by David Brenneman
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints," Ephesians 6:12-18.
Have you ever wondered what these were: "the flaming arrows of the evil one"?
These are the lies spoken, the loud verbiage as well as the softly uttered.
Those things that are meant to dissuade you from following through with anything that the Spirit is teaching you about obedience in.
You are going to hear them and sometimes they sound just like your supposed conscious. They aren't words of encouragement, they aren't uplifting. They aren't going to direct you to stay in step with Jesus. They'll try to convince you to back off, back down, to give up, to take the easier road. The road that 'everyone else' is traveling and that is what 'success' looks like.
Flaming arrows, by the physical definition, hurt. They're obviously doubly painful. Both in the point of contact as well as the flame they carry to cause collateral damage.
Spiritually flaming arrows are meant to be doubly damaging to a mind and heart.
Left to our own understanding we will try to figure things out and actually avoid asking God for help or for clarity.
We sometimes do get into a storm and just don't consider it bad enough to ask for God's help in getting through it.
We don't see the true danger of what the little flaming arrows are doing to us.
A very poignant example is how altering the very head of a mighty river WILL change its course down the way. A few stones of what seems to be something insignificant will change it long after they're planted.
If we let the lies persist without going to God for help in dealing with them we'll soon discover an insensitivity to them and an absent minded acceptance of them either in whole or in part.
The shield of faith isn't a partial shield. It's about as big as what you can see if you Google 'riot shield'. Interestingly enough one of those is meant to physically stop similar things. The big and small things aimed at Police Officers in very harrowing situations.
We are prone to be self-sufficient in living life. We're prone to thinking we are capable to deal with this life. Truth is we need the whole armor of God at all times, throughout the whole day.
It's not an option. It's not up for debate.
Lies both small and large await us every step of the way in life. By being in step with Jesus, by being in the Word daily, by being in communication in prayer, we're keeping that armor of God on and in place.
The lies of the serpent weren't all that impressive yet they were effective in leading Adam and Eve to sin. What troubles Job brought upon himself by not considering asking God vs his own self assessment of his struggles caused some rather strong rebukes from the Lord Jesus. When considering battles of the spiritual forces an obvious one is the short life of Judas Iscariot. At no time did he really question the lies of Satan. He very much was convinced in his own mind that his actions weren't bad. Not until he finally saw what was absolutely going to happen to Jesus and even then all he had was remorse and not repentance.
Peter's own understanding had him dropping the shield of faith and he betrayed Jesus. Later Jesus showed him how to pick it up again to continue on.
My Dear Reader we are in good company, for the most part, in living life without considering what we should about living it in light of the whole armor of God.
My mind is most often prone to wander when I don't feel like there's any danger. When I am at ease. Then little arrows start to come and I don't see them for what they are.
All storms don't just turn on at full power. They start from a few drops and move on up into the heavy rains we experience.
We can't afford to go through life, through all that we are being LEAD through (Psalms 23) without realizing the spiritual implications of our daily life. We need to realize that there's nobody exempt from these flaming arrows of spiritual warfare. We see lives changing in an instant from infancy to old age because of the lies of Satan.
But the truth of God says that He has overcome. That we can be victorious in Christ because of this whole armor of God. We will indeed be facing various trials and tribulations and are to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. Jesus faced every type and kind of flaming arrow Satan could come up with and defeated every single one.
We are only alone in this war when we choose to be ignorant of it and try to deal with it ourselves. Inevitably we learn the hard way, every...single...time.
Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:1-3.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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