armor of God

I once had a dream about a spiritual battle.  The battlefield was littered with bodies, and only a few soldiers were standing.  They had on “dough boy” helmets from a past war and stood motionless until the enemy launched his weapons against them.  They then fell to the field and became a casualty in the war. The enemy’s weapons were not bullets.  The enemy had defeated these soldiers by catapulting bodies at them from afar.

In this dream, the soldiers were Christian believers and their enemy was satan.  Satan’s weapons were the accusations he brings in one believer about another.  The enemy was defeating Christians through slander, malice, and gossip, among other things.  It was the power of words, wrongly spoken, that brought the believers to defeat.

In Ephesians 6 we are told that our battle is not against people, but against the powers belonging to satan.  Paul admonishes us to “Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, after you have done everything, to stand.” (Eph 6:10-13).   The soldiers in my dream did not have to be defeated by words.  And the other men who were catapulted towards them did not have to be in satan’s camp, to be ensnared into his evil schemes against believers.  This could have been avoided if both groups of believers had put on the armor of God.

Paul describes the armor God as truth, righteousness, the preparation (or readiness) that comes from the Gospel of Peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and prayer. (Eph 6:14-18).  If we, as believers, love the truth, we will not invent lies against others.  If we fail to be righteous, we will not receive slander from the Accuser of the Brethren against us, nor against our brethren, for Christ is our righteousness and washes us in His blood when we confess our shortcomings. We can pray for our brother who is failing, and through our fellowship and ministry, he will be strengthened instead of falling into disuse and unbelief (which is satan’s plan).

The readiness, or preparation that comes from the gospel of peace is most important to this battle.  If we sincerely desire to walk in peace with others we will not be tempted to war against them. When a brother wounds us with an accusation from the enemy’s camp, we will still stand and be effective in his life if we care about his outcome more than the temporary relief that comes by telling him off. Rage seems to embolden us to put our enemy down, but in fact, it puts us in our enemy’s camp where our words will be used as his weapons against others.

Readiness implies that the person who is ready has been through some sort of training, or preparation.  In this case, obedience to the gospel of peace . . . the good news that God loves and wants to have peace with us.  To prepare for this we must fortify our minds against the accusations that come against us and others. One of our greatest weapons is found in carrying out rightful thinking; thinking on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy (Phil 4:8). This cannot be used just when we are attacked, but must be practiced in our own minds as soon as accusations come there.  If we think about the good in our brother, and pray for him, we will not be defeated in spiritual warfare when confronted by accusations.

Faith is required on our part in order to proceed with our good thoughts towards those who speak evil against us. Not faith in our good outcome, but faith that the weapons we have been given will be effective in keeping us from the evil one and will bring us personally into victory.  We may not see our accuser’s victory, nor be able to reconcile him to God.  But our armor, and weapons from God will allow us to stand and not become a casualty ourselves.  This faith leads us into Christ-likeness as opposed to remaining in our own nature. The fleshly nature likes to learn juicy “truthes” about others and develops an appetite for gossip.  Christ’s nature seeks to love others, and restore those who are unwittingly wandering into satan’s camp.  His victory for us includes leading the weak to strength and capturing them for Himself.

There is more to be said about spiritual warfare but not room enough in this lesson.  God bless you this week and take care to pray for others, maintaining the practice of a good thought-life towards all.  Amen.