Priscilla Shirer: The Armor of God Helps Defeat the Enemy | FULL TEACHING | Women of Faith on TBN

Priscilla Shirer teaches us how to fight the Enemy using the full armor of God and prayer. Join us as we explore the transformative power of faith and God’s love in overcoming life’s challenges. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more inspiring content!

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But I’m not gonna stand back while I watch you destroy and dismantle my marriage, but I’m not just going to lay aside while I see you tinkering with the emotions or with the mind of my child, the relationships, the influences that are around my child.
There’s gonna be a woman or a man that is committed to wear the armor of god.
To stand firmly against the schemes of the enemy.
If he’s scheming against us, we better show enough, have a scheme against him.
Lord.
Lord, we say that you are great, and we honor your name in this place.
We pray now, lord, that as we turn our attention to the scriptures, you would do it only you can.
Would you take this one little simple message?
Would you divide it several 1000 different ways so that every single person under the sound of my voice in this room and beyond on the other side of that screen will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that today, they have heard the voice of god.
Amen. Yeah. We pray for the illumination of your spirit over this word tonight. Do it, father.
We are your servants, and we are listening. Jesus mighty matchless name. Amen.
As I mentioned to you, Got these boys that I am raising.
The distinguishing characteristic of my sons is that they are big. They are big boys.
Just to give you some frame of reference, my fourteen year old wears a size fourteen shoe.
When I say big, I mean big. He is 6 feet tall.
My twelve year old Whereas a size thirteen shoe. He’s about five eleven or so.
He’s right underneath his brother. And then you saw Judy. He’s a pretty big eight year old.
So I’ve got these big boys.
One of the ways that their size actually works on their behalf is that they enjoy sports. They love sports.
So whatever is in season at the time that it’s probably what we are playing.
And we just came out of basketball season, and then we hit baseball season. Then football rolls around.
We just go from one thing to the other.
And I have to say that until in recent years, my middle son, his thing was baseball.
That was really his thing. It was his neck.
He had a natural inclination toward it, not only to liking it, but to playing the game.
And I think because of his size, he did really well at it when he got a good hit because of his Again, his size, he just would get a good, powerful, strong hit.
And I remember at 10, he was able to send the ball over the fence line when he got a home run.
He was great at 1st base. He made lots of stops and lots of outs.
And so for a lot of years there, that’s all they played baseball.
And we were really proud of him because he really did have a natural knack forward.
He had a lot of growing and a lot of maturing to do, of course, and he knew that, but he loved the game, and he loved to work hard.
Was excited about baseball season because I actually enjoy baseball season. I like spring ball.
I like it because you go out there for those practices and the cool of the spring evening.
And you sit there, you know, as the night grows, uh, dim and the lights are on underneath those those bright white lights on the baseball diamond and got that cool and breeze brushing across your cheeks, and you just get to sit there and enjoy a nice spring evening.
I even love the early Saturday morning games, crisp, early spring mornings.
You’re sitting there with your Starbucks in hand next to the other parents as you watch your children enjoying the game.
I liked spring bow. The only problem with Springball is that it’s going to become summer ball.
And I’m not exactly sure what happens in the part of the world where you might live and come from, but I will tell you in Dallas, Texas, in the summer, it does not just warm up slightly.
It is an intense palatable heat where you feel like the sun is mad at you about something.
Like, maybe you did something to the sun, and the sun is trying to get you back.
That’s what it feels like all summer long.
And you’re still trying to be okay at the games, and you are when there’s just one game on a Saturday morning.
Problem is that at the end of every season, they have the nerve to have a tournament, which means you’re coming out there on a Thursday.
You’re gonna be there for the 8 AM game, and then you’re gonna be there for the 10 AM game.
Then they’re gonna give you a little lunch break, but then you gotta come back for the 2 PM game and the 4 PM game.
And then depending upon how your team did, they’re gonna take your son’s team.
They’re going to ship them to an entirely different bracket so that you gotta come back on Friday at 8 AM and then at 10 AM, and then they’re gonna give you a little bit of lunch break, but you gotta come back for the 2 PM game and the 4 PM game.
And then if your kid’s team had the nerve to do well, you gotta come back on Saturday at 8 AM and 10 AM, 2 PM, 4 PM, and And then Sunday, again, and you’re sitting out there trying to be okay with the fact that your kid is doing well.
But you are hot, and you’re underneath that outdoor tent that the The sporting goods store promised you would help to save off some of the heat, but there you sit underneath that tent, not just sweating that cute glistening kind of sweat.
I’m talking about the kind that rolls down your face and down the inside of your t shirt.
You know what I’m talking about?
And you’re sitting there trying to be happy, but, really, you’re wondering if it’s ever okay to pray your kid loses so you can go home.
Please tell me that I have a witness in the house for the interview.
And I remember one tournament This was our story.
It was the exact story because it was a scorching hot summer in Dallas Fort Worth.
We were sitting out there in the heat, trying to be excited that he and his team were doing well.
We could not wait for the lunch break because then we’d get to go to a restaurant where there was air condition.
So we did that. We wouldn’t had ice water that actually still had ice in it.
We sat there and refreshed ourselves for just a little while, came back ready for the next game at 2 PM.
We got all of the gear out of the back of the car and all of the bats and the bags and the ice chest.
And, you know, as you do, and we walked over toward the baseball dugout where the next game was gonna be played.
There was just a short distance from the car park where we parked over toward the dugout.
And I was walking behind Jerry Junior, my second son, He is a gregarious personality.
He’s up for a challenge. He’s kind of outgoing. And so he he was excited about this next game.
I remember as I followed him, that I saw this enthusiasm in the in his walk. His chin was up.
He kinda had a skip in his step, excited about the next game. His shoulders were back.
He was looking forward to it.
I also saw, because I was behind him, when his countenance completely changed in the short walk, literally from the parking lot to the dugout, I watched my boy shoulders start to slump over.
I saw him start wringing his hands like he was nervous. I saw his eyes get a little bit shifty.
I watched him sort of turn into a little sluggish walking person that seemed intimidated and insecure.
I couldn’t figure out what had caused the change.
So I started looking around because I’m following behind my boy, and I’m seeing what’s happening.
I started to look around, and I realized that as we were walking, We were passing some players from another team.
They were all sprawled out in the grass underneath the shade of a huge tree just refreshing themselves before the next game as well.
And I saw them, and I and I looked at them as we were passing by, and I realized this was the team we were about to play next.
And the more I walked by them, the more I realized what was wrong with my boy.
We had faced this team earlier in the season.
And when we had played this team earlier in the season, this team had annihilated my boy and his team.
I remember it had been a complete upset.
It was a complete embarrassment, actually, because these boys on this team They were serious players.
Been playing since they were young, serious baseball players.
I’m talking about the kind of team that has the serious parents.
Anybody got time for all that.
These are the kind of parents.
You know who the ones the ones where, you know, when they gave birth to that boy, they put a mitt on one hand of baseball in the other.
They’ve been waiting for this moment their whole lives just too serious. I remembered this team.
We were about to play them again. They were good. And when my boy saw him, his countenance changed.
We had to walk right by them literally right on the path that was right next to that grass.
And so we were very close to them. 2 of them started whispering to each other.
I think they thought they were whispering, but we could hear them.
One leaned over to the other, and he said, There goes that big kid from the red sox team.
Is he the one that hit the ball when it went over the fence? Yep.
He’s the one that was at 1st base and caught those outs. So that’s Jerry Shire?
When my boy heard his name cross the lips of the opposing team members, those shoulders that were slumped over, all of a sudden, they got pushed back again.
I watched his chin go back up. I watched him get a little swag back in his step.
In fact, we had to bring him down a few notches before the next game started.
It’s amazing how your countenance changes.
Not because your circumstances did, not because the challenge went away, but just because you overhear and really understand what the enemy thinks about you when he sees you coming.
Because the reality is if you are a son or a daughter and Jesus Christ grassed at the end of the family of god, when the enemy sees you, he does see you or me in our frailty and in our weaknesses, he sees the power and the spirit of almighty god that is on the inside of you.
And the truth is, listen to me, even if you do not believe, even if I don’t believe, every single thing that the word of god declares to be true about us even if we don’t believe it, the enemy does.
He knows you have already been forgiven.
He knows that there is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in Jesus.
He knows that you have been made competent by the spirit of god.
He knows that there is no guilt, no shame, that there is no fear that is given to you by your great god.
He knows that you’ve already been given the victory. He knows that he is already underneath your feet.
He knows that he can form a weapon against you but that that weapon has absolutely no possibility of prospering in your life.
And y’all, in the end, he knows that we win.
And I’m saying to you what ashamed it would be for the enemy to believe more about our potential than we do.
I want you to hear tonight what ashamed it would be if he could just sprawl out enough trouble.
Tinker with your life enough cause there to be enough inklings of hardship and and and difficulty that it causes you to shrink back in such fear and insecurity.
That you won’t even attempt to step up to the plate and be who god has called you to be.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, hear me clearly. The enemy knows he cannot destroy you.
So he’s gonna spend the rest of his time and energy trying to so distract you and disable you and disarm you and discourage you that you will never rise up and walk in the victory that is rightfully yours.
And it is at least in part to this end that the apostle Paul writes a passage of scripture that has become a lifeline for me.
It is in the book of Ephesians.
And if you have your Bible with you, if you actually still use a Bible with paper pages, like I do, or your iPhone, your iPad, any manner of iness, just flip on over or scroll on over to the book of Ephesians as you turn there.
Let me just tell you that the apostle Paul gave us much of which comprises now the new testament.
Originally, there were letters. Letters written to 1st century believers the first to become grafted into the family of god through Jesus Christ, new covenant of his bloodshed on calvary.
And as they are grafted in, they need to know how to grow how to be disciples, how to experience this new life in Christ, it would have been completely foreign to them.
So the apostle Paul wrote letters to them that com become much of the new testament.
And of all of Paul’s writings, scholars say that Ephesians is the cream of the crop.
Ephesians is like the cherry on top of the cake.
And the reason why is because he spends more than first half of the book, just rehearsing who you are, He spends more than 3 chapters just trying to make sure you know the hope of his calling and choosing you.
He wants you to know that even if you’ve been rejected by everybody else, you were handpicked, chosen, adopted into the family of god.
He wants you to know that the mercy of god is so lavish and so grand and so great.
That there is no pit of sin you have dug for yourself, that the grace of god cannot reach down in and snatch you up out of.
He wants you to know that you are forgiven that you are chosen, that the hope of god is great toward you.
He wants you to know the lavishness of the redemption and the resources that have been given to you because you are now part of the family of god.
In fact, Paul works himself up so much that by the time he gets to the middle of the first chapter, he just breaks out in a prayer, and he says, I’m praying that the eyes of your heart would be open.
So that you would know the hope of his calling and choosing you.
And when he gets to the end of this letter, where he’s rehearsed over and over again how much we have access to as sons and daughters.
He’s trying to figure out how do I close this letter to make sure that they always walk in victory and that they don’t let the enemy snatch from them what is rightfully theirs.
I want you to picture him hanging over the parchment paper as he was imprisoned in a Roman prison.
It was probably house arrest for 2 years picture him there.
Hanging over the parchment paper, beads of sweat on his brow, ink, quill in hand as he tried to figure out how to put a exclamation point on this letter.
Yes. And then he writes in Ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 10.
He says, finally, be strong in the lord.
And in the strength of his might, put on the full armor of god that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes.
Somebody say schemes. The schemes of the devil.
For our struggle, it’s not against flesh and blood, but it is against the power the rulers against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are in the heavenly places, He says so, therefore, you might as well go ahead and put down all the weapons of this world that ain’t been working for you anyway and pick up some weapons that actually have some power.
He says, take up the full armor of god so that you may be able to resist in the evil day And having done everything to stand firm, he says you ought to just go ahead and stand firm, therefore.
In this passage of scripture, the apostle Paul, introduces to us at least this overtly, this obviously in scripture.
He introduces to us the concept of spiritual warfare.
He says, I want you to know that you have an enemy.
And the enemy you have is not the person that is sitting next to you tonight.
The enemy you have is not the boss, the one on your job that drives you nuts.
The enemy that you have is nothing that is tangible, flesh, and blood Your enemy wife is not your husband.
Your real enemy husband is not your wife. Your enemy is not your teenager.
Your is not that problem, that difficulty that is fresh and blood and tangible.
Behind the scenes, there is an enemy lurking.
Who hopes to stir up so much trouble and high hide cleverly behind them that you will forget he is there.
Because he knows if he remains hidden from your site that you and I will direct all the wrong weapons at the wrong culprit.
We will waste all of our time and energy using weapons that do not work to reach the surface level of problems when really he is underneath the surface, the one behind the scenes.
He is a master illusionist, the master of disguise.
I take the boys to this little church around the corner from where we live for their harvest festival.
I love this harvest festival. It’s kinda like this church’s answer to Halloween.
And we go there because they have a good old fashioned trunker treat.
Does anybody know what I mean when I say trunker treat? Okay.
A lot of churches don’t do that anymore, but some people can remember back in the day when members from the congregation volunteer, they bring their cars into the parking lot for harvest festival night, and they’ll lift up the trunk.
And from out of the trunk, each owner of the car will craft some sort of fair or carnival game Kids will line up one after the other, and they’ll play the game.
And most of the time, whether they win or lose, the person that owns that game will give them a whole bunch of candy and then send them home with us.
We’re always so grateful. I remember 1 year, me and Jude are standing hand in hand, and we’re in line behind the longest line of the night.
It’s not a car. It’s a truck.
This truck is the only truck that is in the parking lot, and it’s the longest line at the carnival that night.
They cleverly put a step ladder at the bed truck so that a kid could climb up into the bed of the truck and turn to the side.
They would give the kid a huge plastic mallet.
They had attached a tabletop that was about the same size as the bed of the truck.
They had attached it to the side of the truck, cut six holes into the the tabletop, draped it with fabric, and out from those holes, every few seconds a puppet would pop through.
The job of the kid was to run up and down the bed of the truck to hit the puppets on the head before they disappeared back underneath the surface.
It was a homemade whack a mole game is what it was.
Every kid couldn’t wait to play this game. Me and you, he must have been 4 at the time.
We were standing in line, and we were laughing hysterically because there was another mother with a four or five year old with her.
And this four year old was very, very vocal about his frustration regarding this whole experience.
He didn’t understand mother, first of all, why I need to stand in this long line. A long line.
Don’t you know, mom, I came to the carnival to have fun, and it ain’t fun to stand in line.
Mom, I have an idea. How about I go over here and play all these other games while you stand in line and hold my place?
Then when you get up to the front, I’ll come back. He was not only frustrated about the line.
He was frustrated about this game because, mom, I don’t understand what point of this game is, why in the world would I use all my time and all my energy to pop those puppets on the head running up and down the the bed of the truck?
Why would I use all that time and energy.
If when I hit them on the head, they’re gonna disappear for a few seconds, but then they’re gonna come right back.
What is the point of this game? We were laughing as we listened to this little boy.
And then before any of us could really think or see straight, we just saw a four year old flash by our peripheral vision as he ran forward grabbed the fabric from on top of the tabletop, and he pulled it clean off.
Underneath, there were three adults with puppets on each hand.
Oh, we got a good laugh, but we also got a good lesson.
That back there behind the curtain, there is something, someone influencing all that we see popping up to the surf level of our and my successes.
If I spend all of that trying to deal with everything that keeps showing up in my life at best, the solution will be temporary.
Until we pull the curtain back and let the enemy know we got our eyes on you.
That anything carries the fingerprint of the enemy’s handiwork, jealousy and divisiveness and pride and anger anything that works against the nature of god.
Carries and bears the marking of the enemy.
Paul says today is the day to stop looking and dealing with the surface level. You gotta exhaust yourself.
Pull the curtain back and then use some weapons that work back there behind the curtain.
Paul wants to know, wants to make sure that you know, and then I know how serious the enemy’s tactics are because he uses a specific word to describe them.
He says, schemes. Somebody say schemes. Skeams.
The people that know me best, I think, would attest to the fact I have a lot of my family are here tonight.
Aunts and stuff. And I think they would attest the fact that I am a fairly easygoing person.
Like, if someone offends me or if someone does me wrong or hurts my feelings or whatever.
I can get over it quickly. Like, I don’t hold grudge as long as it’s I’m wired that way.
Someone, uh, asked for forgiveness something because they did do something. I’m gonna forgive them easily.
I’m just that’s just my personality. Easy going.
But if I find out that someone was planning to do me wrong well, now that’s a whole different story.
That changes the circumstances.
If I find out you’ve been studying me, watching me to figure out when I come and when I go.
You’ve been trying to determine what my habits are so that you could take advantages.
You’ve been trying to determine what my weaknesses are so that you can play me to those weaknesses.
You’ve been trying to figure out what the propensity, the the inclinations of my flash lean towards you can try to dangle carrots that are specific to that destination.
When I find out that not only have you been watching me in my present, but you’ve been looking into my history.
So that you can figure out what hot button topics have arisen in my heart from past abuses or hearts that I’ve suffered so that you can take advantage of them now.
And when I find out that not only have you been studying me, but you’ve been studying this man that the lord has given me to be married to 18 years so that you can figure out what his weaknesses are so that you can try to tempt him to lead him astray to keep him from rising up and being who god has called them to be in our home.
And when I discover you’ve been looking into his history, so that you can figure out how to make his history and my history combust so that we cannot have peace underneath the roof of our house.
And when I find out that not only have you had the nerve to be studying me and my husband, but you’ve also had your eyes on these three boys that the lord has given me the privilege tireer into mighty men of god, and they will be mighty men of god, or I will thank them.
What I find out you’ve been watching them in this young fledgling state.
You’re already trying to figure out what their anxieties are, what their fears are, what the predilections of their flesh are so that you can already try to lead them astray so that they will not walk into the destiny that god has for them When I find out you’ve been scheming against me?
Well, then you need to know that that causes a holy indignation to rise up on the inside of me.
That if it’s a war you want, it’s a war you gonna have. Yeah.
The enemy is praying on lazy, apathetic Christianity.
He hopes that we will just go to church on Sunday that we’ll just redaversa day to keep the devil away.
He hopes that we’ll just sorta hang out in this Christian culture, but that there will not be a son or a daughter, a man, or a woman, a career woman.
Hey. Single woman, a father, a husband who will rise up and stand in the gates.
And say not today, say not on my watch.
That I’m not just gonna lay down and let you waltz right into my home, that I’m not gonna stand back while I watch you destroy and dismantle my marriage.
That I’m not just going to lay aside while I see you tinkering with the emotions or with the mind of my child, the relationships, the influences, that are around my child.
There’s gonna be a woman or a man that is committed to wear the armor of god.
To stand firmly against the schemes of the enemy.
If he’s scheming against us, we better show enough, have a scheme against him.
And the apostle Paul says laid out all the weapons, all the earthly tactics that may deal with surface level stuff, but y’all, that’s not it’s not hitting him where it hurts.
He says, pull back the curtain and make sure that you stand firm.
Having your loins guarded with truth Make sure you’ve got a breastplate on called righteousness.
Make sure that if you wanna have any opportunity to move forward, you gotta have something for your feet your feet better be shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Then he says the enemy is coming with his lies.
There will be lies and strongholds that he tries to erect in your thinking, you better make sure you’ve got something to cover up your mind.
You need a helmet, and the helmet is called your salvation.
He says, but not only that, you’re gonna need a shield because the enemy is not just interested in close combat, but he’ll try to hit you from far away with the framing missiles that he comes to assault your life.
And so you need a shield erected over your life, and the shield is called your faith.
But he says not only that, you’re gonna need a sword, and it wasn’t a long sword.
He was referring to. This one was about 18 inches or so.
It was one for up close battle when the enemy was all up in your face.
He said, you need something. When the enemy is on you, you need a sword of the spirit, and the dagger of the spirit is called the word of god.
But he did not stop with those 6.
Because in verse 18, he adds a 7th weapon. He says, pray.
Prayer is what pushes the kingdom of darkness back.
And if I were your enemy, I would do everything I could to devalue in your mom What I knew the most significant weapon in your arsenal was against me.
I would wanna make you do everything.
Except use that weapon because I would know that that’s the weapon that can shut me down once and for all.
So I’d wanna make sure you were too busy that you were too active doing other good things to make time to not just leave prayer to the end of the day in those last few waking moments when you can barely.
Keep your eyes open. Not those moments.
I would wanna keep you from prioritizing prayer, making sure that prayer was on the top of your to do list that being strategic and intentional in your prayer life wasn’t something that was important to you.
Prayer is so important that even Jesus said my house, the church, shouldn’t be called a house of good preaching.
That’s right. Yes. I hope it’s good, but that’s not what it’s supposed to be called.
My house shall be called, not a house of good singing, not a house of good programs, not a house of great spotlights, not a house of great coffee machines and bookstores and cats days.
Enjoy all that, but my house better be called a house of prayer because prayer is what pushes the kingdom of darkness back.
Man, we don’t have time tonight to go through all 7 of these pieces of armor, but there is just one other one that I wanna point out to you because We can’t leave tonight without doing business with this one piece of armor.
In verse 14, he says you need to have a breastplate on.
And the breastplate is called righteousness. Righteousness.
Jerry and I live in a fairly rural part of Dallas Fort Worth.
We like it that way. We planned it that way.
Because I got these boys, and they need to go outside. I believe in outside.
Are there any mothers in the house that still believe in outside? Go outside.
Anytime they have the nerve to come to me and say, mom, I’m bored.
That’s right. I say, oh, no. You’re not.
You see that tree right there? Don’t play with it.
One of the things we love about where we live is that one of my closest friends is Across the Street.
There’s a big pond that is in front of her property.
So even before we moved there, that’s how we found out about the place because I’d go and take the boys fishing.
So still to this day, we grabbed the 2 fishing poles I bought on sale at the local Super Walmart.
And the tackle box that I also got on sale there. I have several things in the tackle box.
I’ve got extra hooks, extra little bobber things in case we move we lose those. We always seem to.
I’ve got scissors to cut the line if need be, and I have gloves because y’all know I don’t mind going fishing, but I ain’t finna touch no fish.
We grab whatever hot dog meat is left from the week because, you know, we’re professionals.
That’s our bait. We walk across the street. We stand right in this little corner, and we fish.
We catch little small sunperch, things like that. Every now and then, though, I’m feeling adventurous.
And my neighbors have this little rusted, rowboat that they bought on Craigslist. It’s seaworthy.
It can hold you up. It’s a old thing, but it works every now and then we will get into the boat, go out to the middle of the pond, and fish from there.
The only problem is this boat turned is turned upside down when it’s not in use.
Rightfully so. It’s right there on the shore upside down.
It needs to be so that water can drain out from the boat when it’s not in use. Makes sense.
So the problem is to get in this boat. I’m gonna have to turn this boat over.
And I know that the environment that has been created up underneath this boat is shady and moist and dark.
It’s the perfect environment for a critter.
So I know when I turn it over, something is going to hop out from underneath it.
Something’s gonna waddle out from underneath it, or worst of all, something’s gonna I know y’all feel me.
But every now and then, I’m courageous. I say, boys, let’s get in this vote.
So I go all the way to the back of the vote.
I let them turn it over at the sides. I stay all the way back.
We flip it over and inevitably something comes out every time.
I’m always interested in the fact that never once have I had to write a golden seals invitation and send it into the brush nearby to let the critters know we are there and that they are welcome to join us at 1 PM today.
Never once, have I had to send out a Clarion call to invite any critters that wanna come and be a part of our festivities?
Never once Have I ever had to invite them?
Because the environment created by the upside down boat is invitation enough.
Righteousness is right side up living that invites the sunlight of god’s favor in blessing and grace all over your life.
Unrighteousness is upside down behavior that is out of alignment with the truth of god that you just applauded on Sunday.
It’s upside down living to where you don’t have to end the enemy to come and make himself at home in your life, you just keep living upside down, and the environment unrighteousness creates is invitation enough.
This means you can be in your war room, praying against the devil till you are brewing the face.
But if you come up out of that prayer closet, and live a raggedy unholy life, then the enemy that you just prayed against will still make himself known in your marriage, in your finances, in your health, in your mind, in your heart, in your circumstances because the enemy gravitates toward unrighteousness.
That is why Paul said, you gotta live right.
Because this is what the old preachers used to call it.
Y’all y’all before we got to um, pre seeker sensitive.
The old preachers, I’m talking about our grandmother’s pastor used to call it holiness. Oh, yes.
I hear you. Y’all straight up living right. My goodness. Just choosing honor god.
Paul says, the reason why is not only because it invites the favor of god when you’re living right side up, but because he keeps an atmosphere out of your life in which demonic activity can fester.
The enemy has no place. You’ll have a breastplate on protecting you from a full frontal attack by the enemy into your life when you choose to put the breastplate of righteousness on.
It is not perfection. It means that you choose as a lifestyle to put one foot in front of the other as the holy spirit empowers you to make choices in your attitudes and in your actions that honor god.
It’s not perfection. It’s just a choice not to plan to sin. You know what I mean?
Like, we’re if you already have on your calendar right now where you know you going after we close tonight, and you’re planning.
You’ve calendered it in sin and unrighteousness. It is choosing not to live in a lifestyle of sin.
To break, to have the spirit break those chains off of your life so that you can turn that boat right side up The enemy will have no place to go when you put that breastplate on.
And can I tell you?
That if there’s one concern that I have for the younger generation, if you don’t mind, I’m a I’m a put myself in it.
Oh, if there’s a concern that I have y’all, it is that we are impressive.
But we have no breastplate on.
The problem is that we have so many Twitter followers.
But we have no protection against the schemes of the enemy.
I’m concerned that we’ve got a ton of Instagram lives that our selfies are per we lit, I’m afraid that we’ve impressed people while the enemy is running rough shot over our lives because we have not chosen to impress god more than we impress the people.
We have not made a decision to walk in holiness and an integrity to not impress folks more than we make sure we are garnering the attention and the applause of our great god.
And so we’re walking around impressive and savvy with a whole bunch of Facebook friends while the enemy is taking advantage of us.
But back in the day, There used to be a grandmother and a grandfather that more than anything wanted to honor god, more than anything they wanted to make sure that they walk uprightly because, like, my grandmother, mother used to say, Priscilla, when I meet him, I don’t wanna meet him with my head hung down.
I wanna be able to look my savior in the face.
Do you know we’re gonna see our savior? And can I tell you when we see him?
He’s not gonna ask Priscilla how many people went to go see that movie.
When I see him face to face, he’s not gonna ask me how many people read that book.
When I see him face to face, he is not going to ask me how many likes I got on that Instagram post.
He’s not gonna be impressed by what impresses us.
When I see him face to face, he’s gonna wanna know that I have a relationship with his son, Jesus Christ.
And then I will give an account.
You all were gonna give an account. Yes.
And I implore you brothers and sisters to walk in a manner worthy of our great god.
He has paid too high a price for us to be walking around with no breastplate unprotected against the advances of the enemy.
Tonight, you can choose. I can choose to live.
Would you bow your heads with me, please?
Because I wanna ask you. I wanna ask you if you are in this room and you know you are in a lifestyle of sin.
That your boat is turned upside down, and the enemy is running rampant through your life because you have not either in your attitudes or actions aligned them with the truth of god.
But tonight, you’ve decided you are no longer going to give the enemy an opportunity to wall wall in and make himself at home.
Tonight’s the night, you get your breastplate fitted so that you are ready for victory.
If you are in this room, no matter where you were sitting all the way in the furthest reaches of the balcony or right here on the floor, no matter where you are, If you wanna walk out of here with a breastplate on, I’m gonna ask you to stand on your feet.
I cannot wait to pray with you.
And over you as we walk out of here in victory.
Lord Jesus, I thank you.
I thank you that because you paid so high a price that your son shed blood on calvary on our behalf.
Lord, I thank you right now that we have the privilege to have relationship with you.
I thank you that for every person under the sound of my voice that is standing, lord, I thank you.
There is no pit they have dug for themselves that is too deep for you to get them out of it.
I thank you that your mercy abounds, that your grace is sufficient.
I thank you father that today, there is forgiveness of sins, So I asked those of you in particular that are standing.
Would you picture that lifestyle choice that Habit that you have?
Would you picture it and would you in your own way just offer it a to god, ask for forgiveness, know that his grace is sufficient.
So lord Jesus, we give you this moment, and we pray, lord, that you would break shackles off of people’s lives in Jesus’ name.
Lord, I pray we would walk out of here with an insistence and an intentionality, father, to walk in holiness, lord, to walk by the spirit so that we will no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Lord, I thank you that perfection isn’t the call that you’ve given to us.
You’ve just told us to yield to the spirit of god that lives on the inside of us, father, and to honor you in our actions.
And so, lord, these who are standing, they are tired of the enemy having his way.
Today, they want the breastplate on.
So I pray that you would fit them with it right now in Jesus’ name, that they will have such a defense against the enemy that he will no longer have access to a full frontal attack in their lives.
When I pray for restoration in marriages, We’re gonna pray for wholeness in their hearts.
We’re gonna pray for easiness in their minds. Father, I pray you would take care of financial efficiencies.
Lord, I’m praying that you would heal bodies. Anyway, lord, that the enemy is taking advantage of them today.
I pray that today, it stops in Jesus’ name.
As they walk in holiness and integrity, and it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray and say and live.