Warfare

Eph:5:10-19
Regarding the armor of God -
The devil can't tell who's in there, might be Jesus!
There is no back to the armor...never turn and run from the devil - remember, in the desert, Jesus stood his ground and met him face to face (Mt:4:1-11).
John 10:10 - The thief cometh not but for to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to first steal our souls, then he wants to kill our bodies, finally he wants to destroy our spirits.

There is only one offensive weapon, most are defensive. We are in training for reigning, we are in schooling for ruling!
1) Belt of Truth - We must all become honest - first with ourselves, then with others. Our belt holds up our pants, if we don't wholeheartedly embrace truth, we will end up naked and ashamed (Rev:3:17) on the Day of Judgment, like the Laodiceans we will not have Robes of Righteousness (Rev:3:18). Besides, if we reject the truth we choose the lie, there is no middle, neutral ground - like Adam and Eve in the Garden - we all must make a choice when confronted with a lie - Truth leads to continuing fellowship with God, lies lead to separation from him. Besides, we need the belt of truth so we can use it to whip the devil....

2) The Breastplate of Righteousness - The breastplate protects our heart, out of which we speak, in which we commune with the Lord. We have no righteousness in and of ourselves (though the world is trying hard to dispute this), our hearts are indeed (Jer:17:14) "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked". So we must protect our hearts with the very righteousness of Jesus himself. THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer:23:6). He alone, by his blood and by his Spirit(1 Jn:5:8) makes us holy. It's imputed to us, in the same way our earthly father's name is given to us at birth. At our first birth it is not in us to be good or holy (holiness is a complete absence of sin), it is only at our second birth that we change our spiritual DNA - we receive our Father's name and become Righteous by his merciful actions of being scourged and crucified for us. Like babies in the natural, we are born covered in blood when we are born again.

Part two soon.....