Armor of God Seminar 2024
Part 1
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Introduction — Wake Up
There are two main areas that this study will clarify:
1. The action believers are responsible for and what is provided in our power base in Christ.
2. The nature of the spiritual warfare and the Enemy’s strategy.
We are at war and the warfare is spiritual – that’s why we need to know what the armor of God is. Since we already are aware of the battle, we want to be a victor in the daily skirmishes and actual attacks of everyday life. The key to this is laid out in Ephesians 6:10.
Ephesians 6:10 KJV
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:10 APNT
From now on, my brothers, be strong in our Lord and in the immensity of his power
This verse in Ephesians 6 is the conclusion–it says “finally” or in Aramaic, “therefore” of the practical side of Ephesians. It is not an isolated passage about a soldier but is a summary or synopsis of all that God has made available to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is how to be clothed with His power in practical application. And it is a way to determine what we need to do with what we have been given to be victorious in the wrestling against the principalities and powers on high. What is this armor? How do we practically apply it? These are the questions that we will be focusing on–and the answers that show how the armor of God given to us in Christ Jesus is the COMPLETE way to combat all of these attacks!
Be strengthened HIS POWER
Ephesians 1:19 NET
and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.
True Title of Our Enemy
Why should we study or read a book about the Devil? Isn’t he some gruesome being with horns, a tail and of course, a pitchfork which he uses to pitch people into his jail called hell? Why should we learn about that? Shouldn’t we just concentrate on who we are in Christ and forget about him? The Bible is full of references to Satan and his demons and God exhorts us not be to “ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor. 2:11b). If that were not enough of a reason to at least be aware of his devices, consider the following verse.
I Peter 5:8 ESV
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Unfortunately, because many people are ignorant of the Adversary’s (the Evil One’s) nature and schemes, they are easily devoured. The New Living translation of the beginning of this verse says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy.” In order to watch, we need to wake up! Be aware! In no way does this mean we give glory or honor to the Devil, but we need to EXPOSE his methods and learn how to be ARMED against his prowling attacks. God has given us the means to be completely armed, to get and to maintain victory in this battle against the armed forces of the Evil One.
This study will expose the Enemy and his kingdom. Thus far, I have used several names that are given to Satan–the Devil, the Evil One, and the Enemy. We will take a look at these names and see how each one actually shows his character and purposes. When we understand his specific names, his methods will be exposed.
Wake Up
What is the first thing we do in the morning? We wake up from our sleep –that is the only way you can start your day. We all had the opportunity to wake up this morning. God also tells us to wake up so we can start our day with him as a son of God!
1 Thess. 5:5-8 APNT
For all of you are sons of light and sons of the day. And you are not sons of the night, nor sons of darkness.
6 We should not sleep, therefore, as others, but we should be watchful and be wise,
7 for those who are asleep are asleep in the night and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.
8 But we who are sons of the day should be watchful in our mind and be clothed with the breastplate of faith and of love and should put on the helmet of the hope of life
Romans 13:11-14 APNT
And also know this, that it is the time and the hour that from now on we should be awakened from our sleep. For now our life has come nearer to us than when we believed.
Then the night is passed and the day is near. So we should lay aside from us the works of darkness and we should put on the armor of light.
And we should walk in this manner, as in the day, not reveling and not in drunkenness and not in a defiled bed and not in envy and in strife.
But put on our Lord Jesus Christ and do not have regard for the desires that are in your flesh.
There are key phrases in this section which show what we need to do NOW, from now on.
- Wake from sleep
- Lay aside the works of darkness
- Put on the armor of light
- Walk
- Watch
When we wake up in the morning, we take off our pajamas, jump in the shower (get cleansed from the works of darkness), then carefully get dressed in the armor of God. Then we are ready to walk in the day and do the works that God ordained for us to do. There is another word at the end of verse 14 that I think is important: “have no regard.” That means we do need to have regard or concern for something. It is to WATCH.
The whole illustration of the armor is that it is a protection from the attacks of the Evil One. But the protection is not automatic. We need to watch and be awake to see what pieces to put on at any given time.
Ephesians 5:8-9, 13 14 MGI
for you were first of all [in] darkness, but now you are light in our Lord. Therefore, so walk as sons of light,
for the effectsof the light are in all goodness and justification and truthfulness.
for everything is exposed and is revealed by the light and everything that revealsis light.
Because of this, it is said, “Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.”
A sentry who is standing on the wall and watching for what is going on will usually have some kind of light, perhaps a searchlight or flashlight or even a high-powered scope to help to see if there are enemies approaching. This is the kind of persistent watching we need to have, first for ourselves, but also for our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 16:13 APNT
Watch and stand in the faith. Act mature. Be strong.
It says watch. That’s the first thing. It’s to wake up. We need to wake up and just decide that we are not going to be people of the world anymore. That we’re not going to be subject to what everybody else around us is saying. What all the fear is that’s in the news. What stuff is going on even in our own lives. Wake up. Watch.
And then the second thing says stand. Stand in the faith. Stand your ground. Make a stand. Just say okay. Here’s the line in the sand. This is it. I am going to be on the side of victory. And I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care how long it takes. It is going to happen because God already provided it for me in Jesus Christ. You stand your ground.
And we’re going to talk a lot more about standing too. But then it says act mature. Or what does King James say? Fit you like men. I read a translation that’s “behave like a mensch.” Be a man. Stand up. Take what’s rightfully yours. Grow up. Be mature.
And then the last part of that is be strong or be strengthened again.
The Big Put On
We have the victory with the Big Put-On!
The Big Put On is a play on words — it is a contrast of the Tactics of the Enemy with the provision of God.
One of the biggest tactics of the Evil One and the “Big Put On” of the world is:
I CAN DO IT MYSELF
e.g. Mia I can do it! I got this!…Help please
We have the full measure of the gift of Christ.
Ephesians 4:7 APNT
Now to each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
This gift is described in different ways and we need to understand this in order to relate to the imagery that is used about the armor of God. In Luke 24:49, Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they would be clothed with power from on high. Then, as Acts 2 describes, on the day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Spirit (they received spiritual power) and began to speak with other tongues. Once we are born again, we also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are clothed with HIS power. This inner clothing is described in the epistles in a number of ways: being “baptized into Christ” (Galatians 3:27), “inward man” (Romans 7: 22), “new man” (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10), “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27), as well as the “measure of the gift of Christ.”
Now what are we to do with this gift? We need to “put it on.” The Greek word is enduo and the Aramaic word is lebesh. Both words can be literal, to put on clothes. There are also eight places where the usage of to put on is talking about putting on the new spiritual body we will have when Christ returns.
We can understand more about what it means to “put on” by seeing what “put off” means. Put off means to strip off, strip away, plunder, or “carry off as booty.” Ephesians 4:22 says “that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;” If you had just come home from working out at the gym, running five miles in the pouring rain, you would not take your clothes off carefully. You would “strip” them off as quickly as possible and probably somewhere close to the washing machine, whereupon you would turn the washing machine on hot and set the rinse cycle on at least 2. When the verb “put on” is used, however, it is the opposite picture of careful dressing, as though you were going to the most important party of the year. Everything you are wearing matches everything else and you have it all laid out on the bed, having spent much thought, effort and time in the preparation. That is to “put on” – piece by piece carefully clothe yourself and pay attention to all the details.
Ephesians 4:22-24 APNT
But [you have learned] that you should strip off your former ways of life, the old man who was corrupted by the lusts of deceit,
and you should be renewed by the Spirit, that is, your minds.
And you should put on the new man, who was created by God by justification and by the pardoning of truthfulness.
Discuss old man being dead
So what are we to clothe ourselves with in our minds? We need to look at three key phrases.
Put on Lord Jesus Christ
Romans 13:14 APNT
But put on our Lord Jesus Christ and do not have regard for the desires that are in your flesh.
Put on the New Man
Ephesians 4:24 KJV
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Colossians 3:10 KJV
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Put on the armor of …
Romans 13:12 APNT
Then the night is passed and the day is near. So we should lay aside from us the works of darkness and we should put on the armor of light.
Ephesians 6:11 APNT
and put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the tactics of the Accuser,
Ephesians 6:13 APNT
Because of this, put on the whole armor of God, so that you will be able to engage the Evil [one] and, being prepared in everything, you will stand firm.
Romans 13:12-14 is the key to understanding how the armor of light is the same as the Lord Jesus Christ. God is light, so the armor of light is the same as the armor of God. The new man is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ and the armor are also equivalent. All three of these phrases are equal to each other.
Armor of God Summary
| WHAT TO DO | PIECE OF ARMOR | ||
| A | LORD | Gird up your loins | Truth (Faithfulness) |
| B | JESUS | Put on | Breastplate of Justification |
| C | CHRIST | Bind as a shoe | Goodness of the Gospel of Peace |
| C | CHRIST | Take, hold | Shield of Faith |
| B | JESUS | Set on | Helmet of Redemption |
| A | LORD | Take hold of | Sword of the Spirit |
The two A sections both have to do with the Word of God and who is LORD. The two B sections both have to do with what the blood of JESUS accomplished. Lastly, the two C sections have to do with the operation of the Spirit in our relationships in the body of CHRIST.
There is another way to understand how to put on the Lord, Jesus and Christ. It is the testimony of God regarding his Son and these three agree as a witness of the power of the gift God has given us.
1 John 5:5-9 NASB
And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.
And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.
For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son.
The water (of the Word), the living words of life (John 7:38), is the focus of the belt and the sword. The blood of Jesus is the focus of the breastplate and the helmet. The Spirit is the focus of the sandals and the shield.
| Piece of Armor | Attacks | Names of Principalities | How Armor Works | Key Verses |
| Girdle | Authority of men’s words: doctors, lawyers, parents, poison words | Beelzebub – lord of slander (Baal) | Make the source of your strength God’s faithfulness to his Word | Isaiah 11:5 I Peter 1:13 Hebrews 13:5 Mark 16:18 |
| Breastplate | Sin consciousness, guilt, condemnation, accusation, rejection | Devil – Accuser (eating of pieces) | Brings us into alignment with God’s standard of what is right | Romans 4:24 – 5:2 Romans 8:31-37 Galatians 2:16, 17 II Corinthians 6:7 |
| Shoes | Division, judgment, competition, envy, oppression, loneliness | Dragon – causes wars and division | Everyone has a place and a specific function in the body; brings wholeness (peace) | Ephesians 4:15, 16 I Corinthians 12:12-26 James 4:1-5 |
| Shield | Fear, doubt, sickness, disasters of any kind | Satan – opponent, adversary | Faith is put for all the manifestations of the spirit; the name of Jesus Christ | Psalm 3:3 Acts 3:16 Luke 13:13-17 |
| Helmet | Bondage, depression, shame, unworthiness, distress | Belial – worthless one | Redemption through his blood and ongoing deliverance | I Peter 1:18, 19 II Corinthains 1:10 Colossians 1:12-14 Galatians 4:3-7 I Thessalonians 5:8 |
| Sword | Lies, pride, control, idolatry, religion, lying signs and wonders, occult | Serpent – deceiver | “Rhema” word in every situation – It is written | Luke 4:4 Hebrews 4:12 Genesis 3 I John 2:16 |
One column of the chart contains the action we are responsible to take, followed by a column with what we put on: the pieces of the armor. The next column explains what the pieces represent in terms of our spiritual clothing. The last column is the principality that is counteracted by each piece of the armor.
This audio teaching is also available on the Acts Now Fellowship website.
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