[1] 2 Kings 6:15-18
The angels surround Elisah
[2]Luke 15:11-32
The Prodigal Son
[3]Ephesians 6:10-18
The Armor of God
[4]John 14:16-17
Sending the Holy Spirit
[5]Matthew 6:24
Serving two masters
[6]John 1:1-3
The Word Spike all that is into existence
[7]Genesis 2:7
God breathed life into man
[8]James 5:16
Verbal prayer and confessionsi
[9]Mark 16:15
Go into all the world
[10]Matthew 24:14
Jesus return when the Gospel has been spread
[11]2 Thessalonians 2:8-12
The Great Delusion
[12]James 2:18
Faith with works
[13]Matthew 17:20
Faith as a mustard seed
[14]1 Corinthians 3:11-13
Wood, hay, and stubble
[15]Luke 1:70-78
Jesus provides knowledge of salvation
[16]Revelation 19:12-19
The rider on the white horse with the sword in His mouth |
Last week's message was on "Pray Up" and hopefully, if
you are following this series, you have spent more time
in prayer you have in the past. I want you to
know, though, that Satan and his minions hate the
praying Christian. Why? Because God listens
to our prayers and will act on them as we are His agents
in this world. When we pray we thwart Satan's
plans, and his armies are arrayed against us. Now,
this should not bring a paralyzing fear, but should
bring the type of fear that makes a warrior get his
weapons and armor ready for a battle!
When I was in the military, many years ago, we had an
expression when it was time to get ready to go, and that
was "gear up", which meant to not just grab your gear,
but to get everything on and in place so that you were
ready when you were called on to act. "Gear Up" is
very good advice for Christians as there is no time when
they are not facing an enemy. We are expected to
fight for the souls of sinners every day. We are
expected to pray to thwart the evil plans that Satan has
for our city, state, country, and the world. We
have a big job, but we know that there are more with us
than against us![1] We also know that Jesus Christ
has already triumphed over Satan and God has placed Him
over all that is, so the outcome is foretold.
Satan knows he lost when Jesus was resurrected and
ascended into Heaven. Now he is just trying to
take as many souls with him as he can; he seeks to ruin
God's creation to the greatest degree he can.
Now, I am going to take a little liberty here with the
story of the Prodigal Son.[2] We all know the story
of how the man's son spent all his inheritance and was
tending hogs when he became so hungry that he was ready
to eat the hog food, and decided to go home and be a
servant to his father. We know that his father saw
him coming down the road and gave him fine clothes and a
ring and set out a feast. We know how this
applies to us if we get off in sin. What I want
you to think about is that before he went completely
home to his father, he cleaned up and then went and
talked to his father, saying that he had been a fool and
wanted to come back. This is our first two nights
of Revival. First, we clean up. We have been
with the hogs, and we are filthy, and we stink. We must clean up before we do anything else. Even
if we don't expect our Father to give us the best of
everything, we want to go into His presence clean!
When we have cleaned up, then we go talk to Him and tell
Him we will be His servant. Revival begins with
you getting out of the Hog Pen, cleaning up, and going
to talk to your Father! Once that is done, we have
on pure white, unstained clothing, fit for His presence
and we can put our armor on over it.
Who would want to put on God's Armor over a filthy robe
and a body covered in Hog manure? You stink, itch,
and probably catch diseases if this is the case.
So, it is with the spiritual world. If you don't
clean up and pray up before you gear up you will have a
stinking mess under your armor, and you can believe that
Satan's diseases will attack you in every way they can.
You can't keep infection from under your clothes if you
put them on after rolling in a hog pen and not bathing,
and in the same manner you cannot keep demons from
destroying you if you do not remove the world's filth
before you put on the Armor of God!
So let's talk about the Armor of God and the Holy
Weapons that He gives us.[3] I will go throught he
list of armor and weapons and talk about each one, so
that you can have a good idea of how to "gear up".
First we are told to put on the full armor of God; in
other words, don't just get part of it on, as you will
have areas that are exposed to attack! And the reason
for this armor? So that we can stand firm against the
schemes of the Devil. We are then told to remember that
we do not fight against "flesh and blood" but instead we
"fight against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of wickedness in the heavenly places". Every
Biblical scholar that I read agrees that this is a
hierarchy of demons that Satan
has placed in power in the world and in the air above
the world; these are the spiritual planes of the earth
and the atmosphere, and they can interact with the
physical world just as the angels of the Lord can.
The demons do Satan's bidding as the Angels to God's
bidding. This is the Holy War that is occurring,
and that we are to fight in. No Christian is
exempt from service in the Lord's Army; from the day you
are saved and join His family, until the day you die,
you are to fight against the powers of darkness with the
ultimate goal of snatching sinners from the jaws of
Hell! When I say "family" I mean family like the
olden times when families stood together against enemies
and secured a kingdom.
For the first piece of the armor
is "Truth", with which we are to gird our loins.
Interestingly, if you read the Old Testament you will
find that it was not the heart that was the "heart" of
the person. The central part of the a person was
more the liver/kidney area, or the organs behind the
loin muscle. The ancient Hebrews believed that
emotion emanated from this region, so when they spoke of
protecting the emotional life area of the person, they meant the
liver and kidney area. This piece of armor is
designed to protect the very innermost part of the being
by stopping the lies of the Devil. Christians hear
from God by the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray, as
we discussed, but also teaches us God's Will and Word.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit[4] to be with us when He sat
down at the right hand of the Father as intercessor.
This is a part of not serving two masters.[5] The
Holy Spirit will tell you what God wants, but Satan
comes along with wealth and fleshly things and tempts
us. We cannot serve both, as we will love one and
hate the other. Girding our center self with Truth
means that we will resist and withstand the temptation
that comes in lies from the Devil! With the
withstanding of these lies, so comes the protection of
the emotions. When we see God's Will plainly,
without Satan's deception, we are full of joy and peace.
Satan brings anger, hatred, and other sinful emotions to
the person now well protected with Truth.
Next we have the Breastplate of Righteousness. Why
do we cover our chest with Righteousness? Jesus,
pre-carnate, spoke the world into existence. The
disciple John explains this[6] as he opens his account of
the life of Jesus in the Book of John. When man
was created God "breathed" life into him.[7]
When we as Christians speak in the name of Jesus, or
quote the scriptures, our outgoing breath, or words,
have great power. The same applies to the prayers we
pray and the confessions we make aloud, even to our
healing![8] That is the power of God at work through
us! Now, why is it so important to have
Righteousness covering our chest? Spiritually it
is covering the lungs. In other words we are to
ensure that every word that goes out from us meets the
criteria that Jesus has set for us to be him servants.
Whether we exhort or reprove, it must be done in love
and for the purpose of winning the lost to Jesus Christ
or enhancing the growth of our Christian brothers and
sisters. We must diligently protect the words of
power that will come from our mouths, by ensuring that
what is inside it in harmony with Christ.
After the Breastplate of Righteousness we are told to
have our feet shod "with the Preparation of the Gospel
of Peace". This scripture ties nicely to those
telling us to go and preach the Gospel.[9] We are to
be ready at any time to go where the Lord sends us for
the sake of the Gospel. He wants His Good News to
be spread to every dark corner of the world, giving
everyone a chance to be saved, before His return.[10]
We the Christians will have taken the Gospel to the
whole world; this does not mean that every single person
will have heard and accepted of rejected it, but that it
will have spread across the world. I say that not all
will have accepted or rejected the Gospel because those
who have will suffer from the Great Delusion[11]
during the Tribulation, but some will be saved,
including children that did not understand right from
wrong at the time of the Rapture.[a] With all this
said, every Christian should stand prepared to take the
Gospel anywhere the Lord says to go. Some may be
called to the deepest jungle, while some are called to
go a block over from their house, but all are called to
spread the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus Christ the
Messiah has come and redeemed mankind!
So, we now have on traditional armor that is protecting
the vital organ areas of our spiritual body. There
are three items left, of which the first is the Shield
of Faith. It is necessary to look carefully at the
concept of the shield of faith. Faith of itself is
a defensive tool. What, you say? Yes, faith
of itself is only a defensive tool. To be a force
that does more than protect, faith must be coupled with
action![12] Even Jesus said if you have
faith as a grain of mustard, you will SAY to this
mountain,
indicating that action must be taken.[13] Simply believing
that the mountain would move would not be enough; we
must tell the mountain to move, coupling faith with
action to see the result. However, simple faith in
God and His Word (living and spoken) is enough to quench
the fiery darts of Satan. An absolute trust in God
precludes doubt in God, which is what Satan will attempt
to bring to you. Those flaming arrows (NASB) are
the doubts that will assail us when we do not have total
trust in God. Those same flaming arrows will
destroy our testimony and our works for the Lord.
To see this another way, if we lose our faith, yet
continue to do works, then we create a false sense of
security that is equal to "wood, hay and stubble".[14]
It will be burned up now from the fiery arrows shot at
us, or it will be burned up when our Lord tests it.
Those actions done in absolute faith will be gold,
silver, and precious stones and will survive. So,
faith plays two roles: first, it brings to life
the actions that we combine with it, and it also plays
the role of deflecting the fiery attacks of the Devil.
The next tool we are to take is the "Helmet of
Salvation". The helmet protects the head, the
thinking part of the human being. Just as Jesus as
the head of the Church is pure, so our head must be pure
to govern our bodies in a righteous way. Of these
tools, this was the first one I truly saw the
significance of when I began to study this passage.
With the sure knowledge of our salvation guarding our
minds, the lies and doubts coming from Satan and his ilk
will have no effect on us. It is only when our
mind is not so protected that Satan makes progress
against us. Jesus, by his actions, and through the
ministering work of the Holy Spirit, gives a sure
knowledge of our salvation[15] , as was
prophesied so that we may never doubt as
long as we stay in His Will and listen to the Holy
Comforter.
The last tool listed is "the Sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God". Satan, Demons, Death, Hell,
and the Grave all tremble before the Word of God!
Jesus as the Living Word, slain as a sacrifice, yet
raised from the dead, has defeated Satan so that we need
not fear him, nor need we fear death, the grave, or the
hereafter! Jesus has conquered all of these things
and delivered them up to the Father so that we can be
reconciled with God the Father through Jesus
intercession on our behalf! The Word that was
spoken created all that is.[6] The Word that will be
spoken will destroy the armies at
the end of the Great Tribulation in the war called
Armageddon, where Jesus is described as riding a white
horse with the saints following behind, and a sword come
from His mouth to strike down the nations.[16] The
spoken Word of God will kill all the armies gathered
there against the Lord. This is the power of the
Word of God! Only spoken from a pure and Holy
mouth will it have the power to lay waste to nations,
but what power is given to us who are His! He has
given us His Word that we can use in our war against
Satan and all his hierarchy.
Understand, we are not passive serfs, plodding through
the landscape, wearing armor to protect us. No; we
are the soldiers of Christ, sent to do battle with His
enemies, and to rescue our race from everlasting death.
We stand in the gap between God and sinners, pulling
those we can towards Hin. We walk the precipice at
the edge of Hell, hoping to pull that one last sinner
from the clutches of the Devil. We are the chosen
soldiers in His army, and it is high time that we acted
as what we are. Face the enemy; you have the armor
and the weapons to defeat him at every turn! Our
modern day chruches have lost the sense of being
soldiers, even to the point that I have had people
criticize me for war imagery on my sites! No!
We are not yet to lay down our weapons and sit by the
river. That comes later. Now is the time to
fight for our Lord. Now is the time to take the
battle to the enemy, through prayer and the Word of God!
Now is the time to be Militum Xpisti! Wear His
sigillum and be His warrior!
You have cleaned up, and you have prayed up, now it is
time to gear up!
Father in Heaven, all-powerful creator, you
know my needs and can fulfil them. I come before
you to ask that you forgive all my sins, those I
remember and those that I do not. Father, teach me to
pray so that I may be an effective warrior against Satan
and his demons. Father, I ask that your Holy
Spirit guide me and teach me your Word so that I may use
it effectively against your enemies and bring my
neighbors to you! Father, I
ask that you bring your Kingdom to earth soon, as we all
suffer under the curse and look forward to the coming of
Your Only Begotten Son to reign over all the earth.
Father, I ask that you Holy Spirit convict each person
that reads this message and that Your Word will touch
their hearts and bring about a true revival in them that
will spread into the world, driving out the darkness
with Your Holy Light. Amen.
Next week we will move into the fourth "night"
of Revival with the next step in bringing His Glory to
our lives with "Look Up!".
|
[a]I beleive it was in David Jeremiah's
"Agents of the Apocolypse" where I first encountered the
concept of the "Great Delusion".
|
