“Death is life’s great leveler. No one is untouched by it. Not only does this mean we will all eventually die, it also means we will all eventually be touched and broken by the deaths of those we love. Grief is such a profound experience.” Bill Crowder/The Daily Bread
Once again, I am facing another sorrowful days of grieving. My friend of many years passed away. Death seems getting closer and closer reaching to the point of, who’s next? My true friends are few and far between and they’re getting smaller in numbers as years have gone by. People I’ve met in my life who I have crossed path with and closed relatives are dwindling in numbers as they’ve breathe their last breath.
The recent death of my friend had taken out a suppressed feeling riddled with thoughts of my own mortality. She was part of decades of a busy world of gainful employment and fun memories that would come with being around the same people each and every year. Come to reminisce my connection with her, I realized she was part of my small wedding entourage, parties I’ve attended and work-related gatherings and personal ones. She was always a friend who would make a special occasion a happy memory. She was on my few videos and albums of pictures of years gone by! Then we became text buddies when we relocated to another state. She surely has the brag rights to say she has the greatest numbers of being present in my lifetime, which she told her husband last night I spoke with him.. The saying of “friends come and go in life”, does not apply to her. Even at the closer end of her life, I’ve heard from her. She actually the one who would first connect when she had not heard from me. What a friend I had with her! Amazing that it’s always when a person’s life has ended that we look back at the impacts of every people in our lives. She has taken the most attendance! Wow, I’ve just come to realize it. Even my own relatives cannot beat that.
I will miss her. Her down to earth demeanor, her funny antics, her “trying hard” karaoke singing, her inner opinions of injustices of the world and; her spiritual knowledge about God and His Word are mine to remember. Goodbye my dearest friend, I have never met someone that has her character of a good, old fashioned but life loving as she was. I’m gonna see you at the pearly gates of heaven. You’re the very first one of the people I know personally that I’m pretty sure I will see in heaven. I love you my friend! ❤
I may have cried buckets of tears as days go by and read back your text messages and it’s all worth it!
We are facing tumultuous times as we are getting closer to when Jesus Christ will bring His kingdom to earth. The world is nearing extinction of moral values, and that we are closely in the repeat of another Sodom and Gomorrah, whose notoriously known for flagrant sin. Gomorrah means a place notorious for vice and corruption.
How can we cope as we traverse these increasingly wicked and immoral generations of these modern times? The Holy Bible teaches about Spiritual warfare as we are dealing not with flesh and blood,but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against a spiritual wickedness in high places. And these rulers of darkness are influencing our modern cultured people who advocate or practice ways opposite from traditional styles or values. They become cohorts of the evil one and their zombie kind of blind godless faith trickles and sublimated to the next generation and the next. To counter their evil influence, God has given us spiritual armors as we deal in our everyday existence living in this dark world.
In summary, these spiritual armors are likened to ancient Roman’s soldiers uniforms to protect them as they battled their enemies. As with Jesus Christ followers, we are also facing daily life battles, and with God’s Word of Wisdom, we can be secure and stay in God’s strength as God guides and protect us.
THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
The Belt of Truth
God values, honors and requires truth. He requires us to maintain a life of integrity to make a difference in our world. People often have to see the truth in us before they will believe what we say about God’s Word.
A commitment to truth removes spiritual hindrances from our lives and gives us freedom of movement in the kingdom of God that we need for battle.
The Sword of the Spirit
Is the Word of God. The sword as a defensive weapon is to protect us, and it is an offensive weapon with which to destroy an opponent or enemy. The Word of God is the primary weapon of offence we use in spiritual warfare today.
The Word enables us to take captive every thought we have and make it obedient to His truth. The Word came through the Holy Spirit and is brought to our minds by the Holy Spirit.
“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:13-14
The shoes of the Gospel of Peace
Putting on the proper footwear in spiritual warfare is an act of security for the future; it is trusting God’s promise of deliverance and eternal life. We know that we are involved in a war whose victory is assured, and whose peace will be won forever.
This footwear indicates that we are part of the peace delegation that is being sent to those who are currently fighting on the side of Satan. Although they seem like soldiers of the enemy, they are also being captive by him to do his will.
The Breastplate of Righteousness
The bulletproof vest. This piece of armor protected the vital organs of the chest- notably the lungs and heart. We are to protect our spiritual lungs so that we can freely take in a pure flow of the life of the Holy Spirit and live through Him. Too many Christians are struggling to work for God in their own strength and power. The heart is the center of our physical lives, and as far as our spiritual lives are concerned, it is the core of our spiritual experience. The heart provides the motivation for all we do. If the heart is damaged, we will be thwarted in our motivation for spiritual things. Our desires and interests will be diverted from God’s purposes. If we wear the bulletproof vest of God’s righteousness, we can ensure that our heart and emotions are securely guarded and adequately protected against attack. The enemy wants us to forget that it is not our own righteousness that counts, but Christ’s righteousness in us. When we come to Jesus Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior, our sins are forgiven, and we are granted the very righteousness of Christ Himself. Jesus clothes us with the garment of His righteousness. When God the Father looks at us, He sees us as righteous because we are wearing the righteousness of His perfect Son.
“God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Corinthians 5:21
We need this protection because the devil will try to cause us to become discouraged and depressed. He uses every wicked device he has in order to attack our hearts and emotions. We must be sure to guard our emotions, as they can often give the devil an entry into our lives. Jesus protects us with an impenetrable vest against anything the devil may throw at us. Knowing that we are covered by the righteousness of Christ will guard our hearts and emotions and enable us to live the Christian life with security and joy regardless of the attacks of Satan. When we get weary in the battle, we must remind ourselves that Christ is the Truth, and that He is our righteousness.
The Shield of Faith
The Shield of Faith can ward off the “flaming arrows,” the fiery darts and other assaults of the evil one while enabling us to effectively counterattack using the sword of the Spirit.
The faith that will deflect and extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one is simply TRUST IN GOD. We must live a life of faith, for the righteous will live in faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
An understanding of our position in Christ through faith renders all of Satan’s lies ineffective. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), we can recognize fears as invalid, since they are based on false ideas. Faith in Christ leads to Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us, so that we no longer need to fear, but are made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).
The Helmet of Salvation
The hope of Salvation. This piece of armor concerns our eternal destiny and our assurance of salvation. If our enemy is unsuccessful at causing us to doubt our salvation, then he’ll attempt to convince us to downplay its importance. He doesn’t want us to live with an eternal perspective in mind, but a worldly one. He wants us to be caught up in temporal things so that we won’t spend time waging warfare against the powers of evil and on behalf of those who are lost.
Christ Jesus bestows His salvation on us. Psalm 149:4 says, “He crowns the humble with salvation.
The helmet of salvation protects the head, shielding it from deception and accusation. The head houses the brain. Our brains make decisions concerning how the rest of our bodies are going to operate. They are in charge of what we speak and how we speak it. They control what we listen to, as well as what we think. They enable us to experience emotions. Our minds are what we use to form positive or negative perceptions about other people, and to decide what we will or will not be content with.
Your mind is your consciousness. In this sense, it is you, and therefore it determines your future. Without the helmet of salvation securely on your head every day; without a focus on your future that is based on your redemption, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and promise of eternity with God, you can only fall back on the world’s system and culture to help you make important decisions. This will inevitably cause you to stumble into the deception of the enemy.
Paul revealed that the practice of prayer completes the whole armor of God.
The armor is not designed to cover our back. For we should not believe in retreat because Jesus Christ has already won the victory. He has our back!
Synopsis from: A Divine Revelation of Spiritual Warfare
Greatest GIFT - Naomi Jeremiah 