Paul's letter to the Ephesians gave some great instructions on how to be strong in the Lord. When we become strong in the Lord, the Lord begins to do mighty things within and around us. Our lives change from hum-drum to anointed. We walk with more joy. We walk in a greater understanding of Who He is and what He wants for our lives.
Keep in mind that we are to put on this armor and then tackle the devil and his imps. Nobody wears physical armor to go to church or to shop at Wal-Mart. This armor has more to do with you than it does the church. But, using this armor the way that God intended you to will challenge and change people and circumstances around you.
Paul tells us to PUT ON this armor. We are not normally equipped with these items Paul describes in these verses. We have to consciously PUT THESE THINGS IN PLACE in our lives.
The first thing Paul tells us to do is (NIV) to have the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Belts kept their outer robes from flopping all over the place. Plus is was a secure place to hold their money, their knife and their sword. Anyone in a fight would get tangled up in their own clothing and be easy prey for the enemy.
In just the same way, we must buckle on the belt of the truth of God's Word about ourselves. Remember the temptation in the wilderness. The first thing the devil challenged Jesus with was "IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD." To which Jesus simply answered, "Hey, I'm going to live by EVERY Word that comes out of God's mouth." God said Jesus was His Son and that's all Jesus believed about Himself. God said the Jesus could heal, so He did. God said that Jesus would bring the Good News to the world. And He did. Again, Jesus believed with all of His heart every thing that God had said about Him in the Old Testament. Therefore, God's power stood behind Jesus' every move and every Word that came out of Jesus' mouth.
Paul urged us to take the crowns of our accomplishments and throw them down at Jesus' feet. Then we need to pick up that Holy Ghost belt of God's Word and lay hold to every promise that we can find in His Word. I am a child of the Almighty God, the Creator of all that there is because the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed me from all my sin. I have been adopted into the family. I am a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Whatever He can do, I, by His grace and not my merit, can do.
In John 14:12, Jesus tells us that we could even do greater things than what He did. In Luke 10:19, He gave us power over all the power of the enemy. In Matthew 28:19, He told us to go and make disciples. If He was not going to back any of these things up, He would have never said them. One more. God said in Isaiah 55:11 that His Word would not return void but it would accomplish every thing He said it would do.
These and hundreds of other promises in God's Word are what we should buckle around us. I know that's not the way we were born to do, but listen to another secret recipe that Paul hands down to us. In Romans 12:2, Paul said that we would be transformed into what God said we should be if we would change the way that we think about ourselves.
We have already put the truth of this in motion by what we have done in the flesh. Believe it or not, we were not born married to whoever we are married to right now. For the first several years of our lives, we probably didn't even know our spouses. Yet, one day you met and started thinking about each other. The more you thought, the more attracted you were to each other. You quit doing some things and began doing different things------FROM YOUR HEART because you changed your thinking.
I don't need to go much further. Your thoughts changed and your actions changed. Divorce comes the same way. It comes through a change in the thought pattern that leads to a behavior change. Let's don't go there either.
You buckle up your belt by thinking God's Word of Truth about yourself. The more you make your brain repeat those promises, the stronger the feeling comes, Your prayer life changes. You start digging into the Word. Scriptures start popping into your mind. You can't read but a few verses in the Bible until God begins to show you something you haven't seen before.
And the journey is just beginning. As I referred to in the previous paragraph, your prayer life changes. You begin to pray stronger than ever. Suddenly, you'll be asking yourself why haven't you been praying like that all along. God's Word will begin changing you from the inside out.
Now get this. As the Word takes root inside of you, you'll begin to forget the word 'impossible'. It will become apparent that the devil can't stop you like you USED to think. Your life will take on more power and more power and more power.
Get ready for a deeper plunge into the armor of God.
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