continued…

again to stand firm, and to put on the belt of truth around our waist. So, in other words, as Christians we must always speak the truth, just like our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’. If we find ourselves telling a lie for any reason, we should repent immediately because otherwise we open the door to our enemy, Satan, because he is the father of lies (John 8:44).

Continuing with vs 14, our breastplate of righteousness is in place. We receive our righteousness by being a Child of God and being washed in the Blood of Jesus. There is nothing we can do to earn this ourselves, so to keep our breastplate in place, we should repent immediately when Holy Spirit convicts us of something we’ve done that is sin.

Vs 15 tells us that our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. As we become more like Jesus, we should bring peace into wherever we are and wherever we go.

Vs 16 tells us that we must take up our shield of faith. So having faith in God protects us and if we read further we see that it protects us from the flaming arrows of the evil one by extinguishing them or putting the flames out. We might ask ourselves what this means: the flaming arrows would be thoughts or accusations made against us from the enemy, which when we stand in faith, those thoughts and accusations fall to the ground and come to nothing.

Vs 17 says that we should take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The helmet of salvation comes when we are born again and it protects our mind from those random thoughts that Satan throws at us. It also brings peace and calmness from disordered thinking and a term that I see around a lot, overthinking. This peace and calmness comes by speaking the Word of God that counteracts those runaway thoughts.

Vs 18 tells us to pray in the Spirit on every occasion with all kinds of prayers. When we are in a difficult situation and don’t know what to pray, then praying in the Spirit is the answer because Holy Spirit prays through us and He knows exactly what to pray. Praying this way calms us down and brings peace. As the verse says, we must pray in the spirit. So how do we do this?

What I usually do is put on Gospel music to get into the spirit and invite the Holy Spirit to come into the atmosphere, to manifest His presence. I start by worshiping God for a time, really spending time with Him, praising Him for His goodness and for Who He is. Prayer is led by the Holy Spirit, and I listen as He shows me what I should pray. It is always much easier to hear the Lord when we are in an atmosphere of worship to Him.

The verse concludes by telling us to be alert and to always keep on praying for each other in the Body of Christ. We should be alert and aware of the strategies of our enemy, the devil, and the Holy Spirit will prompt us and expose him and his plots against us. We should be praying for each other because we are all going through challenges of some kind and it’s good to know that someone has our back in prayer!

So that is our armour, our uniform of a soldier in God’s Army. It is spiritual armour, and it is seen in the spirit realm. As it is in the natural, we know that someone is in the army because of the uniform that they wear.

Let us be diligent and put on our armour every day. Besides the fact that it identifies us as a Child of God, it protects us too. May I encourage you all to read through these verses so that you can get a clear picture of the armour and what it does for us. Let’s pray together:

Father God, we come before You in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Lord we thank You for this armour and we ask that You reveal to us the importance of putting it on diligently every day. We thank You Lord, that as we take our place in Your army, we stand confidently, knowing that we are protected. We are grateful to be Your Child and we know that as You lead and guide us, as our Captain, we win this and every battle that the enemy might bring our way. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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