Derek Prince - The Armor Of God EXPLAINED
Excerpt from "Casting Down Strongholds"
Now, going back to Ephesians 6, Paul, immediately after speaking about Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies, tells us we better put on our armor. And I’ll read this rather quickly, beginning in verse 13: Therefore... You know what I said about therefore? What’s it there for? Because of verse 12, which is Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Paul says there’s going to come an evil day, an evil day comes in the life of every one of us. Whether we stand or not depends on whether we’ve got the equipment we need. And then Paul lists the armor and it’s taken from the battle armor of a Roman legionary in his day. This is the picture.
There are six main items of armor which we’ll look at very quickly; we’re not going to comment on them. Stand there therefore, having your waist girded with truth... You have a belt that you wear around your waist and it’s truth. ...having put on the breastplate of righteousness... You have a protection over your chest which protects your heart, and it's righteousness. Not the righteousness of works but the righteousness of faith. And then it says: ...having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace... You have sandals that protect your feet and enable you to march far and fast, which Roman legionaries would do. What’s the protection of you feet? It’s the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
Now, let me just interject. If you want more information, I have a tape somewhere in my long list of tapes that deals with each one of these pieces of armor. What is it called? I am forgetting now At any rate, it is available somewhere. Thanks to our dear brother Derek Jacob. All right. I’m saying that because I don’t want to hurry through this, but I want to get beyond the defensive to the attack, you understand? If I get bogged down in defense we’ll never reach attack. ...above all [over everything else], taking the shield of faith... This is a great big shield shaped like a door which could protect every part of your person from the arrows of the enemy. And then it says: ...take the helmet of salvation... What part of you does the helmet protect? Your head. What does your head stand for? Your thought life, that’s right. And it is so important we know how to protect our thought life. God has provided a helmet. Here it’s called the helmet of salvation.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:8 it’s called: the helmet, ...and for a helmet the hope of salvation. You know what protects your mind? Hope. You’ve got to be an optimist. If you’re a pessimist your mind is open to the attacks of Satan. I have another message on that because it’s something I learned by experience. I was born and brought up a pessimist. I suffered agonies in my mind until I learned I had to change and that I had a helmet that would protect my mind. All right. ...take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The spoken Word of God. Notice you’ve got six items of equipment; all of them are defensive except the last one, the sword. Which is a weapon of attack but only goes as far as your arm can reach. But the seventh weapon is the weapon.
And it’s in verse 18: ...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Here is where we can reach out and assail Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies. It’s with the weapon of prayer in the Spirit. So we have seven items of equipment, five are defensive, the sixth is the sword which can only reach as far as your arm reaches, but the seventh is what I call God’s intercontinental ballistic missile. What is it? All prayer. We can assail Satan’s kingdom with the weapon of all prayer.