Put On Spiritual Armor – Part 1

10 Oct Put On Spiritual Armor – Part 1

Blog Series

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

Currently in our series on five steps to unleashing the power of an eternal perspective, we’re looking at Step 4: You Must Fight the Invisible.

There are three keys to fighting the invisible:

1. Be alert to spiritual warfare
2. Put on spiritual armor
3. Resist the enemy.

So far, under being alert to spiritual warfare, we have looked at the need to accept the reality of spiritual warfare, and to choose spiritual warfare over the American Dream as the fundamental orientation toward the living of daily life.

But also, in fighting the invisible, we must put on spiritual armor, and that involves two steps:

• Choosing spiritual weapons over natural weapons
• Trusting God’s power to protect us

Today, we’ll unpack the necessity to choose spiritual weapons over natural weapons.

What is spiritual armor?

You can’t stop a flood with machine guns. You can’t extinguish a fire with flood lights. And you can’t fight a spiritual war with natural weapons.

We saw in the two previous blog posts that our primary battle in life is not against merely natural forces, such as random chance, cause/effect consequences or success principles. Rather, behind everything that might be interpreted as chance, cause/effect or success principles is a spirit world that is dedicated to thwarting the effort of Christians to live out the will of God in our lives.

We learned from Ephesians 6:12 that “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Peter further illuminates the danger of this reality by saying, “Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Of course, the devil is only one being that can only be in one place at a given time. So, he accomplishes his will through the array of spirit beings outlined in the Ephesians passage.

We are powerless to withstand this evil army with hard work, positive thinking, or good luck. This evil army is powerful, smart, has superior information, can move about in our world without detection, and can lay booby-traps for us that we might easily step into in ignorance. For us to imagine that we can out-think, out-maneuver, or out-work this invisible army is the height of miscalculation.

Fortunately, Paul gives us additional information on how we can escape the “snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:24-26). We put on the armor of God.

What are the pieces of the armor of God?

Shortly after Paul warns us of the evil spiritual army dedicated to thwarting our spiritual lives, he introduces us to our protection in Ephesians 6:13-17:

 ^“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

In this paragraph, he points us to these spiritual weapons:

1. Truth
2. Righteousness
3. Peace
4. Faith
5. Salvation
6. Scripture

The metaphors he pairs with these pieces of armor are:

1. Belt
2. Breastplate
3. Shoes
4. Shield
5. Helmet
6. Sword

In appealing to us to “put on the armor of God,” he is appealing to us to protect ourselves with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and Scripture.

How to put on the armor of God

Broken down this way, it seems fairly straightforward. Yet there are some subtleties and ambiguities in the list, and not all Bible teachers agree with exactly what it means to put on each piece of armor.

Having said that, there is common and popular support for the following interpretation of what it means to put on the full armor of God.

Conclusion

Having isolated the challenge by Paul to choose spiritual weapons over natural weapons for a spiritual war, next week, in Part 2 of Putting on Spiritual Armor, we’ll explore how to trust God’s power to protect us. I look forward to seeing you then.

Get a Moving from Checkers to Chess At-a-Glance-Overview: Click Here

As we have been studying these concepts for quite some time (including in some prior blog series), and I am excited to now be connecting all the “moving parts” from those posts and combining them into a “spiritual game plan” in this “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective” series.

For an overview of the game plan, so you can see at a glance where we begin and where we’re headed, I’ve created an overview/outline you can download for free: Click Here

For the full discussion of each of the steps, begin with the first post in this series, Moving from Checkers to Chess, and then continue with the following posts thereafter.

In case you’re new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey:

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