PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD

Proclamation:

"Finally, be strong in The Lord, and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:10-12 (NIV)

Explanation:

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Ephesus, he told them that The Lord God had already defeated Satan and his control over Christians through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  However, Satan was still able to attack and battle them and seduce them with cleaver crafty and cunning methods of deception to lure Christians into sin, immoral practices, and depraved abominations to turn them away from God.  The only way they could defend against this was to put on the whole armor of God.

Application:
We should recognize that we are in a battle every day of our lives. We are not fighting against people but we are battling the forces of evil.  However, we cannot win if we are fighting this battle alone.  To fight this battle against the devil and his evil forces we must be prepared, and have God's help.  To put on the whole armor of God we must gird our waist and loins with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel, take up the shield of faith, wear the helmet of salvation, use the sword of The Spirit, which is The Word of God, and frequent prayer. (Ephesians 6:14-18)  We need to protect our eyes (sight), our mind (thoughts), our heart (desires), our hands (actions), our feet (walk), and our being (soul) from evil.  The things we watch, think, want, do, and the places we go reflect our lifestyle and are subject to evil influences which are sinful and not consistent with good Christian behavior.  Make no mistake about it, we need God's help to win this battle.  We need to pray daily and pray often.