The Armor of God & Personally Resisting Satan – Wisdom from Dr Neil Anderson - Purity 1235

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Today's photo of an extreme close-up of the flip side of my Armor of God coin comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene of one of my favorite Christmas gifts on Christmas Day in the afternoon. To be sure that all the pieces of armor were, were listed, or more accurately, how they were listed Bible translations vary, and I wanted to see how each parmer of armor was— piece of armor was presented. For instance, while we can extrapolate the shoes, or as my coin presents, the sandals of the gospel of peace from verse 15, which says in Ephesians 6:15, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, You know, it's not always clear that, you know, that's the shoes— shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace— becomes the shoes of the gospel of peace in other, other translations. But we have to realize that, you know, Paul was making an analogy here, and all of the pieces of armor of God were pointing to Jesus and the various aspects of our life of faith in him. That are covered by our Lord and Savior. Eugene Peterson's Message paraphrase of the Bible really makes this clear by removing Paul's analogy altogether. His interpretation for Ephesians 13-18 says, be prepared, you're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over But the shouting, you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up. —so that no one falls behind or drops out. Love it or hate it, Peterson's interpretation may leave you cold by stripping off the armor analogy, but it does stress that those pieces of our relationship with God—truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation—are more than words and need to be applied, a.k.a., lived. And God's word and prayer are weapons we use to fight our battles. You may hate Peterson's paraphrase. I'm not sure that I like it myself, but it does point to an authentic faith in the simplicity of discipleship. His words say, "Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them." When you say it with gusto, it makes a little difference there. I hear that, but if you don't, read the version of the Bible that inspires you to put put those aspects of your faith into action in your life. Peterson's only human and is doing his best to paraphrase God's word to encourage those who needed to see it from a different point of view. We can forgive him because even though you may like or hate Peterson's message, the Holy Spirit has used it to lead people to Christ and reinvigorate their walk or reveal truth they didn't see. Peter's— Peterson's only human, and just like my Armor of God coins engravers, their hearts were in the right place and they did their best. And even if close examine— examination reveals that my engraver's work was less than perfect— helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, Ephesians S, the 13-17, or Peter's paraphrase, uh, feels less than divinely inspired, we can appreciate that they were both pointing us to faithfully following the Lord. And in the end, it is not up to someone else perfectly pointing us to God that will make the difference in our walk of faith. After we know Jesus is Savior, we have to choose to make him the Lord of our lives and take responsibility with how we follow him and how we fight the spiritual forces of darkness that oppose us. Yesterday, uh, Freedom in Christ Ministry sent out a short devotional by Dr. Neil Anderson, and I feel compelled, uh, to share it on the blog this morning because of its wisdom and truth, and because I believe Anderson's message may point some of us to take a more, uh, active role in fighting the enemy. Peterson's message was called Personally Resisting Satan, and this is— and it was based on Romans 13:14, which says, put on the— put on the Lord Jesus Christ. How about that? And make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. Sort of like putting on the armor of God. Anyway, Anderson writes, Paul instructs us to make no provision for the flesh. What if we do? We are, we are told to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. What if we don't? James 4 admonishes us to resist the devil and he will flee from you. What if we don't resist him? Is he required to flee from us if we don't take our stand against him? No, if we don't resist him, he doesn't have to go. We have the assurance of God's protection, but we must assume our responsibility by personally resisting Satan. Ephesians 6:10-17 outlines the armor of God which believers are instructed to put on in order to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. But if we go into battle without some of our armor, are we impervious to getting wounded? No. If we fail to cover ourselves with the armor God has provided, we are vulnerable. James 4:1 reveals that the source of our quarrels and conflicts is the pleasures that wage wars in our members— in your members. Paul instructs— instructed, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust, in Romans 6:12. The world, the flesh, and the devil are continually at war against the life of the Spirit within us. But what if we don't fight back? Will we still be victorious over the pleasures and lusts that strive to reign over us? No, they will control us if we remain passive. Choosing truth, living a righteous life, and donning the armor of God is each believer's individual responsibility. I cannot be responsible for you, and you cannot be responsible for me. I can pray for you, encourage you in the faith, and support you, but if you go into battle without your armor on, you may get hurt. As much as that may be a matter of concern for me, I still cannot make those decisions of responsibility for you. Those choices are yours alone. And then Anderson closes with a little prayer: Loving Father, thank you for investing yourself in me. Equip equip me to graciously invest myself today in ministry to others. And that was all from Dr. Neil Anderson, uh, from Freedom in Christ Ministries. And so for the second time this week, the armor of God has made an appearance on the blog, and I get the impression that the Lord is encouraging all of us to suit up in our faith and to enter into the new year by choosing to follow the Lord in the battle and to take personal responsibility to do our part, to seek out new challenges and to win new victories in the year ahead. 2023 was a breakthrough year for me in terms of winning the fight against my food addiction, but the battle goes on. I can't get complacent now. Although I have made significant steps forward with my personal— with my physical health, the only victories that matter are the ones that last. I have a new measure of freedom and self-control over the flesh, but that must be increased and maintained. And just because I continue to get engaged in that fight doesn't mean I shouldn't seek to win in other areas of my life. At year's end, the Lord has blessed me beyond belief with the sale of my former home, and I am literally going to Disney World. But if I want to avoid being overcome with the weight of financial burdens like I have in the past, I have to learn that my consumption problem wasn't only in the areas of food in 2023, and I have to repent of my retail therapy ways. So we will be taking on my tendency to overspend and buy things I don't need, uh, in the future, or for 2024 anyway. For 2024. And in the future beyond. I also was humbled this year by failing to accomplish something I had thought was going to be my mission in life, being a certified Deeper Walk prayer minister and having the hope that I would come to be a part of that ministry as part of my purpose in the future. But I was told I overwhelm people and I failed to be certified on time. Currently, it is unclear whether or not I will accomplish certification in the future, but either way, the experience of failure and rejection that I went through this year made me realize that I shouldn't make idols out of organizations or people in the body of Christ, that whatever my purpose is in God's kingdom, it is doubtful that it will be just handed to me by someone else. Whatever my purpose is, God will direct me to it. Quite frankly, this may be all there is. And if this—my ministry of encouragement through my blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and serving FICM as a CFMA and online course leader, and serving my local church and recovery ministry, and living a surrendered life of a disciple of Jesus Christ with my faithful and loving Christian wife Tammy Lynn—is it, That's it. I can live with that. Um, God has saved me and set me free, and whether I enter into— ever enter into full-time ministry or not will be up to him to determine in the future. But in the meantime, my life is an unbelievable blessing of peace, love, and joy. And even though I don't always know where this path of Christian discipleship will take me, I will just keep on walking and talking with God, knowing that his plan for my life is better than anything I could have imagined. So I'll just trust in him and see where it goes. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse, verse comes from the section on comfort., and today's verse is Romans 8:18. And the Word of God says, uh, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Today's verse falls under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on comfort, and that seventh point is The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the coming glory. Today's verse is a wonderful reminder that earth is not our home, God's kingdom is, and that the suffering we endure now is only temporary. This is very— is a very appropriate piece of scripture to receive at year's end, as many of the sentiments I have seen— I see shared on social media testify of hard times, difficulties, and losses experienced in 2023. So Paul's words can be taken as an encouragement for better days ahead in 2024. But in reality, some of our problems can take longer than 365 days to walk out of. Ask me how I know. And just because the date of the— on the calendar changes doesn't mean everything is going to be just ducky in the new year. However, if we are in Christ, we always have hope. We have the hope of life everlasting in God's kingdom. And because God is for us and he is moving all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, we can hope for freedom, rescue, and deliverance. While we should do our best to do what's right and take responsibility to fix the mess we're in, We should do, we should do so with the Lord by our side because he will help us when we ask him for help. He can bless us in ways we could never imagine, or he could just give us the strength to persevere. But no matter what we are suffering, we can rejoice that the sufferings are, are temporary. The, the sufferings we experience the things we are experiencing are a light affliction compared to the glory that we will experience with God in his kingdom, and hope for good things to come here on earth in the meantime. Um, so let's move forward into the new year facing things realistically, but praying unceasingly for the Lord to guide and bless our path. As always, I invite all to go to M.t. Clark.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, as we're going to share the last two messages of 2023 for January— or well, for December 30th and December 31st. Uh, today, as we don't do a purity message on Sundays, we take, take the day off to do a Bible study, but we, but we, we take the day off from blogging. Um, so today Bonhoeffer has two messages for us. The first, uh, for December 30th is Beside Your Cradle Here I Stand. And Bonhoeffer writes, a verse is going around repeatedly in my head: Brother, come from all that grieves you, You are freed. All you need, I again will bring you. What does this mean? All you need, I again will bring you. Nothing is lost in Christ. Everything is lifted up, preserved, to be sure, in a different form— transparent, clear, freed from the torment of self-seeking desire. Christ will bring all of this again and as it was originally intended by God without the distortion caused by our sin. The teaching of the gathering up of all things found in Ephesians 1:10 is a wonderful and thoroughly comforting idea. God seeks out what has gone by, received— receives here its fulfillment. And no one has expressed that as simply and in such a childlike way as Paul Gerhardt in the words that he places in the mouth of the Christ Child: All you need, I again will bring you. Moreover, for the first time in these days, I have discovered for myself the song Beside Your Cradle Here I Stand. Until now, I had not thought much about it. Apparently, you have to be alone a long time and read it meditatively to be able to perceive it. Besides the 'we,' there is also still an 'I' and Christ, and what that means cannot be said better than in this song. And the next section, Bonhoeffer shares this thought: when God's Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily took on out of pure grace our being, our nature, ourselves. This was the eternal counsel of the Triune God. Now we are in him. Where he is, there we are too. In the Incarnation, on the cross, and in his resurrection, we belong to him because we are in him. That is why the scriptures call us the body of Christ. And, uh, from December 30th, they share Ephesians 1:8-12 And the word of God says, with all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we who were the first to set our hope on Christ might live for the praise of his glory. And finally, we're moving on to December 31st's message, uh, tomorrow's message, uh, given to you today, uh, by Bonhoeffer. And his message is entitled The Joyous Certainty of Faith. And Bonhoeffer writes, on the basis of God's beginning with us, which has already happened, our life with God is a path that is traveled in the law of God. Is this human enslavement under the law? No, it is liberation from the murderous law of incessant beginnings. Waiting day after day for the new beginning, thinking countless times that we have found it only in the evening to give up on it again as lost. That is the perfect destruction of faith in the God who set the beginning once and for all time. God has set the beginning. This is the joyous certainty of faith. Therefore, besides the one beginning of God, I am not supposed to try to set countless other beginnings of my own. This is precisely what I am now liberated from. The beginning, God's beginning, lies behind me once and for all time. Together we are on the path whose beginning consists in the fact that God has found his own people, a path whose end can consist only in the fact that God is seeking us again. The path between this beginning and this end is our walk in the law of God. It is life under the word of God in all its many facets. In truth, there is only one danger on this path, namely wanting to go behind the beginning. In that moment, the path stops being a way of grace and faith. It stops being God's own way. And next, um, from Bonhoeffer's After 10 years, A Reckoning Made at New Year's, 1943 message, he wrote, I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose, he needs men who make the best use of everything. I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us to resist in all times of distress, but he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on Him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future. I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are turned to good account, and that it is no harder for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds. I believe that God is no timeless fate, but that he waits for and answers sincere prayers and responsible actions. And finally, uh, our resource shares Romans 8:28-30, which tells us, we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. That is it. That is all we're sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God Is in the Manger for December 30th and 31st. And Today I'll be heading north, further north into the Adirondacks for a couple days with my wife to enjoy New Year's and our anniversary, as we were married on January 1st, 2022, and so we'll be married for 2 years this weekend. Monday is our anniversary. And, uh, I look forward to it. So, um, I wish everyone a happy Saturday and a happy New Year. Um, you know, and I would, I would encourage you to keep on walking and talking with God. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done for us in 2023. Lord, we just pray for you to go with us and protect us to bring us to 2024, um, having learned from, uh, what we have experienced in the last year and all the years before. And let us remember who you are and what you've given us in your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and given us new life, and you've given us hope for every day. Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and bless their walk. And for us, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move our paths in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom on this earth, Lord, and point other people to follow Jesus. We need help with that every step of the way. So we pray for you to help us and to be with us. And, uh, Lord, we just want you to know we love you. We praise you, and, uh, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.