Scheduled Intimacy: The Armor of God

This next post on “Scheduled Intimacy” deals with a long passage, and one quite interesting to me. I can’t describe the number of times that I have heard this passage being quoted, but was just turned off by the cheesiness of the way it was delivered. But let me just go through this, rather systematically, so that we can discern the full importance of this passage. It will not be an exhaustive exegesis, but I hope a pointed one.

I have been teaching English in Korea going on 6 years now. I am fully surprised that I have made it this long, given that my English skills are not all that good, and I really don’t care about grammar most of the time. One of the things that I have to teach my students is how transitions within a sentence point to important information–details and descriptions that are important to a story. That being said, early on in verse 11 I am struck by what I see is a very important transition here. Put on the full armor of God, SO THAT–that all important effect. The spirit begins to remind us of the all-important purpose of trusting in God to handle things–to become weaker that He would remain stronger, if you will. SO THAT you can stand against the devils schemes, those who are the evil spiritual forces of the heavenly realms.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Story:

One night, a few years ago, my car was parked-in by another car while my then-pregnant wife and I were waiting out in the cold. In Korea, people leave their phone numbers on their dashboard for such an occasion. I, in my grumpy cold state, after trying to push his car out of the way (a bazillion pounds it weighed), which is the culturally polite thing to do, called this gentleman up. Without consideration, I began asking this guy why he parked his car like that: so heavy, not in neutral, parked right in front of me. The funny thing is that he responded in English, “Oh, sorry, I thought I left it in neutral. I’ll be down right away.” I hung up the phone with that, “Dang right you’ll be down right away” snap of my phone. A few minutes later, after a bought of fuming and complaining, building up my own anger about the matter, got yelled at by my wife for my lack of patience and general idiocy. Standing there, practically preparing to start a fight turned to a voice saying sorry. As I turned around angry there before me was the biggest Chinese guy I have ever encountered. I was immediately silenced. Not a peep uttered from my mouth as I weighed the chances of getting out of this without being beaten like a baby. And mind you, I am not a small guy, although I’ve never been in a real fight.

I was more than slightly embarrassed and ready to apologize to this guy for the way I treated him. I mean, who starts a fight with a guy bigger than them? Almost no one, right? The thing is, how do we measure “weight”? I don’t mean, he weighed a substantial amount of pounds more than I, but, the kind of weight that turns a mans soul. The kind of weight that alters a course. That kind of weight.

But, friends, don’t we do that all the time? God calls us to depend on his, not our, strength to get through each and every part of our lives. In this passage we are getting that reminder: “You, who are human, dare to do battle with the likes that you know not about, and yet you go into battle unprepared because you lack the humility to call upon the one stronger than you.” ‘Cause if we’re being honest: me=weak, and God=strong. Simple math for a complex life. God = all my problems solved. Finished, taken, beaten, period.

In the end, what I want to say is this. Satan is real; his power is strong as well. What we teach our congregation has a huge impact on how we operate. You will be at the forefront of this community battle against Satan. What strength are you showing your congregation? What tactics do you use to fight against spiritual warfare? I hope that you are suiting up with the armor of God, and taking aim with the strength of the Holy Spirit. From your mic, I pray that you are leading your congregation to lean fully behind the weight of God, and not of you as the leadership.

What have you learned from God lately about His protect and provisions against Satan? Leave us a message below!