“Therefore put on the full
armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you
may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in
place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always
keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Eph. 6:10-18)
One thing that recently
jumped out at me when reading this familiar passage was simply this: There’s
nothing listed here that any Christian doesn’t already have in full measure.
What Christian doesn’t
have the truth? Every Christian has the righteousness of Christ. All Christians
have heard and received the Gospel of peace. We all have faith, of course, and
we all have salvation and the Spirit of God if we are in Christ.
This might not be such a
big revelation for you, but for me it was. Because growing up in Church I was
always taught to think of the Armor of God as a list of things I needed to go
and acquire and that if I didn’t remember to put them on the Devil would eat me
for lunch.
But, if I already have
truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and the Spirit of God as one who
is in Christ Jesus, then I don’t need to go out and get anything else. I’m not
lacking what I need to stand firm in Christ because in Christ I have everything
necessary to overcome the Enemy and speak the Truth of the Gospel of the
Kingdom.
That’s good news to me.
I hope it’s good news for
you, too.
Blessings,
Keith
**
[IMAGE CREDIT: LITO BUJANDA-MOORE, "KNIGHT HAWK"]
3 comments:
Brother Keith, this has been playing in my mind for the last day. This pierced me to the core and spoke to me so powerfully! The base is our identity in Christ yet I keep pushing with my own ability. What a lie that we have to earn it! Many thanks for sharing such a powerful word with us. Blessings to you, Keith!
yes Eddie said it right and so did you--good word--thanks.
Yes. We already have a storehouse of spiritual weapons. Now we need to allow the Spirit and the participatory/organic body of Christ to train us how to effectively and courageously use what we already have!
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