Dressed to Kill by Rick Renner

Author:Rick Renner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Spiritual Warfare, Christian Life, Spiritual Warfare - Biblical Teaching, Christianity, Religion, General, Pentecostal & Charismatic, History
ISBN: 9780977945900
Publisher: Teach All Nations
Published: 1991-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

the loinbelt of truth

God has not left us naked before the enemy; He has provided us with spiritual weaponry that has the ability to counterattack and defeat any scheme that the devil would try to use against us. God knows that in order for us to successfully fight the unseen powers that have been marshaled against us, we must have His special supernatural power that He has provided for this fight.

God has not left us naked before the enemy.

We have seen that in Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul deals with key elements of spiritual warfare that we need to know and appropriate in our personal lives. In this chapter, we will begin to examine the specific pieces of armor that God has given to the Church.

In Ephesians 6:14-18, Paul says this:

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit....

As stated before, Ephesians 6 is not the first time Paul lists spiritual armor in Scripture. In the book of First Thessalonians, the oldest book of the New Testament, Paul also gives a shorter list of spiritual armor.

In First Thessalonians 5:8, Paul says, “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

This earlier version is clearly a very limited view of spiritual armor compared to the list we find in Ephesians 6. Paul’s earlier view was so undeveloped that he referred to the breastplate as one of “faith” and “love.” The only other weapon he mentioned in this earlier text, besides the breastplate, was the helmet of salvation.

Paul’s Expanded Version of Spiritual Armor

In First Thessalonians, Paul’s list of armor is brief. But in Ephesians, he gives an exhaustive list of spiritual weaponry. What happened between these two texts?

Through the years, the Holy Spirit began speaking to Paul, just as He speaks to us. As Paul began to meditate on the small amount of knowledge he had of spiritual armor, the Holy Spirit began to open up this subject for him with fresh revelation. As the years went by, this process continued until the Holy Spirit had fully developed Paul’s knowledge of spiritual armor.

Thus, by the time Paul writes Ephesians 6, he no longer has an incomplete view of spiritual weaponry. Now he can see the whole picture — the Holy Spirit’s full revelation of the armor God has provided for the believer. With that complete revelation in mind, Paul now begins to write about the full armor of God.

Notice how Paul begins this text in Ephesians 6:14. He says, “Stand therefore....” The Greek word for “stand” is that word stenai, meaning to stand upright.

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