In this blog, most of everything is going to come from Ephesians 6:10–18, and I’m using the King James Version. Follow along!

Ephesians 6:10-18 KJV 

“10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 and your feet shod with preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword if the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

Before we dive into the concept of spiritual warfare and the armor of God, it's important to note that events occur in the spiritual realm before they manifest in the physical realm. I will do my best to explain it to those who may not know. This piece, Lord willing, will help someone. What transpires in the spirit determines what we perceive with our eyes on this earth. 

• First things first, the Bible lets us know that God is a spirit (John 4:24). 

• Examining Genesis 1:1–12 reveals how God created the earth from nothing. This means that God, a spirit, created the earth and all its physical elements. Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

What is spiritual warfare?

Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against wickedness in high places.”

This implies that it's not the individual (dad, coworker, crazy boss, or horrible friends) that we're having a problem with. 

It’s the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness in this world, and wickedness in high places. It means that it's the work of invisible entities and wicked spirits. 

Since we know that it’s a spiritual battle, we have to understand that we can’t fight anything spiritual with something physical. To engage in a spiritual battle, we must utilize our spiritual weapons.

The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:14–17 tells us each of the six pieces of armor that God has given us to fight in this spiritual war!

Let’s get into the breakdown.

1) Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.

• The loins are the hips, and to have your loins girt about is to fasten your garments on them. We can say that it's the same as putting on a belt.
  
  
• The truth is a fact; it is not a lie. Biblically, we know that Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) and the word of God (the Bible and true men and women of God who speak under the influence of the Holy Ghost) (1 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Kings 17:24). 

Now that we've broken down what the loins and truth are, let's talk about belts.

So, naturally, a belt's function is to keep a person's bottoms from falling down. When a person's pants fall down in front of others, whether in real life or in a dream, what is their natural reaction? People often experience feelings of shame, embarrassment, and humiliation, along with some uneasiness and discomfort. When it comes to clothes, belts hold everything together.

Spiritually, the belt of truth holds everything together, just like a regular belt! When you know the truth, there is nothing that the enemy can convince you of otherwise! The enemy can’t make you feel ashamed when Jesus died on the cross to take away all guilt, shame, and condemnation. When you know what the truth is and stand by what you believe, nobody can tell you a lie!

2) Having on the breastplate of righteousness.

• The breastplate is a piece of armor that covers the chest. On Google, it says that the breast plate protects the body on both sides, from the neck to the middle. That includes the heart, esophagus, trachea, lungs, and thoracic diaphragm.
  
  
• Righteousness. The definition of righteousness is the quality of being morally right. By man’s standards, righteousness is just a “good person." In the Concordance, the definition of righteousness is the conditions that are acceptable to God in the categories that pertain to integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, and correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting.

Just to be clear, I understand that reading the definition of righteousness can be intimidating, especially given that God has called us to be righteous and holy. The thing about being righteous is that we don’t rely on ourselves to be considered righteous. We just have to do our part, be accountable, and put forth the effort. Let’s do our best, pay attention to the Holy Ghost, listen to what God is saying, and be obedient. 

The breastplate provides significant protection, but our focus will be on the heart. So if a physical breastplate protects the heart, the breastplate of righteousness is going to do the same.

When we put on our breastplate of righteousness, our hearts get protection from all the unclean, wicked things that corrupt a person. These unclean and wicked things can include pride, unforgiveness, jealousy, offendedness, anger, lust, and a host of other negative emotions. Numerous scriptures discuss the nature of the heart, emphasizing that it can be highly deceitful when not guided by God. Proverbs 4:23 says that we need to keep our hearts with all diligence. In order to keep our hearts with diligence and to keep that breastplate of righteousness intact, we have to remain in God. Our lifestyles (in public and in private) should reflect the ones we serve.

3) To have your feet shod with preparation of the gospel of peace.

• Having the feet shod means putting on shoes.
  
  
• Preparation is about preparing yourself or getting ready for something.
  
  
• The gospel of peace is the good news of Jesus!  
  
  

Let’s talk about Jesus for a little bit. Many have asked, "If Jesus is God, why did blah, blah, blah?" Because it's explained plainly, you can tell when a person hasn't sought out God for real or even bothered to pick up their Bible. Even Jesus said that if he prayed to His Father, he would send him more than 12 legions of angels (Matthew 26:53)! The point is that Jesus’ purpose was to fulfill His mission in its entirety (Matthew 26:54). 

It’s called the gospel of peace because, through the sacrifice that was made and His mission being complete in full, we have freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 5:1), we get to experience peace (Philippians 4:7), we have access to God through Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5), and we get the Holy Ghost (John 14:26, John 16:7). (I could go on, but that would most definitely take a separate blog.) 

Now, back to the shoes.

One of the main things a person does when getting ready to go somewhere, embark on a journey, or take a trip is to put on a pair of shoes before they leave, right?

The same idea applies when we prepare our feet with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Being a Christian is a lifelong journey. It’s not a one-and-done type of deal. You don’t master it just because you’ve gone to seminary school. You don’t master it just because you’ve been a Christian for 40 years. God is the ancient of days. He’s been around since the beginning and will be there till the end. You see where I’m going with this?

When we don’t have on our shoes of peace, we’re just like the rest of the world. We aimlessly roam, hoping to encounter a guiding force (which, in the absence of Jesus, could be anything, such as evil spirits).

When we put on our shoes of the gospel of peace, we can be assured that we’re going to end up exactly where we are supposed to be in every season of our lives and in the end. We may not know every detail of the journey beforehand, but it's worth taking. 

The Bible tells us that the path to heaven is narrow, but the one to hell is broad (Matthew 7:13–14). Jesus was the example; He showed us the way in which He lived His life (Romans 8:29). So, let's walk Jesus' path with the power of the Holy Ghost!

Follow Us Here!

4) Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherwith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 

We know how important faith is. The Bible often discusses faith. Hebrews 11:6 also tells us that it's impossible to please God without it! Faith is important to God, so it matters that we hold on to it when the fiery darts get to flying!

While browsing through images of ancient shields, I stumbled upon The Redeemed Life Blog/Podcast, which made an interesting observation: "The Roman shield was also wrapped in leather and dipped in water before the battle. Because soldiers knew that their enemy would launch fiery darts at them from above, the water on that shield would extinguish the flaming arrows.” Wow!

Just as those physical shields would envelop their entire body and stifle the fiery darts, so too will the shield of faith. Spiritually, the fiery darts could be worry, doubt, fear, lies, insecurities, even our emotions, and anything that could chip away at a person's faith if they let them. 

When we reaffirm our faith in God with His word, our shield becomes more and more durable!

Since we're children of God through Jesus, our shields have the faith emblem on them. When we hold up our shield of faith, we let the enemy know that we fight for and represent the Kingdom of God! 

5) And take the helmet of salvation. 

• A helmet is a protective hat that covers the head.
  
  
• Salvation is deliverance, preservation, and safety. We obtained this through Jesus, who saved our souls from eternal punishment!
  

Knowing that the helmet protects the head, spiritually, the helmet of salvation protects our thoughts. Thinking about God and what He did for us will keep our minds at peace. Nothing should prevent us from embracing what God has already given to us, as Jesus has forgiven our sins and granted us the gift of repentance.

Just a quick tip for anyone who sometimes struggles with feeling too ashamed to come to God because of past actions, or for anyone meditating on unfruitful memories: When we’ve accepted Jesus as our savior and repented of our sins to Him, God says that he doesn’t remember them (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:17). =O I can't speak for you, but if God declared that he would not recall the foolish actions I committed in the past, I wouldn't either. Who do we think we are to think that our thoughts are higher than His?! 

Once we’ve repented, turned away completely from whatever those sins were, and didn’t do them ever again (by the power of the Holy Ghost), then we move forward with God! Put on the helmet of salvation and focus your mind on the things that God has freely given to you! Only he is able to keep your mind in perfect peace.

6) The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God:

We can’t cut through anything with a blunt sword, so to keep it sharp, we have to read and study the word of God! The Holy Ghost, also known as the comforter, reminds us and instills in our minds the things He has said (John 14:26). Then we are able to go to war with those scriptures and cut whatever is in the way.

Nearing the end. 

Now that we’ve gotten through each part of the armor of God, I just wanted to point out that there is one thing in common with all these pieces. Knowing God's word and applying it is the only way to keep these pieces strong and impenetrable. Knowing God's word is the only way to understand the revelation of these pieces of armor! If you are making the effort to get to God, but there are still things you don't understand, just pray to God for understanding.

If we don't know what the Bible says for ourselves and apply it to our lives, we’re the ones making ourselves easy prey to the enemy, spiritual wickedness in high places, etc.! God has provided us with the necessary tools, but it is our responsibility to utilize them effectively.

When we don’t put on our spiritual armor, it’s literally like us going into a war with fiery arrows and weapons being shot into the air and thrown around, seeing the armor on the ground ready to be picked up, but choosing to walk by it and wing it. It’s dangerous to live life that way.

Before we wrap this up, I don’t want to forget about this last scripture. 

Verse 18: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

This verse tells us that while we're warring for ourselves, we should also be for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all going through some of the same things (1 Peter 5:9). When we pray, we should pray earnestly in the Spirit. We should also be watchful and continue watching, no matter how hard or difficult it may seem. We need to watch, because you never know when something will happen. We want to remain vigilant and aware, rather than watchful out of anxiety or fear. The Lord could send you a warning, or he could be answering your prayer and revealing it to you in a dream or in a “random” (not random) thought you had! You don’t want to end up dismissing that thing or overlooking it!

Suit up!

God Bless!