A large portion of the content of this lesson came from Dressed To Kill by Pastor Rick Renner.Ephesians 6:11 NKJV Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
As we stated earlier, Paul was guarded by a fully armored, highly impressive and intimidating soldier.
Paul could see the soldiers loin-belt, huge breastplate, brutal shoes affixed with spikes, massive full-length shield, intricate helmet, piercing sword and long specially tooled lance that could be thrown a great distance.
- The loin-belt.
Although the least impressive and most commonplace piece of weaponry that the Roman soldier wore, it was the central piece of armor that held all the other parts together.
Without it the other pieces of armor would have fallen off the soldier.
- A magnificent and beautiful breastplate.
The breastplate was made from two large sheets of metal. One piece covered the front of the soldier and the other covered his back. These two sheets were attached at the top of the soldier’s shoulders by large brass rings.
Part of this breastplate began at the bottom of the neck and extended down past the waist to the knees. From the waist, it took on the resemblance of a metal skirt. It also was the heaviest part of the armor weighing in at excess of 40 pounds.
- Very dangerous shoes.
These were not Roman sandals as often depicted in movies. They were actually constructed of leather and metal. It was made up of the greave which wrapped around the soldier’s lover leg and calf area.
On the bottom of the shoes were affixed with extremely dangerous spikes sometimes up to 3 inches in length.
- A large oblong shield.
This shield was made up of multiple layers of animal hide that were tightly woven together and then framed along the edges by a strong piece of metal or wood.
- The helmet.This piece of armor protected the soldier from receiving a fatal blow to the head and could weigh as much as 15 pounds.
While the breastplate was the most beautiful, the helmet was the most noticeable.
- The sword.
The sword the Roman soldier carried as a very heavy broad sword specifically designed for jabbing and killing an adversary.
- A specially tooled lance.
This is designed to strike the enemy from a distance. Although the lance is not specifically mentioned in the text, it is implied when Paul tells us to put on the “whole armor of God”.
Ephesians 6:11 NKJV Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Paul is using the imperative tense in this tex. This means he is not making a suggestion; rather he is issuing the very strongest kind of command that can be given.
We have a choice – we can reject Paul’s command or we can accept it and do it.
Ephesians 6:11 NKJV Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
This verse can be accurately translated, “Put on the whole armor that comes from God…”
Just as we draw our life, our new nature, and our spiritual power from God, this spiritual armor also comes from God as well.
The Armor of God is ours by virtue of our relationship with God!
In other words, Paul wanted us to know that this armor originates in God and is freely bestowed upon those who continually draw their life and their existence from God.
As long as our fellowship with the Lord is unbroken, the Power Source for our spiritual weaponry also remains intact.
Your unbroken, ongoing fellowship with God is your absolute guarantee that you are constantly and habitually dressed in the whole armor of God.
Ephesians 6:11 NKJV Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
This phrase comes from the Greek Word “dunamis”. When we are equipped with the whole armor of God, we have explosive and dynamic power at our command!
To stand means in the spirit we are standing in an upright and victorious position as a Roman Soldier would stand.
It also means that in a military sense, we are to maintain a critical and strategic military position over a battlefield.
We are to stand guard over the battlefields of our own lives.
(Like the Guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery)
You must stand guard over the will of God for your life!
Maintain a critical position over the assignment that God has given you until it is completed.
You must determine that you will not give the enemy an inch.
The most important battlefield of your life is your mind!
There are three words that we all need to know in studying spiritual warfare:
- Wiles
- Devices
- Deception
- The word “wiles” comes from the Greek word “methodos”, and it literally means “with a road” or “on a road.”
The enemy does not have as many tricks as he wants us to believe he does.
What Paul is saying to us is that the enemy travels one road, one lane, or one avenue. In other words, he primarily has only one trick in his bag but he has learned how to use that one trick very well.
If the devil operates on one single avenue, what is the destination that diabolical road is headed toward?
2 Corinthians 2:11 NKJV (11) lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
- The word “devices” is the Greek word “noemata” and denotes the insidious plot of the enemy to fill the human mind with confusion.
Another way of saying this is that it bears the notion of “mind games”.
“…we are not ignorant of the mind games that Satan tries to pull on us…”
The devil loves to make a playground out of people’s minds!
He delights in filling their emotions and senses with illusions that captivate their minds and ultimately destroy them.
Like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, we must bring every thought to the captivity of Christ.
We must make a mental decision to take charge of our minds.
We must stop listening to ourselves and start speaking to ourselves.
We must speak to our emotions and senses dictating to them exactly what to believe.
The enemy knows that whoever controls a person’s mind also controls that person’s health and emotions.
If we do not renew our minds and yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls, it will be only a matter of time before a solid stronghold of deception begins to dominate and manipulate his self-image, his emotional status, and his overall thinking.
- Deception occurs when a person believes the lies that the enemy has been telling him.
For instance, the devil may assault your mind by repeatedly telling you that you are a failure. As long as you resist the demonic allegations, they can and will exert absolutely no power in your life.
The moment someone begins to accept Satan’s lies as truth is the very moment those wicked thoughts and mind games begin to produce the devil’s reality in his life.
When you embrace the devil’s mind games and perceive them as truth, you give power to them!
We begin to put faith in those lies and give them power to create that reality in our lives.
The believers’ false perceptions empower the lies, and the devil uses those false beliefs to create his reality in the natural realm in their lives.
Example of Goliath and his Mind Games:
1 Samuel 17:1-11 NKJV Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. (2) And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. (3) The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. (4) And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. (5) He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. (6) And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. (7) Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. (8) Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. (9) If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” (10) And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” (11) When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
1 Samuel 17:16 NKJV And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening.
The devil wants to take you captive and destroy you with the same tools Goliath used against the Israelites. Satan wants to ruin your effectiveness with deceptive suggestions and lying allegations!
The only true statement that Goliath says:
1 Samuel 17:9 NKJV If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”
Once you pull the plug on Satan’s intimidating threats and lies, he will no longer be able to hold your mind captive.
Learn how to SPEAK God’s truth to yourself rather than LISTEN to the enemy’s lies.
The enemy works just as Goliath did, striking repeatedly every day several times a day.
David was not afraid of the Philistine Giant – he was annoyed by Goliath’s verbal arrogance!
We must get to this same place. We must grow annoyed at the arrogance of our adversary to constantly malign us with his taunts and lies like David.
Before the giant’s threats had an opportunity to take root in his soul and produce paralyzing fear, David spoke forth his declaration of war against the enemy!
1 Samuel 17:45-47 NKJV Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (47) Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
The name “Devil” comes from the Greek word “diabolos” and means the repetitive action of hitting something again and again, until the wall is so worn down that it can be thoroughly penetrated.
Make up your mind today that you are someone he will not be able to “wear down” until he can “pave a road” into your mind and confuse your emotions with “mind games.” You are not going to be able to be “deceived” until you believe his threats and false perceptions and cause them to become a reality in your life!