PUT ON YOUR ARMOR
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11 NKJ)
No matter what new level you may enter in your walk with God, you better remember to cinch on your armor. In fact, it may just be at the entrance to every new room in your faith walk that there is a new set that is necessary to walk in all the fullness of the new land. With each new revelation comes a new level of responsibility, which requires a whole new determination to walk by faith.
Recently, we have been talking about taking the land, perfecting love, and other things that are monumental steps in entering and taking the Promised Land. Sometimes we can incorporate the truth of God’s word into our lives and it all goes pretty smoothly and then all of a sudden it is like hell opens up and we feel like every demon has been assigned to us. This is because the devil lurks about and tries to choose just the right time to tip us over. Remember when He came after Jesus it was when he felt he was the weakest.
In our last devotion we talked about the treasures that God has for us. When we begin to understand that God has arranged for us to find a treasure in every part of the Kingdom of God, we are entering into a place where we better prepared to fight the good fight of faith. Remember, when the man found the treasure in the field, he gave up everything else he had to obtain that field and thus the treasure. The same was true of the man who found the pearl. He too traded everything else in order to obtain it.
You see we don’t go after treasure. We go after God. God controls the treasure. We control what we will give. And what we give, we don’t give in order to get a treasure. We give for the singular purpose of pleasing God by doing what He has called us to do. In order to obtain the treasure, we must do what is right. Jesus gave everything in order to obtain the prize that was set before Him. Paul called upon us to do the same thing as we press toward the mark for the prize.
The Bible says the kingdom of God is like a treasure. Yes we know that God desires to bless us, but the blessing must not be our focus. We must focus on what we will give in order to please God. We must also determine that there is nothing that we will withhold from God.
In order to do this, as it is with every step of faith, we must have to have our armor on, because it will take everything we have to stand against the wiles of the devil. He does not want us to please God and He certainly does not want us to enjoy the treasures that the Kingdom of God holds for us. He will come against everything we know to be true. He will lie to us and try to get us into unrighteousness and selfishness. He will fight to keep us from walking in peace. Any little victory he wins or set back that he accomplishes, he will use to attack our faith and our assurance of our salvation. He will do his best to convince us that we have no right or ability to use the word of God, but he is a liar and he will not succeed if we just keep pressing.