Snapshot: Putting on The Armor

A few months ago, I felt the Lord leading me to pray for my spiritual armor everyday.  To my regret, I haven't been completely faithful in this.  I've since came to a heart change, and now pray into this and put on my armor everyday.  To quote a commercialized catchphrase, the origin of which currently escapes me,  "Oh, what a relief it is!"

"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."  

Ephesians 6:13-16

The truth is that God has equipped us with our spiritual armor since the time we first believed--and perhaps before then, too.  Heaven's reality says that our armor has been, is, and always will be in place.  Why, then, do we need to constantly apply and reapply it?  Why do we need to continually pray for something that has already been given to us?

The answer lies in renewing our minds.  We need to come into agreement with God and the Light.  Spiritually, we need to identify with Him.  We need to clothe ourselves with His protective covering so that the enemy knows exactly who we belong to.

“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land."  Job 1:10

God has done this.  He has put our spiritual armor on for us.  In today's terms, He has placed around us a forcefield of spiritual safety.  If we forget these things, though, then we are at risk.  There is power in our thoughts, and there is even more power in our words.  We need both of these to agree with God.  We need both of these to know what God has given us.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." John 8:31-32

Jesus said that hearing the truth is not enough.  We need to know it!  We need to know it and agree with God.  Once we come into His knowledge with renewed minds, that's when the truth is activated in this world.  That's when we are able to be made free.  Once we confess with our words and know in our hearts (Romans 10:9), that's when our spiritual armor becomes more of a reality than this present life.

So, we agree with God that we have on His Armor.  We take up the shield of faith, and use it to deflect and deny every message that satan tries to send us.  And we surround our heads--our minds-- with the helmet of salvation, which is the Word of God.   We meditate on the Word and think about God and His faithfulness.

This is how we resist the enemy.  This is how we never lose the joy of our salvation.  This is how we  position ourselves for going from Glory to Glory!  He wants to keep us in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), and with this armor He's made a way.  God never gives any promise that we are unable to fulfill.

Confirmed:  Last Sunday a church friend was led to share with Vanessa and I the importance of putting on our spiritual armor every single day.  That was God's reminder to me!

Confirmed:  Another reminder came through Rick Warren's daily devotional.  I'm no longer subscribed via email, but these devotionals still manage slip through to my inbox occasionally.  God's timing is so perfect!  I received one called, "Fighting the Enemies of Good Intentions".  The pieces were put together for me.  The enemies here are the devil and his spiritual forces.  We fight them with God's armor!  It is our spiritual armor that allows us to retain good intentions.  It is God's protection that allows us to seek Him and stay covered.  It is His Armor that equips us to fight the enemy's evil with good.

Comfort: Straight from The Comforter

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. "  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

This verse has been on my mind for almost a week now.  I've had a tougher than usual last week, and I've been struggling through it and leaning on the mercy of God.  God has taught me through my mistakes and pridefulness, and made me bowed down before Him.  The Holy Spirit cuts to the heart, then comforts the heart that has been broken and yielded.  In the past, The Lord has been gracious to discipline me if I ever become distracted away from Him, and recently He's again renewed me to Himself.  I now have a greater focus on Him and His heart, and He's delivered me from the threats of evil that the enemy would have me believe.

I've been humbled in my disciplining, and God took me to a point where I knew that transparency between Vanessa and I was necessary.  I was led to confess my struggles and pet sins to her.  Confession is a part of healing and a command of God (James 5:16), but it takes a willingness to bare all to others.  In the past this has been a big weakness of mine...

So, I shared with Vanessa my struggles and the healing began.  It is God who does the work, but there is an effect added when we can build of off the experiences of others.  This process was also humbling, but afterwards I felt so much better.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord" for His pure, effective version of counseling.  Vanessa uplifted me so much through her comfort.  I knew she was able to do this, only because she herself has been receiving comfort and mercy from God in those same areas of struggles.  When God takes us out of a trial, He expects us to share His love and comfort with others.  Once Vanessa had been comforted, she became such a support for me.  Praise Jesus for extending His hands of spiritual healing through the willing hearts of others.  And for a wonderful wife, of course...(Proverbs 19:14)

Confirmations below.  God gave so many signs and synchronicities that validated this message of comfort.  Below are just two.

11/23/14:  I was reading on The Quickened Word and there was a recent post that I was reading the comments for.  I read the very same verse (the one above) that had been brought to my remembrance, in the comments section of this article.  God is so faithful.

11/25/14:  A Rick Warren devo popped up in my email.  These somehow make it through my gmail filter every 3 weeks or so.  And today's mentioned a particular verse about comfort....yes, the same segment about comfort!  Here it is:

“God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things.”

This is verses four through six, and it's a much different translation...I kind of like the variety.  Verses 5 and 6 were a great addition, as they expounded on the things that I had just lived out with Vanessa.

Theme: Out of Darkness into Light

This morning I received a vision where a few lights came down from heaven and circled around, almost like moving spotlights.  I understood that these were revelations of the Word that were coming down from God.  First, though, they had to get through an atmosphere crowded with noise and lies...and atmosphere of darkness.  At that point, I understood that these rays reached people who had the Holy Spirit to guide them.

Confirmations:

This morning Rick Warren's daily devotional popped up in my email inbox.  Most of these get caught in my spam, as I feel I don't have time to read all of them...but I feel that the ones that make it though to my inbox unscathed are particularly God inspired for the situation that I'm in at that point in time.  Today's was called "Biblical Interpretation: God doesn't leave you in the dark".  I'll just list the first principle relayed in that article.  Point 1:  You need faith and the Holy Spirit to interpret scripture.  I thought this was a specific confirmation of the vision God gave me.

"No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." 1 Corinthians 2:11.

So, those beams of light I saw were the thoughts of God, and His words, coming down to reveal good things to His children.  I instinctually knew this from the vision, but how cool!