In Lesson 5, we talked about putting on the armor of God and how important that is. We need the armor to protect us. Then we began to entertain the notion that from time to time things seem to get through our armor. We will look at that now in more detail. We will look at a series of questions about why things can sometimes get through the armor and hurt us. We already asked the question, "Does it have to be put on a certain way to work correctly?" And we learned that the answer to that was, no, there is not a specific recipe or formula for putting on the armor of God. There is another question we could ask if our armor doesn't seem to be holding up: Does it mean that I have deficient armor? Did God give me something that was a low grade? Am I a victim of false advertising here? What is the deal? God's armor is not deficient. It is all powerful. II Corinthians 10:4 says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." God's armor is sufficient. There are no deficiencies. But sometimes something gets through. It is like we have a hole in our shield. Now how did that hole get there? One reason is that it may be an area of your life that you are not submitted to the Lord Jesus. Is everything in your life submitted to the Lordship of Jesus? Well I would say that maybe what, 70 percent? That's pretty good, that's passing. But that wouldn't work for me. God said He wants all of our life to be His. He wants to be Lord over everything in our life. Those little areas of our life that are not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ will be a little gap, a little opening, a vulnerable space in there for something to get through. Now why does God do that? He does it because you wouldn't give attention to that area if He didn't. If you had that protection, that covering on an area that wasn't surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus, you wouldn't give attention to that if something didn't get through. So God allows things to come through those holes so you will deal with the hole itself. Eventually you will get tired of things coming through. You will say "God, are we done with this?" He says, "Well give me that area." You say, "But I like this area. I'm kind of hanging on to it." And God will reply, "If you want to keep it, then you have to live with the darts." God allows the enemy to attack those holes, or the areas of our life that are not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. He will let those things stay and continue to hit us until we give it over to Him. Another question we might ask is: "Does it mean that there are some attacks of the enemy that God is not adequate to defend you with?" The answer is obvious in this one, too. If God is your defender, what power is greater than God? Nothing is more powerful than God, right? Let me share four verses to affirm what Christ did and the victory we have in Him and what He did on the cross.
Colossians 2:15
God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.Hebrews 2:14
Because God's children are human beings -- made of flesh and blood -- Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in a human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death.1 John 3:8
"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil."
(Let me comment on this verse. God is able to whoop up on the devil, to take him out. There are no inadequacies with God. He is able to defend you against anything. There are no attacks that are so great, so awesome by the enemy that you can't be shielded and protected by God.)
1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He has given it to us. Underline the word "us." We have inherent within our birthright the victory, Christ's victory. He won it on the cross. We appropriate it through our relationship with Him.
If something gets through the armor, does it mean we are simply out of God's will? Ah, we are starting to get closer with this on. Yes, we might be going somewhere with this one. This is definitely an area that we have to give attention to. You see, whenever God has called us into His will, there is His protection over us. There is a divine covering when we follow His will. Anything God calls us to do, He supplies everything we need to do it. He will cover us, protect us, and He will give us what is necessary to fulfill and carry out His will. Part of that is that there is covering and protection from the Lord.
So whenever we are doing something and one of those darts hits us, we may have to ask ourselves, "Have I gotten out of the will of God?" Now getting a dart does not mean that you are out of the will of God. But it is a question you do have to ask. "Lord am I out of your will?" Because that is one of the ways that God gets us back on track and gets us into His will. We get off track and bang, we get hit. "Ok God, you've got my attention now. What is going on here?" God says, "You got off track." "OK, now I will get back on." Those darts become motivators for us to get back in the will of God. Because when we are out there getting hit with that dart, we don't like it. "Can we change games here, God?" God says, "Yes, get back on track." Get back under His protection. Just because you get a dart does not mean you are out of the will of God, but it is a question that you do have to ask yourself. Am I out of the will of God? Is there sin in my life? Is there rebellion? Is there something going on with me? Am I surrendering to the rule of my flesh and letting it have its way with me? What happens is God protects us in the midst of authorities and coverings. God has established authorities in our lives, under the order of God.
We have been looking at the armor of God, how to put it on and why there are times when things seem to "get through" that armor, times where that armor does not seem to protect us from enemy attack. We have been exploring when the armor doesn't seem to be holding up, and we have been doing that by asking a series of questions.
Another question we ask is: Does it mean that God is mad at me and is trying to get back at me for something that I did? In other words, does God carry a grudge? Think about it. Does God carry a grudge? Do you do something that upsets Him and then later He says, "I am just waiting for the perfect time to whoop up on you. Something you did to me a couple years ago just really hacked me off and I just can't wait to take it out on you."
No, God doesn't carry a grudge. Some people may think He does, but God doesn't carry a grudge. It says in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So God does forgive us, He does let it go.
It says in Psalm 103:12, "He has taken our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west." That is a long way. God has removed our sin from us that far. God is not one to carry a grudge. However, there is a principle that we do need to give attention to and that is the principle of the harvest -- the principle of reaping and sowing.
Galatians 6:7, 8
Do not be fooled: You cannot cheat God. People harvest only what they plant. If they plant to satisfy their sinful selves, their sinful selves will bring them ruin. But if they plant to please the Spirit, they will receive eternal life from the Spirit.
So there are some consequences. If I have been planting and sowing to the flesh, I am going to reap some things to the flesh. And sometimes those things that you reap may feel like an attack. It may feel like an arrow coming in. It may not necessarily be an arrow, it may be a consequence that hasn't quite caught up to you yet. You know that when you plant corn, it takes some time for it to grow and to harvest it, right? It is not immediate. So whenever you have a harvest, you harvest what you sow, you harvest more than you sow and you harvest later than you sow. That is the law of the harvest. And sometimes when things come back at us, we have to ask ourselves this question. Not only am I out of the will of God, is this simply just the consequence of something I have done?
Now the good news is that the Lord will keep a lot of the consequences away just because He is so good. He is a God of grace. But He doesn't keep them all away. That's right, you are still going to have to face a few consequences. I think God does that to keep us honest, to make sure that we don't want to sow anymore to the flesh.
Another question we ask is: Does this mean God is punishing me for my sin? This is kind of like the previous question. I would say that God is not about doing things just because He likes to punish us. But God does correct us. God does discipline us. He chastens us.
Hebrews 12:5-11
And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, His children? He said, My child don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when He corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those He loves. And He punishes those He accepts as His children. As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? If God doesn't discipline you, as He does all Of his children, it means that you are illegitimate. And are not really his children after all.Since we respect our earthly fathers who disciplined us, should we not all the more cheerfully submit to the discipline of our heavenly Father and live forever. For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always right and good. Good for us because it means that we will share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening, it is painful. But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
One of the ways that the Lord will correct us is by lifting the armor. So when the armor does not seem to be working, I need to ask myself, is God disciplining me here? Is He chastising me? If you belong to the Lord, you will be disciplined. It will happen to you. Now this scripture says that if it doesn't happen to you, then maybe you don't belong to God. But if you do belong to Him, you can count on it. God the Father sees everything. He will discipline us. But He does so for our good, and He does so to bring us into holiness and into right living. He corrects us out of love. Sometimes an arrow slipping through is simply an act of God's love.
The last question we would ask is: Does it mean that my faith is weak? I am declaring this shield of faith, but yet something seems to be slipping through here. Is it because I have weak faith? Well, it probably means that your faith might be weak, but how do you think God is going to strengthen your faith? With a good squirt of Armorall on the front of your shield? No. He is going to let you go through some things to test you and refine you and strengthen you.
1 Peter 1:7
That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
My faith -- tested by fire. That verse doesn't appeal to me. I like the fact that my faith will be like gold and precious and stuff like that. I don't like that testing part. Can I get the refining there without the testing? If I could take that course, I would. But it doesn't come any other way. In fact, God is going to use the things slipping through the armor from time to time to strengthen our faith and to test our faith.
It says in James 1:2-4: "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything."
By the way, sometimes when trouble comes, that means something might have gotten through the defenses. Now would you please circle the word "when." What does "when" mean to you? It doesn't mean "if." So when our faith is tested, endurance has a chance to grow. God does that so we will be mature. God wants to grow us up. So, trouble will come our way. This shouldn't be a surprise to us. 1 Peter 4:12 puts it this way: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for you testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you."
Don't be surprised, it will come. It is one of those inevitable things. When it happens, get God's perspective on it. That is what we are trying to do. We are saying, "God I want to know what this is. Something slips through my armor and I need to know. Now is it because I am not putting it on correctly? Am I not walking this thing out? Am I not standing firm in this? Am I not being strong in this? Why in the world is this thing coming through? Maybe God, I am out of your will. God am I out of your will? Show me, God. Reveal this to me. What is your will?"
Maybe nothing is coming to you. Maybe nothing is speaking to your spirit that says you are out of the will of God. So you are wondering what does this mean? Is God correcting me? Is God disciplining me? Or maybe He is just strengthening my faith? Sometimes after you have gone through the checklist here, is it this? Is it this? Is it this? But nothing seems to fit. Your heart is not condemning you and your heart is not judging you. You simply know that you are doing the will of God, you are staying in here. You are doing what you believe to be the will of God. You are staying strong with God and all of a sudden it still comes. Maybe it is one of those refining moments, where God is strengthening your faith. Because that is the only way it is going to come.
[Previous Article] [Next Article]