An armor is seldom a combative tool, an armor is a protective gear. The enemy didn’t go to sleep following Jesus’s victory on the cross. No, the devil is still the god of this evil age and he is committed to ensuring that not so many people come to know about their freedom, liberation, newness of life through Christ Jesus.
In a sense, Ephesians 6:11 is saying; be totally, completely, fully dressed (and protected) with God’s spiritual covering. The covering of salvation, righteousness, truth, peace, faith and have the fire of the Word in your mouth, without forgetting to pray always in the Spirit (with perseverance and supplication).
Hello there,
Praise be to God Almighty, who has kept us safe through the COVID-19 pandemic, and He will yet keep us….
Welcome to August 2020 Newsletter, a rich compilation of previous month’s publications, upcoming events and a listing of partnership opportunities.
“those who trust in the Lord {in hope and expectation}, shall have their strengths renewed, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:10.
The above quote is my rendition of Isaiah 40:10. Naturally, it is impossible to Wait on The Lord as some Bible translations present this portion of scripture, and yet to be making progress. However, Isaiah 40:10 ‘wait‘ speaks of trust, confident expectation, hope, in patience and endurance, leading up to faith and victory.
We know that people may sometimes use empathy as a manipulative, enticing and control tool, that is when we see The Evil of Empathy, which ultimately aims to destroy the target or recipient. But truly, Jesus Understands. His empathy is genuine and fruitful. Jesus always cares enough to intervene and bring a positive change. His personal experience with hate, betrayal, death and resurrection, positions Him to express genuine empathy. And this gives us the assurance to approach Him boldly and confidently for our personal needs, knowing that God Never Forgets His Own. We know we can apply The Weapons of Our Warfare, including praise and worship To the King Eternal.
For me, I know that When I am Weak I am Strong, shining as Lamp on a Lampstand, equipped to say like Jesus; “Not in My Father’s House” to any attempt to make the Father’s Business a personal merchandise.
Praise God!!
Please follow these hyperlinks to read these edifying articles.
This September, I am starting a new Bible study series; ‘The Whole Armor of God’.
In August 2018 through February 2019, I carried out an 8-part study on Ephesians 6: 11-19 on this blog titled “His Armor, Our Weapons & The Warfare“. Really long topic! Your question?…..so why do it again? Because I believe the Lord would have me do it again; I’ll trust and ride with Him. I hope you’ll join me every Friday……
You can now publish on this blog under the Christian Lifesaving Skill category. Kids also have an opportunity to share their best Bible stories under the Kiddies Eyeview category. Pastors’ Corner is a new category available for any Pastor to publish a brief exhortation. This slot is only available for Sundays.
Please note that all guest articles will be screened and published on a ‘first come, first serve basis’. Articles should be between 250-300 words with at least one Bible verse reference. Itemized content is preferable. Send as email to graceobomanu@gmail.com. We apologize for articles that were sent to us which weren’t published. It is important that your article meet our guidelines to be eligible for publishing.
Your freewill gift can help with running and maintenance charges for this site. Please give here.
You can order the kindle and paperback copies of my book on healing ‘When The Doctor Says No’ from your local Amazon store, and a subsidized pdf copy here.
To continue to be inspired, edified and blessed by similar articles as this one from our blog, subscribe here.
September 2020 is already upon us, so let’s get started……?.
Till next time, Stay Safe; In The Word and In The Covenant
Love Always❤
Grace.
Clearly, Paul in verses 3-6, is referring to spiritual forces manifesting in human beings howbeit, in diverse ways. As false arguments, human reasoning, logic, pride, disobedience and godlessness.
The Warfare
Welcome back to the 7th part of this blog post series. In parts 1-6 we discussed extensively on the whole armour of God taking our reference scripture from Ephesians 6:11-17.
Today, just to tidy up the "The Warfare' bit of this series...
Warfare simply means engagement in or activities involved in war or conflict. It also means combat, struggle, conflict.
Ephesians 6:12 tells us the kind of warfare we're in as Christians;
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood {contending only with physical opponents} but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this {present} darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places" Amplified Version.
And 2 Corinthians 10:3
"For though we walk in the flesh {as mortal men}, we do not war after the flesh" NKJV.
Two obvious conclusions from the above scriptures;
1. The warfare is not against humans
I remember a dream I had most of my childhood; a woman tried to kill me several times in very subtle ways,always initially pretending to be friendly and motherly but with an ultimate intent to hurt me, which wasn't initially obvious. Considering the frequency of the dream, I decided to mark her face and possibly relate it to a physical being. One day, the scales fell off my eyes and I saw her exactly for what she was -evil, Satan's agent. I rebuked her to her utter shock, that was the last time she appeared in my dream :)
We're in a spiritual warfare and it is not against humans.
So no need to move about pointing accusing fingers at mere mortal beings. Yes, the devil can work through humans who make themselves available to him, but we do not fight back at humans or physical beings else we lose. There is a spiritual strategy for spiritual combat.
This is liberating for me also in handling everyday relations- sensitivity to understand when conflicts require spiritual handling is crucial- and I believe we can win every conflict irrespective of how they present, when we adopt a spiritual combat approach. There is so much peace handling stuffs that way :)
2. The warfare is against Satan & his gang.
Yes, the warfare is against the tricky cunning old fellow of John 10:10b-the thief and his gang! The one who came to steal, kill and destroy.
He is the ruler of this present world {to the blind and unbelieving), he commands principalities and powers of darkness of this age, the wickedness in the heavenly places and he still wields his powers among ignorant folks. But those who know know it that Jesus Christ totally DISARMED him at Calvary...Hallelujah!
"Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it".
Colossians 2:15.
For me therefore, the current status of Satan is Colossians 2:15, he seems to often forget that. As Christians we have a duty to remind him every time he pulls his old stunts.
In the concluding part, we'll look at the very interesting 'Weapons of Our Warfare'.
Till then....stay blessed :) and keep musing over Colossians 2:15.
My love always....
Welcome back!
This is the 6th part of this blogpost series.
We have been looking at the composite parts of the Whole Armour of God as seen in Ephesians 6:11, 13-19;
“Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” NKJV.
In the preceding parts, we have discussed; the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation,gird your waist with the truth and shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Today, we’ll conclude this session of this series {that is ‘His Armour‘} by looking at the remaining 2 components; the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit. In subsequent parts, we’ll look at ‘The Warfare‘ and ‘Our Weapons‘.
What does a Soldier need a shield for?……………
A soldier’s shield protects him by deflecting or intercepting missiles thrown at him. The shield is usually held in the hand or mounted on the wrist or forearm. So most shields are positioned in front of a soldier so as to provide good cover.
The dictionary defines ‘faith‘ as; ‘a complete trust in someone or something‘. The Bible definition of faith as seen in Hebrews 11:1 is however different, it goes beyond trust and confidence and gives tangibility to faith. It tells us faith is a ‘substance‘ and an ‘evidence‘.
The way I understand it, an evidence substantiates a belief or claim. Therefore, the Bible is saying that faith is the physical reality of the Christian belief.
How so?…..
I gave my life to Jesus Christ several years ago, precisely, in 1993, just after graduation from high school. A few weeks ago I remembered some terrible ‘unchristian’ experiences I had in college, the kind of memories that make you sad. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, He fixed me up, and reminded me those experiences weren’t in vain. I am thankful for the strength and loss of innocence they’ve brought.
As I did the throwback on my Christian walk, one thing remained clear to me; it’s been a ‘faith-walk’ through and through. Everything I know about God is by faith. Everything I have accessed in God is by faith. Every miracle I’ve experienced in God has been birthed through faith. I got back up from my fallen state, by faith and I have lived victoriously everyday after, by faith.
That’s what faith is. Faith is the substance of our belief. Faith is living. Faith is Evidence! Faith is Seeing! Faith is Now!
I believe I am born again by confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour,….. by faith, and everyday I see a new me manifesting. I believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost,…. by faith, and as I ask the Father to pour His Spirit on me, I open my mouth and find I am actually speaking in other tongues. I believe I have been healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ,….. by faith, and as I maintain my confession and walk by the spirit of God, my healing manifests.
So how do we use faith as a shield?
Probably the best approach to answering this question is for us to remind ourselves; how it all started. How did we become born again and filled with the Holy Ghost? The last time we accessed divine healing for a health condition, how did it happen?
Notice anything peculiar to the kind of faith we’re discussing here? ….
There is always a preexisting undesirable situation or circumstance!
You know, God displayed what I believe is the highest kind of faith in The Beginning {Genesis 1:1-3}.
A previously empty, chaotic, formless and dark earth, received light and became filled with beautiful forms through a magnificent display of faith by God!
God simply spoke what He wanted into existence and changed the status quo for ever!
That’s how simple faith is.
Yes, I hear your question, ‘Grace, do you really mean that?’ Yes.
By simply saying what God says about a situation rather than what we feel about it. By proclaiming and maintain our Godly desires about a situation rather than what we see. By speaking, confessing and maintaining the truth of our belief irrespective of present or prevailing circumstances.
The truth always prevails. Halleluyah!
So it doesn’t really matter what missiles, darts, arrows the enemy throws at us {and they don’t stop coming}. What matters is how we react – accept it or knock it off (or quench it) by faith?
That’s how to use faith as a shield.
When I feel weak, I confess that I am strong. When there is no money in my pocket, I confess that I am rich. When strange symptoms pop up in my body, I confess that I am healed. And I maintain my confession until my faith becomes tangible, a substance and an evidence. A reality!
Praise God.
To help us fully appreciate this component of the Whole Armour of God, first, we must answer the question of; what a sword is to a soldier?
A sword is a bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. A sword is usually, long, straight or slightly curved with sharp edge (s). A good soldier would have swordsmanship- proper use and handling of the sword, and maneuver it so as to slash or thrust as the need arises.
What is the Sword of the Spirit?
Well, Ephesians 6:17-18 tells us to use the Sword of the Spirit, tells us what the Sword of the Spirit is, and how to use it.
“…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…” (NKJV).
And according to Hebrews 4:12, the Word of God is sharper than any known sword….
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” NKJV
As we see, the Word of God is both a part of the Whole Armour of God (as the Sword of the Spirit) as well as a Weapon of Warfare {we’ll be discussing this further}. The word can slash, thrust and reach deeper than any known sword.
But of what use is the Word of God if we don’t use it? And how do we use the Sword of the Spirit?……….
By basing our Prayer and Supplication on the Word. By praying always in the Spirit, in patience and perseverance.
Friends and brethren, as we conclude our study on the Whole Armour of God, it is very obvious that the purpose for the Whole Armour of God is to make us prepared, immovable and victorious in the day of trouble. Therefore to successfully resist and stand our ground in time of danger, we must proactively and consciously be kitted in this armour always.
Let us always remember that our citizenship is of Heaven, we are born of God, we have His genes and our experiences should reflect same as we live in the awareness of our rights and privileges. We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, sin has no power over us and where there is no sin, there is no charge or penalty. Let us stay reminded that God’s word is the truth over our affairs. And so let us always proclaim this truth, testify of this truth so as to gain victory at all times.
Thank you so much for staying with me to the end of this session of the series. I appreciate all your feedback and thank God for the opportunity to share His word. It’s been quite refreshing and a tremendous blessing doing this study 🙂
Shalom and my love always.
Friends/Sisters/Brothers,
Greetings!
I feel a deep need to apologize for delaying this blogpost, a topic The Lord dropped on my mind many weeks ago. As always happens every time there’s this kind of delay in developing and publishing a God-given topic, multiple events relating to the said topic begin to occur all around me. This usually makes me sad, and I’d usually start apologizing to The Lord in my heart for not responding promptly to His prompting 🙂 He always forgives me (and I am hoping you would too). I am encouraged always because he has never told me the topic has expired and irrelevant. I believe strongly therefore that every ugly, unpleasant situation that this post was meant to fix many weeks ago, can still be fixed today. Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today and forever! Halleluyah
I tinkered with the topic for this post, maybe, for way too long….and as it seems, I landed 3 mega topics in one!! To praise The Lord or to be sorry for myself? 🙂 ……… Well, I love long blogpost series sometimes because every time a sub-section gets published, my spiritual antennae are set way up (on the particular topic), to catch as many revelations as The Lord would give me.
This is a very long, wide and extended topic. It is expansive and I am really excited to be doing it at this time.
There are 3 subsets to this topic:
In my very short time of knowing and serving the Lord (over 2 decades now), and particularly in the past few years of serving The Lord through graceobomanu’s blog and Talk with Grace Obomanu (running into 4 years now), I have learnt that Satan takes added interest in anyone who loves and faithfully serves The Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a battle of kingdoms and happens ALL the time. Only this time, a WINNER was declared thousands of years ago. And this WINNER transferred all His winning rights and privileges to His followers. And I am one of them {say same for yourself}
Everyone who is in Christ Jesus, WINS! And everyone who is in Christ Jesus should be battle-ready at all times.
Did I hear you ask; ‘how possible is it to be battle-ready at all times’? And ‘why be battle-ready if we are already Winners’?
Stay with me on this blogpost series as we embark on an interesting, revealing and exciting journey into winning every spiritual warfare by being fully suited with the whole armour of God using our spiritual weapons.
His ARMOUR
An armour is a covering, usually made of metal, soldiers wear to cover and protect their bodies in battle. A well-trained knight would wear armour for protection before a fight. Some vehicles have hard metallic coverings -armour, to protect them against attacks.
As a verb, the word ‘armour’ would mean to provide someone with emotional, social and other defenses.
No other Bible verse best describes ‘the armour of God’ to suit the context of this article like Ephesians 6:10-18, but first, take a look at 1 Samuel 17:4-7, a vivid description of how a well-armoured soldier looks 🙂
“The Philistines had a champion fighter named Goliath, who was from Gath. He was over 9 feet tall. Goliath came out of the Philistines camp. He had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore a coat of armour that was made like the scales on a fish. This armour was made of bronze and weighed about 125 pounds. Goliath wore bronze protectors on his legs. He had a bronze javelin tied on his back. The wooden part of his spear was as big as a weavers’s rod. The spear blade weighed 15 pounds. Goliath’s walked in front of him, carrying his shield.” ERV.
Let me thank my Pastor (Pastor Mrs Nkechi Ene, Presiding Pastor, The Carpenter’s Church, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, for drawing my attention to the Easy-to-Read Bible Version, which is very explicit with descriptions -excellent for visuals).
I am convinced that there is no need to bore you with the tiny details of Goliath’s armour (which by the way, David thought was ridiculous), well, at least not for this article, but notice that the Bible carefully listed the particular parts of body that Soldier Goliath covered. His head, chest, loins, legs/feet, and with readily accessible weapons -the javelin and the spear (in his hand).
A part of Apostle Paul’s closing lines in his letter to the Church at Ephesus (Ephesians 6) was for the church to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might by putting on the whole armour of God. Oh! how often we, as Christians, so carelessly walk around unarmoured! Brother Paul admonishes us to be ready always to withstand the wiles of the devil.
The Wiles of the devil don’t come at us shouting; ‘I am a WILE of the devil, I am a WILE of the devil’. That’s why Paul coined them ‘WILES‘.
Wiles are devious, cunning, manipulative, persuading tricks, schemes and strategies. Wiles are intended to deceive, seduce and manipulate. Guess who has totally mastered the art of using wiles…. Satan!!. He throws wiles as darts all the time. Then he awaits your response/reactions. The moment you say ‘yes’ to any of these darts, he aims at you fully.
But thank God Jesus saw through him, big brother Paul saw through him and I am hoping every Christian would see him just as he is- cunning, manipulative and seductive, constantly creating mirages to spread fear, hopelessness and despair.
The devil’s wiles are subtle, often clad as harmless baits which can easily ease into our lives and circumstances. Therefore to be sensitive, discerning and alert at all times, every follower of Jesus Christ must be fully armoured at all times.
What is the ARMOUR of God?
In spite of the minute details provided of Goliath’s armour, I cannot categorically say it was a complete armour (forgive me). Did Goliath feel some part of his body was still at risk of being hurt despite his regalia? Possibly 🙂
Thankfully we have no such fear with our spiritual armour, ……we find the FULL (whole) armour of God in Ephesians 6: 11, 13-19;
“Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” NKJV.
Question: How do you ‘put on’ salvation, righteousness, truth, faith, and the word of God? 🙂
The answer to this question (and more) will be coming to you in the second part of this blogpost series.
Stay with me.
My love always……
