The Full Armor Of God

I've read Ephesians 6:10 onwards many times and it was not until today when I zeroed in on a couple of words. And this has to do with the subject line itself. 

First of all, whose armor is it? 

It is God's armor. Not yours, not mine. It is God's armor. Because, if you really think about it, our own armor will not stand against the evil one. What is our armor? 

Our own armor may consists of things of this world in which we use to protect ourselves. Eg. self help literature, motivational books etc. Granted, they are good in and of themselves. But will they protect you from spiritual evil? No. The ONLY thing that will help is God's Armor. Not yours. Not mine. Not anyone's. Man made armor cannot fight against spiritual forces of evil. Only God's armor can.Verse 13 states very simply "This is why you must take up the full armor of GOD so that you may be able to resist in the evil day...". 

Secondly, which part of the armor do we take up? 

The FULL armor. 

Taking up only part of the armor is only partly using God's armor. And doing that will only expose us to various other unprotected areas in our spiritual body. Think about it. Are we only armoring ourselves in specific areas of our spiritual body? 

Once we read and understand all the parts that need protection (per Ephesian 6), we can understand which parts of us are exposed and take the actions to protect the exposed parts. 

Let us therefore put on the full armor of God! Study this very important section of the bible which is the very thing that will protect us against the tactics of the Devil.

A stubborn faith in pursuit of Jesus

I'm not sure how many times I've read the the story of the woman who was suffering from bleeding for 12 years and only needed to touch Jesus' robe with the thought "if I can just touch His robes, I'll be made well" (Mark 5:28). Every time I've read this, I've understood it to mean "such faith". If only I had such faith. I've also looked at it from Jesus' perspective and that He knew "power had gone out of Him" (v 30) and am amazed.
But today, what I'm writing is nothing to do with either of that. Today, I realize something new.
It's from the perspective of the woman and what she must have felt BEFORE even considering to touch the almighty healer.
She had been bleeding for 12 years. No doctor could heal her. She was probably looked down upon as being "unclean".
For a moment, imagine the courage it took. Pressing her way through the crowd to touch a rabbi, trampled on with each step she took. In her physical condition, to touch a rabbi meant he too would be ceremoniously unclean. Doing such a thing would be a serious "offense" indeed. Yet, neither the fear of His wrath nor the crowd's opinion stopped her. Instead, she was driven and drawn forward by a strong, stubborn faith. She needed and wanted to be healed! She knew this Jesus would be the answer. Her belief in Jesus, the healer, could not and would not be crushed! Her stubborn faith caused her to pursue Jesus.
Where am I in such faith? Where am I in this pursuit?Am I pursuing Jesus this way? Or am I waiting for an ailment before pursuing? Do I have to have a need?
Jesus did say to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to "pray continually".
I want to pursue Jesus out of love for Him, not out of need or desperation. I want to have the kind of stubborn faith that woman had.
(ref. Mark 5:25-34)

God Has The Final Say

I woke up at 6am this morning with discouraging thoughts and feelings about my job interview yesterday. About how many things I should have said that I didn't say. I felt like I failed to impress the interviewer. I tossed and turned in bed for an hour. Then at 7.06am my "daily bread" arrived. The subject header was "God has the final say" with the message about how I may be praying for things which haven't happened yet and how I should not let negative thoughts talk to me. God has final say. Even MORE significant is the fact that I also learned (again and again) that God is truly watching over me. He watched me while I tossed and turned at 6am, when I woke from sleep with a troubled heart. He watches over me.
Thought analogy:
Joey whines and whines and whimpers, wanting to be fed. He waits patiently on his corner cushion. But I can see that it's not 9am, the appointed time by which he will be fed. But Joey doesn't know that. He can't read the clock. In the same way, I cannot read God's clock. But I'm watching Joey just as God is watching me. And for that, I can rest-assured and be comforted.
(Ref:Luke12:6-7)

The Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away

I've had a tumultuous career. Recently lost my job again through no fault of mine. I've lost jobs before but this one was different because things were going very well for me. Relationship with the boss was great and my performance was great too. But I still lost my job because at a higher lever, the organization decided there was no need for the position/department any more.
It took a while for the news to sink in and I'd stay awake at night and drift between reality and dreams every night for several nights wondering what happened; if it was only a dream; or this can't be true, etc. etc. etc.
This Sunday, the words "The Lord Giveth, The Lord Taketh Away" was dropped into my thoughts as I made my coffee. I wondered if this was a word from God. I searched it and found these words in Job 1:21.
You know, NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING happens to you without God knowing. Whether or not you believe in God or not does not make any difference at all to that truth.
The important thing is, what are you going to do about it?
For me, does it mean I mope around wondering what happened?
Or do I  move forward, keep doing what I do and search for another job?
Do I stop worshiping the Lord and get mad or do I praise God because it was HIS job in the first place?
You see, I've chosen to accept that God is my refuge and strength and that God is the Way and nothing happens without God knowing. Therefore, I can rest assured that God may take whatever He wants from me, because I know that He will provide ALL my needs.
So, regardless, He is the one I will continue to Praise all the days of my life.

Are we still slaves to sin?

In Romans 6:17: "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance."
Operative words "...Used to be" serve to remind us of how we really should be as Christians and followers of Christ. Obedience should result in the extraction of sin from ourselves. A total departure of known and deliberate sinful activities. More often than not, we are depending on "Oh...it's ok to sin, we can always go back to God and ask for forgiveness". Don't be fooled. God cannot be mocked. God cannot be deceived. You are only fooling yourself. Remember what Jesus said... that the way is narrow. While we can truly depend on God's grace and forgiveness, we must never take it for granted. God knows your heart and if you choose to fool yourself you will end up paying for it very heavily. Far be it from us to take God's grace for granted. Stay away from sin. Pray daily. Seek God daily and feed your mind with spiritual things and things of God. Renew your mind daily.

Obedience, keeping His word (daily) in our hearts

Imagine a scenario where you go up and talk to someone and ask him if he is a Christian. He'll say yes. Then you go on and ask him if he keeps Gods commands daily. If he answers no or not really, then tell him he's a liar and the truth is not in him. Hmm, that would not sit well for sure. Yet, the bible clearly states in no uncertain terms. Take heed. 1 John 2: 4 : Whoever says, i know Him but fails to keep and obey His commandments is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.

How often it is, our hearts can be like a mountainous terrain with ups an downs, mountains high and valleys low. In God's word today, on obedience, I've learnt how we should be keeping in word in our hearts on a daily basis because we need His redemption and salvation and grace and forgiveness daily. Not only that, we also need to OBEY his teachings. Refer 1 John 2: 3 - 6.
Do you say you know him, yet not keep His word? Do you say you are a follower, yet have hidden (known) sin you carry in your heart, either by your activity or your words and deeds?

Nothing speaks more directly than God's Word to our hearts (and minds).

River without banks or banks without a river?

One thing I've learnt in all my years as a Christian is this. To truly live a life that's fulfilling and completely submitted to Christ and the Holy Spirit, you have to have both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, which is the bible.
In the past, sadly, I had always gone with being 'filled' with the Holy Spirit and depending on 'feeling' the Holy Spirit prompting me. While there is nothing really wrong with that, I found that I was sadly lacking the knowledge and power of the Word of God. I lacked the direction and promises which are found in the bible.
And it is only lately in the past few months that I have truly understood the importance of knowing the Word of God. I was like a river with no banks. Picture this: a river (the Holy Spirit), the river banks (the Word of God). If a river were to flow with no banks, it would be all over the place. I'll have power with no direction. And if a river were to have banks, but no water (Holy Spirit), then I would have a lot of knowledge and direction, but no power.
To truly work as a Christian, living in God's light, we need to have both power and direction. And that means to be fed by God's word (the Bible) and to pray and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Remember these few points:
1. satan tempted Jesus by using God's Word. But Jesus answered and rebuked the devil because Jesus knew God's Word. We need to know God's Word in order to overcome temptations.
2. the full armour of God are made up of defensive armor, except for the Sword, which is the word of God. Which means the weapon of attack is actually the word of God. Without the word of God, all you will be doing is defending and defending, with no weapon for attack.
We cannot survive on 'feeling' the Holy Spirit. While we may be close to God that way, and knowing God is with us, we need also to feed our spiritual man by reading the Word of God. This way, we will have power and direction (God's will) in our lives.
Remember also that when the storms of life come our way, it is the Word of God that will hold us up and keep our head above water. Not our feelings.

References:
Ephesians 6: 10 - 17
Proverbs 2: 1 - 6
Hebrews 4: 12