The Armour of God Introduction
Hey guys, I’m finally back with another blog - thank God! So today we’ll be talking about The Armour of God. More than being a blog I would more class this as a bible study, as the point of this is for you guys to get your bibles and notebooks out with me so that we can study the Word together.
As we’re talking about the Armour of God, this will be a 7 part series so that we can go a little more in depth for each part of the armour. But before we get into the first topic, lets read Ephesians 6:10-18 (the key passage we’ll be studying - so you may want to write this down or highlight it in your bible!)
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…”
As you can see highlighted in the passage above there are seven pieces that form the full armour of God:
Belt of Truth
Breastplate of Righteousness
Shoes of The Gospel of Peace
Shield of Faith
Helmet of Salvation
Sword of The Spirit
Prayer
So over the next seven days I will be studying each piece in depth and then uploading it on here. Some may be longer/shorter than others, I will literally just be sharing my own personal bible study notes with you guys.
But before we start tomorrow with the Belt of Truth, I wanted to do a little bit of an introduction to The Armour of God…
The Importance of The Armour
Something that stood out to me from the passage is the command to STAND. Across these verses the word stand is repeated four times. So what does it mean?
According to Blue Letter Bible (a really good resource that helps with definitions of words used in the Bible - linked below) the word “stand” means the following:
To uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything.
To be kept in tact, to escape in safety.
To cause a person or thing to keep in place, to stand immovable, to stand firm.
To continue safe and sound, stand unharmed, to stand ready or prepared, of a steadfast mind.
One who does not hesitate and does not waiver.
So here we see that Paul in other words is calling us to stand immovable, firm, ready, prepared, unwavering with a steadfast mind so that we can escape in safety, unharmed and remaining in tact. And so there are two questions that I have to ask from this command…
Question One: What are we standing against?
As we see in verse 11 & 12, Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood (all that is happening in the natural world), but against principalities, powers, the rulers of darkness of this age and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
As christians there are two things that we must realise, first is that we are in a spiritual battle everyday of our lives and how we respond to that battle has a lot to do with how well we stand. And secondly we have a very real enemy who is on the other side of the battle and his one aim is to knock christians down from their place of standing and he will do this by any means necessary. And I think one of the main ways that the enemy will try to knock us down or keep us from standing is by getting us to be ignorant to the fact that we are even in a spiritual war.
And of course there are seasons in life where the battle is more obvious, with things like temptation, sickness, mind battles etc… But sometimes it’s with ignorance as I mentioned earlier or by getting us to be inactive.
I will never forget this time years ago when I was speaking to my Pastor’s wife (my spiritual mama) one of the things she said to me was, “Khairah, if Satan knows he can’t get you to backslide, he’ll get you to be stagnant or inactive.” And so that in itself is a way that I know the enemy will try to hinder us as christians from standing and being on guard - by simply being inactive. Being too comfortable, being carnal and caught up in the “natural” things (e.g. social media, vanity, comfortable living, soft life lol).
Another way is by getting us to focus and fight against the “flesh and blood” that Paul so very clearly told us that our fight is NOT against. A clear example of this would be in conflict, alot of the times when conflict arises we tend to take things personal and go against the person not realising that Satan is behind the whole thing.
And so here are just a few examples of how the enemy fights against us to stop us from standing and fighting back against him so that he can have his way. So here’s a question… what are the areas in my life where the enemy has been fighting against me? This will look different for everyone, and sometimes we are even unaware so I encourage you to pray about this - ask God to show you the areas where the enemy has been fighting against you so that you can know specifically what to stand/fight against! Here are a few examples…
Fear/Anxiety
Temptation
Guilt/Condemnation
Confusion
Believing lies about God
Conflict
Bad money habits
Laziness
This is just a few, but another thing that I found interesting and wanted to note that I got from Enduring Word (a really good sound bible commentary - linked below) is that all these spiritual hosts of wickedness that come against us are organised and always ready to come against us - this is why we best be ready and on guard to STAND against them too! And this leads me onto the next question…
Question Two: So… How do we stand?
Well I guess we’ll be able to answer this question more in depth over the next seven days as we study each part of the armour. But Paul tells us in verse 14 that we stand by “putting on the full armour of God.”. And so that is why I want to study this passage of scripture because I think that especially in these last days its more crucial than ever that we have our armours on to be able to stand against Satan because I’m not sure about you but I want to be able to STAND in these last days - unwavering, unharmed, steadfast, prepared and ready to fight and take down any strategy of hell against myself but also on behalf of my family and friends.
And before we start tomorrow I just wanted to set the record straight - Satan is no contender for our God, so when we do what the scripture tells us in putting on His strength and the power of His might with the armour of God we’re on the winning side!
So yeah i’ll see you guys back here tomorrow, and please join me! I would love to hear and chat about what you guys get from these verses too :)
LINKS
Blue Letter Bible - https://www.blueletterbible.org
Enduring Word - https://enduringword.com/#commentary
“But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” - Matthew 24:13