We need to understand the name of each piece of armor and what it stands for, what it protects and what we are appropriating. Each piece of armor we must deliberately put on. We put on an attribute of God as we identify with Him.
The armor is entirely transference from the Lord to us. To put on means to clothe ourselves with. The attributes of God flow into our spirit and then into our soul so that we are conscious of them, and then they clothe us.
Jesus defeated Satan for us. Therefore, it is not a matter of our strength; it is a matter of our appropriation of His strength.
Our identification with the Lord releases the transference. We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We war against principalities and powers, but we do it in His might.
We put on the armor to stand against the, wiles, schemes, methods of the devil, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
The wiles of Satan can cause people to use human reasoning, instead of following divine revelation at that critical hour when they could take a step on with God. The enemy comes with temptations, with lying circumstances, a false reality to get us to accept it.
The loins are the seat of all manifestations of intense emotions. We are to, Gird up the loins of your mind. 1 Peter 1:13. The part of the mind which is given to emotions must be girded.
We must have protection against the satanic assault upon our emotions. Satan will come against the seat of our emotions, our loins. The New Testament uses the word “bowels” instead of loins, which involves the same thing.
The armor of the Lord protects our emotions; our loins are to be girded with truth. This is not just talking about any truth. Divine truth is the only thing that has the power to control emotions.
Of all the ways the enemy could come against us, we should be alerted to these wounds the most, if the enemy can get to our emotions, he can disable us.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The heart must be righteous, for it is deceitful and desperately wicked in its natural state. How can we keep it from the evil of circumstances round about us? We hide it by a breastplate which serves two purposes: it protects from what comes from without, but it also serves as a covering of righteousness over your own being to prevent unrighteousness from coming up and manifesting itself.
This is not a righteousness that we manufacture; it is not something that we attain by our own efforts or discipline. It is something we acquire by faith. We put it on. He becomes our protection. He becomes the aura of immunity round us. It is a very real thing.
We must put on the whole armor of God; if one piece is missing it leaves us vulnerable.
The Lord is our provision. He becomes our righteousness. It is not something we produce; it is the infilling of Himself into us.
When we come and stand in His presence, the Lord looks upon us and sees His own righteousness. He looks upon His own purity and covers us in our unworthiness. It is a great defense in battle.
It is as we press into God where we are filled with the Spirit, that we receive the cleansing of the Spirit and are clothed with God’s righteousness. The infilling of the Spirit displaces any unrighteousness in us.
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
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.
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.
The Holy Spirit is prophetic and as we practice waiting upon the Lord, a focused listening, he show us the things to come.
The feet are a symbol not only of standing in the battle, but also of the ultimate triumph over all the enemy.
in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.
The flaming missiles coming at us are things that burn, things that torment.
Some of the flaming missiles of the enemy are doubt, discouragement, mistrust, jealousy, delays of promises of God coming to pass in the natural realm, the evil person prospering.
How do we extinguish the fiery darts, the things that burn are a sustained pain that bothers you. We take up the shield of faith.
This piece of armor can be moved to cover whatever is coming against you. It is a little more versatile than the other pieces you have because anything could come at you.
The shield of faith isn’t faith to keep them from hitting you; the Word says, “faith to extinguish all the flaming missiles.” It is a shield of another kind, it is a shield that prevents your heart from rising up in a situation and being defeated; after its full impact has hit you, your faith can still deal with it, extinguish it, end the torment of it.
And take the helmet of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8:, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Here it is called “the hope of salvation.”
The helmet of salvation is a piece of armor for everyone going into battle. It keeps the devil from getting to you and obsessing your mind with some problem.
The greatest battle ground of the enemy is the mind, this is where he attacks us the most.
“Now put on the whole armor of God—this piece for your head, this piece for your heart; this piece for your feet go in and battle.” He means, “Appropriate the attributes of God!”
What is the hope of salvation? It is the Lord’s hope! It is the Lord’s great expectation! He is seated at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet.
Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With every piece of armor, you are reaching into attributes of God to replace the vulnerable attributes of man.
The sword of the Spirit is the only aggressive weapon in all the pieces of equipment here.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the sword of the Spirit; it is not your sword. The Word of God never should be handled carelessly or lightly. It is not a sword to stick other people with, but to bring the enemy down.
The sword should be an anointed bringing forth the Word of God in your heart. We need to learn how to speak the word of God out loud into the atmosphere. The Holy Spirit then performs the word spoken, and the angels also harken to it.
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
Praying in the spirit is the last thing mentioned. When we pray in the spirit, pray in tongues we are praying the perfect will of God. This becomes a weapon because it releases the will of God in our lives, builds up our spirit, and binds the enemy.
We pray with God not towards Him. We find out the will of God and speak it into existence. Supplication refers to the needs we have and others making request of God.
All prayer includes all the forms of prayer.
Watching- keeping awake, for all the saints. We need to be aware of what our brothers and sisters may be going through.