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Forging The Armor of God Lessons
Chapter 1.
The Armor of God (Overview)
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What is the Armor of God
The armor of God is spoken about in Ephesians Chapter 6:10 -18 in the Bible. In this passage, Paul is speaking to the Ephesians and he tells them to put on the full armor of God…so that you would be able to overcome the fiery darts of the enemy.
I believe this armor spoken about here is a good summation of what a Christian needs to be thinking about or needs to remember to do in order to live an abundant life in Jesus Christ.
It is made up of the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the boots of peace and finally it's also made up of prayer.
By understanding what each part of the armor represents and how one can practically apply it or put it on, we are able to live in a way that is abundant and fruitful for God.
The armor of God is based on the historical Roman armor. They would wear a helmet to protect their head, a breastplate to protect their chest and heart. They had a sword used to attack their enemies and a shield to defend from attacks. They also wore a belt around their waist which held the breastplate in place and it was used to carry the sword. Finally, they would also wear boots on their feet to protect their steps as they traversed across the battlefield.
This is how the Roman soldier would be dressed as he went out to battle, in order to protect himself and in order to win. Without even one of these parts it's likely that he would have easily found himself defeated in battle. Likewise Paul taught that Christians should also be wearing armor otherwise they too will meet with defeat.
Forging the Armor of God
The passage in Ephesians instructs Christians to “put on” God’s armor; however this training series is “Forging the armor of God.”
It’s true christians must put on God’s armor, but the reason we focus on forging rather than putting on is to emphasize the deliberate effort Christians must put into molding their lives after God's will. Just like a metal armor must be heated up by fire and them hammered into the form that we need it -- the same way as we aim to wear God’s armor, He will have to put us under some heat, and He will have to transform and change some areas of our lives so that it looks like Him.
My Story
For me the armor of God is something I am very passionate about because as I walked in my Christian walk I realized that there are so many things that you go through in life that can stop you from succeeding in your Christian walk and there are so many things that can distract you to the point that I realized that I was blatantly aware that this was a losing battle when I was trying to do it in my own strength and will power.
Whether it was because I started to see the benefits of being sexually active outside of marriage, or I met some people who were just annoying and I couldn’t help by want to hate them, more and more as I came to see who I was,
I realized that the things that I desired and wanted to do…didn’t line up with what God desire and what He wanted me to do. Which was interesting because I at least grew up in a Christian environment, and had been sheltered from a large set of temptations yet it was so difficult to resist these things as I got older and I started to see more things outside of the scope of Christianity that I wanted to do.
Knowing what I did know, I knew that I had to resist, but it was very difficult, and then I kept hearing about walking in the Holy Spirit, but I really didn’t know what that actually meant. I spent a long time trying to figure what that even meant, and I honestly wondered if I was even meant to be successful in my christian walk.
That’s when God showed me this passage, which spoke about the armor of God. It’s very brief, and yet I felt God speaking to me through this scripture, and all the other bits and pieces from other places started to come together.
To walk in the spirit we need to be able to recognize God’s voice, and obey it, and to do that we need to live a certain way and do certain things. Firstly, we need to accept Jesus as Lord over our lives, we also need to learn the truth from God’s word and live righteously. Then we must grow our faith, and share the truth of the word with others, and apply it to our own lives, we must pray and finally we must walk in a spirit or mindset of peace. As we do these things and follow these steps we will find ourselves not just surviving as a Christian but thriving. Where God does amazing things through and around us.
When you put on the armor of God, it stops being a battle where you have no hope of winning, but instead a journey with a guaranteed victory.
In this series we’ll go through each piece of the armor, what it means, why the piece is important, how you can put it on, tips to putting on the armor and finally ways mentors can help evaluate how their mentee is doing in putting on the armor.
Forge the Helmet of Salvation