STAND THEREFORE
Tuesday – April 25, 2017
Greeting and blessings in the name of our Lord and Savior from Patti and me and The Three Minute Word publications. God is so good! I have featured a picture of our great nation to remind us all to pray for our nation, for the government on every level. Our nation is not great because we are somehow great but because we are in covenant with the great Almighty God. We are a great and we are an exceptional nation because of Him. Now to our Bible Study from the Book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 6:13-18 (KJV)
13 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.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Yesterday we left off with verse thirteen and God’s repeated command within two verses to take His whole armour otherwise we will not be able to stand in the day our evil adversaries test us. It is not so much if they will test us, but when. We may as well get used to the fact that they are testing us very frequently. The frequency depends on our track record of wins and fails and how much time we give to the test (evil idea). We are talking the whole armour not a facet of the armour here and there in order to stand in the evil day. I know we commonly depict pieces of the armour as independent of the others but a solder does not go into war with just a sword, or just a shield, or just a helmet. The other thing that is evident when looking at the example of the Roman soldier that Paul used is that there are still many vulnerable areas. The Roman soldier and his armaments is only a device for our imaginations and study. When we have the whole armour of God on there are no vulnerable areas and we know that because this is God’s armour and He is not the least bit vulnerable to the enemy.
Before we move on I want to deal with the short phrases “whole armour” and “evil day” again. From time to time I point out the number and gender of certain words which are used and the significance of that and how it adds to our study, our understanding. In Greek a single word is translated to English as ‘full armour’ or ‘whole armour’. This word is feminine in gender and singular in nature. Being singular means that it applies to each of us individually. The feminine gender means that the taking of the whole armour (not part) will allow or cause us to be productive in the Kingdom of God. The words ‘evil day’ are also singular in number and feminine in gender. If we bow in the evil day because we do not have or are not using the full armour of God there will be a productivity of evil in our individual lives. This is very important and very serious brother and sister. Many are in despair and perishing because they do not know this and are not being trained by others and the Holy Spirit nor are they practicing what they are trained to do.
Ephesians 6:13 goes on to say “having done all”, done all what? Apply the full, whole, armour of God to turn aside the assault of our spiritual enemies. As we do that the victory is ours 100% of the time and we stand. We stand undeterred in our mission for the Master to further the Kingdom of God. Nothing deterred Jesus when He was on the earth and nothing is to deter us either. This brings us to the fourteenth verse, fourteen is the number of deliverance and salvation.
Ephesians 6:14 (KJV)
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Our verse of focus starts with “Stand therefore”. This follows our taking the whole armour of God and when we have applied the full armour in the evil day of temptation we will be the only one standing, the evil one(s) must flee. The implements our Heavenly Father has provided will not fail when applied such that we are not diverted from our assignment(s) for the Kingdom of God by a defeated foe. He is not going to tell you or me that he is defeated. He is the original con man looking for a way to deceive and bring us into destruction. When we invite him (when we fall for his con) in we find ourselves in the midst of stealing, killing, and destroying and he is laughing in the face of God.
Please receive the Blessing.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
