Lord, our faith is constantly focused upon You, and it must be so, for Thou hast ordained to lead us through the rubble of a dying age that we may walk softly into all the requirements of a new. Our hearts are set on You. We pray that You will bless us and anoint us, so that the armor of the Christian may be clearly understood in our hearts. Amen.
The book of Ephesians deals with the great wealth of the believer, his inheritance, and his blessings. In a very practical vein it speaks again and again of the walk of the believer; in fact, if we took the term “the Walk” from anyplace, it would be from the seven walks of Ephesians. It also deals with warfare and with the great eternal plan of God to manifest His wisdom through the Church to the principalities and powers (Ephesians 3:10). And so it is fitting that in the sixth chapter, Paul should sum up the entire book with exhortations to stand fast in the Lord, be strong in the Lord, and put on the armor of God.
The reason for this is that we are not warring against flesh and blood, but we are coming against the principalities and powers who are to be brought down (Ephesians 6:10, 11, 12). They are not to be brought down sovereignly by God, apart from the Body of Christ, but through the instrumentality of the Body; Satan will be bruised under our feet (Romans 16:20). It is the purpose of God that through the Church His manifold wisdom will be manifested. This is essential. You cannot approach the principalities and powers in your own wisdom; nor can you battle them in your own strength; nor do you have psychic immunity that will suffice in the day of assault. You must learn how to put on God’s attributes, how to move in His strength, and how to appropriate what we call the armor. It is the armor of the Lord. We have already discussed some of the parts: the loins girded about with truth, and the breastplate of righteousness. These areas represent certain things in the Scripture which we must appropriate from the Lord to meet our need.
Now we come to verse 15: and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; … Ephesians 6:15. Do you know what a greave is? I first came across that word many years ago. I remember going to an old second-hand store, the kind of place where you could buy almost anything, and for ten cents I bought a book of sermons. The minister who had written it had done quite a bit of research on it, and in it he talked about the armor that the Christian has. The lessons were elementary, but in that book I first found the word “greave.” A greave was a piece of armor that fastened at the knee and extended to the foot, so that it gave protection to the front of the feet. At the time of battle, the shins could be the most vulnerable point of the body.
In the Scriptures the feet are given a symbolic meaning. There must be that which protects us. Our greatest defeats come from the fact that we wander into dead ends, that we are not directed as we should be. We fall into the traps and snares that are laid for our feet. One device used in ancient ways of battle was to attach large sickles to the hubs of chariots, so that as the chariots came through, they actually cut the legs off the men on the field of battle. Once a man was crippled, he was out of the fight. No matter how strong he was elsewhere, if he was disabled in his feet, he was in a dangerous position.
That is why the Word says to “make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame should be put out of joint” (Hebrews 12:13). It is the key to the prophecy in Isaiah that in the day God brings forth His Kingdom, the lame will take a prey (Isaiah 33:23). The one who is lame will come up strong, for God will strengthen him, even where he is weak in himself.
The legs of a fighter will give out before his power to hit with his fists. That is why a prizefighter spends so much time skipping rope and jogging; his legs must be so strong that when he is almost beat senseless, there is still a reserve of strength within his feet. This is exactly what Ephesians 6:13 is saying: … Having done everything, to stand … When everything else is done, you are still on your feet.
What is it that gives a man endurance, that gives him immunity from misdirected effort, from walking into traps, from failing, from being crippled in the hour of battle so that he finally falls? It is the preparation of the gospel of peace. Notice that it is a preparation. This is not speaking about the Lord giving peace in the hour of testing, but about something that comes beforehand. It is the ingredient that keeps your heart and mind. The peace of God that passeth all understanding is the guardian over your heart and your mind (Philippians 4:7). The preparation of the gospel of peace is that which God does in our lives that protects us and prepares us for the battle before we ever get to it.
We are striving in our walk with God to be able to predetermine our reactions to a problem before we encounter it, instead of resolving them at the moment of encounter. In other words, it is as though we have already fought through the situation. A good soldier does that. When he goes into battle with his sword, and the enemy knows exactly how to come at him, he may be unable to defend himself, because the enemy might push him out of position so as to make him vulnerable. The enemy is always using tricks to put us into a position in which we would be vulnerable in the hour of attack. This is how he works: first, he will try to make you extremely discouraged; then he will work to make you rebellious over your circumstances; and when rebellion has lowered the guard, he will try to come in and defeat you with the old patterns of the flesh.
Where do we stand in victory? We predetermine our reaction to circumstances. Job had that predetermination in his heart. That is why he did not fail. No matter what was brought against him, there was no issue to be decided, for it had already been decided in his mind: “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him” (Job 13:15). Sometimes you may feel so sick you are ready to die, but even if you die, serve Him right up to the last breath.
“But the enemy is coming against me and I’m going to have all kinds of problems.” Maybe you will. Consider the worst thing that could happen, and then enter into it with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You have something already protecting you that seems to be like God’s very presence itself. This is the key of victory.
You might say, “Well, I am being carried along by the current.” That is the whole purpose of the apostolic ministry: that you be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and by the cunning sleight of men as they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, you grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:14–15). You are not to be vulnerable. You are to have armor that will protect you in your life, and a great deal of that protection is in living your life in advance. For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. 2 Timothy 1:12. “I have already committed that day to Him.” This was Paul’s predetermination. “Paul, you’ll die.”
“I am determined. I am determined that Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or whether it be by death” (Philippians 1:20). When he was entreated not to go to Jerusalem, Paul said, “What mean you to break my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). He wanted to finish his course with joy (Acts 20:24), to be able to say eventually, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). You know that you have done that because you predetermined to do it before the time ever came. Accidental victories is not the life of a saint; your victories are appropriated and experienced in advance.
I think that in the early days of God’s dealings, He allowed, in the Spirit, many of us to live through certain things for only one purpose: to put in us a predetermination of what we were going to do, what we were going to be, and how we would react under certain circumstances. Having that predetermination does not mean that you are any less sensitive; it means that you will not be caught unaware. You will not suddenly be put in a position in the battle where the enemy causes you to let your guard down for a moment. The enemy comes like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8), and he will move in on you if he gets a chance. Don’t let him have that opportunity. Neither give an occasion to the enemy (Ephesians 4:17). Never be presumptuous when it comes to the flesh; always take out your insurance ahead of time.
The success or the failure of battle depends a great deal upon the feet. The old warrior, David, in his great psalm of praise in 2 Samuel, refers to his feet as a protection and also as the means of moving into a new position. The predetermination, the peace that fills your heart, is the action by which you position yourself in the battle. You move into it, and everything is right.
For by Thee I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. 2 Samuel 22:30. His source of strength is always “by my God.” David begins his life by saying, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord …” 1 Samuel 17:45. Never face a Goliath in your own self; say instead, “I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” By my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is blameless; the word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. 2 Samuel 22:31. We might as well be reading Ephesians 6:16 … taking up the shield of faith … When David says, “He is a shield,” he is not just a soldier trying to write poetry; he is talking about something that is real to him. The Lord is a shield.
You might say, “I’m vulnerable. I’m constantly defeated.” You will always be defeated until you have the hunger after God to learn how to put yourself in Him, and you seek Him to be your refuge and strength. A man who puts himself in that position will find refuge in the Lord, and other things will not disturb him.
No matter how much you listen to good spiritual tapes, and read the Word, you still must learn the secret of living in Him. Take Him as your refuge, appropriate His strength, and believe it. For instance, when we are faced with illness, it may be sobering to think about what could happen. But I do not believe in illness. I do not believe in sickness coming to knock me out; I believe in divine health, and I am going to learn more and more to live in Christ. … He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. We can be assaulted in it, but let’s make an effort to come right into the Lord as fast as we can.
For who is God, besides the Lord? And who is a rock, besides our God? God is my strong fortress; and He sets the blameless in his way. He makes my feet like hinds’ feet (a deer can go right up the side of a mountain that you could not scale. That is the way the Lord will help us), and sets me on my high places, He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation, and Thy help makes me great. Thou dost enlarge my steps under me …
In a battle, big feet were a help. A weightlifter who held the title of the strongest man in the world at one time competed in the Olympics several years ago. He had had an ear infection which had destroyed his equilibrium, and because it is essential that a weightlifter have a balance, he had special shoes made that extended out from his feet. They were enormous, with special laces and other things which could give him support if he started to lose his balance. In other words he did what David is saying: “My steps are enlarged under me.” When the test came, even without his balance, he was able to win, and he took the gold medal. Lord, enlarge our steps under us, because we do not want to slip and fall at the wrong time.
… And my feet have not slipped. I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed. And I have devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise; and they fell under my feet. For Thou hast girded me with strength for battle; Thou hast subdued under me those who rose up against me. Thou hast also made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me. 2 Samuel 22:32–41.
This was his prerogative and his requirement: to eliminate those enemies of the kingdom. There is something here that God is trying to get through to us. You see, your feet become a symbol of triumph, because it is under your feet that it is God’s pleasure to bruise Satan (Romans 16:20). From the Garden of Eden it was ordained of the seed of the woman that Satan would bruise his heel, but that he would bruise Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). The feet are a symbol not only of standing in the battle, but also of the ultimate triumph over all the enemy. It is significant that we call this a walk with God; again we are talking about the feet. We do not call it a meditation, but a walk, because the feet are the means by which we progress from one point to another.
Notice that the Scripture says, “Walk in love (Ephesians 5:2). Walk circumspectly” (Ephesians 5:15), as though there were brains in your feet. It is referring to alertness. As far as the Scriptural symbolism is concerned, everything of the strategy of warfare is embraced in the feet. So we walk, we fight, not as uncertainly (1 Corinthians 9:26), but progressing from one point to another. This ceases to have any meaning whatsoever if we do not have an objective within our own spirit and a goal that we are striving to reach. Unless we see the manifestation of the sons of God, unless we see the holy remnant, the Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle, unless these things are in our mind, we are not going anywhere. We become guilty of doing things without purpose. We are wandering.
Canaan was different from the wilderness. In the wilderness, the children of Israel were taken care of by God. They had experiences, they built the tabernacle, they did many wonderful things; but they were only wandering about, marking time. Why? So people could die. That was the only purpose. God said, “I will let them wander, because there is a generation that must die” (Numbers 32:13), so for forty years He let them die. In the meantime, He kept them busy following the pillar of fire as it moved around while the younger generation came in that would be taught the ways of the Lord. He kept them moving and gave them busy work, until they fell over dead. The objective had been lost for themselves; they lost it in their unbelief when they would not listen to God and go into the land of Canaan.
But when they entered Canaan, everything changed. Now they were circumcised. They did not get manna anymore; they lived off the land. They moved in to possess it, hitting one city and then another, looking to God for the strategy. They were doing something. They had thirty-two nations to destroy, and they were not to make a covenant or a league with any of them, but to move from one to another and pursue them. If they were in the middle of a victory and the day was not long enough, they were to command the sun to stand still until they got the job done. It was living with a purpose, and that is why when you read the book of Joshua, you see a man wholly following the Lord, step by step by step. That is a walk with God.
They did not walk in the wilderness; they wandered. A walk takes you from someplace to someplace, and you will not make it if you are troubled by everything you encounter. Do not say, “I’m afraid of what lurks at the next corner.” You will face many things. You will be in jeopardy, but walk with God. Walk with Him! What do you want to be? What is it God tells you that you are going to be? What is it that He lays before you to do? Find the answers to these questions and then take one step after another. In our walk it is not enough to speak a word from the Lord about the Kingdom, about the manifestation of the sons of God, and leave it somewhere in the future. It does not mean a thing unless today we take a step toward it, tomorrow we take a step toward it, and we set about to actively do the thing God says. If you want to succeed in your walk, set your goal today. And when you have the goal, determine, “I’m going to take a step. I’m going to walk with the Lord.” Oh, this must get through to your heart.
Young people, don’t be wandering. When you do a task the Lord has put before you, do you treat it only as busy work? Or are you doing it because you want to see the Kingdom come and the word go forth? Work every hour that you can get; do the will of the Lord. Make sure you are going somewhere. You are walking with God, and you have a purpose in everything you do. You are determined to love Him and serve Him with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. But it is not in yourself that you are doing it; you are strong in the Lord. You have the purpose of heart. Then if someone says to you, “What are you doing here—you’re not getting anything worthwhile done,” do you become discouraged and go home? No, you say, “All right, show me what to do.” That is the attitude to have.
I remember an old fellow in the church who had become the church treasurer, a job that they took away from him off and on. One day the pastor came to him in anger and said, “I’d like to throw you right out the front door.” He answered, “Yes, Pastor, and I’ll climb back in the window because God put me here to bless you.” The anger that was welling up in that pastor melted away. Do you get the message? He had the predetermination.
“Well, I’m going to really go to work for the Lord! Provided no one bucks me, no one criticizes me, and I don’t find something more enjoyable to do.” No there is a work that the Lord has set before us, and we must do it.
There are people who let anything distract them, and then there are those who labor with faithfulness. Their faithfulness is not an end in itself; they are being faithful stewards to minister to the King and to His Kingdom that is coming.
Ministering to the Lord is quite a challenge. It means going someplace, setting about to lead the people of God into something, and the minute it begins to break down into a little routine or project, you are in trouble. In your mind there always must be one thought: you are laboring for the Kingdom. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness … Matthew 6:33.
This truth is what will help the people to work. In the long run, there will be people who will come and go in churches, as far as work is concerned, but not those who have a vision from the Lord. They are like Paul. Though scarred by beatings and whippings, he stood before the old Roman governor, as he said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). That is all that will sustain you: a real revelation of the Lord, of His will, and of what He wants.
Do you see that one of the contributing causes of defeat in your life could have been that you did not have your eye on the goal? Or that you did not have faith that God would give you the goal? Perhaps you did not believe that God would really work it out. Oh, you cannot go by the illusion which circumstances create. Neither can you say, “I’ll serve You, Lord, if You do such and such for me.” Almost everything that God commands with a promise of blessing, He first requires you to do without the blessing. If you look into the past of people who tithe and are blessed financially today, you will find there was a period in which they stood on a promise: “See if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive” (Malachi 3:10). Many of them found it almost impossible to pay their tithes and still meet their bills. God does this because He first wants to know if you are predetermined to do the thing He set before you. Don’t worry, the blessing will come, but first you will be tested on it. The same is true of almost anything God sets before you.
Have you ever watched a boxing match between a veteran fighter and an inexperienced one? The newcomer dances around while the old pro just stands there, hardly moving at all. But when he does move, the dancing boy is suddenly flat on his back, or wishes that he were. It is the unnecessary movements that get us into trouble! But God is teaching us to walk so that everything we do positions us a little more in Him, and we predetermine how we will react under everything that comes to us. This may not seem important now, but we do not know the things that will befall the people of God. It is important that we be prepared, with the preparation of the gospel of peace.