How To Protect Yourself
We are so thankful that when Jesus died on the cross, almost 2000 years ago. He broke the power of the kingdom of darkness and Satan and his legion of demons. They had usurped authority from God and from man in the fall, but Jesus took it back on the cross. Full victory is His. But the full victory has not been fully manifested on this earth. We know it will be, because we read the back of the book. We know what is going to happen because the end is recorded there.
We have the role of policemen between now and that time when Jesus comes again with the full manifestation of His Kingdom is on this earth. Our role is to mop it up, get things in order, to enforce the law. We are to enforce what has been taking place, and enforce what was laid down by Christ on the cross. We are in His army enforcing these things. We need to realize that, as the people of God, when we gave our hearts to Jesus, we enlisted in the army of God. And, as participants in the army of God, we need to know how to fight.
A very important part of learning how to fight, or how to engage in warfare, is learning how to protect yourself. You do not fight very long if you don't know how to protect yourself. A soldier does not just run out and say, "Shoot me! Shoot me!" The soldier needs some protection.
So we are going to look at Eph 6:10 to study how to protect ourselves. It says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might."
One of the resources that I use in studying the armor of God is a series of booklets, written by William Gernel. You may have never heard of him. He wrote his books on the armor of God in the 1600's. Many people have used them. I thought, "If a lot of people have, I will too." So I would like to share a couple of quotes from him. He said, "The outcome of the battle rests on God's performance, not on your skill." In other words, it is all up to God. That is really what Eph 6:10 says. It is up to God; it is not up to you! This is not to say that you should not sharpen your sword. I am not suggesting that you should not be ready, or that you should not do what you need to do to prepare yourself for the battle. But the bottom line is that it really is all up to God. It is His strength, it is His power and His might that enable us to engage in war and win.
This knowledge needs to move from our head to our heart. It needs to be a part of us. I pray that as we go through this series it will become a part of you. Zechariah 4:6 says, "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." "You will not succeed by your own strength or power but by My Spirit," says the Lord all-powerful. Not by might, it is God. Not by strength, not by power, but only by the Spirit of God does it come.
We are going to look at the little technical things in this verse. Normally in a lesson, I just give you the meal. I do not take you into the kitchen and show you the pots and pans. However, I am going to show you the pots and pans simply because I really want you to understand a lot about this verse and grasp some of the things that I have been able to grasp. There is so much in this verse. We can read it and slide right through it, but there are a lot of deep things in this verse that we need to grasp.
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." The word "finally" there means, "Now for the rest I have to tell you." In secular literature it says, "I have saved the best for last. Now I have come to the most important thing so far -- finally to the most important matter at hand." That is what this word is saying. Keep in mind that he preceded this portion with five-and-a-half chapters. We did not go through them and study those chapters intensely, but I recommend that you spend some time reading the first five-and-a-half chapters of Ephesians because they really do lay a foundation.
"Be Strong..."
We are going right to Ephesians 6 to talk about protecting ourselves and engaging in this spiritual war. This is very important. "Finally, be strong"; the Greek word for "be strong" is 'endunamoo.' It means, "to empower, to enable, to increase in strength or to be (made) strong."
"Finally, be strong"--you be strong, you be empowered, you be enabled, you be increased in this strength. A soldier in that day would have to be a very, very strong person. He could not be a weakling and be in the army. Depending on the soldier's size, some of his armor could weigh up to 200 pounds. It was not flimsy stuff; it was not aluminum siding. They did not have any way they could condense it to lighten it. It was heavy stuff.
"...In The Lord..."
"Finally, be strong in the Lord" -- your empowering is in Him, not in anything else. It can only be found in Him. It cannot come from you. It cannot come from the flesh. It cannot come from any other source but Him. You can go to church; you can read your Bible, and you can go to Bible study. Those things may help you, but it has to come from the Lord. That is where our strength comes from. In the natural, a general's strength will come from the troops and from the equipment. However, in the army of God, it does not happen that way. Our strength comes from the Lord of Hosts. He supplies the strength that we need. This means a few of us can take a lot. If one of us can send a thousand to flight, two of us can send the legions running and fleeing. That is all it takes. The combination of God and us -- that is all we need. If God is not in that equation, we do not have anything. It only comes from Him.
Psalm 144:1 says, "Bless the Lord Who is my rock, He gives me strength for war and skill for battle." God gives me the strength to fight, He gives me the skill to fight, and He gives me the power to do so. II Cor 3:5-6 says, "It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God. He is the one Who has enabled us to represent His new covenant." We are not saying we can do this work ourselves. God makes us able to do all that we do. I can because He is. He is in me. When God is in the equation, you can!
When God is in the equation, we do not need to be afraid. The uncertainty has been removed. We don't have to wonder whether or not we will win -- we know we win because God is in the picture. All of the power of all of the forces of Hell put together are no match for God's power. Everything the enemy has all put into one giant thrust is not even one tenth of God's power. There is no comparison here, we are talking different orders of magnitude. God is never afraid of what the enemy might throw at Him, because He has so much more power and authority than the enemy does. God never feels threatened -- because He knows that He has the ability to do whatever He chooses to do. Therefore, when God is in the equation, we don't have to be afraid, we are on the winning side.
We will look at this more in our next lesson. We will study what Paul meant when He said "... and in the strength of His might."
God's Strength And What That Means To Us
We have been talking about God's strength from Eph 6:10. We see that this is were we get the power and authority for warfare. The verse says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might."
We began breaking it down in the last lesson, looking at the greek to understand just what God's strength is and how it can be applied to our lives. Let's continue that breakdown...
"... In The Power ..."
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power" -- the word "power" there is the word 'kratos.' It means, "dominion, might, power, and strength." It denotes the presence of strength. It refers to the power that is available because the power has been invested in it. It is also translated, "to have authority or power over his kingdom." Invested power -- the word "democracy"--you are familiar with that word. "Democracy" comes from two words: 'demo' and 'kratos.' 'Demo' means man; 'kratos' means ruler -- e.g., man-ruled. The United States is man-ruled. We elect our officials; we invest in them the authority, the power; and if we do not like them, we vote them out. We vote somebody else in. The authority and the power come from the people. Theocracy would be God-rules ('theo' is God, 'kratos' is rules). That is how He set up His church, not as a democracy but as a theocracy. God rules -- that is the "power" used in this verse-- God's rule, God's dominion, God's authority, God's power. We are to be strong in the Lord and in His power, His authority, His dominion, and His rule.
The word "power" is used in a couple other places. Hebrews 2:14 says, "Because God's children are human beings -- made of flesh and blood -- Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in 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." That is the same word "power." The devil had an authority, he had a dominion, and he had a rule over death. Jesus came and broke that. He removed that, He rendered him powerless. He took it aside and He took it away. Jesus did that!
Colossians 1:11 states, "We also pray that you will be strengthened with His glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need." God will strengthen you with His own great power, His authority, and His dominion. He does that so that you will not give up when trouble comes but you will be patient. How many times have you wanted to give up? Have you ever daid, "I am tired; can we leave?" or "Is there another game that we can play?" We need His power; we need His authority; we need His rule and His reign. God will empower you and strengthen you with the authority that He has.
"... Of His Might ..."
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might" -- the word "might" there is the word 'ischus.' It means, "to be able." It comes from the root word echo which means, "to be forceful, to force something, and have great force in that." The word means, literally, "the ability, the might, the capacity, the power, or the strength." It is used in the negative sense in Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless." That verse says that salt has lost its capacity to be salty. In other words, it has lost its ability; it has lost its power. In the positive sense, it is used in Philippians 4:13, "For I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." I can do, I have the capacity, I have the ability and I have the power to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do it all. I have the 'ischus;' I have the capacity -- the ability -- because it comes from God. This verse is an admonition to the people of God to be strong and let your strength be in the power that only God has -- the power that is according to the ability of God. How great is God's ability? Just what can God do? Be strong in God's capacity, in His ability to do.
"... The Power Of God ..."
Let's ask a few questions that would be pertinent questions about the power of God. First, just how great is His power? We are supposed to be strong in God's power. Just how strong is this power? Look at the beginning of Ephesians. That is a good thing since we have been looking at the end of the book of Ephesians. See if we can find the answer in the same book where Paul talked about that before he said "finally." Ephesians 1:18 reads, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." In other words, "I want you to know this in your heart. I want you to know this down deep through revelation. I want you to see this." See what? A couple of things are here in verse 19 -- "and what is the surpassing greatness of His power ('dunamis') toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might" -- the authority of His capacity. This is what God is saying: "I want you to see this power that is in Us and I want you to see the power that is working in you. I want you to see this power -- this power that is working right in your members."
What kind of power is this? It is described in Eph. 1:20-21. "... Which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." He described His power. You have in you the power that it took to raise Christ from the dead, place Him in the heavens, and put Him at the right hand of the Father.
How much power does it take to do that? How much power does it take to raise somebody from the dead? On a one-to-ten scale, would you put that toward the high part? Not only just to raise Him from the dead, but also to give this body a glorified resurrected eternal body, and to raise Him into heaven and place Him at the right hand of the Father above all rule, above all authority and all power in the whole universe. How much power does it take to do that?
This passage says that this same power is in us. Working within us is the same power that it took to raise Jesus up from the dead, raise Him into heaven, and place Him on the right hand of the Father. God goes to great extremes in this book of Ephesians to say to us, "Church, you need to understand what kind of power is available to you; what is in you; what is working in you. It is a power beyond your capacity, beyond your imagination." This is available to you. This is God's capacity and it is yours because He is in you. So, do not be strong in your strength; be strong in His strength, and this is what His strength includes.
Why does God give us this power? He gives us this power because He has a relationship with us. His relationship with us demands that He supplies what we need. He is our heavenly Father, we are His children, and He supplies us whatever we need to do what He has called us to do. God goes to whatever extreme is necessary to make provision for us. The cross is an example of that. The cross demonstrates just how far God will go to meet your needs. Whatever it takes to remove sin from your life and to give you the grace and the power to function, God will do it -- whatever it takes! Do you see your worth and your value in that? The value of something is always determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. Your value is determined by what God was willing to pay for you. And He was willing to pay with His Son -- to give up His Son for you. That is your worth and that is your value to God! It is all because of your relationship. God makes provision because you are His child.
We went on vacation, and I did not make my kids pay their way. When we were going down the road, I did not ask them for gas money. When we went to a restaurant, I did not say, "Hey guys, let's go Dutch today." I did not do that. They are my kids. I let them order anything they wanted on the menu. We went to a steak house. The kids ordered what they wanted on the menu. I took care of them; they are my kids.
Likewise, We are God's kids. When we enter the family of God, God is entering into an obligation to us, that He will meet all our needs. It is not like when these little guys get out of the house. I may not meet all their needs all the time, but God will always meet our needs. He will always be our heavenly Father Who says, "Whatever you need I am always going to be meeting those needs." Phil 4:19 says, "And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
That is God; that is the way He operates. He gives us this power because we are His kids. He gives us what we need. That is what grace is -- giving what we need when we need it and as much as we need.
God's Power In Our Lives
The Purpose Of Power
In II Tim 2:1 Paul said to Timothy, "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Be strong in God's grace. Why do we need this power?
There are a couple reasons. We need it because our strength will not survive the dry times, nor will our strength stand in the heat of the battle. How many people in the army of God do we know who have gone AWOL? They sign up quick. They enlist on an impulse, giving their hearts to the Lord. Then all of a sudden things get heated up, and they are gone. They leave as fast as they get on board. When you sign up, you do sign up for the army of the Lord. However, God says, "I will give you strength to stand; I will give you strength to survive and I will give you staying power. If you try to fight one or two battles in your own strength, it's not going to take too long before you figure out -- I do not like this." You just cannot do it in your own strength. It has to be in the ability of God.
Everybody is going to have dry times. Nobody is immune to dryness. Nobody is immune to dry times. We all have dry times. What is going to keep you going in the midst of those dry times? It is His power -- certainly not yours, you are dry. Another quote from William Gernel is, "The one who abandons faith in the midst of a spiritual drought can be compared to a fool who throws away his pitcher the first day the well is dry."
You also need this power so that you can have confidence in the midst of the battle. You get in the midst of the battle and things are heated up, and all of a sudden, you are asking, "God, are we going to be able to do this okay? Are we going to be able to finish? Am I going to survive this? This certainly looks awfully big. This thing looks enormous; it looks a lot bigger than I first thought. It seems to be getting bigger!"
In the midst of the battle, you need to know God is bigger and greater. You need to know there is nothing bigger than God. Sometimes God lets us go through big battles just so we can see how large it is so that we can know God is much bigger. We can see that no matter what we face, no matter how large it is, no matter how impossible it may seem, God is bigger than that. God wants us to know just how big He is. Whenever we are in the arms of the biggest daddy in town, we win. There is nobody bigger than He is.
Why do you not see this power? It could be that you have seen it, but you did not recognize it. It came in a different way than you expected. You were looking out the window, and it came through the back door. You have a problem and you pray to God, "Oh, God, I am going to get rid of this. Oh, God, oh, Lord, I have to get rid of this problem. Oh, Lord, give me some relief; remove this thing from me." You pray and pray, and you think that nothing is happening. The problem is still large, and you start complaining to God, "Why didn't you come through for me?" And God says, "I did. Who gave you the power to go through it? Who gave you the power to endure it?" God says, "I came through; I gave you My power. It just wasn't the way that you wanted it." We are usually very good about suggesting to God how He should answer our prayers. But God is still God, and He is going to do it His way because He is God.
Since He is God, we will let Him do it His way. Maybe His answer seems to be taking a long time. It could be that God purposely delayed it, and He may do something like that in order to strengthen our faith. What do you do when babies begin to walk? You stand them up and say, "Come on. Walk to Daddy." The child is over there and all of a sudden it begins to fall. What do you do? You bait the child. He gets close, and as he gets close, you move back a tad. When He gets close again, you move back again. You are not doing this to be mean or cruel. You are not doing it to taunt or tease. You want him to walk on his own.
We never walk on our own with the Lord, but sometimes He leaves us in places where it stretches our faith. God will stretch your faith, and He will leave you in places to stretch your faith and to build your faith -- to grow you and to mature you. That may be one of the things happening. God just baits you a little bit, getting you to come on, but in the midst of that, God really does know what He is doing. Remember, He is God! God does not make mistakes.
Hindrances To Power
The last thing: You may be hindering the flow of power, and the hindrance can come from many different things. It could come because there is sin in your life. You are expecting God to flow through you, to give you power in this area, but there is something you are unwilling to give up and forsake. You give it up periodically just so you can get more power. God wants you to burn the bridge to that thing, so that you stay in this side of the yard and not that one. God wants you to remove that barrier. He wants you to get rid of that thing. He wants you to repent, turn from it, and turn to Him. Confess it as sin, turn it over to God, and turn from it.
It could be that you do not see the power of God because you are not one of God's kids. It could be that you do not have a relationship with God. It could be that you are not experiencing His power because you never have given your heart to Him. You have never asked Jesus to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior, your boss, your leader, and the forgiver of your sin. The good news is that today you could change that part, because if you do not have a relationship with God you can come into one today. In order to do that, you first have to admit that you need Him. The truth is that everybody needs God, and everybody needs power. You have to admit that you do not have it. You have sin in your life. Your sin separates you from God and you do not know God. You cannot have a relationship with Him because of sin, and something has to take care of that sin and that is why Jesus died on the cross. He paid the penalty for your sin and the sins of the whole world. Receive what He did for you so you can have a relationship with Him. You have to ask Jesus to come into your heart. Part of the equation is not just saying, "Forgive me," but it is saying, "My life now belongs to you." I know many people say, "I want to be free of the sin, but I am not so sure about giving my life to Jesus." Those both have to be there, not only asking forgiveness but also giving your life to Him. He will then be the boss -- the ruler of your life. Are you willing to do that?
You may be insecure but if you would like to firm it up, I want you to pray this prayer to Jesus. Say it in your heart. Say it to Him. He hears you. He is listening to you right now. Say this prayer:
"Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I admit that my sin has separated me from You, but now I realize that You love me and You died on the cross for my sins. Forgive me for my sins. Come into my life and I will follow You wherever You lead me. Thank You for coming in. Amen."[Previous Article] [Next Article]