God Equips His Children for Battle
God has never left His committed ones without strength and weapons to fight and win every battle, both spiritually and physically. The divine armor you wear and the awareness that a battle is ongoing assures you that you will win in every fight. If the devil or his agents succeed in convincing you that there’s no battle or that there’s nothing like spiritual warfare, you are already defeated (1 Peter 1:3-9).
Every believer experiences heaviness brought by the devil and his agents through manifold temptations. The devil is fighting every believer to prevent us from accessing our incorruptible inheritance that cannot fade away. Our faith as believers must be tried by the devil here on earth before we can access our undefiled possessions. The beginning of our faith in Christ doesn’t give us final victory without trials and temptations through warfare until the end (2 Peter 1:10-11).
Endurance Through Trials and Temptations
Believers may fall many times and rise at the beginning of their faith, but at the end of the final victory, they shall never fall again. If any believer falls at the last, all their past victories will not bring their soul into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. As a believer, you cannot be deeply involved with the affairs of this life without having eternity in view and still be a good soldier of Christ. An army cannot fight two different wars and win successfully at the same time. Once you die or the rapture takes place, all that you are fighting for now without Christ will become worthless in the reality of eternity. We are called to do everything, whatever we are doing, with eternity in view, here and now (2 Timothy 2:3-4; 1 Timothy 6:10-12).
You must guard your heart against the love of money, fame, evil pleasure, and covetousness in everything you do in life. Having victory over the works of the flesh is fighting the good fight of faith (Galatians 5:19-21; Hebrews 12:1-4; Matthew 5:28-30; Hebrews 10:25; 1 John 5:4-5; Revelation 2:11).
The Second Deliverance After Salvation
Born-again Christians are called to lay aside and put off anything that will bring them back into a life of sin; this is the second deliverance. There are more kingdoms to conquer after salvation. Only after this will believers begin to enjoy their salvation. We must continuously look unto Jesus and believe in Him to finish the work He started with us at salvation. Believers who claim God’s grace to fight other powers but neglect the grace that fights the return of sin after salvation are not fighting the good fight of faith. In other words, you may successfully fight and win against powers opposing financial prosperity, health challenges, and all manner of material blessings, but if a single sin overcomes you until the day of death, you have not fought the good fight of faith (Luke 16:19, 22-31; Matthew 10:28)
If you are carrying the real cross, there’s something to fight, things to endure, shame to despise, and contradictions to overcome. Those who got married and overcame fornication still have to overcome adultery and other sexual perversions. Those who have conquered outward sin still have internal sins to overcome (1 Peter 2:11). The secret sin many must avoid is evil communication or association, enabling us to have true identification with believers.
God’s Armor: The Ultimate Protection in Battle
You cannot be in the midst of people with contradicting faith and fight the good fight of faith. Believers are called to guard their faith jealously, which is more precious than the whole world. Our faith is a priceless treasure that we must hold tenaciously. We must fight never to exchange our faith for anything. Believers who underestimated the devil’s craftiness fell on the day of battle because they didn’t appropriate God’s armor.
GOD’S ARMOR CONSISTS OF:
- The belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14; Luke 12:35; 1 Peter 1:13).
- The breastplate of righteousness (Ephesians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:14-16).
- The shoes of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15; Romans 1:16-17).
- The shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16; Hebrews 11:32-34; 1 Peter 5:9; 1 John 5:4).
- The helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8).
- The sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17; Matthew 4:1-11; Psalms 119:11; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 3:15).
- Praying all manner of prayers (Ephesians 6:18).
The beauty of our warfare is that once you abide in God, He promises never to leave us alone to fight against the enemies on the battlefield (1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 2:18). Our defender, the Lord Jesus, has passed through the fires of betrayal, deception, conspiracy, injustice, evil devices, and whatever we are going through or will ever go through. The comforting word is that He will help us. If you remain loyal, obedient, and faithful to the end, He will satisfy you and bless you immensely (Psalms 34:19; Isaiah 43:1-2). As we resist the devil, separate ourselves from the tempters by closing every gate through which temptation comes, and keep praying for divine grace, we shall have victory.