The Unseen - Spiritual Armor

What’s the most embarrassing thing you have ever done? I am sure you immediately thought of something. It might be hard to identify the most embarrassing thing, but I can readily think of dozens.

Do you have one that comes back and haunts you still? As soon as you think about it, you get that pit in your stomach and ask yourself, “how could I have been so stupid?”

Yeah, those are never fun. I have memories of things I have done or said that I try to erase from my mind, but still come back from time to time to remind me how dumb I can be at times.

It is often those kind of thoughts that the enemy likes to use as he advances in spiritual warfare against believers. “How dumb are you?” “Remember that stupid thing you did?” “God wouldn’t want someone who would do that?” “God will never forgive you.” And so on.

Ephesians 6:10-20 give us a peek at the spiritual warfare we are engaged in. We do not battle against flesh and blood. Our battles shouldn’t be fought on the physical plane. There is a bigger, more sinister and crafty enemy behind the scenes that wants us to focus on the physical. When we are in spiritual warfare, we must recognize our need for God and His supernatural provisions for us.

Paul, chained to a Roman soldier when writing the book of Ephesians, must have looked over and saw the armor being worn by his guard and thought it was a good illustration of Biblical truths. So, Paul wrote a metaphor about a spiritual armor for the saints.

The Belt of Truth: an essential piece of armor, the belt, holds everything together. It is the first and most essential part because everything is built on it. Do you believe God is God? Do you take Him at His Word? Do you allow His Word to guide your view of this world? The belt of Truth is the Christian Worldview, it shapes how you see everything.

A few years ago, there was a huge controversy on the internet simply called, “The Dress.” Do you remember it? A picture was posted and a simple question was asked, “Is this white and gold or blue and black?” The internet was divided. Why? Because each person perceived the picture differently. I, for one, saw white and gold.

The Designer, when asked, said that the dress was blue and black and that they never made one that was white and gold. Since I saw white and gold, I have a choice, do I believe the designer or do I trust my perception more?

When it comes to life and this world, do we trust what God says, or the way we perceive it? The Belt of Truth is reminding ourselves that God is God and He is true and all men are liars (Romans 6:13).

The Breastplate Righteousness covers all the vital organs. Remembering that the armor is for the believer, none of these pieces are talking about earning salvation. This one is a reminder to the believer that doing the right thing, imitating Christ, will protect and guard their heart.

Not holding on to or nurturing sin, instead seeking to be Christ-like in all we do.

Obedience to Christ as an out flowing of salvation, doing the right thing protects the believers heart and mind. Obedience out of love and gratitude, not trying to earn God’s favor, but because of his favor, is wearing the breastplate.

Shoes of the Gospel of Peace – Romans 8:1 – peace with God

Surefootedness, the sandals had cleats, provided firm footing. As a believer your standing is sure, fast and secure. Matthew 7:24-27 that our foundation needs to be in Christ. Believing the promises of God and counting them to be true for you.

Shield of faith – romans 1:17; Matthew 17:20

The size of your faith is not as important as the object of your faith. A little bit of faith in a big God is more powerful than a whole lot of faith in something that will fail you.

Helmet of Salvation – 1 Thess 5:8

Resting our hope of the future in Christ. To set your mind on heavenly things that will guard your mind.

Sword of the Spirit – Hebrews 4:12; Isaiah 55:11

Last week we looked at Jesus’ example of overcoming temptation by quoting the Word of God. We have to remember that the Word of God is a supernatural book, it is powerful and effective. The more we spend time in it, the more we will learn how to wield it effectively.

Prayer – James 5:16

The solider Paul was chained to must have run out of pieces of armor by this point, or Paul didn’t think there was a weapon in the Roman arsenal that could equate the power of prayer. Paul leaves the metaphor and directly tells the believers to pray. To pray for others and to pray for him.

Prayer is like a nuclear bomb. It is talking to the Creator and sustainer of everything.  There is no force or power in heaven or on earth that can stand against God. Learn to pray.

When we encounter spiritual warfare, we are in a battle and need an armor that can withstand. Allow this picture, these words to come to mind regularly and dress for battle every day.

The Unseen – The Truth About Satan

Have you ever been lied to? I know that’s a stupid question, because the obvious answer for all of us is a resounding “YES”! Another stupid question is, have you ever told a lie? Did you say, no? Then you just did.

The truth is, we are all accustomed to lies. As much as we hate being lied to, we justify our own lies when it is convenient to us. We like to categorize lies, like a “little white lie” or there are really bad lies. Sometimes we say, “as long as nobody gets hurt…” But the simple truth is, a lie is a lie. And humanity has been lying to each other since the Fall recorded in Genesis chapter 3.

After God created the world, the garden of Eden and Adam and Eve, we encounter the serpent. Here, Satan, takes over a serpent and speaks with Eve. He uses God’s very words, but he twists them and casts doubt on them. He uses lies to speak to Eve’s heart and creates desires for the forbidden. “How could it be so bad if it looks so good?”

How could Satan turn an innocent person, who never sinned, into a sinner? He crafted a very subtle and alluring lie. He’s pretty good at lying. Jesus called Satan the “Father of Lies” (John 8:44). Since the beginning, every time someone tells a lie, they are following the path that Satan blazed, and it is a path that leads to destruction.

Halloween is a time where evil and darkness are celebrated and made light of, making devils and ghosts seem fun. Here Satan is using one of his old tactics to get people to minimize him and his powers. When he is thought of as a cartoonish character, or a fictional graphic novel villain, then people don’t take him seriously. Some even deny his existence, which he loves.

If he can get people to believe his lies about himself, then he succeeds. And though there are a lot of disturbing images of Satan and demonic activity in Halloween displays and activities, the far more dangerous tactics are the subtle ones where Satan and his minions appear to be something good. The Bible says that Satan appears as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Like when Satan convinced Eve that the forbidden fruit was something for her good and that she was missing out on self-improvement by not eating it. Satan likes his lies to sound like truth. We need to be critically minded and watchful as we go through this world, knowing that our enemy is trying to trip us up (1 Peter 5:8).

Example of Christ

In Matthew 4, we see that Jesus, having fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, encounters Satan himself in a series of temptations. We learn that Satan is real, he is a tempter, a liar and he attacks when we are most vulnerable.

1 John 2:16 summarizes all categories of temptations in three kinds: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. I define each of these as appetites, materialism, and pride. Notice how the three temptations of Christ appealed to these areas.

First Satan tried to use Jesus’ hunger against Him and get Jesus to turn a stone into bread. “Jesus, you the man! You can make a feast out this here stone and eat until you are full, forget this fasting thing man!” He tried to allure Him into using His power for selfish reasons and fulfill an appetite in the wrong way and at the wrong time.

Jesus battled this temptations with the Word of God, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Or as Samuel said to Saul, “it is better to obey then to sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). Trusting God at His Word and His timing for our life will help us overcome the lust of the flesh temptations. These temptations come in various forms according to our appetites and desires: lust, hunger, body image, meaning, etc. Know the Word of God to battle Satan’s lies.

Secondly, Satan tried to get Jesus to throw himself off the temple mount so that God will send angels to catch Him. This would have demonstrated openly to all of Jerusalem that Jesus was the Son of God and His fame would spread quickly. He was speaking to the pride of life, the temptation that promotes self.

Jesus again uses Deuteronomy to battle against this temptation (Deut 6:16). Essentially saying, don’t try to force God’s hand, don’t twist God’s Word and obligate Him to do something He didn’t say He would do. This is why it is important to know the context of what God’s Word says so we don’t manipulate it and try to manipulate God.

Thirdly, Satan tells Jesus he will give Him the kingdoms of the World if he would bow down to him. Here we see the lust of the eyes, the desire to have what you don’t have. It’s like saying, if I could just have that outfit I’d be really cool. Or, if I get the newest smartphone I’ll have a lot of friends. It’s the temptation that gets you to look at what you don’t have and causes you to be willing to do something you shouldn’t in order to get it.

Jesus once again turns to the Word of God, Deuteronomy 6:13, declaring His loyalty to worship the one true God only. Essential saying, God alone is my satisfaction.

When we see that our enemy is real, that he is a liar and that he uses subtle tactics, we can begin to fight him. Jesus, our supreme example, showed us the way in overcoming temptations. The key is to know the Word of God, to trust God more than the lies and to stand firm during temptations.

The Unseen: Don't Tell Me what to Do!

October is here and now the Autumn season has finally begun to take over. The colors of autumn are popping out all around, hayrides, bonfires and apple cider make this one of my favorite season. Though autumn is beautiful and fun, it is full of signs that that winter is coming.

Speaking of autumn signs, beginning in mid-summer, our culture begins to advertise and sell decorations for an annual fall festival, Halloween, a sure sign of the Fall. Decorations and costumes range from cute child story characters to macabre symbols of death.

It’s a time where truly dark images and themes are given a light and jovial spin. Death, haunting, ghostly, witchcraft and morbid themes are celebrated as if they are fake and fictional. The truth is they are deeply rooted in the Fall of mankind that the Bible records in Genesis chapter 3 and the Fall of Satan in Isaiah 14.

The Unseen

Over the next couple of weeks, while our culture is celebrating these themes, we will be looking at what the Bible says about Satan, Demons and Angels in our new series called, The Unseen.

Paul instructs us in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Like much of the Halloween celebration, where people treat disturbing scenes lightly, many Christian walks around without seriously considering the Spiritual Warfare that we are in daily. There is a battle being waged in our hearts, minds and lives daily in the spiritual realm and we try to deal with it in the physical. But God has given us insights in His Word to equip us to stand strong and to see what He is doing behind the scenes, in the Unseen.

Don’t Tell Me What To Do

If we could rewind the clock and go back to the beginning where everything started to fall apart, where would we go? The Garden of Eden? We could then tell our parents, Adam and Eve, not to eat of that fruit.

But we would need to go back further in time to try and stop the first rebellion, that of Lucifer, known today as Satan. Although it isn’t recorded in Genesis, it is preserved for us in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, one of God’s created angels, filled with pride, rebelled against God and took 1/3 of the angels with him in his rebellion.

In Isaiah 14:12-14 we are introduced to Satan’s five “I wills”, five statements where he described his heart’s desire. At the root of his rebellion was his desire for autonomy, self-rule, and his desire to replace God. He didn’t want God to tell him what to do, he wanted to tell others what to do, he wanted to be worshiped, he wanted power.

Have you ever found yourself saying, “don’t tell me what to do”? Maybe your parents, siblings, teacher, boss, or someone in authority told you to do something and you didn’t like it. Why didn’t you like them telling you what to do? Was it because it was something bad/evil? Or was it the rebellious desire from deep within where you want to be the boss?

This desire to be self-ruled is in all of us. It is rooted in pride and flows out of us in the form of rebellion. We seek to do whatever we want. Unfortunately, we don’t realize that when we rebel against God, we are obeying Satan and his demonic forces.  

Satan wasn’t alone in his rebellion. He convinced one third of all the angels to join him in his campaign against the Father (Revelation 12:4). These “fallen angels” are what we now call demons. It is important to know this because Satan and all these fallen angels are created beings. They were created by God and ultimately will give an account for their rebellion. They might be powerful, but they cannot defeat God.

In this Halloween season, there are many depictions of these fallen angels, these demonic forces, that we will see. Each time you see them, remind yourself that they are a defeated foe.

Good Angels

Satan rebelled and took a third of the angels with him and for a season God allows him to roam this earth and have his (limited) way with things. We often miss key statements in Scripture and begin to give Satan and his demons too much power. We think this world is lost to him and that they are too powerful. But Satan only convinced 1/3 of angels. 2/3 stayed the course and are righteous angels.

Psalm 103:20-21 summarizes the work of the good angels. They do His Word, obey His voice and minister according to His will. Righteous angels abound and are always working according to the Lord’s plan.

When the enemy seems to be overwhelming and evil seems to be taking over, remember the story we read about in 2 Kings 6. In the midst of a siege, the city was surrounded and defeat seemed inevitable, yet Elisha was calm. His servant ran to him and said, “what are we going to do?” Elisha said, “don’t be afraid.” And then he asked God to open his servant’s eyes, and what he saw was a sight to behold. Surrounding them was chariots of fire filled with a heavenly army that could not be defeated.  

God is now weak or helpless in our fight. He can win with a word. He has a host of heavenly angels at his beck and call who will fight for us at his command. Don’t fear the enemy, fix your eyes on our God.

The Remedy

The Spiritual battle is real. There are evil forces all around. However, James 1:14 tells us that the evil desire to rebel comes from our own hearts, not the demonic forces around us. Isaiah 53:6 describes us as wayward sheep turn each other away from God. This is the result of the Fall. We are in desperate need of a remedy to our rebellion.

God loved us so much that He sent His Son to be that remedy. Jesus willingly took on flesh and lived a perfect, sinless life. He chose to go to the cross and shed His blood for our sins. He became sin for us, that we might become His righteousness. When He rose from the dead, He concurred sin and death, He defeated Satan’s rebellion, and render the demonic forces powerless.

Jesus is the remedy to our rebellion. Look to Him, follow Him, trust Him and you will find victory, hope and forgiveness.

I am so glad that Jesus didn’t rebel against His Father. When the Father told Jesus the plan, what if Jesus said, “don’t tell me what to do!” We would all be doomed. Jesus instead, humbly and joyfully said, “Not my will but yours be done!” “Behold the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world! Blessed be His name!”