I’ve been doing a study on the Spiritual armor. Ephesians 6:10-17 are verses most of us know. I pray through and put on these pieces of armor often but in the last few days I’ve received some deeper revelation. Let’s take a look at these verses:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
“Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Starting at the head, let’s look at the pieces of armor. The head has the helmet of salvation. The helmet protects the head (and spiritually your mind and thoughts which is where the battlefield of the enemy really is). Your chest has the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate covers your heart and other lungs and scripture many times references the heart as your emotions. We will even say things like, “It’s an issue of the heart” which is indicating what is felt.
When doing a study on righteousness, that word indicates several different aspects. Righteousness (G1343) literally means equity (of character or act). Character indicates who you are, and act indicates what you do, or what you stand for. Some of the other words that describe righteousness in that study are justice (the principle, a decision or execution), judgment, punish, and vengeance. Righteousness does not just sit by and watch wrong being done. Righteousness is what Jesus brought, through signs and wonders, when he encountered people who had been dealt a great injustice by the enemy.
The belt of truth is around the waist, to protect vital organs but look at what is contained within the word “truth”. Truth comes from a double root meaning “not” and “concealed”. Some of the other attributes listed in this word (adding not before each one) are to lie hid, be ignorant of and unwittingly. The aspect of truth is not being caught unawares but sees through deception with the Lord’s insight.
But now let’s look at the feet. This is where I’ll spend the rest of my time. Ephesians 6:15 says to have your feet shod with the gospel of peace.
I had never taken a closer look at this piece of armor until I heard two sermons by Mike Thompson. (I’ll share the links at the end of this blog.) I had just envisioned the gospel of peace as sharing the good news of the gospel but not really picking up on the “peace” aspect.
As I heard him share what the Lord was showing him my mind was swirling with revelation and I kept pausing the videos to write down thoughts as they were coming. Then yesterday I spent several hours looking up every “peace” scripture in the Bible and I wrote down the ones that spoke deeper revelation. I will share many of these in this blog.
Looking at the feet, I realized that they do several things that are vital in our Christian walk. We walk with our feet. Luke 1:79 is the words of Zechariah who prophesied about the birth of his son John who was later referred to as John the Baptist. This verse says, “To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Our feet take us where we purpose to go. Several of the verses I studied mentioned peace as being a way or a path to pursue. Again, until the other day I had not thought much about peace as something to pursue. I guess I just thought peace was the end result of something else. My mindset started shifting as I began to see this.
Another scripture that references peace as a “way” is Romans 3:17-18 which says, “The way of peace they have not known and the awesomeness of God is not before their eyes.” (The Peshitta Bible which is translated from the Aramaic)
These two verses reveal that there is a way (which means road by the way) of peace and then other ways that are carnal. Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” We have a “Y” in the road in each circumstance and we can choose the way of peace or the way or our carnal reasoning.
I won’t claim this next part as revelation I received. Mike Thompson preached this in his two messages. I had never thought about peace in this way before. He said, “Let’s shift our mindset to think of peace as a weapon of our warfare. Let’s take our God-given peace and stand in the face of the enemy with it.”
Back to Ephesians, 6:13-14, right in the middle of listing the armor of God, it says, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore…”
We walk with our feet and we stand with our feet, which are supposed to be shod with peace. He (Mike Thompson) mentioned that refusing fear or anxiety or worry, or any other thing that satan tries to get you to feel and respond to, drives him nuts. He wants us to look at circumstances and get stirred up about them. He wants us to worry or fret and allow the problems and obstacles to loom large in our eyes. When we bite the hook of that behavior, God is reduced in our eyes to smaller than our circumstances. We allow our focus to shift onto the problem and we allow our faith to be sucked right out of our perspective. If we step into that cycle of processing, the devil wins that round and our faith takes a hit. If we tell our emotions to take a back seat and we step up in faith telling the devil and our circumstances that we believe in God’s faithfulness, we win the round and the devil takes the hit. More about this later…
So, our feet take us down the path and our feet are what we use to stand. I guess basically you could say they are the foundation of what we do. That makes them very important wouldn’t you say? With this understanding as our foundation, let’s take a look as some other scriptures on peace.
Psalms 34:11-14 in the Peshitta translations says, “Come, children, hear me, and I shall teach you the worship of God. Who is the man who desires life and loves to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips will not speak deceit. Pass from evil and do good, seek peace and run after it.” Run after it…. Doesn’t that speak to you? Wow! It does me. Let’s also take a look at the work “seek”:
Seek (H1245) means to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer); by implication, to strive after, ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make request), require, seek (for).
These two concepts, seek and run after do not indicate passivity. This is intentional and deliberate. This is not the concept of just having something “fall into your lap.” This sounds to me like a passionate pursuit.
1 Peter 3:11 says something similar: “Let him move away from wickedness and let him do good; let him seek peace and run after it. Because the eyes of The Lord Jehovah are upon the righteous and his ears hear them; the face of the Lord is against the evil.” (Peshitta Translation) Again, seek peace and run after it.
I’m reminded of hide and seek that we played as kids. We would not give up until we had found those hiding. We would play in the dark, outside when we were older. I was tenacious and kept looking until I found them or they snuck their way to home-base and were safe. As adults are we this tenacious with our lives today? Why would we give more effort and attention to a game played as a kid than our spiritual life and mental state today? It’s something to really consider as the stakes are a lot higher today than the child’s game back then.
Romans 14:17-19 says, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but the righteousness and the peace and the joy in The Spirit of Holiness. For whoever serves The Messiah in these things is beautiful to God and is approved before the children of men. And now, let us run after peace and after, building one another up.” (Peshitta Translation)
Does the Father intend for us to live in peace? It says in the verse above that it’s part of the Kingdom of God and again, it says to run after it. He wants us to be intentional with it. He wants us to be intentional about building ourselves up and then after, one-another.
Colossians 3:15 was SO revelatory to me. It says, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (NASB)
What does the word “let” mean? How do you “let” peace and the word of Christ dwell within you? Here is what let means:
Let (G1018) means to arbitrate, i.e. (genitive case) to govern, from 1017 (an umpire) an award (of arbitration), a prize
I was uncertain of what arbitrate meant so I went to the dictionary for that.
Arbitrate means to settle (a dispute between two people or groups) after hearing the arguments and opinions of both, but the archaic meaning is powerful. It means: Decide, Determine.
Arbitrate is also a verb. And if you’ve read any of my past blogs, I’ve explained what “genitive case” means before. It means to show possession like putting an apostrophe s after something. An example would be, that is Judy’s dog. The ‘s shows whose dog it is. It shows possession. So, since “let” is genitive case, it’s saying that it’s ours to own, it’s ours to do. We let (determine) for peace to rule in our hearts. We let (decide) for the word of Christ to dwell within us. We actively “run after” peace and intentionally acquire it.
Here are a couple of verses to show us that this is God’s will and desire for us:
Psalms 29:11 “The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.” (NASB) Who’s giving it? The Lord. If He’s giving it to us, then it’s something He wants us to have.
Isaiah 54:10 (in the Peshitta…I love this) “Because the mountains shall be leveled and high places shall bow down, and my grace shall not pass away from you, and the covenant of your peace shall not pass away, says Lord Jehovah, the lover.”
Ezekiel 34:25 and 37:26 both also reference a “covenant of peace.” Ezekiel 37:26 says, “And I shall raise up to them a covenant of peace and an eternal covenant shall be with them, and I shall multiply them, and I shall put my holy place among them for eternity.” (Peshitta Translation)
In John 14:27 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives that I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not let it be afraid.” (Peshitta Translation)
Isaiah 26:3 says, “The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.” (NASB)
These verses indicate that God’s intention is for us to walk in peace. He has given us a covenant of peace. Take a look at this verse from the Amplified: 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline (abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control).”
Might I just say, this is the complete opposite of what we experience in the world. If you’ll remember the reference from John 14 above, Jesus said the peace that He gives is not as the world gives. Peace is not circumstantial, it’s faith.
This is not a passive faith walk we are being called to walk. We are in a war, we live in a war-zone, that’s why we have armor and we’re supposed to use it, every day. There are times our faith might come easier…there may be battles we have overcome enough times that it’s not hard to believe and stand strong, but at other times it’s all we can do to not freak out…it’s in those times that we MUST determine, by choice to run to Him for help and strength.
Remember the verse I referenced earlier from Isaiah 26:3 which says, “The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace.” Here is what “steadfast means in the Hebrew:
Steadfast (H5564) means, to prop (literally or figuratively): to lean upon or take hold of, bear up, lean, lie hard, rest self, set self, stand fast, stay (self), sustain.
There might literally be times you have to prop yourself up on Him. He knows that…He wants you to do that. The rest of verse 3 says, “because he trusts in Thee.” Here is what trust means:
Trust (H982) means, to hie for refuge. Hie means to hasten or run quickly to. This verse is literally saying to run quickly to Him for refuge. Again, this is what He wants from us. When needed, He wants us to lean on Him, to be propped up by Him, and run quickly to Him for safety. He’s not expecting us to be self-sufficient; He knows that we need Him and He wants us to need Him.
The world, at this time, is in chaos and turmoil. If you spend more time watching the news than reading your Bible and hearing from the Lord, you are definitely being dumped on by the narrative of the day. There is plenty to distract you, there are many circumstances, all clamoring for your attention. Here is what the Lord is speaking to me.
We are in times that resemble Biblical events from history, like a Red Sea moment or the children of Israel when they were wandering in the wilderness. God had told them that He was going to lead them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land but there were a LOT of obstacles in-between; Much like today.
If you are listening to the prophetic voices and alternative news sources, you have heard and know that things are not what the narrative of the day is spouting. There is a plan taking place but it’s not necessarily “in the open” at this time. We are in a war, but this war looks different than any other war in history. This is an information war with lots of dis-information being shared.
The enemy, both in the natural AND the spiritual, wants you to be afraid, distracted by fear, consumed with worry. As I thought about this, I thought about a chapter I wrote in my book, “God Stories.” It’s a Bible study I put together that I wrote into a chapter on many of the circumstances the Children of Israel faced and how they responded to each one. When you break down the different situations and look at their responses you see fear, grumbling and complaining, unbelief, accusations towards Moses and a host of other things. The point of the study was to reveal that the same enemies they faced back then, in their trying circumstances, are the same enemies we face today.
Have you ever wondered why they never got it right in regard to their faith and believing what God was telling them? They saw divine protection from the hand of God while they were in Egypt. Exodus 9:26 says, “Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, there was no hail.” They saw with their eyes; Egypt being hit with plague after plague while they were not affected at all.
They saw the Red Sea parted and walked through on dry ground and then the army of Egypt drowned when the waters came back together. They were fed Manna which fell on the ground to be gathered each morning, they drank from a rock, where water poured out, and 1 Corinthians 4 says they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. Scripture says they were not sick nor did their clothes wear out, yet when they got to the border of Canaan and sent the spies in to check it out, they believed the report of the 10 with a negative report over the two that said God will complete what He promised.
Why did they have such a hard time believing what God had told them? He had said He was taking them to their Promised land, the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They eventually were taken in, but only after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness so that all of the parents who had believed the evil report of the 10 spies had died in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb, the two spies saying, “God will do what He promised” got to go in along with the children of those who did not believe.
Another example comes from Mark 4:35-41. Jesus, getting into the boat told His disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side.” (He told them where they were going). Then Jesus took a nap. While He was sleeping a great storm arose. Mark 4:37 says, “and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.” What did the disciples do? Did they remind themselves that Jesus had said where they were going? No! And I assume they did not pray or command the storm on their own to cease as this reference does not indicate that. Instead, they freaked out and woke Jesus up saying, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” It’s interesting that what Jesus said to the storm was, “Peace, be still” and the storm ceased. Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Could He be saying the same thing to us today?
As I pondered this, I heard the Lord say to me, “You have the opportunity to do it right this time.” We are facing circumstances that seem daunting. We’ve heard that we are doomed as a nation and a global currency reset is taking place…we are hearing nothing positive. But I know what the Lord told me 2 + years ago. He said, “Your stance is to believe the prophets and “stand” on what I’ve shown you.” I have not relented.
I want to encourage you all to make this choice to believe in the face of dire circumstances and believe for God to move in a big way; to tell the devil you are DONE being slammed with fear and hopelessness. We are at our Red Sea moment, and it feels like the enemy is barreling down, BUT God is on the move. Believe along with me and refuse to let your peace be stolen from you. Face the devil and look him in the eye and smile…because God is on our side, and He wins.
When you hear a negative report, you can respond in the flesh like the Children of Israel, OR you can confess to the Lord that you are trusting Him and pray for Divine Intervention. It’s as easy as that. Believe me, this is NOT what the devil wants you doing. When more of us respond in faith each time, the devil loses his stronghold. The Lord might even begin to show you aspects He wants you to pray Scripture into or declare by faith about. It’s an exciting time to partner with Him, and a crucial time as well…
If you are still struggling with thinking we are moving into the “end times”, I want to encourage you to go to this link and watch this teaching by Wanda Alger.
(302) MY VIEW OF END TIMES THEOLOGY – YouTube
Even if you don’t believe what she has to say, at least listen, then make a more educated decision after hearing her teaching. You can also buy the book called “Victorious Eschatology” by Dr. Harold Eberle. You can buy it from Amazon. I’ve read most of it and it’s very good. They use the Bible and ancient history to explain that a lot of Revelations was fulfilled in 70AD so much of what we attribute to our future is actually in the past. What they teach is that about a third is still left to be fulfilled and guess what? If we are around for that then we will be led as we go. Our God is faithful to us who believe.
Sometime soon I’m going to do some research on how this end time philosophy came to be, but what I have heard is this belief has only been around since the early 1900’s and was majorly encouraged by the Schofield Bible which was evidently financially funded by the Luciferian cult. Think about it…if they can get Christians to accept their end times doctrine then we won’t “occupy until He returns” because we believe that the earth is doomed to be taken over by the anti-Christ and we’re waiting and praying to get whisked away. We won’t be believing for the knowledge of the Glory of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. (And personally, that is what I believe will happen before we, His believers, are taken from the earth. We are to bring Heaven to earth as Jesus prayed,)
I pray this has encouraged you. I pray you will stand, wear peace on your feet and take it wherever you go. As you view life through peace and faith instead of the familiar process of human reasoning you will rise up and fulfill what God has for you with faith and courage.
We all have a part to play in taking back our nation. Ask the Father what your part is. It could be political like something local, it could be through intercession, it could be something else.…if you are interested in doing some national intercession excursions, I have some places I’m going to go soon, some possibly to the East coast, and some more local too, like Jeff City. I would welcome some participation from like-minded prayer warriors.
Here are the two-teaching links from Mike Thompson that set me on this journey:
You won’t be disappointed if you watch them both. They were both excellent!
In closing I’d like to share a song that really speaks to me about all of this.
Until next time…
Rants Ramblings and Reflections 