Put on
the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil.
(Reference Luke 11:22’ 1 Corinthians
9:24, 2 Corinthians 10:4-6).
Introduction:
When it comes to
doing battle, and engaging in warfare within the Christian community. The flesh
and the physical human ability will always come last.
As
believers in Christ, our battles, wrestling and warfare are more spiritual than
they are physical.
And
for us to remain the victors Jesus had made us to be through His act of love on
the cross according to Galatians 3:13. We will need to be more spiritually
focused than we are physically conscious of the effect of the attacks of the
devil against us. And one of the ways to
stay spiritually focused is for us to take up the whole armor of God. Yeah! The
whole armor!
Recently I was experiencing some difficulty in
almost every areas of my life and couldn’t understand why. After spending some
time in prayer the Spirit of God began to reveal to me the source of the
difficulties I was going through.
My first response to God when the source of
the difficulties was revealed was but LORD why?
This question came as a result of my
knowledge of what the scripture says about any born again believer of
Christ as far as their deliverance from
their old nature and any / every other connection they may have through relatives and parents with a
covenant with the devil is concern, either presently or in the past. In answer to my question the Spirit of God
called my attention to the text in Ephesians 6:11, 13. THE WHOLE ARMOR! And this
made me to realize that having some of these armor as we would see later on is
not going to stop the devil from harassing a believer no matter how anointed he
/ she is. The requirement is the whole,
the complete armor.
1 Corinthians 9:24, reads: Do
you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Verse 25 further explains the fact that although
one may run a race, but would be disqualified from obtaining the price if he /
she refuse to comply with the rules of the game.
This
is one reason Paul instructed the Christians in Ephesus going through some form
of harassment from the devil to put on the whole armor. Just like a runner in a
race who is disqualified for not running lawfully according to the laws that
govern the game. These guys were all Christians but yet suffering from the
attacks of the devil due to their own ignorance of how to engage in spiritual
warfare.
