I Will Learn To Struggle With My Armor At All Time

From: June 26, - July 2, 2012

TOPIC: "I Will Learn To Struggle With My Armor At All Time" Ephesians 6:10-20 In these days I have been thinking of how much a believer is missing when he is not aware that his struggle is against Satan. Our enemy, the devil, is the one who brings all temptation and all the evilness. But, because of our poor spirit, there are things that we leave behind and that is to open a door to the devil. We leave that door open and he does his wickedness, well he can be in our mind as if he had an inheritance given by us. The cause is the double spirit which some believers persist to have in spite of the Word given to the Church oftentimes to warn them and encourage them. Then, when things become too difficult, they seek the Pastor to cast away the demon as if this was so easy. Paul writes to the siblings of Ephesus from the prison. The brothers of that church did not have Paul near them. Paul writes to them exhorting them to have strength in the Lord. The power is in the strength given to us by the Lord. As believers, we are companions of weapons and it is necessary for each one of us to fight the good battle with his Christian armor, the armor given to us by the Lord. Paul tells them in Verse 10, "Be strong in the Lord", to be fortified in the power of his strength, to be strong against the enemies of the church and the enemies in their lives. The daily life of a true child of God is a war. Satan’s followers are dedicated to obstruct, to hinder the work of Christ and to take out of combat the soldiers of the Lord, which is all of us. The second command in Verse 11 emphasizes the need of God’s armors; we can’t leave in our body any openings allowing Satan to strike us. We need to cover our heads, our feet, the heart, the abdomen, the eyes, the ears and tongue to not give the devil any advantage. These parts of the armor come to us by God; they are powerful because there is nothing unworldly in them. We must be firm against all that the devil wants to tie us up with. The devil uses well studied skills with the art of his wickedness. He uses all schemes with despicable mastery against you to detain in you the holy, to detain what comes from God. The devil’s desire is to deceive us since he governs and, therefore, organizes in the kingdom of darkness, which is the opposite to the kingdom of light. The devil has several strategies like for example: to launch discouragement, frustration, confusion and doctrinal errors. He, in his study of each believer, knows our most weak thoughts and aims to attack there. If he cannot make us useless thru one method, he will try another. It is a merciless war; it is our battle against demonic forces. We struggle against battalions of fallen angels, against evil spirits who have great power. Although we can’t see them, we are always surrounded by those malevolent spiritual beings. But, thank God that through God’s armor you have everything necessary to remain firm and to not give in grounds before his attacks. The fallen angels are principalities and authorities that dominate the world of darkness and spiritual followers of evilness in the celestial realms. The struggle in which we are involved is not against the flesh. Our enemies of flesh and blood are not but only mere instruments; the true enemy hidden behind them is Satan himself, against who is our real conflict. Because of those governors of darkness we can see that in this world there is witchcraft, spiritualism, there are rules created and all kinds of diabolical things. They are worldwide governors, but not of the universe, because in all the creation reigns absolutely our Almighty God. That is why there is nothing to fear. Let us take hold of our armor to be victorious. Resist in the bad day so that you will not fall apart but rather stay in one piece and be strong (Ephesians 6:11). The Word says to have the belt of truth buckled around the waist, of truth, sincerity, of good conscience. The truth is the girdle (or belt) that brings together and holds the long cloaks to the body so that the Christian soldier may go to action without hindrance. We must be fitted with that integrity so that we can battle well, having dressed each one of us with the breastplate (or shirt, vest) of justice, the justice that unites with the truth, the justice that works for the truth. It’s the justice practiced that is manifested in your integrity and honesty in your daily life. Live the justice in your life and there will not be anything that can destroy you. Christ's righteousness is done in us by the Spirit. It is said that the feet be fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. This suggests a willingness to bring the good news of peace. Inner peace forms a beautiful contrast with the fury of the exterior conflict. We have already mentioned three garments of armor: the vest, the belt and the shoes. Now we will discuss two other defensive weapons, the helmet and the shield. We also count with two other offensive weapons, the sword and the spear. We have the shield of faith with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows. The shield of faith will surely obstruct and therefore extinguish all the flaming arrows of the malignant. The faith defeats the wicked because we believe God. The shield serves to quench the darts of temptation when we are incited to anger, to the carnal desires, to revenge and to despair.

We can defeat the world also by wearing the helmet of salvation in our head. Accept the helmet offered by the Lord which is the salvation. So the helmet is added to the shield of faith as an inseparable companion. The soldier's head is one of the main parts that needs more defense, since the most mortal attacks can be to the head which is the part that commands the whole body. Likewise the head is the seat of the mind which will not receive the false doctrine or yield to the temptation of despair of Satan. And the sword of the Spirit; this sword is provided by the Spirit who inspired the writers of the Word of God. It is the sword of two blades, cutting in both senses, wounding some with convictions and conversion and others with condemnation. Christ used the sword in the temptation (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). If you notice, there is no armor for our back; it is that YOU SHOULD NEVER TURN YOUR BACK TO THE ENEMY! Paul exhorts to pray, don’t cease to pray at all times, when the opportunity is there and when there is a demand. At all times and imploring; to avoid the evil. (Romans 8:15) It is the Spirit that enables us to pray, to watch over and not fall asleep. Watch with perseverance, constancy and plea for all the saints. Pray for me so that I can open my mouth! Amen.