The Whole Armor of God 2 - Ephesians 6:16-24

6:16 - So far as have the "belt" of truth or "having your loins girt about with truth," and "the breastplate of righteousness," and "your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now we take on "the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." The article by April Moti entitled, "What Is the Full Armor of God? How Can I Put On the Whole Armor of God?" gives background information saying, "When Paul wrote this passage, Roman soldiers carried shields that were covered with heavy animal hide. Before a battle, they would dip their shields into the water so that when fiery darts hit them, the wet hide would extinguish the darts. In a similar way, a Christian's shield of faith needs to be regularly dipped in the water of God's word to be replenished and fully functional- because 'faith comes by hearing and hearing my the word of God.'" I just found out some devastating news about someone I used to know pretty well and some choices they made recently. Now I'm having to talk through it and figure out how to keep it from happening to me, actually I'm trying to help a friend understand how to keep it from happening to them. But I just explained how everything is a choice and from the outside we think everything is great then suddenly BOOM someone leaves his family, and we're like "what happened? I thought everything was great then there was a big accident and then he ruined his family's life." And that's what I've been telling my friend, this other person's downfall has been a series of poor choices going on for quite some time. I promised my friend that the guy who left his family had stopped reading his scriptures and saying his prayers long before he left his family. These are parts of the shield of faith, making good choice, keeping the commandments, and treating your testimony like living, breathing, creature that takes care and nurturing. The article advises, "If your faith feels less confident than you wish it did, ask the Lord to increase your faith. Find verses that feed your faith and fill your world with them. Set your faith on God's character, not on a circumstance." I remember when there was a quote by David O. McKay I think it was who said something about praying everyday for stronger faith, and thinking, "if the prophet has to pray for stronger faith, then surely I need to as well," and the few times that I did, I felt like it wasn't a stupid question, but a noble request. A shield of faith means having standards, knowing what you will and will not do, and doing what you need to in order to keep your faith strong. What might some fiery darts of the adversary be? Addiction, adultery, anger, alcoholism, all types of things that come from Satan 6:17-24 - "And take the helmet of salvation." In the article April Moti says, "Salvation comes the moment we place our trust in Jesus' death and resurrection as the payment for our sin. But salvation is also worked out through a lengthy process of sanctification. The helmet of salvation (just like the breastplate of righteousness) rests on the work of Christ to save us, but also involved us as we journey with the Lord and allow Him to work that salvation into every part of our thoughts. The battlefield of our mind is the primary place spiritual battle is fought. The Lord works His freeing truth into our perspectives while the enemy fights for strongholds to bind us." She advises, "Surrender thoughts that don't line up with Scripture. As Colossians 3:2 says, 'Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.' Remember the Lord's character and faithfulness is Scripture as well as in your life experience. Wash your mind with the renewing of God's Word." The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Harold B. Lee as teaching, "We will put 'the helmet of salvation' upon our head. Our head or intellect is the controlling member of the body. It must be well protected against the enemy, for 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.' Salvation means that attainment of the eternal light to live in the presence of God the Father and the Son as a reward for a good life in mortality. With the goal of salvation ever in our mind's eye, as the ultimate to be achieved, our thinking and our decisions, which determine action, will always challenge all that would jeopardize that glorious future state." This goes back to what we discussed the other day, if we can control our thoughts, then we can have our whole existence be on a higher plane. It's just like what I'm telling my friend, the guy that we knew who left his family didn't just one day wake up and leave, he had surely spent months, if not years, thinking about living a lifestyle different than the one he had created. Similarly, what we think about, eventually we either become or get rid of it completely. And again, it's one of those things that just because we used to be or think a certain way, doesn't mean that we are destined for that forever. Jesus can change our hearts, change our thoughts, change our very being, he can do that for us, if we ask him and make an effort in our own lives to make those changes. And sometimes the effort is as small as sincerely asking him for help. We also have to protect our own thoughts by avoiding temptation because we can't ask for help then dive right back into the deep end of filth. "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Here's what's interesting about this "sword of the Spirit," all other parts of the Armor of God are defensive, and this is the only offensive piece of the outfit here. And what else is interesting is that the only offensive part, the only part that can actually affect anyone else is not even controlled by us, but by God Himself. We would only be used as instruments in the hands of God to use his weapon to affect other people. Paul tells us that the only way that we will be prepared to use the "sword of the Spirit" is for us to be "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." To me this means that we are to always be communicating with God so that we will know when, how, and why to use his Spirit to "inflict" some sort of damage on others, being motivated to do so only for the benefit of others. In my patriarchal blessing it says something to the effect that I will have a "forthrightness of tongue" and basically that people won't like what I have to say but that they will eventually know that I say it as a "servant of God." I know that many people have stuff like this in their patriarchal blessings and that they take that to mean that they are supposed to "tell it like it is" and "rebuke" the evil in people, but they come at this charge from the perspective of "I can hurt people's feelings because I'm supposed to say what I think," and that's completely false. The whole point is to only say what you are prompted by the Spirit to say, and only do so in order to help the other person and to show "forth an increase of love" afterward. It's a delicate process and when given that responsibility, it's to be taken very carefully. The article says, "The word of God is a sword, a spiritual sword, which is sharper than any man-made weapon, 'For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of body and spirit, and of the joints from marrow.'" It then goes on to demonstrate how ancient prophets used the "sword of the Spirit" for their people, such as Nephi when he remarked, "I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.' And Enos, who declared "there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God," to keep his people righteous. Mormon and Alma both did the same thing. The article also quotes Harold B. Lee as teaching, "I can't think of any more powerful weapons than faith and a knowledge of the scriptures, in which are contained the Word of God. One so armoured and one so prepared with those weapons is prepared to go out against the enemy that is more to be feared than the enemies that strike in the darkness of the night, that we can't see with our eyes." That was a difficult quote to read, but what I'm going to say that it meant is something along the lines of "if God be with us, then who can stand against us?" We must be prepared spiritually so answer the call of the Spirit when it comes because wielding the sword of the Spirit, or the word of God is serious business, it's priesthood business honestly, not priesthood authority but priesthood power, and that can only come to those who will are willing to us it through, "persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile- Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, les he esteem thee to be his enemy." It's like King Arthur, only one who is worthy can pull his sword out of the stone, well only one who is worthy can wield the sword of the Spirit, we choose him, and then when he needs, he will choose us.