Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Ready for Spiritual Battle: Armour of God Intro
Discover how to arm yourself for life's unseen battles as we kick off our transformative six-part series on the Armour of God. Inspired by the Apostle Paul's teachings in Ephesians 6:10-20, this episode promises to equip you with the spiritual tools necessary to resist the devil's schemes. As an ex-military host, I draw from personal experiences to offer unique insights into the parallels between a soldier's physical armour and our own spiritual defences. We will explore the significance of each piece of armour, from the belt of truth to the sword of the Spirit, sharing personal anecdotes and practical applications to bolster your faith against temptations like pride, envy, and doubt.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
We're going to start today with a six-part series on how to put the armour of God on. Now we're going to start our reading from Ephesians 6.10, as this is what everybody wants to hear. They want to hear me reading the Word of God. 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 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, and for all the saints and for all the utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known that the mystery of the gospel is for which I am, is for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as oh, I thought I speak Now in saying this.
Speaker 1:It's clearly stated here that we're in a war. We're in a battle, all right, and it's Satan against us with our human weakness, and we need spiritual help. God provides the powerful armour of God to protect us and give us victory. So, in a nutshell, what is the armor of God? Well, we've just read it here, in Ephesians 6.14 through to 17, and it lists six pieces of the armor that we need to be aware of the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. See, god provides these six aspects of the Christian life. Plus, he finalizes that over and above everything else and he's talking about that. You know, ultimately we will triumph in the spiritual battles, and each piece of the armor is God's essential way of doing that for us, and the Bible tells us of how to put these into effectiveness.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to go through them, but I'm going to go through them fairly quickly this time, because this is going to be more like just an overview, or should I say an introduction to the armour of God, or should I say an introduction to the armour of God, and then, over the next six weeks, I will be targeting each part of this more specifically so you get an understanding of the relationship between the natural and the supernatural. And the reason I'm doing that is well, as I've said many times before, I'm ex-military and when we need to go into battle, we have certain things made available to us that give us our support, available to us that give us our support. You know, we can't just go out there with a firearm and think that that's all we need. There are so many other aspects that we need to help us against the devil, and the prayer and supplication is where we get the wisdom and the knowledge, like, should I say, the tactical advantage over the enemy itself. So how do we use the armour of God to defend us against Satan? Well, the Bible tells us very clearly that we're in a war and our adversary, satan, or the devil, call him what you like is bent on destroying us.
Speaker 1:Now the apostle Paul warns us to be aware of Satan's devices and his tactics. Now that's in 2 Corinthians 2.11, right? Paul addresses this also in the Ephesians 6, 10 through to 20, where he talks about putting on the whole armour of God. Ephesians was one of Paul's letters written from prison, and during Paul's time in prison he obviously became well acquainted with the armour worn and carried by his captors, the Roman army, following Isaiah's lead. If you read through Isaiah 59-17, paul drew a powerful comparison between a soldier's armour and the spiritual armour of God. Finally, paul says this to his brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. You see, we don't have to be discouraged by Satan's devices or by his power and his stealth. We aren't in the battle alone. We have access to the greatest power of the universe.
Speaker 1:Paul says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. This is a comparative defense strategy and when we have to pay attention to all the parts of the armor, but we don't need to be able to singly stand on our own, god is telling us that he is standing with us and we can withstand the devil's attacks. Now I'll give you an example. Fighting a spiritual battle is we're not just wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the age, against spiritual hosts and wickedness in the heavenly places. So in saying that, we, from a natural perspective, have to understand that it's a spiritual battle. Now I know what a lot of people are going to be saying. The thing is, we battle things in the natural quite a lot.
Speaker 1:I'm going through a battle with my health at the moment, but I know that. I know that I'm overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of my testimony. I'm overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of my testimony. It's like, let's have a look at it from a natural perspective. Okay, let's say that you're a boxer, right. Or okay, martial arts, because I'm more adverse at what martial arts can do, rather speaking about boxing when I've never actually really done it. Okay, say, I get there and I'm going up for a tournament and I'm going to fight against the top 10% martial artists in the world, right, and so how am I going to defeat them? Is it just going to be my skills? Is it just going to be my knowledge or do I need some inside information? Now, the way I get my inside information is by studying that person's fighting techniques, you know, and that means watching videos and seeing how they compete and how they react against certain aspects of the tournament fighting. And then I go right, okay, so this guy favours a spinning roundhouse kick and he likes, you know, like changing from a left profile to a right profile of fighting. So if I know those things, then I can do something to counteract them.
Speaker 1:See, the Bible describes the unseen spiritual battles, such as the Titanic battle at the end of the age, and that the apostle John witnessed, the. The war broke out in heaven. Michael and all of his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was any place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who was the deceiver of the whole world. Now you can read about this in Revelation 12, 7 through to 9. So it's talking about end times. But now we look at this thing from behind the scenes, in the spiritual world. But it has great influence over the physical world. You see, satan and the demons are invisible and he is a master of camouflage. He is able to convince people that he doesn't exist and he's able to sway society and suggest wrong thoughts to us without even realising that he is there.
Speaker 1:Now Paul continues this in Ephesians 6.13 and he says Therefore, take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand. In other words, don't give up. Keep fighting the good fight of faith as we continue to do that. So let me put it in a note. What does he mean by stand that? So let me put it in a note. What does he mean by stand? He was emphasising that, god's help, we will always be able to hold the line. We do not retreat and we do not give up an inch of God's territory. Now Paul starts to list the individual elements of the spiritual armour. List the individual elements of the spiritual armor. The Bible also tells us how to put on the armor and how we can use that piece of armor to fight against the power of Satan. Now I'm only going to give you a quick overview of each one, but, like I said, over the next six weeks I'm going to go through each one in a little bit more depth and understand it.
Speaker 1:So it's the same with me, okay, if I'm going to go into a karate tournament, the first thing I've got to do is, when I'm getting dressed, I've got to protect my vital parts. So you put on what they call a jock strap, right, uh, and then I put on, uh, my shin guards and my feet protectors, and then I put on which, uh, they're not like a boxing glove, but they're more compact, more compressed, um, you like foam and rubber gloves on my hands. Once I've done that, then I put on my gi, and so I change from my training gi, which is a heavy-duty, like 16-ounce gi, so, in other words, it's a lot heavier, it's harder to move in, and so what it does is it's building up my body strength. So now I've put on my lightweight gi, which is my pants and my jacket, and then I put the belt around me. Now, the belt, in this case, is showing my grade level, so it gives them an insight into how good I am. Am I a brown belt? Am I a black belt? I'm a black belt with two stripes or three stripes, okay. And so that's designed to intimidate the opposition by thinking, wow, this guy is pretty good, he's my level or he's above, is pretty good, he's my level or he's above. So now I've got all my protection on, and then, on top of that, I put a mouth guard in my mouth, and so I'm ready to compete, and so I've studied my opposition. I know what he's like.
Speaker 1:So I've got the belt of truth on, because I've already got that knowledge. So, from a biblical perspective, what is the belt of truth on? Because I've already got that knowledge? So, from a biblical perspective, what is that belt of truth? Well, the belt was the first piece of equipment put on, and it secured all other pieces of the armour. Wearing the belt showed that the soldier was ready for action, since he would only loosen his belt when he went off duty. Now, the other thing about this as far as the Roman centurions are concerned, truth should surround us like a belt. Knowing God's truth is the surefire antidote to Satan's lies and deception. And to be truly ready for battle, we must completely truthfully prepare ourselves from our inner being, from our creator in particular. Like I said before, their belt also shows other soldiers their level of authority. Right, we'll go into this in a lot more detail, maybe next week. Now.
Speaker 1:Then we go to the breastplate of righteousness. See, paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness. See, paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Without righteousness, we leave ourselves open to Satan's attack. To be righteous is first of all to repent and to be forgiven of our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That justifies us and makes us right with God. That's in Romans 5.9. Then, in gratitude, we should strive to do what is right in God's eyes. Psalm 119.172 tells us that God's commandments are righteousness. So to be righteous in the obeying of God's law of love, obeying God is beneficial, not burdensome. Deuteronomy 10.13 and 1 John 5.3. And then, when we look at Isaiah, 59.17, not 172, sometimes I get these scriptures mixed up says that God himself puts on righteousness as a breastplate. This may be part of what inspired Paul to use this type of discrimination description, so to speak.
Speaker 1:Analogy that's what I was after. The word analogy, sorry. What are the shoes of the gospel of peace? Shoes might be the most exciting piece of armour, but the the Zodavan NIV Bible highlights the importance of this. See, military successes both of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were due to a large measure of the armies, being well shod and thus being able to undertake long marches at incredible speed over rough terrain.
Speaker 1:The word preparation denotes readiness, reminding us that we are to be eager to preach the gospel of peace. See, I remember when I was an associate pastor at Victory Life Centre in Perth, western Australia. Excuse me, many times, pastor Margaret she's the senior pastor Dr Reverend Margaret Court would call on me to tell parts of my testimony and you know, a couple of times I've got there when we've been on retreats and everything. She says, oh, I just want you to talk about this, and I said, oh, look, I'm not really ready for that. You know you should have given me a couple of days' notice or something for that. You know he should have given me a couple of days' notice or something. And she said always, always, have a sermon ready, a message from God. You must always be prepared on any day.
Speaker 1:See, sometimes when, like even with me now, with this, I've got to do a lot of studying, I've got to do a lot of research as I go into this and to be ready to give you the correct information from a biblical perspective and from a natural perspective. And, yes, we're always led by the Holy Spirit. But, like I did a couple of weeks ago, my sermon was totally different to what I had written out and studied and prepared. See, god had given me a little tap on the shoulder and so, therefore, I had to be ready to bring his message. See, every sermon that I give is led by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Very rarely do I preach what I was intending to preach, or I come up with a different topic every week and I said, oh, this sounds like a good thing, I'll preach on this. I don't know about the rest of you, but I believe very strongly in being led by the Spirit of God. So we need to go through this in such a manner that you understand that you fight the good fight of faith. You're not alone. It talks about, in the word of God, to make the yoke easy and the burden light Lean not on your own understanding, but everything in prayer and supplication. So let's move along.
Speaker 1:So next we talk about the shield of faith. Now, remember, I'm talking about these in greater detail as the weeks go by. So when our faith in God's power and the love is strong, it is impossible for Satan to break through. He can't break through our shield and land a blow. It's the same with me when I've got very, very good defence mechanisms in, and I learnt this very, very early in the piece, right, actually, before I even got full on into martial arts.
Speaker 1:Okay, I actually was training with the military and I had this guy. He was smaller than me, he had very little muscle tone on him or whatever, but he was lightning fast and very, very powerful in his techniques and he would literally beat me senseless, you know. And to look at him and to look at me, you would think how is this possible? Well, not only did he have the right skills, the right techniques and the right ability, but he was drawing on his power from somewhere else and he could get through my shield, or faith, or shield of my protection right and strike a blow. And I could never, ever understand why. And he told me once and I've never, ever forgotten this right, is that hitting hurts? And I'm thinking to myself yeah, okay, hitting hurts, I know that it hurts yourself. And he goes okay, then, if hitting hurts, then don't be there when the punch arrives or the kick arrives. And I'm thinking so, how do you do that? And he goes. This is how you train to do this.
Speaker 1:Defence is more important than attack and if you look at the armor of god, you'll see right through, uh, the description and the understanding of all the parts of of the armor of god. Out of all of them, only one is attacking and that is the sword, which is the word of God. Everything else is defense-orientated. I remember when you know you've got to understand where your faith is. Think about Daniel in the lions. Then Faith was like a force field to protect Daniel from those vicious teeth, and Shadrach, meshach and Abednego were protected from the fiery furnace. Of course, their faith in God and his eternal plan allowed them to say that they would obey God even if they didn't have protection on them in the physical. Daniel 3.18,.
Speaker 1:Faith is powerful and protect us not only from physical danger but even from more challenging spiritual temptations and dangers. See, so I had to forget about who I was fighting or competing against, and I wasn't to be intimidated by their size or their skill set. I had to rely on my skills, my protection, my devices. So sometimes you are in a fight and all you're doing is protecting yourself. So you've got on all of those fundamental elements of the armour of God protecting, you know your waist and your breastplate and your helmet and your shoes and the shield and you've got all of those. They're all to protect you against the attack of the devil, but there's only one attack required and that is through the sword. So let's just move on as we do.
Speaker 1:A little quick overview, otherwise everybody thinks this is a story about martial arts. We have the helmet of salvation right. We can receive tremendous hope and comfort by focusing on the incredible sacrifice that Jesus gave to save us and the wonderful kingdom that is the goal of all salvation. This hope protects our minds from the discouragement and despair of the world. The same thing happens in the natural. When you're in a fight, you can actually lose and getting away from martial arts I've read a lot of Pastor Margaret's book and for those that don't know that, she was very, very famous and still is tennis player very, very famous and still is tennis player and sometimes going out against an opposition in the natural.
Speaker 1:That opposition is better than you are and they have better skills and they've won more tournaments and they've done more things, but your mental state is the one thing that gives you an edge over them If you go out there and you believe that you're going to win and there's no two ways about it, you're going to win then you will win. That's why you'll see that you get some people that are just unbeatable. And then they come up against another opposition and you think, oh, this is just a walk in the park, they're just going to blitz through this and get to the finals. And they get beaten in the first round. Why? Because they weren't mentally strong.
Speaker 1:You know, the hope of our salvation has protected and strengthened God's people throughout the ages. As Hannah prayed, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. 1 Samuel 2.11. And as David wrote, he said the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? In Psalm 27.1.
Speaker 1:Now, I was talking about the sword of the spirit earlier, so I just want to touch on that a little bit. The sword of the spirit is like the Roman gladiators can also help us to conquer all of their enemies, including the most difficult ones. Our entrenched human weakness, explained in Hebrews 4.12, explains, for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and the spirit of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the joints and the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Remember how Jesus used the word of God to defeat Satan. In Matthew 4, 1 through to 10, christ used scriptural quotes three times. He brought to mind the scriptures that dealt with the situation, that showed what he should do and strengthened his resolve, and he was able to defeat the devil at that stage. Now you've got to remember when he spent 40 days in the wilderness. This was before he started his three and a half years of ministry.
Speaker 1:So this is only my speculation. Okay, this is my opinion. It's not biblically correct, unless someone can show me the scripture where it says it. Whilst he was in the wilderness, he was constantly attacked by Satan and his only defense was the word of God, because in the natural he had no ability to do that, because he was flesh and blood. He was a man, and so he found the importance of all of this was to be able to use the word of God. How do we use the word of God, it's by spending time in it by day and by night, and also praying in prayer and supplication.
Speaker 1:Paul ends this section encouraging us to pray fervently for ourselves, for each other and for the work of the church or the body of Christ. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication, is the spirit being watchful to the end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me. That utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that it may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6, 18 to 20. See the church, which is the body of Christ and each of us individually, moves forward on our knees. Praying reminds us of the battle, reminds us of the source of our strength and defence and reminds us that God is fully committed to following through with what he says and we must be fully committed to following him as obedient and faithful soldiers.
Speaker 1:Prayer and the Bible study are the most powerful tools for combating Satan's weapon. When we put on the whole armour of God, we will be prepared for Satan's attempts to attack us with pride, envy, lust for forbidden pleasures, itching ears, disappointment, discouragement, doubt or division, or any other tricks that he may use. There is so much more that we can learn from this powerful list of defenses god makes available to us. Hopefully, as we go through this, you will find that it makes you goal orientated to study the armor of god in greater depth, and there will be other aspects of this message that I tell you to always remember this one solitary thing we are at war. Let's be alert to Satan's devices and let's put on the whole armour of God. And let's put on the whole armour of God. God bless you and we will talk to you next week on more about the armour of God. Bye for now.
