The
Armour of God.
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Eph 6:10-17: Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the
whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and
having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about
with truth, and
having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace; Above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God:
Our ears and eyes can be compared to
the gateways to our mind which allow information to be written into our
hearts. What we understand to be truth ultimately determines what we perceive
to be true and real. The words we read create images in the mind called
imaginations. A vain imagination consists of worldly secular information that
we take in through our eyes and ears. Our ears and our eyes are the avenues
that the Holy Spirit uses for the word of God to be sown into our hearts
through the hearing of the word (Romans 10:17), where the primary foundation
stone is laid for faith to grow (Heb 11:1); in the similar fashion that seeds
are sown into the ground whether good or bad. Comparing this process with the
weeding of a garden is a good analogy of how we deal with lies that have been
sown into our hearts that we have accepted as truth. Once the Holy Spirit
convicts us of a lie that we have been taught through the reading of the word
of truth then the shield of faith stops the lies from returning, hence the
scripture that says that we shall know truth an the truth shall make us free
(John 8:32). The helmet (Salvation) covers these parts: the eye and ear
gates to protect our minds and hearts from the lies/fiery darts of the wicked
who will always accuse us whispering into the ears of our subconscious that we
are not good enough in all personal circumstances. On the other side
of the coin it is also the avenues that unclean spirits use to enter our
temples. You could explain the process by the way information is sent through a
cable or optical light. Imagine the information to be the word of God
as the good seed or a lie from the Devil as a bad seed. The speed;
that information travels through a phone line or optical cable I
would imagine is a similar speed that a thought travels through our
central nervous system which should give us an idea just how quick we are to
take thoughts captive to the word as the apostle Paul explains here using
imagination/images of the heart…Casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ (2Co 10:5) . The light of the body is the eye: therefore
when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full
of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also
is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not
darkness. If thy whole body therefore be
full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when
the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light (Luke 11:34-36).
If we don't understand the word/Jesus and it's/He's not written in the tablets of our hearts then we are defenceless and instead of having a beautiful cultivated heart/garden it would be an overgrown jungle of weeds, thorns and briars. That's the state of so many secular worldly “Christians” today and they don't even realise it. Their swords (The word of God) are so loose from their belts (The truth) that by the time they have reached for it, the negative thought/seed has already taken root and flowered and borne fruit and injected an anaesthetic that leaves the “Christian” sleepy, apathetic, totally defenceless and disorientated. The belt on the Roman soldier went around the waist and two straps went over the shoulders and were tied to the back of the waist where the breastplate than the sword were fastened to…If the belt (Truth of God’s Word) was loose, then the breastplate (our righteousness in Christ alone) and our swords (God’s word) are sloppy and the enemy has a very easy time in convincing us that we are useless and that God does not love us!!! Did you know that God still loved us whilst we were yet in sin before we knew Him? But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Do we really think that we can make Him love us more on the other side of the cross? No now we are accepted my Him into His Kingdom because of the sacrifice of His only beggoton Son where He became felsh and died for us… And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory (1Timothy 3:16). Because of the times that we are living in, we should be polishing our armour daily by exercising the meaning of each part until they are written on the tablets of our hearts {2 Cor 3:3). The Lord Jesus has not left us defenceless. He has given us the armour to use and understand the meaning of each part off by heart. We forget so easily don't we? We even forget sometimes to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and to write the word into our hearts. One ex soldier I knew could dismantle his sniper rifle blind folded and then put it back together again. He knew that without the full understanding of the weapon, he had no chance of using it to its full potential in the battle field.
What we say or write is influenced/inspired from the way we think. The
source of our spoken words comes from within the seeds of our
thoughts… For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to
thee; but his heart is not with thee (Proverbs 23:7). The canal that these
thoughts pass through is our imagination which is the faculty of
imagining, or of forming mental images picture or vision or concepts of what is
not actually present to the five senses; from which a dream or vision is
birthed. Our imagination is the God given ability to reason and think
over/meditate and reason over a matter…
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of
the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye
shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it (Isaiah
1:18-20). The
scriptures are our instruction book to how we should live life in it's fullness
Scrripture warns us in many
places about the danger of our own vain imaginations… Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened (Romans 1:21)… (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ (2Corinthians 10:4-5). How we think is determined by our perception
of what we understand to be the truth/reality and how we interpret our
surroundings. Our perception can be limited to what we have been taught from a
very young age. For example if we worship God without the understanding of His
Word, the written scriptures which reaveal to us God’s character and exactly
what He exprcts from His creation and His manifest will… then which god do we
worship? If our understanding is conceaived from outside the boudaries of His
word then we actually worship the god of own own vain imaginations and serve
our oqn bellies and are no better than the hypocrits. Jesus likened our hearts
to a field as in the parable of the sower Matthew 13:18-23 where the field is the state of our
hearts and the seed is the word of God. Our imagination is either influenced by
our fallen flesh nature and the spirit/god of this world 2 Corinthians 4:4 or
by our born again nature by the spirit of the Word of God John 3:3. Mixing the two concepts of
heavenly understanding and earthly understanding is dangerous: James 3:1-18.
The overflow of what is in our hearts will pour out of
our mouths as we speak it whether good or evil or in spirit and truth…O
generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil
treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For
by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matthew 12:34-37).
Before we even begin to understand the things of God/creation and His point of view written through His Word, the Bible, then the foundation of our faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen which bypass our natural five senses.. Total nonsense/foolishness to our flesh nature, mainstream science and academia relies heavily on what is seen and can be physically measured and proved; however without faith it's impossible to please God Heb 11:6 and most important to remember of all; before we put faith on a pedestal and give faith the pre-eminence, as many ministries do today, we must remember that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith Heb 12:2. Faith is fuelled by love, hope and righteousness Gal 5:5 and compared to a breastplate and helmet 1The 5:8. Just like the word is made alive by the Holy Spirit and Jesus is also the word John 1:1. Likened unto the body without the spirit is dead as faith and works and the word without the spirit is dead for it is God who works through us. Jesus is also the door John 10:1-9 and every door has a lock with only one key that turns the look so mankind can enter in. Jesus is the only way to the father in heaven John 14:6. There is no other mediator between man and God 1Tim 2:5 The Holy Spirit is the key that unlocks the written word and He is our teacher and our guide John 16:13. Jesus is the first born of all creatures Colossians 1:15 and the first fruit of all that have been born again of the Spirit of God from above. John 3:3 John 3:7 and 1 Peter 1:23. When we build a house for example in the physical realm, if the foundation is not strong or deep enough the house will not stand very long Matthew 7:24-27. Our natural carnal minds are at enmity towards God Romans 8:7 because of our fallen nature in Adam, the first man according to the book of Genesis; and the account of the fall of mankind. Since birth our minds have been controlled by our own selfish desires from the lust of our eyes to the fulfilment of the lust of our flesh from external influences or lies that we have accepted to be true. Our natural way of thinking is totally alien to God. A process of death and rebirth has to take place within us, just as the beauty of a flower and it’s fruit is hidden within a seed and unless that seed dies it cannot bare fruit John 12:24. The seed being our flesh and the spirit being the roots and the shoots that develops from within the seed once it has died by the germination process, from seed to root to shoot to flower to fruit! Plants process chemicals and minerals into edible fruit by design. Just as our spirits and souls (mind will and emotions) and hearts process information into the work of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit…
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