How to Use the Whole Armor of God - Verse By Verse

 ` Have you seen a toddler, or video of a baby animal, struggling to stand andfinaly learning to walk, then run? When we stand in the face of spiritual battles and grow stronger in the Lord, we’re the same. I’ve taught on the armor of God before. Let’s apply these in our lives. Like the fruit of the Spirit, they are things we can apply each day and grow.

Verse 12 says why we need God's armor – we’re not fighting flesh and blood. Just like someone like Courtney might have false people around her, but true friends helped her, reminding her she could be a good mom with God’s help if she had doubts. They helped her with things. I shared how one puahed her away from a car backing into her when she was pregnant; the friend was okay but spent a couple days in the hospital, and of course the baby was fine, too.

Hopefully, you won’t need to be in harm’s way to help a friend. But the key is we should help people as long as that help doesn’t go against God’s Word. And, we should always be respectful. The Bible says how to treat others. Perhaps you can see how this relates to how we need to edify one another r- build each other up – so we can stand, just like you might hold someone up who had hurt their ankle. We don’t fight flesh and blood – we fight spiritual battles. We support flesh and blood so they can stand, too.

Verse 14 says to wear truth around our loins. We should have truth surrounding us. If you surround yourself with God's Word, and know it, you know God can defeat anything, even if the devil tries to convince you otherwise. God’s Word says at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Phil. 2:10-11) We should be honesty but also know what God's Word says and obey it. When we stray from it, we should quickly go back. How can you put on this piece of armor in your life?

Righteousness is like a breastplate here. It is *not* self-righteous, since "There is none righteous." (Romans 3:10) It means know you are doing the right thing. If people see and know you will always do what God's Word says is right, and put Jesus first, then others, then yourself, God will bless you. Courtney tries hard to be a role model for her girl, but you are a role model for others, even if you’re an only child. What do the unsaved see in your life, your attitude, etc.? We stand better when we don’t have anyone attacking us becasue we’re hypocrites. We get enough people disliking us for doing the right thing. 😊

The Gospel of peace means to act like Jesus would, showing His love and patience and sharing His Gospel of salvation. It also goes back to what we learned about peace earlier, Jesus as the Prince of Peace. The only true, lasting peace comes from a personal relationship with Him. That peace also helps us stand, as we showed in those lessons. I joked that she cancelled her Facebook account because a now-walking baby means zero free time, but following God may have played a part, too, if social media drew her away and she found peace when she focused on God’s Word and relied on Jesus in caring for Kaitlyn.

The shield of faith is pretty easy – you can move a shield around since it’s small. In the same way, wherever the devil attacks from, you can have faith God will get you through.

 Just as a person can't live without a head, we can't be in Christ unless we have salvation - that's why salvation is compared to a helmet. Are you making the most of your prayer and Bible reading time so you can have the most peace?

Notice in verse 17 the only offensive weapon - the Sword of the Spirit. Read Matthew and Luke 4 - Jesus defeated the devil with the Word of God. Prayer, which is offensive and defensive. Let’s circle back to that next week. For now, how are you using each piece in your walk with God? Sal and I would love to hear. You can call Sal at 330-493-0749 to share or for church updates. Pray about an EPC meeting this Sunday, for wisdom and for church freedom.

The best type of football player would be one who can play offense and defense, right? It’s such a skilled game that almost nobody does it past high school. Even there quarterbacks are almost always only on offense unless the school is really small. Decades ago, though, even some NFL players played both – Chuck Berdnarik was last in 1960.

Prayer is a 2-way player, though. It is how you communicate with God and He replies through the Holy spirit, His Word, others, nature, etc.. But, it’s a tool for offense and defense, too, as we’ll see in this second look at the Full Armor of God, and see how we can use it both ways in order to stand against the evil of this world.

Eph. 6:12 says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Think of how we learned all about praying for others. We need to pray for ourselves, too. We must pray not to fall into temptation but instead to always be shown the way out when we are tempted. It’s been said many times here we must build each other up. That edification – supporting others and also trusting and growing in Christ Himself – allows the structure of the Church to be solid. We must keep Jesus Christ as our firm foundation, and know His Word is Truth in any part of life. That is how we can use prayer for both offense and defense in this battle.

This brings us to the tools. Verse 14 starts with us having our loins girt with truth. We can pray for the truth to be revealed when evil is around or lies are being told. We can also pray that peope will turn to the truth – especially to turn to Jesus, who is the Truth. But, we must also pray that God will show us His truth. Knowing God’s Word means not just reading it but asking Him for help in understanding it. So that part is defensive, protecting ourselves, as well as praying on the offense by praying for others.

Yes, we always say the sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon. But, remember we are talking about prayer, not the weapons themselves. Prayer is list in verse 18 because it is used with all of the other tools.

The breastplate of righteousness is next. Pray God keeps you following Him. Pray the enemy can’t make any lies about you stick (going along with truth.) While we shouldn’t judge hypocritically, it’s okay to pray the same things for others after you pray them for yourself. After all, if you’re praying for God to keep you following Him, you’ll pray as David did at the end of Psalm 139: “See if there be some wicked way in me, and lead me….” You wil turn away from sin as He leads you. Then we can help others – as Jesus says, when we remove the beam in our own eye, we can see to help someone else with one in their eye.

The Gospel of peace is easy – we just did a section on peace which you can ask for again if needed. Pray for peace for others and yourself. Find others’ needs and pray God’s peace over things like when you see an ambulance go by or something.

The shield of faith is easy, too. But, when you dig deep, it’s not just praying for others to have faith as well as for your own faith to increase. It’s thinking of how their faith can increase, asking God for specific things like Godly people to enter their lives. Remember I said one big key for my friend Sander getting saved was a Christian girlfriend in the D.c. area where he lives that he could see often. She was a big answer to my prayers.

The helmet of salvation is simply praying others get saved, too, and also that they’ll have assurance of their salvation. Be ready to dig deep here, too, and – like above – be ready to lend a hand when the Lord leads to help in that. Ask the Lord for things that will make it easier for each person to realize their need for salvation. You know each one for some people, for others you may have to guess, but for all, this battle is why Jesus said to pray specifically. And, know God’s Word for when you pray. This way, you’ll able to use every tool in ythe Armor of God in prayer for offense and defense.