Monday, June 1, 2020

No Victory without God’s Armor!

By Jeff Arnette

    The intelligence of Satan for being able to defeat unwary Christians is frightening. In all honestly, it should cause us to pause and pray every time we think about it. His skills are many, they are varied, and they are always cleverly disguised. He doesn’t attack the strongest points of our life, instead, he attacks the weakest points of our life. Satan will prey on our weaknesses and go for the place that we are struggling. It’s kind of like trying to push down a mighty oak tree. To be successful (sometimes you really need to remove an enormous tree), we must chip away at it, piece by piece, slowly but surely. I guess you could just use a chainsaw but no matter the method, you must destroy its base before you can hope to bring it down. The same is true for Christians. Satan wants to chip away at your life; at your faith, at your family, and at your church. With every blow of the ax, he destroys your foundation a little more. Eventually, the tree will fall if left unaided.
    Satan loves to go unnoticed in our life. Sometimes he will even resort to using different disguises. He can even make himself look and sound just like an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). What I mean is that Satan can and will disguise himself as the Spirit speaking, as Spirit moving you toward something, and sometimes he will disguise himself like the very thing you want, like God is answering your prayers. The only way to be sure is to line it up against the standard of God’s word (1 John 4:1-3). That is the only way you can be sure that God is truly moving and working within your life.
    Not all moving is God, not all moments of inspiration and passion is from God. Satan is the smartest of all enemies; the most fearful, and the least known or understood. Because we don’t know or recognize him, he is also the least feared of any enemy.
    To be able to stand against him and have any hopes of winning, we must put on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:14-18).
“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,” (Ephesians 6:14–18, ESV)
It is not enough to put on a single piece of the armor of God. It is not enough to even put on half of the armor! We must put on the whole armor, every single piece. Every piece of it is required for victory against such a powerful enemy. For victory, the faithful Christian must learn how to use the only weapon they can use. We pick up the “Sword of the Spirit” which is the word of God. That is the weapon Jesus used when Satan attacked Him (Matt. 4:1-11). If Satan was not afraid to attack Jesus he will not be afraid of attacking you. Be ready for him and put on the armor of God.
    Satan doesn’t fight fair and neither should we! We must cheat, stack the deck; put into practice all the tools Jesus has given to fight. Don’t fight him alone! If you do, you will lose. Trust me, I have seen it happen far too often. Put on God’s armor, surround yourself with the army of God (the church), and put prayer and scripture to work in your life.
    If you do this, you can win this battle.

- Jeff Arnette preaches for the Central Haywood church of Christ, Clyde, NC.  He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://centralhaywoodchurchofchrist.com


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