Satan would rather believers busy themselves with everything else other
than obedience to God’s word in simplicity as we have seen. Make no mistakes, there
is no short cut to it, no prayer formula can work it, but a life dedicated to
seeking, knowing and doing God’s word. Putting on the armor of God is beyond anointing
services or laying on of hands only, it is beyond tithes, offerings and
sacrificial giving only. It is beyond procurement of anointing handkerchiefs, special
oils, as there seem to be no end to what ministers offer for sale these days as a panacea
to Satan’s warfare against those who are Christ’s. Some go as far as cutting and giving pieces of their undershirt to believers in exchange
for special offerings as a means to victory over the works of Satan. All these
do not give victory in this warfare but rather dedication to seeking knowledge
from God of His will and commitment to living your life in compliance with it.
This is the price to pay like Jesus said in Luke 9:23 and not money.
In order
to understand how the whole amour is put on, consider what ‘to put on an
attitude’ means. Attitude is an act that comes out of a settled way of thinking
(what you have believed) and the settled way of thinking comes out of
information embraced or knowledge accepted as the norm or as right or correct. You
put on God’s whole amour the same way you consciously put an attitude on. Accept
nothing else but God’s rightly divided word as the norm, embrace it, believe
it, obey it, make it your life, put it
on. This is God’s expectation, this is His demand.
In Ephesians 4:22-24 the Holy Spirit through the
apostle Paul says for us to put off concerning the former
conversation (manner of life) the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and …. put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. The putting
on is through the renewal of our
minds with what God has said regarding how we must live our lives
(Romans 12:2).
Colossians
3:9-10 says for us to Lie not
one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his
deeds; And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him. The Knowledge of God (the whole amour of God) must
change our thinking and become us (so to speak). The putting on of the whole amour
of God is through the renewing of our minds with the totality of God’s word
until these words ‘become us’, become our way of life, become what we live,
become who we are and all these starts from our thinking/mind. When His word
becomes who we are, then Christ will be seen in us, we will be Christians
indeed, Christ like. Little wonder it says we will be strong in the power of
God’s might when we put on the
whole amour of God. Was Jesus strong in the power of God’s might? Yes He was! Truth,
righteousness, readiness to preach/live the gospel, faith, salvation and the
word of God (as explained in the previous write up) must become our way of life
and then would we have God as our defense. You cannot live in disobedience to
God and expect Him to ‘obey’ your
requests for victory over Satan. It is unfortunate that when you hear the word ‘disobedience’
in the Church today, it is usually in reference to not disobeying what a leader
says, not so much of not disobeying what the word of God says. The obedience
required is to what God’s word says and particularly about spiritual warfare in
this instance.
Now then, we read in 2 Corinthians 10:4 that the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.
Right after this in the next verse, it elaborates how the ‘strong holds’ are
pulled down, explaining the strongholds as imaginations, every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God
and every thought that does not agree with Christ. The desired end result of the
warfare is that everything that exists and can ever exist in the realm of your mind (thinking, seeing with
the mind, desiring) be brought to total
submission to God’s word (obedience of Christ). Whatever subdues in
battle is the weapon of victory and this part of the warfare occurs in the
realm of your mind (imaginations, thoughts, desires) because what rules your
mind ends up ruling you. If your spirit rules your mind by feeding it God’s
word and insisting that only God’s word stays in it, you obey the word of God
eventually. If your flesh rules your mind by feeding it with imaginations, high
things (desires) and thoughts that are contrary to the knowledge of God (God’s
word/will) you end up obeying the flesh eventually. Do not forget that the
flesh is the un-regenerate part of the believer that cannot be redeemed in this
dispensation and which harbors the impulses of sin (Rom 7:18a). It is through it that Satan
accesses and dominates any man/woman that will allow him, even the believer,
starting from the mind. We are expected to put off these works of the flesh and
the starting point is in our minds.
Putting on the whole armor of God begins with conscious renewal of your
mind with God’s word/will and ends with your obedience to it. Your obedience to
it is the evidence that you have His whole armor on. Similarly, when you bring
your imaginations, desires and thoughts in submission to God’s word (obedience
of Christ) then you know that you are handling the weapons of your warfare right.
By them, you would have pulled down stronghold of wrong ideas, notions, dogma,
creeds, beliefs, deceptions, misconceptions, unbelief etc that had dominated your mind
making you to run contrary to the will of God. This process of putting on the
armor and rightly using the weapons of our warfare helps win the first and the
most critical part of the believer’s contention against Satan and his kingdom.
Romans 8:5 says ‘they that are after the flesh do mind the
things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the
Spirit’. What you allow to rule your mind in thoughts, imaginations and
deep desire (what you mind) rules you and eventually determines what becomes of
you (what you are after or what you do). Either you allow God’s word rule your
mind by putting on God’s whole armor and using the weapons God has given you
rightly unto victory over Satan or you allow the flesh (and unconsciously
Satan) rule your mind and continue in defeat by the powers of darkness. Whatever
is not of God (as made clear in His word) is of the flesh and subsequently of
Satan. If what you see around you spiritually is defeat, then for sure you are not
minding the things of God’s Spirit yet. Seek understanding of God’s word
concerning His relationship with you under the new covenant and ‘put it on’. That is the armor of God and
the weapons that Satan can never resolve or overcome.
Just before you begin simulating some sort of 'Star Wars' in your mind and imagining shooting spiritual machine guns, lunching spiritual balistic missiles etc in prayers, stop and ask yourself if you are in compliance with God’s requirements for successful warfare as we have seen in Ephesians 6:10-17 and 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. The Holy Spirit makes clear that it is when your obedience to God’s requirement is complete that you should think of avenging any disobedience to God’s will for your life by the kingdom of darkness (2 Corinthians 10:6). Similarly He says in Ephesians 6:18 that it is after you have put on the whole amour of God (compliance with God's word) that you are in a position to pray right and be certain of victory over the powers of darkness.
Avenging every disobedience to God’s will for
your life by the kingdom of darkness is the easiest part of the warfare we have
to fight. The most critical and important part is ensuring that our own
obedience is complete. In actual fact, making a decision to change course and get
sold out to God’s word is what some believers need and they will see the forces
of darkness harassing them put to flight in an instant, even before praying. Let
us first work on putting on the whole amour and using God’s word to straighten
out our imaginations, desires and thoughts unto obedience. The prayer part then
comes easy and would always work. Prayer formulas, schemes and books do not put
on us the whole armor of God (no matter how well intentioned) except they teach
this truth on spiritual warfare. Studying, meditating and acting on the rightly
divided word of God does. Let’s get on to the real work, let us allow God fight for us.
Meditate upon these
things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may
appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).
Well written and very explicit. The battle against the kingdom of darkness is real and very difficult to fight. It's not easy to fully put on the armor because of "the flesh" and little "foxes" that spoil the vine. May God help us!
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