Armor

This is a follow up to Masks, if you are interested, please start with that so this will have context.

The Whole Armor of God Ephesians 6:10-13

10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the [b]wiles of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of [c]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus. He explains that to exist in faith in this world you must be protected by the armor of God. But what do you do if you had it on and then took it off and dropped it to the ground? Not only that you replaced it with counterfeits. Will the enemy cease to attack just because you realize you are naked, unprotected on the field of battle? Not likely, so how do you get dressed again?

First off, God is telling me that in order to be disarmed on the battlefield you first must be a warrior worth disarming. So, you must be a high value target. The enemy will be highly invested in keeping you from getting dressed and wanting some payback. So, expect resistance. You will need to grow some before you are back on the battlefield. Since God is a farmer growth comes naturally.

In the Book of Mathew Jesus tell us about the parable about the Sower. God the farmer that spreads his seeds.

The Parable of the Sower Mathew 13:1-9

13 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. ² And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

³ Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. ⁸ But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

It is no accident that many people were present here this day. It is no accident that this parable is what He shared. Jesus speaks to the multitudes. The sower God spreads seeds, the Greek word for seed is sperma. Sperm causes transformation in fertile ground and creates a new life. It is the spread of life. In order for it to be effective it must be protected. If it falls on the wayside it is simply gobbled up by nature, ie the birds devour them. The multitudes are the many types of soil.

Some find ground but the hearts of the people are hard, they cannot be changed, added to and matured, rocky soil does not hold water well. The Word just runs right through it, and it is scorched by the sun. Some land in thorns and are choked out by them. The world swallows the people that did not prepare in order to cherish and protect the seed.

Finally, we have the good ground and abundance springs out of it. The seed we received is not from this place, God does not exist in this reality, the seed He provides it the living definition the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Mathew 6:9-10

In order to spread heaven on earth God plants seeds. If they are cherished and protected and allowed to grow by a believer, they grow exponentially, from 30-100x more. In other words, other people will want what you have, and the seed will be spread. But we can’t be so naive that we believe we can sit naked on the battlefield while the seed grows. Do we even realize we have been disarmed? Many churches preach a powerless doctrine and are by definition not the fertile soil God is looking for. God is not taking a nap and inactive. He is simply not active where these powerless men and women are preaching. This realization has caused a change in me, now I want my armor back.

But…. who are these rulers we are battling. One of the pastors of my church (Kris Vallotton) speaks of Spiritual intelligence. He stresses how we need to be aware that the word for ruler’s is arch in Greek. This is the same word we get the English word, “origin.” This makes so much sense. What is being questioned now, Are we children of God or smart monkeys? The origin of how we were made. Then they asked, do we really have to be men and women? They question the origin of who we are. Then, does right and wrong really exist? Shouldn’t we just enjoy ourselves all we can before we die? They question the origin of what we are here for. In reality we need to bring Kingdom solutions to the problems of today. This will only happen by the people of God, growing their seeds, to the point they cannot contain it all. Then it spreads to other likeminded people and is repeated.

God tells me this time I am going to learn, train, and use every piece of armor before I am allowed to use it. One piece at time. First off if you are naked on a battlefield and put your mask down. Ya, a shield might be nice. Please watch for my next blog. Shields.