Ephesians 6:18

Ephesians 6:18 Podcast

Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God’s people. ~ Ephesians 6:18

The protocol for our spiritual battle is to put on the armor of God first, then pray. Putting on the armor means that our thought life is framed up by the word of God, and therefore made strong and ready to engage in the battle. It is the adjustment of the attitude of our heart to reality, to life as God defines it. Putting on the various pieces of weaponry enables us to think through the implications of the faith.

Then, we are to "pray in the Spirit." Prayer should he an outgrowth of the thoughtfulness that comes out of working through the implications of the belt of truth being tied around our waist, of putting on the shoes of the Good News of peace to help us stand strong. And, also, using the shield of faith and the helmet of our salvation, and taking up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Now, prayer is conversation with God. It is intimate, honest, and unrestricted conversation with God. After we have put on the armor of God, after we have thought through the implications of the faith, then we are to talk to God about it. In developing these conversations with God, we address many different aspects of our lives and others with Him.

Although prayer is for us, it must not start with us, it must start with God. God has given promises and they form the only proper basis for our prayer life. This is what Paul means by his reminder that we are to pray at all times in the Spirit. 

This phrase, "in the Spirit," means to pray according to the promises which the Spirit has given, according to the character of God whom the Spirit has made known to us. God has never promised to answer just any prayer, but he does promise to answer prayer in a way that he has carefully outlined for us. 

When we learn to pray like this, we will be made aware of the exciting and unexpected things that God is doing all around us. We learn of a quiet power at work upon whom we can rely. And as we learn to pray in this way we find there is put at our disposal a tremendous weapon, a mighty power to influence our own lives and the lives of others.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote that this world is enemy-occupied territory and that Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, and is calling us, His followers, to take part in a campaign of sabotage. And it is primarily through prayer that this sabotage takes place. Prayer is how we spiritually fight back against the enemy. “Prayer is fundamentally a warfare activity.” Think of it, we factor in on that which will last for eternity through prayer. When we pray, we partner with God, we enter in on what He is doing in the lives of everyone around us.

In our text, we are told that our "need" prompts us to pray. Most often we are prompted to pray because of our needs, our difficulties, our pain. And yet, we hate the pain, difficulties and our needs. But, when these "unwanteds" come into our lives, we are motivated to do the most important thing we can ever do. In this case, our needs are our blessings. And, when this happens, we will not be defined by our needs but by the One to whom we take these needs.

Finally, all of the weapons of our warfare provide for us the internal substance that we need to live this life on planet earth. Prayer aligns our will to His will, rendering for us a settledness, a sense of His presence that serves us in our service to Him. So, in the end, prayer changes us, it provides focus to our hearts for God. And, it is this focus that brings His kingdom to rest in our souls.

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Ephesians 6:17b

Ephesians 6:17b PODCAST 

Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)

Today, we come to the final piece of the Christian's spiritual weaponry, the sword of the Spirit. Paul's use of the metaphor "the Sword of the Spirit" harkens to the  Roman armies who developed a short sword, the Machira, which, enabled them to conquer the world. It was only 24 inches long and was sharpened on both edges. It was a double edged sword. This reminds me of Hebrews 4:12 which reads, "The word of God, you see, is alive and moving; sharper than a double-edged sword; piercing the divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow; able to judge the thoughts and will of the heart." 

This phrase, "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,"  is not referring to the complete Bible only. As we have considered before in our study of Romans, there are two words used in the New Testament for "the word of God." There is logos, which is used in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." And, there is rhema, which means a specific saying of God, a passage or a verse which has special application to an immediate situation. It is the spoken word of God.

Rhema is the word used here. We have all read passages of Scripture when the words suddenly seemed to come alive, leaps off the page at us, and becomes a voice that echoes in our hearts until we cannot get away from it. This is Rhema! It is when we know God is speaking to our hearts.

As the sword of the Spirit, Rhema is useful both for defense and for offense. This, by the way, is the only part of the armor designed for offense. It both defends and protects us, but also pierces other hearts and destroys the lies of the enemy. Rhema keeps our hearts close to Him and it enables us to speak the word which we have learned from Him as Jesus did in Matthew 4:1-11.

The closer we walk with the Lord and the more we are in His word, we recognize His voice which speaks deeply into our souls. And, when we hear His voice (Rhema), we experience the comfort of His presence and His defense in a given moment. This is essential for our on-going fellowship with God which is different than our relationship with Him. Our relationship with Him, a spiritual DNA word, is a gift garnered only through the cross of the Lord Jesus. Our fellowship is garnered through us following Him daily through the circumstances in life, through His word and learning to hear His voice with our hearts.

Rhema gets Him closer to the home of our heart. The better way of understanding this is Rhema gets us closer to His heart. The greater our exposure to the Scriptures, the more the Spirit can use this mighty sword in our lives. If you never read or study your Bible, you are terribly exposed to defeat and despair. You have no defense, you have nothing to put up against the evil forces that are at work to destroy you. When we neglect the reading of the Scriptures, we miss out on the deepening of our familiarity of His voice. I find so many Christians dealing with things that they should not be dealing with, things like fear, despair, disillusionment, and distraction, primarily because we have not learned to hear the Rhema of God. 

The Lord Jesus said, "It is they [the Scriptures] that bear witness to me," (John 5:39). This is the way we come to know Christ. There is no way apart from the Scriptures. And there is no way to come into full maturity in our fellowship with Him apart from the Scriptures and Rhema. The Scriptures frame up His Rhema. It enables us to get more intimate with God, and it is this intimacy which gets us through the most intense battles for our hearts.

Finally, what do we do when the Spirit speaks Rhema in our mind? The apostle Paul says, take it! Heed it! Obey it! Do not reject it or treat it lightly. Take it seriously. The Spirit of God has brought it to mind for a purpose; therefore give heed to it, obey it, even when it does not make sense.

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Ephesians 6:17a

Ephesians 6:17a PODCAST

Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)


Today, we come to the fifth weapon in our spiritual arsenal: the helmet of salvation. When we first believed, we entered a battle not against people, it is an inner battle in each of us, in our thought life. This is a battle in the realm of our outlook upon life as we encounter it. The word “helmet” is the compounding of two Greek words peri and kephale which describes an elaborate piece of armor that fits very tightly around the head. 

This Roman helmet was made of bronze and was equipped to specifically protect the cheeks and jaws. Being quite heavy, the interior of the helmet was lined with sponge in order to soften its weight on the soldier’s head. It was so strong and heavy that nothing could pierce it, not even a hatchet. 

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul likens our salvation to these incredible helmets. Paul is telling us that when we are engaged in the battle, we should be most confident of our salvation because it has been earned and secured by the Lord Himself. 

This helmet of salvation provides us the ability to think and reason informed by God's truth. It keeps our thinking Godlike, enabling us to choose substantively. It frames up for us the world according to God's culture. It brings into focus the fact that God is working out His purposes on this earth even though sinful man and sin seem to have the upper hand. This salvation provides our minds with hope which is a sure thing which garrisons our feelings with the truth.

This battle for our souls (minds, wills, emotions) is primarily waged in the battlefield of our minds. The enemy tries to capitalize on our fears and tries to get us to rationalize our sin, instead of running from it. In addition, the enemy even tries to get us to engage in friendly fire, making it look like those we love are the enemy so we attack them instead of the real enemy. The only way to win the battle in our mind is to let Jesus transform our thinking with His word producing a bouying effect of hope in our souls. 

This hope is the confidence we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is developed the same way our faith is developed. God's word informs our hearts and heads with the culture of God. This gives us hope, an unfailing expectation in the ability of God to fulfill His promises. Hope is something we think about and understand. Faith is something we believe and confess even if we cannot understand it.

Our helmet of hope tells us that our salvation is secured and will be consummated at the future coming of the Lord Jesus. It informs our thinking in such a way that we are reminded that history is not a meaningless group of random events, it reminds us that God is in control and we have been chosen to be on His winning team.

But, we must appropriate this helmet, this hope of salvation, on a daily basis. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:42, "So keep watch. You don’t know when your Lord will come." We must live daily in its hope and anticipation of it. This battle is not ours, it is the Lord's. If we lose hope in the future promise of salvation, there can be no security in the present.

The enemy knows that if he can seize our minds and fill them with lies, he can then begin to render us useless in the battle. To protect us from such attacks is the very reason God has given us the “helmet of salvation.” And, this salvation is much more than a moment in time conversion when we are delivered from darkness into light. It is an ongoing experience of the Lord saving us from ourselves, saving us from sin and saving us from the enemy’s onslaughts.

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Ephesians 6:16

Ephesians 6:16 Podcast

Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. (Ephesians 6:16 the Voice)

There are two divisions to the armor that God provides us: the first includes the first three pieces which are the weapons that we were granted when we were first made alive to God, at our conversion. Even though we have these, we must be mindful of them and what they represent. And, each of them represent the fact that Christ is our answer and not we ourselves.

The second division includes those weapons which are to be put on as needed in the battle: "taking up the shield of faith;" "putting on the helmet of salvation," "and taking up the sword of the Spirit." Today, we are considering the shield of faith.

Before we do so, we must always take careful note of the order that God places things in the scriptures. The order of this armor is very important. We cannot reverse them or mix them up. The reason many of us fail to properly use the shield of faith, or the helmet of salvation, or the sword of the Spirit is because we have not first buckled the truth around our waists, put on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We cannot do it in reverse order. Scripture is very exact in this, so as we go through, let us note carefully the order.

The surest signs the enemy is getting an upper hand in our lives is the presence of discouragement, confusion, and indifference. The devil's work primarily comes at us through the flesh which are the evil desires within us. He seizes upon circumstances, and our feelings, and he implants doubts and uncertainties in our minds.

On the other hand, these doubts and uncertainties can be the greatest means by which we grow in our personal intimacy with God. The key is: what is informing us in these moments? Is His word? Or, is it this world? This is why after we have "14 banded the truth around our waist, placed righteousness as our chest plate, 15 and have protected our feet in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace." Paul now writes,"16 Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one." 

Now, rather than complain or to give into fear in any way, we "raise the shield of faith above all else, so we will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at us from the wicked one."  Faith is acting upon what we believe. It is saying, "Christ is the truth for us, He is our righteousness, He is our peace. The shield of faith is agreeing with God regarding what He has said in His word regarding a given subject.

Appropriating the shield of faith means we refuse to feel condemned or to feel guilty for that which God through Christ has forgiven us. And, He has forgiven through Christ our past, our present and our future sins. Refusing to believe the lie that if we have doubts we do not have faith is what this shield is all about. Doubt is always an attack on our faith. The fact that we have doubts proves that we have faith. Doubt and faith are not opposites at all. Doubt is the proof of the reality that we do have faith. Therefore we re-examine the ground of our faith and reassert it, and remember that feelings are not necessarily facts at all.

Paul challenges us to rest in the previous mentioned truths "so we will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at us from the wicked one." The word “shield” used here is the Greek word thureos, which was an oblong door that was wide in width and long in length. This shield completely covered the Roman soldier! If we appropriate it, God has given us enough faith to make certain we are completely covered for every situation, just like the shield that completely covered a Roman soldier!

If the Roman soldier’s leather shield was not properly taken care of, it would become stiff and breakable over a period of time. In order to keep the shield in good shape, the soldier would each morning saturate the shield with oil to keep it pliable. Neglecting this daily application of oil invited certain death. This shield represents our faith, and it requires frequent anointings of the Holy Spirit. Without a fresh touch of God’s Spirit upon our lives, our faith will become hard, stiff, and brittle. Reaffirming the application of the faith by the exercising of our faith is a daily must. It is sad, but most of us, if not all, need trials to force us to rely upon God. And, in this case, our trials are some of our best friends.

Finally, what happens when we do not actively exercise our faith? When a challenge comes our way, our faith won’t be soft, and pliable enough to stand up under attack. A faith that is ignored nearly always breaks and falls to pieces in the midst of confrontation. Our faith is our heart's ability to see God, therefore we must be diligent to give our hearts to Him and His ways many times in a given day. 

Ephesians 6:15

Ephesians 6:15 PODCAST 

... and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15)

In today's text we consider the third of six pieces of weaponry that the believer in Christ has at his disposal for fighting the good fight. In v.15 Paul writes, "And with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." 

There are two divisions to the pieces of this armor, indicated by the tenses of the verbs used. The first three pieces are weapons which were given us when we first believed. A literal translation of these verses is "having girded your waist with truth;" "having put on the breastplate of righteousness;" "having fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." 

These all refer to something already done for us at the point of our salvation, the moment we were born again. And, we must be reminded of this or else we will be daunted by the attacks of the enemy.

The second division includes those things which are to be put on or taken up at the moment of the battle: "taking up the shield of faith;" "put on the helmet of salvation," "and the sword of the Spirit." 

There are, first, the things we have already put on once and need never put on again. But we must be sure they are there and remind ourselves of what they mean. Second, there are weapons which we take up again and again whenever we are under attack.

In today's text, Paul introduces us to being "fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." This means Christ our peace, He is our source of calm, He is our sense of well-being. Jesus is our peace because He guarantees our salvation through His perfect life, death and resurrection.

Shoes are essential to fighting. Imagine a barefoot soldier clad in armor from head to foot. Quickly the rough ground would tear his feet and bruise them. Soon, despite the fact that he had all the equipment he needed, he would be out of the fight. His feet would render him unfit to fight. It is peace in the heart that makes us able to fight. 

There two types of peace in the scripture, the peace with God and the peace of God. This is an internal weapon which makes ready the believer looking to share the gospel with others. This peace is a precious gift that gets us to heaven and brings heaven to us now. Peace with God is justification teaching and peace of God is sanctification teaching. Peace applies to us coming to know God for ourselves (Justification) and helping others to come to know Him for themselves (Sanctification).

Notice the importance of the order of our weapons. The first piece tells us that Christ is the truth, the ultimate secret of reality. In addition, we stand on his merits and authority. We have the breastplate of His righteousness, not ours. We approach this daily battle on the basis of what He has done, is doing and will do. As a result, our hearts are at peace and we are engaged in the battle!

Sure footedness provides for the fighting believer, who is out to share the Gospel, the stability needed to endure. Most people when teaching on this passage place emphasis on the sharing of the Gospel, but the emphasis must be on the one who is receiving the Gospel of peace, as well. We live in a world filled with anxiety and everyone is looking for relief. The relief is realized through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Despite the turmoil, we can have the confidence that God is in control. This peace enables us to see God at work even in the midst of the anxiety causing turmoil.

This is a peace that passes human understanding (Philippians 4:7). This peace forges the culture of God in the believer so that he can beat past the distractions that would prevent him from sharing the Gospel with those trapped in darkness. This is what enabled those five young men to go to the Auca Indians in 1956. The deaths of Peter Fleming, 27; Jim Elliot, 28; Ed McCully, 28; Roger Youderian, 31, and Nate Saint, 32, made headlines for weeks, and resulted in their killers coming to a Christian faith that ended generations of tribal revenge killings. That story is told in the movie "The End of the Spear." 

Until January 8, 1956, few people had heard of the Auca Indians of Ecuador. They were just another backwater primitive tribe scratching out a mean existence in jungle clearings. But on that day on a sandbar in a river near two Auca villages, two alien cultures, one dedicated to spreading the gospel of Christ, the other dedicated to war and murder, clashed. And the Aucas' murder of five American missionaries catapulted the tribe into world-wide news.

Life photographer Cornell Capa accompanied the team which buried the missionaries on the sandbar where they had been killed. He reported, “Among the effects of the missionaries ... were three diaries in which the men had recorded, step by step, the progress of their mission”. In these diaries, notebooks and letters, the missionaries reveal their motives for jeopardizing their lives among the Aucas. Time magazine called the Aucas “the worst people on earth”. This is where the peace of and with God leads the yielded believer. 

We live in a world which is not our home. This explain what Chesterton referred to as "our divine discontent." The sooner we realize that nothing in this world will ever satisfy us, the quicker we will get to the business of observing God bringing people out of darkness into light. My question to you is: Are you yielded today?

Ephesians 6:14 (b)

Ephesians 6:14b PODCAST

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. (Ephesians 6:14)

The Apostle Paul uses figurative language to explain the battle we are engaged in and the weaponry that God has given us. This weaponry is symbolic for the real. In order to understand them we must look behind the symbols to the reality. And in reality, the armor is a symbolic description of the Lord Himself. The armor is Christ, and what He has provided us to enter in and remain in the unseen battle which impacts eternity.

There are two general divisions to the pieces of this armor, indicated by the tenses of the verbs which are used. The first division, covering the first three pieces, is highlighted by the literal translation of this verse: "having buckled around your waist with truth;" and "having put on the breastplate of righteousness."  These first two, along with the third, are weapons which represent something already done to us as Christians. These weapons were given to us permanently when we trusted in the finished work of the Lord Jesus when we first believed.

The second piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. When we trusted Christ as our savior, He became at that moment the ground of our righteous standing before God, our acceptance before Him. 

We have all struggled with the assurance of our salvation due to our lack of understanding of Soteriology which is the study of salvation. When we first became followers of Christ we believed that we played a role in earning or maintaining our right standing before God.

Of course, this is not true, for through Christ's perfect life, death and resurrection our rightness before God was earned only by Him. We accessed this free gift the moment we believed. And, as our text is teaching, we need to be reminded of this daily, otherwise we lack the confidence to stand and make a difference in this battle.

Paul is saying here that we must stand in the merit of the Lord Jesus alone. When we believe, we gave up the idea that we must be good enough in order to access the pleasure of God. We stand only on his merits. We experienced imputed righteousness, which he gave to us the moment we believed in the Lord Jesus as our savior.

This breastplate of righteousness enables us to be strong in His strength amid discouragement and the threat of defeat. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul wrote, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." This is the Apostle Paul using the breastplate of righteousness. I don't care, he says, what I have been, I don't defend what I am. I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is what Christ has made me. I'm not standing on my righteousness, I'm standing on His, I am accepted by grace, and my personal situation does not make any difference at all. 

As a result, Pau's heart was kept from discouragement. He could say, "Sure, all these things are true, but that does not change the fact that I am Christ's man, and I have His power. He is in me and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," (Philippians 4:13). 

In 1 John 5:13, the Apostle John wrote an entire chapter to assure us that we are right with God only through Christ. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God: that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God." The word know means absolute assurance. According to this verse, it is possible to be saved and know it. But the very fact that John wrote this verse shows that it is also possible to be saved and doubt it. This doubt can distract us from entering the battle, or if we are in the battle, it can distract us from being effective in the battle. This is unnecessary, and this is why we have this piece of armor.

Martin Luther is known as the one God chose to be the leader of the Reformation. In a day of lost biblical theology his powerful teaching gave birth to Protestantism. In 1510 Luther went to Rome. He was there for a spiritual experience; so he visited Scala Sancta, which means “holy stairs” in Latin. These stairs consisted of twenty-eight white marble steps, encased by wood. The Catholic Church taught that by ascending these steps on your knees in an appropriate fashion, you can buy an indulgence for someone in purgatory. If you ascended each step reciting “Our Father” (Pater Noster), you could release a soul from purgatory. Luther wanted to free his grandfather – Lindemann Luther – from purgatory.

While Luther was climbing the stairs on his knees, he heard a voice which cried, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ He rose up from the steps and proclaimed “The just shall live by faith!”

Luther wrote later of this experience:

“Although I was a holy and irreproachable monk, my conscience was full of trouble and anguish. I could not bear the words, ‘Justice of God.’ I loved not the just and holy God who punishes sinners. I was filled with secret rage against him, and hated him, because, not satisfied with terrifying his miserable creatures, already lost by original sin, with his law and the miseries of life, he still further increased our torment by the gospel. . . . But when, by the Spirit of God, I comprehended these words; when I learned how the sinner’s justification proceeds from the pure mercy of the Lord by means of faith, then I felt myself revived like a new man, and entered at open doors into the very paradise of God.

“From that time, also, I beheld the precious sacred volume with new eyes. I went over all the Bible, and collected a great number of passages which taught me what the work of God was. And as I had previously, with all my heart, hated the words, ‘Justice of God,’ so from that time I began to esteem and love them, as words most sweet and most consoling. In truth, these words were to me the true gate of paradise.”

Ephesians 6:14 (a)

Ephesians 6:14 PODCAST

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. (Ephesians 6:14)

In today's text the Apostle Paul reiterates the command to "stand firm" which is one word in the Greek. The point that Paul is making here is: Jesus has won the victory, therefore stand firm and do not depart from Jesus Christ. Again, a spiritual warrior is being described. A warrior who recognizes the utter importance of the war and is engaged in it. He recognizes that the trouble in the physical is caused by the metaphysical or spiritual.

Now, in order to be engaged, the warrior must don his six part weaponry on a daily basis. There are six parts to our weaponry, with the first three are with us always. The last three we used as needed. The first piece of weaponry is the belt of truth. This belt is designed to hold up our pants, it brings order to our attire. The truth serves us by holding us up. Truth upholds the believer who is being beaten down by this world.

All the pieces of our armor belong to God and come from Him. Truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, and salvation—all are gifts provided by God for His people's effectiveness in the battle. All except “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (v.17) are defensive in nature. All are designed to help us “stand against the schemes of the devil” (v.11). The belt of truth is the first part of the armor listed because, without truth, we are lost, and the schemes of the devil will surely overpower us.

The truth here is whatever God has said on a given subject. This is the word of of God, the Bible. This is an absolute standard which causes all things to conform to it. This is not what some refer to as "my truth." There is no such thing as "my truth" because I am no standard, I am not perfect.

Truth must be absolute and perfect. And, only God, the Supreme Being, can be the determiner of truth. No human can be the determiner of truth because we are fallen, even though we are "born again." In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 reads, "3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete." In other words, we must be defined by the word of God instead of our point of view, opinion or "our truth." We must bend our will to what God says on a given subject.

Living out of God's definition of things enables us to recognize the things that we otherwise would be defined by. The truth sheds light on those flimsy things that make us deficient and shallow. On the other hand, when God defines us, we will not be controlled by that which is incomplete and cheap. Note that truth provides stability to the center of our being, this is why God uses the analogy of the belt affixed at the center of our body.

It is the nature of the truth to complete us when it defines us. In Matthew 18:21-22, the Lord Jesus is addressing the truth about the necessity of forgiveness. This is one example of how the truth brings stability to our existence. He uses the number seven and Jesus is not saying we should forgive others 490 times in a day. No, He uses the number seven to communicate that our ability to forgive should be the product of being made whole. If we want stability in our lives, we must be given to wholeness which produces the ability to forgive.

The believer in Christ does not experience the life Jesus died to give him when he holds onto bitterness. The whole believer or the believer being defined by God's truth has the practice of forgiveness. People who hold on to those feelings that are not informed by God's truth are lacking wholeness.

Finally, we must live out of this reality which is what God says on a given subject. Forgiven people forgive people. Our problem is that we do not understand His forgiveness of us. His forgiveness is complete and when we are defined accordingly, we will experience the stability of the truth that produces forgiveness in us.

Ephesians 6:12-13

Ephesians 6:12-13 Podcast

12 For 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13)

Paul describes the battle that we are engaged in as a "struggle." This battle is not waged against people, it is waged against unseen forces. What we think is an argument with another human is merely the agitation caused by unseen forces. These forces want to distract us from what is most important, the application of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus to people's lives.

God's kingdom is not advanced with swords, it’s not a flesh and blood battle. It’s a spiritual battle, it is advanced with spiritual weaponry. Note that Paul refers to the whole armor in v.12. We must be careful to appropriate the whole armor because each piece compliments the other. In other words, our effectiveness depends upon the appropriation of each and every piece in our spiritual armor.

The appropriation of this armor yields in the believer's life stability. Paul uses the word "stand" which we considered yesterday. This stability or this determination to not be moved is the product of each piece of weaponry which will each bring us back to the one thing in the economy of God that creates the greatest strength. This one thing is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel creates stability in the believer and this Gospel is all of God, not of us. This is why it creates so much stability in us.

We will know when this Gospel is defining us, when our theology is all about God and not ourselves. So mush of American Christendom is defined by the flesh of the believer. It is obvious when the flesh, the evil desires within us, is defining us. The products of the flesh are condemnation, guilt, unbelief, fear and the like. This weaponry is designed to tackle such enemies, and it is a profound understanding of the Gospel which frees us from the false teaching that says we must add to Christ's work in order to experience the freedom that Christ died to give us.

Everything physical is preceded by the metaphysical. In v.12, Paul refers to the heavenly realms. What we do with the spiritual realm will determine what happens around us in the physical realm. Take note of how the enemy is described in v.12 ... "authorities", "powers", "spiritual forces of evil."  These angelic beings are bad and they are behind the troubles in our world. Jude tells us "they left their proper place." Peter tells us in 2 Peter that the angels "sinned." They had a free will. And "they fell from their position of obedience." These are "inferior deities" which is what the word "demons" means. 

The Lord Jesus encountered six different individuals who were possessed by demons. The goal of these demons is to deceive and destroy mankind. Satan is given five names and twenty four titles in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus was given two hundred and fifty names and titles. 

In v.13 Paul tells us that God has provided for us the FULL armor of God. Although God has provided the armor, we must put it on. And, when we appropriate or put on this weaponry, we rise to the viewpoint of God in the heavenly or spiritual realm. It is only from this vantage point of God that we recognize this life as it is. In fact, when we have this view point, we recognize that all things work together for the good of the believer.

My oldest son garnered a job right out of college which only lasted a few months. One day his boss came to him and let him know that he could not afford him as an employee so he would have to let him go. From the human standpoint, I wanted to rip the head off of his boss. But from God's perspective, we learned that it was one of the most important things that has ever happened to my son. You see, he took a job that he probably would not have taken had he had other choices. While at the second job, he was trained to make and install the PLC (Programmable Logical Control). This is when his professional career started to take shape. Learning about the PLC enabled him to discover his love, and today he is happy doing what he loves, making and installing PLCs all over the country. It is from the spiritual realm that we are granted the ability to see how all things work together for our good.

Finally, if I had acted on my desire to rip my son's first bosses head off, I would have been doing the bidding of the evil unseen world.

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Ephesians 6:10-11

Ephesians 6:10-11 Podcast

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  (Ephesians 6:10-11)

Strength is the subject now in this portion of Ephesians. Paul writes about strengthening the inner man in Ephesians 3:16. And, it isn’t our strength, it’s the Lord’s strength in us, made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). And, our strength is dependent upon us putting on armor. The nature of this armor, it’s all internal stuff.

In v.11, the word stand is used. When we’re in a battle and we’re standing, we’ve still got a chance to win. Standing is all-important in a fight. Paul uses the Greek word stenai, which is best translated "establish." Stenai was a military term used of a Roman soldier maintaining a critical and strategic position over a battlefield. The point of the believer's sanctification is this charge to stand guard over the victory that God has given to the church.

“Stenai” demands taking authority over the poor theology that most in the churches have garnered. Too much emphasis is placed upon the believer and not enough on the Lord. We spend more time pursuing other things, like our goodness, rather than the Lord, and, as a result, we end up with poor and shallow theology. 

Recently, I had a believer tell me that he thought he lost his salvation. I ask why he thought this. He went on to describe the poor choices that he had been making and high God and the things of God were distant to Him. I said, "you have an awfully high view of yourself." He said, "actually, I don't." I told him that he did and the evidence was he thought he could undo by his bad behavior what God had done. When we think we can out sin God's grace, we have a terribly low view of God and His grace.

You will notice that all of the weaponry that Paul presents in Ephesians 6:14-20 is stuff that we must appropriate. These are weapons that we have been provided through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We do not produce and develop these weapons. We are responsible to appropriate them, and when we do not, we miss out on the battle. We also miss out on helping others in their faith walk with the Lord, which is largely what our sanctification is all about.

At the end of v.11, Paul mentions the Devil's schemes. Among others, one prominent scheme of the Devil is "distractions." The Devil knows that if he can distract us from what is most important, knowing God and making Him known to others, he can render us useless. I trust that you are giving your heart to the Lord on a daily basis. When you do this, He will give to you His heart for Himself and for others. This will render the purpose for your sanctification which is helping others to know the Lord for who He is rather than what we think He is, like us.

Ephesians 6:9

Ephesians 6:9 Podcast

Masters, hear this: act in kind to your slaves. Stop terrorizing and threatening them. Don’t forget that you have a Master in heaven who does not take sides or pick favorites. (Ephesians 6:9)

Paul writes, "Masters, hear this: act in kind to your slaves." Translation? "Employers, pay attention to what is wrong in the lives of your employees." Hear what is wrong and give serious consideration as to how to change it so as to make their conditions right. Treat them as people with problems, listen to their problems, and do something about their problems. 

The attitude that is to accompany this action is put in this negative way: "Stop terrorizing and threatening them." The primary cause of employee unhappiness is to have constantly hanging over their heads some kind of cruel action such as the cutting of wages, in order to motivate them to better work. This does nothing but kill the creative process, paralyzing each in their production. 

Paul mentions a hidden factor that makes all this of extreme importance: "Don’t forget that you have a Master in heaven who does not take sides or pick favorites."  He who is Master over both is watching us. He is right here in the situation and He is dealing with us without picking favorites.

Productivity and the environment which creates such productivity is lost in the workplace where the bottom line is the acquisition of wealth. God's answer is to fill that workplace with joy, peace, and safety of relationship and happiness with one another.

Now, this does not mean that all productivity is ignored. No, we all must make a living. But, the motivation and the tactics which are employed are crucial. It has been proven over and over that a good working environment is a must if there is to be productivity. When someone dreads going into work, they’re going to drag their feet all day. They’ll constantly check the clock to see if 5 pm has rolled around. They’ll do the bare minimum, never wanting to go above and beyond to show their skills or get ahead.

However, if a positive work culture is created where employees are excited to be on the job, productivity is sure to follow. Happier employees are more likely to exceed expectations, meaning the entire workplace will be more pleasant and life-giving.

When employees are happy with their jobs, they’re also more likely to stick around. When you don’t need to constantly interview and replace employees, you can keep projects moving at a productive and consistent pace.

The key to all of this for us is: where are we in our walk with the Lord? If we are walking with the Lord, learning from Him great skills of encouragement and acceptance, we will translate these learned skills into our workplace. This will create an environment where those who toil are encouraged, invested and positive that they matter to the whole. Again, the key is our individual walk with the Lord: am I putting Him first, allowing Him to define me in my thinking and my choices? When we learn these lessons from Him, we will be able to deliver these time tested truths to the people we depend upon to get the job done.