Alf Davis
Agape International Christian Counselling
Oakville, Ontario, Canada

by Alfred C. W. Davis MBA, M.Div.

Spiritual Armour Part 2

Now, the scripture says twice "put on the full armour of God. "After talking about truth, righteousness and the readiness of peace, it says, "In addition to all of this" take up or appropriate three additional things:

1. the shield of faith
2. the helmet of salvation
3. the sword which is the Word of God.

The purpose of the shield of faith is to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. What is a flaming arrow? In the book The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis & John Eldredge it says, "There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty and the other is affliction. They refer to Psalm 91:5 "you will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day." What are the arrows? Messages that afflict the heart such as: "I don't belong." "I am not loved." "I am not wanted." "I am stupid and useless."

To use an analogy, think of the question period in our Canadian parliament in Ottawa. An opposition member launches a question at the Prime Minister like an arrow. The Prime Minister ducks, steps aside or uses whatever shield he can use to avoid a direct hit that would hurt him. A successful question period for the Prime Minister is leaving the House of Commons untouched. In the spiritual realm, our faith in God and our faith in truth is like a shield that protects us from the arrows, the fiery darts that the evil one is sending our way. This does not mean that Satan is the one delivering all the messages to you. He may use your spouse, your best friend, your relatives and those close to you to fire the messages However it comes, faith is the shield that does not let the lie reach you. For example, if someone were to say to you, "You are a mindless idiot using religion as a crutch." That is a fiery dart. When you, with faith, hold up the scripture of Colossians 1:13, and I will personalize it, "For he has rescues me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Then the fiery dart is squelched. The lie can no longer reach you or hurt you. So, our faith in God and our faith in the truth of his Holy Scripture add divine power to what we believe. That is why it is called the armour of God.

Next, is the helmet of salvation. We are no longer fallen sinners. We are justified by faith and his grace. Romans 4:13 clearly states, "It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise but through the righteousness that comes by faith."Putting on the helmet of salvation is accepting the truth that we are forgiven. We are holy and righteous in God's eyes, right now. We do not need to live in guilt or shame while we are here on earth. Because of God's grace and mercy, we have the right to eat from the tree of life right now. That's the good news. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13, it says, "From the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. There it is again. Belief in the truth.

And lastly, the Word of God is described as a sword of the Spirit. Holy Scripture has spiritual power. I was working with a client who was diagnosed as DID or multiple personality and in the session a spirit of darkness started speaking through my client. I did not have the wisdom to know that I should not engage in a conversation with it and as we talked this aggressive, strong voice attacked me verbally saying that I had no power and I started to believe what it was saying. Even though I was saying things in the name of Christ, I could feel that I was getting weaker and it was getting stronger. Fortunately, I stopped conversing and I picked up the Bible and started to read Holy Scripture out loud. As I read, the spirit became weaker and weaker. After about 5 minutes of reading scripture, I commanded in the name of Christ for it to be bound in chains. It submitted. In the name of Jesus Christ, I commanded it to leave and it left. For me, it was one of the clearest demonstrations of the spiritual power of the Word of God over the forces of darkness. The last command is not armour but it says, "Pray in the spirit on all occasions." With faith in God and belief in your salvation, I encourage you to appropriate the truth of Holy Scripture, which is the Word of God, and pray to defend yourselves from the lies of the world. Committing your will to truth versus lies and living in the righteousness of the truth will free you from the destructive powers of this dark world.

I heard recently that there are three levels of the mind:

1. understanding
2. accepting
3. committing

The armour of God functions at the commitment level. To understand truth is just the surface. As you accept the truth and commit to it with your heart, that's where the freedom is.

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Alfred C.W. Davis, MBA, M.Div.
Agape Healing International Inc.
111 Prince Charles Drive, Unit 103
Oakville, ON  L6K 3X3
www.agapehealing.org

Tel. 905.815.9638
Fax 905.842.9757

Alf Davis is a Clinical Member of AAMFT. He graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Tyndale Seminary, majoring in counseling. As well as being a therapist, he provides spiritual direction and counseling for pastors and Christian care givers. He is on the Board of Asia Mission Center International and he teaches the seminar, "A Theory and Process of Christian Counseling and Inner Healing" both internationally, at Tyndale Seminary and at local churches.