Many of the Spiritual Battles we lose in life are often caused by a lack of Spiritual Preparation. In any battle fight or competition preparation is critical. Most of us love to perform but we hate to prepare. I can still hear the words of NBA superstar Allen Iverson, “PRACTICE.” Paul warns the church of its need to be prepared for Spiritual Warfare. Paul calls the church at Ephesus and believers of all ages to be spiritually prepared to fight in the war against the enemies of our faith and practice.
In Ephesians 6:10-13, He starts with A Command – Be Strong in the Lord. Which is a command to have our Dependency Properly Aligned.
A good soldier must know where their strength resides. Our strength is not in ourselves nor our efforts for we are no match for the devil and his demons. Nor is our strength in our gifts and abilities. It is in the Lord.
After telling us what to do Paul then tells us how to do it The Method, “Put on God’s Armor.”
Our Strength for battle is found in our obedience to Paul’s word. This command is in the middle voice, meaning the subject is to do the action and actually benefits from the action he does. This places the responsibility on us.
David knew he could not beat Goliath with Saul’s armor. So he refused it for he had never used it and it was never designed for Him it was designed for Saul.
God has specific armor that is tailor made for His people to do battle with our enemies.
Paul gives us the Command the Method and then the Reason – In order that you might be able to STAND against the schemes of the devil.
We must understand that the devil doesn’t have any new material. He uses the same schemes and strategy to try to defeat us.
He knows he can’t Condemn us so he tries to Corrupt us.
Paul Conclusion – Put on God’s Full Armor in Order to Stand.
Paul restates a previous command, we are to be fully prepared for the attacks of the devil.
The goal is for us to Perform by STANDING and we can only Stand by PREPARING.
May God give us the grace to see the necessity of our need of HIM in the Spiritual Battles we will face. (Phil. 4:13)