WEEK TEN
SPIRITUAL WARFARE – PART 4
“Shoes and Shield”
Ephesians 6:15-16
Before we look into the next pieces of the armor of God, we need to remind ourselves again that spiritual warfare is primarily in the realm of thoughts and feelings that we have on a day-to-day basis. Because that is true, it is vital that we learn to deal with our thoughts and feelings on that level, before they have a chance to turn into attitudes, then into actions and/or behavior. That is always the logical progression of thoughts and feelings if left unchecked. Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Also Proverbs 4:23 says, “…keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs forth the issues of life.” If we were to put this down in diagram form, it would look like this:
Thoughts Attitudes Actions
———® ———®
Feelings Behavior
Although this process has happened in me many times, there is one example I remember which really stands out in my mind. When I was teaching a home Bible study there was a brother, named Dave, who always came into the studies with his wife, Georgia. Well, Dave would come and listen but would hardly ever smile or nod his head or give any kind of body language which I might interpret as positive feedback. And since we really didn’t spend much time with each other, I had no way of knowing how he really felt. So as time went on, I began to feel very uncomfortable when Dave would be there. I felt he didn’t like me, and I began to develop an attitude that Dave was only coming because of his wife. And that he was unteachable. Inside, I was both hurt and angry over this. The whole thing lasted for months. I would avoid talking to Dave, would keep from looking his way during the teaching times, etc. Finally, it got to be too much for me, so I confronted the situation. I said, “Dave, is there anything I’ve done to you to separate us in our relationship? What, if anything, is wrong?” And to my total surprise, he told me that I’d done nothing to him and that he loved me and was blessed by my teaching. What a lesson for me! This whole process was something that was just in my mind. The enemy had created a huge barrier between two brothers in Christ. And it all started with a thought, then a feeling which became an attitude, and then ultimately translated into a behavior. What I needed to do was to deal with it early, when the thoughts first came. I needed to trust Jesus Christ to deal with them and to have a truth-based relationship with my brother. This is what the process looks like when dealt with in Christ:
|
|
Thoughts —————— (Christ-like) (Christ-like)
| ———→ ———→
Feelings | Attitudes Behavior/Actions
|
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(2 Cor. 10:5)
In order to deal with our thoughts and feelings, however, we need to acknowledge them. It does no good just to suppress them and hope they’ll go away. We must be honest with ourselves and with God. For instance, read David’s example in the Psalms. He freely poured out his heart, even to God. Read Psalm 77:1-20. In that Psalm, we have a beautiful example of how David worked through feelings of anxiety, doubt, disillusionment, depression, and despair and came out in victory. But he wouldn’t have come out in victory had he not acknowledged and dealt with things on the feeling and thought level.
Keeping that in mind let us now move on to the third piece of the armor of God in Eph. 6. Ephesians 6:15, “…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” As we retain the symbolism of the armor being parallel to the Romans soldier’s armor, we realize how important good shoes are for fighting in a battle. First of all, shoes provide protection for the feet in traveling on difficult surfaces like stones or ruts in the ground. Can you imagine trying to run with bare feet on ground like that? Also, the shoes provide firm footing while in the mud, for going up hills or even for going down them. This was particularly true of shoes of the Roman soldier. His shoes were like heavy leather sandals with long spikes driven through them which would be similar to modern football cleats. With these shoes on, the Roman soldier could travel on even the most difficult of terrains. And the same is true of us as we have on the “Shoes of Peace”. We have firm footing in life, stability, and traction, even through the rough mountainous landscape of trial and in the muddy, slippery surface of temptation.
What is it that our feet are shod with? According to Ephesians, it’s with the “preparation” of the gospel of peace. “Preparation” is the Greek word “hetoimasia”, which Thayer translates as “readiness” or “preparedness”. Hence, the phrase means “having your feet shod with the readiness which is produced by the gospel of peace”. It speaks of the result of the gospel in our lives – PEACE. This peace is what makes us ready for anything life can throw at us.
So already we’ve learned that Jesus Christ is the “Belt of Truth”. When I come to Him, I found Him who is ultimate reality. Also, we’ve seen that Christ is our righteousness – our “Breastplate of Righteousness”. I am loved, forgiven, and accepted by God with all of my weakness and shortcomings because of what Christ has done. And now we see the result of receiving that gift of righteousness, which of course, is peace. This is exactly what is said in Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God.” Now, in Christ, there is no longer a war between God and I. The gap has been bridged and reconciliation has been made. Now instead of being enemies, God has become my ally. The king of the universe is on my side, is now for me, and will be with me always (Romans 8:31; Matthew 28:20).
Now because I have peace with God, I can experience the peace of God. My heart is at peace, knowing that God is for me. It is not God that my struggle is against. Now I can have a good courage and a good morale in life. There is an inner calm, a positive sense of well-being which has come through the gospel of peace. As a result, I’m ready for anything – no terrain is too tough. No circumstance or attack can come into my life which the Lord and I can’t handle. No job, responsibility, ministry opportunity, trial, or commitment is too much to handle because God is involved. Of course, the enemy seeks desperately to rob us of the joy of this truth. He’ll try to deceive us into thinking that we’re all alone, or that God has abandoned us, or that we’re going to have to face this situation without Him. Satan will try to convince us that God is angry at us and expects us to get it together first, then He’ll step in and receive us back. But these are all lies. If God were to deny us, He’d be denying Himself because we’ve been sealed by His Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 2:13).
Not only is God with me in the battle but because I know that He is now for me and that He loves me I can freely let God into any area of my life, to change it. I can be courageous and face life and myself honestly because if God be for me, who can be against me?
So when I’m attacked in the realm of spiritual warfare, I can stand strong by putting on the whole armor of God. I begin by calling into remembrance the “Belt of Truth” and work my way down to “peace”. I can’t begin, with trying to feel calm, but I’ll end up there if I’ll start with truth. Jesus will prove again that He is my peace.
The next piece of the armor listed for us in Ephesians 6:16, “…above all, taking the “Shield of Faith”, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” Notice that Paul says “above all”. Without this piece, the other pieces of the armor won’t do us any good. Above all, we’re to take up the “Shield of Faith”. Now we’re in the “present tense”. We’re to “take up” the shield now, in order to defend ourselves against the “fiery darts of the wicked one”.
Don’t be surprised that attacks come against you. Expect them; it’s the devil’s nature to attack. Jesus said they’d come. He said that in the world we shall have tribulation (John 16:33). Peter said in his first epistle, that we shouldn’t consider it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us, as though some strange thing were happening to us (1 Peter 4:12). What is happening is that God is using the devil as His tool to accomplish His purpose in our lives, which is to form us into Christ’s image and increase our love dependence upon Him. So when attacks come, we need to quit griping and complaining and begin putting on the whole armor of God that we might stand firm.
So what are these fiery darts? They are thoughts and impulses towards evil which come into my mind, having been put there by the enemy. They are not the result of me seeding my mind with junk or lies. Doing that is to invite the devil to use my mind as a playground and scripture says we’re not supposed to do that (Ephesians 4:17-24). But fiery darts come for no apparent reason and at even the most inappropriate times. They can be gross immoral suggestions, sudden overwhelming fears or anxieties, severe disillusionment, sudden impulses to commit some kind of sin, or can even be powerful doubts about the reality of Christianity. (Doubts, by the way, are not the opposite of faith. We can have faith and still experience doubts at times. Doubts actually prove that I have faith. What is it that’s being tried when I go through a trial? My faith, right? So, the very fact that my faith is being tried proves that I have it!)
These fiery darts can come even when I’m in prayer or reading the Bible. They can come while performing some ministry function. Many times, I’ve been teaching and off the wall, thoughts have come into my mind. Now if I do not see these as being fiery darts, I’m making a serious mistake and the enemy will have accomplished his purpose.
Actually, there are two characteristics of these fiery darts. The first is that they seem to come from us, rising up out of our own thoughts. Oden Fong said it well in one of his songs, “…well I think that it’s me thinking that I shouldn’t go to church, even though my soul is aching and drying up with thirst”. The problem with me thinking that these are my thoughts is that I’ll begin to begin to doubt my own relationship with God. How could I be a Christian and think these things? And I’ll probably plunge into self-blame and condemnation because of them. I’ll seek to repress them and not think them anymore. But deep inside they’re doing their damage and I start feeling alienated from God. We need to deal with them straight on. We need to recognize their source and take up the “Shield of Faith” to quench them.
The second characteristic of fiery darts is that they’re always attacking our position in Christ. They attack Him being our truth, righteousness, and peace. Consider the serpent’s attack upon Eve, “yeah, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1). Satan was seeking to get Eve to doubt God’s integrity and purpose. Also consider the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, “…if you are the Son of God” (Luke 4:3). There the attack was upon Jesus’ relationship with the Father, at a time when Jesus would be most vulnerable. How evil Satan is! He plants a thought in our head and then tells us we’re not a child of God because we thought that way.
Our defense is to take up the “Shield of Faith”. What that means is that we simply act upon what we believe in specific situations. I might believe that Jesus Christ is the truth and that He is my righteousness and that He is my peace. But faith goes beyond that and says “therefore” to what I believe. There’s a helpful example of this in Mark 4:35-41. You remember the story – Jesus had gotten the disciples in a boat and said, “let us cross over to the other side (of the lake).” So, they set off and soon the winds arose and the waves beat against the boat, filling it with water. All the while Jesus was sleeping soundly in the stern, seemingly unconcerned and indifferent towards what was going on. Now if we could all of a sudden stop the action and interview these men about who Jesus was and how He felt about them, I’m sure they’d all say that He was their Master and that He loved them. This is what I’m sure they believed. But if they were to use the “Shield of Faith”, they’d go beyond just what they believed. They’d say, “Wait a minute. Jesus is the Son of God and He told us we’re going over to the other side, not under to the other side. Therefore, somehow, He will deliver us.” Of course, that wasn’t their reaction, but it would have been had they taken up the “Shield of Faith”.
It’s also extremely important what I’m placing my faith in. I do not have the liberty to make up my own menu of what I ought to believe. I must place my faith in the clear-cut teaching of the Word of God; what the whole counsel of God is on a subject. For example, the Bible doesn’t teach me that I’ll never get sick or that I’ll always get healed of everything. But it does teach me that even if God should choose in His wisdom NOT to heal me, He still loves me and desires to work the work of His Spirit in my life. If I seek to place my faith in something I make up for myself and it doesn’t happen, I’ll get disillusioned and begin to doubt God.
But praise the Lord that there are certainties, which I can absolutely bank on, no matter what the circumstances. And that certainty is that Jesus is the Son of God, that He loves me and that He’s for me.
When the fiery darts of doubts and disillusionment come, when I’m being hit with outrageous thoughts, I can take the “Shield of Faith” and say, “Hold on there. Since this is true, then this also must be true.”
David again gives us an example from his own life in Psalm 27. In this psalm, the wicked are coming against him seeking to wipe him out. But all throughout the psalm, David is triumphantly resting upon that which he has learned to be true of God. Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Ray Stedman says in Spiritual Warfare, “…at this point we’ll have very little difficulty overcoming evil if we’ll start with the first four pieces of the armor.” And yet there’s still more, as we learn to “take up the whole armor of God”.
GROWTH OPPORTUNITY QUESTIONS
WEEK TEN
Spiritual Warfare: Part 4
- On the basis of the teaching “Shoes and Shields”, be prepared to discuss:
- If I were serious about applying the illustrations about David and feelings to my life, what specific things would I do (i.e.: prayer)?
- Give specific examples of the process: thoughts/feelings ¾ attitudes ¾ behavior, in my life.
- List the specific point(s) which strike me as crucial regarding “shoes”.
- List the specific point(s) which strike me as crucial regarding “shields”.
- Give a specific example of an area in my life where the devil’s fiery darts are attacking or have recently attacked me; how I could have/can use the “shield of faith” and verses I can claim to minister to me.
Master Plan of Evangelism
Chapter 6
- Jesus’ “method was to get the disciples into a vital experience with God, and to show them how He worked, before telling them they had to do it” (pg 79). Why was that?
- So, how did Jesus start them out?
- Comment on the value of Jesus’ method of outlining “for them explicitly what He had been teaching implicitly all the time” (pg 81). What did that accomplish? Why?
- What does Matthew 10:11 say to me about strategy? Compare that to 2 Timothy 2:2 and comment.
- As I apply Matthew 10:16 to my attitudes as a minister (follower of Christ), how am I affected?
- Compare Jesus’ characteristic concern for togetherness (pgs 85) with the Apostle Paul’s methodology.
- How are they similar?
Why?
- List the four occasions where Jesus told them to go out and do His work.
- Read Chapters 7 thru the Epilogue of Master Plan (pgs 89-116) and be prepared to discuss the following:
Chapter 7
- Why did the disciples gather to share their experiences as a group?
- Why was Jesus so happy (pg 90)? What does that say to me about what will make me happy?
- Why did Jesus stress continuous review and application?
- His plan of teaching was:
1.
2.
3.
- Why was that strategy so effective? (See “Keep the Vision Clear”)