Stand Your Ground

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:13

As Christians we live in the age when the battle will come to us. We will be tested and the testing ground is where you are. We don’t need to go looking for battles, the battle is coming to us. All we have to do is ‘Stand’ … hold your ground using the tools that God has given us to defend and fight.

We have had it so good for sooo long. God gave us and our ancestors peace here in the Americas; a place where we could come and worship our God in quietness. The evil one could not let this stand. As in the time of Job, he has continued “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Where he found people living in the peace of God, he had to wreck it. He will take peace from the earth in anyway he can, whether it is through perversion, or deception or with the ‘goodness’ of government lockdowns for our own safety. Peace is gone.

So we stand our ground knowing that the fight is coming. Are you ready? Do you have:

• Your loins covered with the Truth? Loins are a place of strength and represent affections. Does your heart wander from God? Do you seek affections elsewhere? Satan loves to attack our affections. Apply the Truth to your own self and live according to Scripture so you have your affections covered (protected) and focused on heavenly things only.
• The Breastplate of Righteousness protecting your heart? This defensive weapon protects you from a wounded conscience before God. Nothing interrupts communion with God more than a guilty conscience. Are you clear with God? Righteous walking with God keeps the conscience clear and allows God to work with and through us without distraction. Righteousness is the breastplate that will protect your heart.
• Your feet walking in the gospel of peace? Is your walk down here in keeping with the gospel? Do you acknowledge strength in God alone? The gospel acknowledges that we are saved only by the death and resurrection of Jesus and His work on the cross. We could not save ourselves. Do you walk with this in mind, or do you ‘lean on your own understanding.’ Do you follow the pure gospel of Christ alone, or have you added on rituals and days and other distractions that take away from the simple gospel of peace? Keep your walk pure by never forgetting ‘the pit from which we have been digged.’ (Isa 51:1)
• The Shield of Faith? Do you believe that God is ultimately in control? Do you see the coming oppression through the lens that we already know who wins the final battle? Faith in God and God alone is the shield we can use to catch all the flaming arrows of the enemy. The shield of faith is expressed again in Job, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” (Job 19:25) Walk in faith and the arrows cannot reach you.
• Helmet of Salvation? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31) Do you understand and really know what protection salvation has brought you under? This is not just faith, but knowledge (the mind is protected by a helmet.) Do you operate knowing that your salvation has put you on the winning team? Oh … the peace that comes from truly knowing Him!
• The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! The ONLY offensive weapon in the whole package is the word of God applied by the Holy Spirit. Satan tried to use Gods words when he tempted the Lord, but this sword can only be used through the Spirit. The Lord simply replied with Scripture and Satan was defeated. Be sure you follow God’s Word and His word alone. Only His word is the sword. Don’t be bewitched by cunningly devised fables and traditions that have been added to His word. Shun those vain and profane babblings. The weapon is the Word of God only! You should know your Bible.

Remember, we are heavenly citizens. We are already seen by God as sitting in heavenly places. (Eph 2:6) We can stand our ground here using the tools God has given us knowing that, though all around may seem bleak and hopeless, we have a heavenly calling and that our Lord and God will crush all these puny enemies under His feet when He comes again.

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Rev. 22:20