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In the foregoing message we considered the first three items of the armor of God: the girdle, the breastplate, and the shoes. The girdle is related to truth, the breastplate is related to righteousness, and the shoes are related to peace. We have seen that truth is God expressed in our living as our standard, pattern, and principle. Righteousness is Christ in our enjoyment and experience as the covering of our conscience. If we have truth in our living, we shall certainly have righteousness as our covering. The Bible reveals that righteousness issues in peace. This is peace both with God and with man. It is the very peace Christ accomplished on the cross for us. Therefore, to have the girdle, the breastplate, and the shoes is to have truth, righteousness, and peace. When we live out God in our daily living, we are covered with Christ as our righteousness, and we have peace as our firm foundation. Then we are prepared to fight against the enemy.
Verse 16 says, “With all these, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.” We need truth to gird our loins, righteousness to cover our conscience, peace as the standing for our feet, and faith to shield our entire being. If we live by God as truth, we have righteousness (Eph. 4:24), and righteousness issues in peace (Heb. 12:11; Isa. 32:17). With all these, we can easily have faith as a shield against the flaming darts of the evil one. Christ is the Author and Perfecter of such faith (Heb. 12:2). For us to stand firmly in the battle we need to be equipped with these four items of God’s armor.
The shield of faith is not something that we put on, but something that we take up in order to protect ourselves against the attacks of the enemy. Faith comes after truth, righteousness, and peace. If we have truth in our living, righteousness as our covering, and peace as our standing, we shall spontaneously have faith. This faith is a safeguard against the fiery darts, the attacks, of the enemy.
We need now to consider the shield of faith in detail. We certainly are not to have faith in our own ability, strength, merit, or virtue. Our faith must be in God (Mark 11:22). God is real, living, present, and available. We need to have faith in Him.
We also should have faith in God’s heart. Every Christian must know both God and the heart of God. God’s heart toward us is always good. No matter what may happen to us or what kind of sufferings we may undergo, we must always believe in the goodness of God’s heart. God has no intention to punish us, to injure us, or to cause us to suffer loss.
Along with faith in God’s heart, we should have faith in God’s faithfulness. We may change, but God does not change. As James 1:17 says, there is no shadow of turning with Him. Furthermore, He cannot lie (Titus 1:2), but is always faithful to His word.
God is not only faithful, but also able. Therefore, we need to have faith in God’s ability. In 3:20 Paul declares that God “is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think.”
Still another aspect of our faith is faith in God’s word. God is bound to fulfill all that He has spoken. The more He speaks, the more responsible He becomes to fulfill His own word. We can tell Him, “God, You have spoken, and Your written Word is in our hand. Lord, You are bound to fulfill Your word.” Hallelujah for God’s faithful word!
We also need to have faith in God’s will. Because God is a God of purpose, He has a will. His will with respect to us is always positive. Hence, no matter what befalls us, we should care not for our happiness or our environment, but for God’s will. Our environment may change, but God’s will never changes.
Furthermore, we must have faith in God’s sovereignty. Because God is sovereign, God could never make a mistake. Under His sovereignty, even our mistakes work for good. If God did not sovereignly allow us to make mistakes, we could not possibly make them. (However, this does not mean that we should deliberately make mistakes.) When we are wrong, we need to repent. But there is no need for us to regret, for that means we are lacking in faith. After we repent for a mistake or shortcoming, we must still exercise faith in God’s sovereignty. We could not have made that mistake if He had not sovereignly allowed us to do so. Hence, there is no need for regret.
We all need to have a full faith in God, in God’s heart, in God’s faithfulness, in God’s ability, in God’s word, in God’s will, and in God’s sovereignty. If we have such a faith, Satan’s flaming darts will not be able to damage us.
The flaming darts are Satan’s temptations, proposals, doubts, questions, lies, and attacks. Flaming darts were used by warriors in the apostle’s time, and the apostle used this as an illustration of Satan’s attacks on us. Every temptation is a deceit, a false promise. The flaming darts include the Devil’s proposals that come to us. As we are waking up in the morning, often Satan will make proposals to us. For this reason, we need to get into the Word the first thing in the morning. If we are not in the Word, we shall have no covering against the Devil’s proposals. Doubts and questions are also flaming darts of Satan. Have you ever noticed that a question mark looks very much like a serpent? It was Satan who asked Eve, “Hath God said?” (Gen. 3:1). When the Devil questions us in this way, our response should be to flee, without even talking to him. Many times Satan attacks us with lies. But the shield of faith also guards us against these flaming darts.
The Devil’s flaming darts come as thoughts injected into our mind. These thoughts may seem to be our own thoughts, but they are actually Satan’s. I used to believe that such thoughts were my own. Later I began to realize that they came from Satan. I discovered this after such thoughts persisted in coming after I had decided not to entertain them. I saw that these thoughts were not mine, but Satan’s. Prior to that time, my practice was to confess all these thoughts to the Lord. Now I refuse to confess them. However, some may think that even though these thoughts come from Satan, they are injected into us because we are evil. Do not believe this. Rather, you should say, “Lord, I am fallen, but I am under Your cleansing. Satan, this thought is yours, and you must bear the responsibility for it. I will not share this responsibility.” Nevertheless, due to an overly sensitive conscience some continually confess things that are caused by Satan. Never confess thoughts injected into you by Satan in his subtlety.
In order to have the faith to be defended against Satan’s flaming darts, we need a proper spirit with a conscience void of offense. However, faith is not mainly in our spirit nor in our conscience, but in our will, the strongest part of our heart. The New Testament says that we believe with our heart (Rom. 10:10). According to our experience, this faith in our heart is related mainly to the exercise of our will. No one with a will like a jellyfish can have strong faith. In James 1:6 we are told that he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind. Such a person has a vacillating will. Hence, if we would have faith, we need to exercise our will.
In the first part of verse 17 Paul goes on to say, “And receive the helmet of salvation.” This is for covering our mind, our mentality, against the negative thoughts directed at us by the evil one. Such a helmet, such a covering, is God’s salvation. Satan injects into our mind threats, worries, anxieties, and other weakening thoughts. God’s salvation is the covering we take up against all these. Such a salvation is the saving Christ we experience in our daily life (John 16:33).
Satan’s darts come to us through our mind. Therefore, just as our conscience needs the breastplate of righteousness and our will needs the shield of faith, so our mind needs the helmet of salvation. We need truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and then salvation. Righteousness issues in peace, and peace gives us the ground to have faith. Then faith brings in salvation. Do not separate the helmet of salvation from the shield of faith. The shield protects the front of our being, but the helmet protects our head. The shield and the helmet work together.
In verse 17 Paul also speaks of “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” Among the six items of God’s armor, this is the only one for attacking the enemy. With the sword we cut the enemy to pieces. However, we do not take up the sword first. Rather, we must firstly put on the girdle, the breastplate, and the shoes, and then take up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. Then, when we are entirely protected and have salvation as our portion, we may receive the sword of the Spirit.
In verse 17 the antecedent of the word “which” is Spirit, not sword. This indicates that the Spirit is the word of God, both of which are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13). If I were writing this verse, I would say, “the sword of the word of God.” But Paul speaks of “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” Is the sword here the sword of the Spirit or the sword of the word? Most readers consider that Paul was saying that the sword is the word and that the Spirit wields the sword. I understood the verse this way for years. I thought that it was the Spirit, not I, who used the sword. In other words, according to this understanding, the sword is the word, and the One who uses the sword to slay the enemy is the Spirit. From my youth I was taught that the Spirit helps us to use the word of God as the sword. But this is not the meaning here. The correct meaning is that the Spirit is the sword itself, not the one who uses the sword. The Word of God is also a sword. The sword is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Word. Here we have three that are one: the sword, the Spirit, and the Word.
My main burden in this message is on this matter. The Word is the Bible. But if this Word is only printed letters, it is neither the Spirit nor the sword. The Greek for word in verse 17 is rhema, the instant word spoken at the moment by the Spirit in any situation. When the logos, the constant word in the Bible, becomes the instant rhema, this rhema will be the Spirit. This rhema, which becomes the Spirit, is the sword that cuts the enemy to pieces. For example, we may read a particular verse again and again, only to have it remain the logos, a word in letters. Such a word cannot kill anything. But one day this verse becomes the rhema to us, the present, instant, living speaking. At that time this rhema becomes the Spirit. For this reason, in John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” Here the Greek text also uses rhema. The instant, present word is the Spirit. This kind of word is the sword. Therefore, the sword, the Spirit, and the word are three that are one. Furthermore, we, not the Spirit, are the ones to use this sword to kill the enemy.
In our Christian experience, the Word and the Spirit must always be one. It is an utter falsehood to say that we take the Spirit without taking the Word. Without taking the Word, we cannot have the Spirit. In my experience, I receive the Spirit mostly through the Word. As I contact the Word in a living way, it becomes the Spirit to me. However, some take the Bible without the Spirit. This also is wrong. Those who wish to grow flowers need both the seeds and the life contained in the seeds. It is impossible to separate the life within the seeds from the seeds themselves. In order to have the life, we must take the seeds. The relationship between the Word and the Spirit is like that between the seeds and the life. We must have both. The Lord Jesus is both the Spirit and the Word. He is not the Spirit without being the Word, nor the Word without being the Spirit.
Because He is both the Word and the Spirit, He created us with a mind to understand and a spirit to receive. When we come to the Bible, we should exercise both our mind and our spirit. We exercise our mind by reading and our spirit by praying. Since we need both to read and to pray, we should pray-read the Word. I can testify that through pray-reading my spirit becomes strong and ready to devour the enemy. I not only exercise my spirit, but I also exercise my mind to consider the Word. For example, I may ask why grace and truth are mentioned in chapter four, whereas love and light are mentioned in chapter five. I also pray concerning this. The more my spirit is strengthened by pray-reading the Word, the more eager I am to use the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy. In my speaking I have a sword with which to cut the enemy to pieces.
With the whole armor of God we have truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation. Finally, we have the rhema, the Spirit, the sword. This is our offensive weapon to use in attacking the enemy. When we have the whole armor of God, including the sword, we are not only protected, but also prepared to wrestle against the enemy. By having truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation we are equipped, qualified, strengthened, and empowered to use the sword in spiritual warfare. Then the enemy is subject to the cutting of our sword, and he is slaughtered by us.
As we engage in spiritual warfare against the enemy, we do not use gimmicks, skills, or politics. Our only weapon is the Spirit-Word, which is the sword. We do not employ cunning craftiness — we wield the sword of the Spirit. Our loins are girded with truth, and our conscience is covered by Christ as our righteousness. Then we have peace as our firm foundation. We can boast to the whole universe that we have no problems with God or man, for we are standing on the peace accomplished by Christ on the cross. Furthermore, we are protected by the shield of faith and guarded by the helmet of salvation. Therefore, when we pray-read the Word, every word becomes the rhema, the sword that cuts the enemy. In this way the victory is ours. We not only subdue the enemy and defeat him, but slay him and even cut him into pieces. This is what it means to fight the spiritual warfare with the whole armor of God. The church must be such an equipped, fighting, and victorious church to slay God’s enemy.
