Battle Ready
By Lisa Marshall

You’ve joined the right team; then winning side! But that’s not enough. You now need to get battle ready because the enemy of your soul isn’t going to waste any time in leading an attack against you. Here are some tips to help you in your efforts to become BATTLE READY.

Ephesians 6:10-17 (N LT)
10A final word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. 12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. 13Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. 16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. 1 7Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

During the peace keeping operations in Iraq, a soldier wrote his mom to tell her about something pretty cool that happened while he was on patrol.

As a boy he went through the exercise of putting on God’s Armor. On his way to a major battle, he started going through that same exercise of putting on the Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, Belt of Truth, Sword of the Spirit, Shoes of the Gospel of Peace and the Shield of Faith.

He went into the battle (one with real bullets) and the Lord protected him. God enabled his unit to see an ambush that would have caused them all to be killed.

In his letter to his mom he said, “It works!”

Put it all on!
Don’t stop with just the helmet. Put all the armor on. Sometimes all that armor may feel like it’s going to slow you down, but keep it on anyway. Suppose you only put on the helmet. All the enemy has to do is aim a little lower and well, you know, you’re toast.
Others are depending on you to do your job in the best way possible. This means that you are responsible for your own well being. You’re no good to the team if you’re drawing fire unnecessarily as an easy target with little or no protection. For the sake of yourself and those around you, put it all on!

Getting “Dressed”
How do you put the armor on each day? Through prayer. Try putting on your tailor made armor during your daily “getting-ready-to-leave-the-house” routine.
•Helmet—protect my mind from the taunting of the enemy. My thoughts determine who I am and how I act. Keep it pure!
•Breastplate—protect my heart and my spirit. My feelings are protected behind this barrier so help them not to be so easily hurt by others. My spiritual “ears” are also protected by this piece, so help me keep my sensitivity to You all day long.
•Belt—let me be full of the truth, which includes always telling the truth. Don’t let me associate with liars or allow me to cheat in relationships, tests, or anything else.
•Shield—help my faith be strong to stop the fiery weapons of the enemy. I know the enemy hates me, but I need to remember that You love me (and nothing I can ever do will change that!). Help me be someone who builds up faith in myself and others.
•Shoes—give me peace by remembering how You came to save us all. I must use my feet to carry Your “good news” to others who are so full of the effects of darkness. I do not need to be afraid!
•Sword—I need to use the Your Word as my weapon against any trick of the enemy. Help me put more of Your Word in me so that I can be prepared. Your word is strong, powerful and quicker than any two-edged sword, slicing to bits anything that is not of You.

Accountability
The enemy of God, the devil, has been around for a long time and knows all the tricks of his trade very well by now. This enemy is also your enemy so you will be fighting on two different levels.

First, you will be fighting with God against any plan that is against His plan for the earth. This is called intercession. It is a kind of prayer that focuses on others. If you are only praying for yourself or if you always pray for yourself FIRST, reorder your priorities. The surest way to receive what you need from God is to put others first. Read Matthew 6:33.

Second, you will be fighting against your human spirit that constantly needs to be put to death, giving room for the Holy Spirit to work in you.

Accountability is the best way to be sure that you are succeeding on these two battle fronts. Find a buddy that will “get your back.” This needs to be someone you can be honest with and someone who will encourage you to keep up the “good fight of faith.”
Don’t try to do this on your own. Even military special forces send in teams to accomplish an objective. Find someone you can trust today and be accountable to them.

As you know, humans come in all shapes and sizes. So do our personalities and “spirits.” Even our weaknesses and strengths are different from each other. So when you think about it, it makes sense that your armor may look “funny.” This is because your armor is going to be unique to your personal needs and kingdom job placement.

For example, if you are prone to getting your feelings hurt, which piece of armor would be the most important to you? The piece that best protects your feelings or spirit.

In addition to this, keep in mind that your job in the kingdom will compliment your temperament and abilities as well as your personality. This means that not everyone is going to tromp around in combat gear. Not all of us are cut out for that kind of thing, but we all need spiritual armor for our work.

Let me explain it this way. Firemen, police officers and soldiers all have different jobs and wear different armor because of it. Firemen battle fire so their gear is made to protect them from fire…not a drug dealer’s bullet. A police officer’s uniform varies depending on what kind of work is being done (i.e. undercover, street, swat, etc.). Would you send a police officer to put out a fire? Would you have a fireman chase a suspect on foot?

If we could see in the spirit, our armor may look different, but the important thing to remember is that we need to put it on.

During a kids prayer revival the speaker asked a group of kids what they thought their armor looks like. As you can imagine, there were a lot of interesting answers. One little boy, about seven years old, re-plied, “mine looks like a baseball player.” When asked why, he said, “I like to play on a team.” And when you think about it even a baseball player needs armor and a “weapon” of sorts.

You’re in His army now…so what does your armor look like?

The above article, “Battle Ready” was written by Lisa Marshall. The article was excerpted from www.wnop.org.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.