like you’re walking on eggshells with God.
When that is not actually the case, his mercies are new every morning.
He’s rich and abundant with compassion and love and mercy.
And again, this is not an invitation to take advantage of God’s grace.
But at least we can be released from the lie that we have to work for our own salvation.
We do good works not to save ourselves. We do good works because we are saved.
It’s our reasonable service, our worship, our thanks given back to God because we are confident that he has completed the work.
So yes, holiness, but no to the constant questioning of your salvation.
And number six, finally, we see the sword of the spirit, the sword of the spirit, the scripture tells us very plainly.
Here is the word of God.
Now you defend yourself against the lies of the enemy with the shield of faith.
That’s how you quench the deception. But you go after the liars themselves with the sword of the spirit.
The shield of faith is you defending yourself from the lies of the enemy by believing what God has said, not what the enemy has said.
But when you take the sword of the spirit, when you take the word of God, when you begin to quote scripture back at the enemy, like Jesus did when he was being tempted in the wilderness when you begin to declare truths and resist the enemy and the enemy with the truth of God’s word then and only then are you going on the offensive against the enemy himself and destroying the source of the lies?
The shield of faith shields me from the lies.
But by the sort of the spirit I go after the liars themselves.
And so how do you know if you’re not making use of this sign?
Number six, you don’t resist the enemy or his lies with? Sure, you cannot fight the enemy with your experience.
Believers who imagine that the enemy fears their spiritual rank. Don’t recognize that the enemy laughs at such things.
The enemy doesn’t care how long you’ve been serving God. The enemy doesn’t care about your ministry experience.
The enemy doesn’t care about how much you think you know about the spiritual realm.
The enemy fears only one thing that you can use. And that is the word of God. Think about this.
If anyone could have used their experience against the enemy, wouldn’t it have been Jesus?
But look at the temptation in Matthew four, Jesus comes against the enemy.
Not by saying, hey, Satan, what do you mean if I’m the son of God, didn’t you see when the dove descended upon me and my father declared openly that I’m his beloved son in whom he’s well pleased, didn’t you see that?
No, Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus didn’t use his experience. What did he use? He said it is written.
He used the written word of God. He declared the truth of scripture.
Whenever the enemy comes to speak a lie against, you don’t just sit back and let him say what he wants to say.
Don’t just freak out at the mere fact that you’re being attacked instead go on the offensive.
Demons are like bullies. If you let them get away with it, they’ll continue to get away with it.
But the moment you rise and stand and speak the truth of the word of God like parasites, they scurry, they’re, they’re running off.
Why? Because that’s the power of the word.
So we need to apply all of God’s armor and the six signs that you’re not doing. So.
Sign number one, you are swayed by worldly opinions, strange doctrines and your own thoughts or emotions.
That’s a sign you’re missing about the truth. Sign. Number two, you compromise with sin.
That’s a sign that you’re missing the body armor of righteousness. Sign number three, your witness is weak.
That’s a sign. You’re missing the shoes of peace.
Sign number four, you believe the lies of the enemy without question.
That’s a sign that you’re missing the shield of faith. Sign number five, you’re constantly questioning your salvation.
That’s a sign that you’re missing the helmet of salvation.
Sign number six, you don’t resist the enemy or his lies with scripture.
That’s a sign that you’re missing the sword of the spirit. Now, I wanna pray with you.
I wanna pray that you would position yourself to be equipped with God’s armor.
It’s time to apply these truths that we’ve been given.
Come on, it’s time to resist the deception of the enemy. Enough is enough, stand up, put on the armor.
It’s time to get back in the fight and win the spiritual victory that Christ died to give to you.
The victory is already yours. It’s time to just do what God says to do. Pray with me.
Now, father, in the name of Jesus, lord, I under this anointing, pray for that one receiving this now.
And I ask you father that you by your holy spirit would empower them, give them grace, give them discernment, guide them in all truth.
Father, I pray that you would help them to be strong in your mighty power.
Father, I pray that you would help them to equip themselves.
Give them the grace to do so, remind them to do so that they might be able to stand against not some but all of the attacks of the enemy.
I pray for strength. I pray for grace and peace right now in the mighty name of Jesus.
And I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen.
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