God's Armor, Not Ours - Part 1 (Intro/Helmet of Salvation)

 

Ephesians 6:10-18 has been a well-covered passage of Scripture by many Biblical teachers and preachers. The verses are a call-to-action, a warrior lifestyle to embrace by wearing God's Armor, Not Ours. 

Christian's, as all humans, have all kinds of issues - mental, physical, financial, and so forth. But Paul places heavy emphasis of the source of many, if not all our problems, from the spiritual realm.

• "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." - Eph. 6:12

With this in mind, God equips the Christian with armor that supernaturally fits each of us. Paul had as his visual aid a Roman soldier near him as he was in a Roman prison writing to the believers in the city of Ephesus. 

Beginning from the top of the body, here are the names of these pieces of the armor of God - the helmet of Salvation, the breastplate of Righteousness, the belt of Truth, the shoes of Peace, the shield of Faith and the sword of the Spirit. There is an extra piece that is not named by Scripture but can be visualized through the Roman soldier's gear, which I will explore later, influenced by Rick Renner, in his book Dressed To Kill.

Interestingly enough, Paul notes the pieces in another order - 

1. Belt of Truth
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
3. Shoes of Peace
4. Shield of Faith
5. Helmet of Salvation
6. Sword of the Spirit
7. ? - Mystery Weapon or Unnamed Weapon

This could be due to how Paul was looking at the soldier and writing his thoughts down or how Paul saw the importance of each one or both. When studying the functionality of each piece I can see why The Belt of Truth is number one and I will dive deeper into my meaning on that later.

Taking my order of the Roman soldier's gear parts, there is a wonderful reason the helmet is called - the helmet of salvation. This helmet saves our thought-life by keeping God and things above at the forefront of our mind. Perhaps you have heard of someone saying, I had that word on the tip of my tongue. Well, the helmet of salvation keeps God's sacrifice and promises at the tip of our mind.

Another great benefit of the helmet of salvation is the offensive side to this piece of gear. Dark forces or spirits like depression, hate, bitterness and the like do not like when the light of Christ shines on them and exposes their location and action. This is pictured in the blinding, reflective nature of the Roman soldier's helmet. One soldier with his helmet on is bad enough for the enemy, but if you have the whole army fitted correctly - your enemy is not only discovered, but blinded also.

So, the helmet of salvation is not only a defensive piece of armor - protecting against blows to the mind and recalling God's love for us, but God's helmet is an offensive piece as well - spotting and blinding the enemy in our day as we keep our thoughts on Christ and His ways.

Remember, just as a soldier took his individual pieces of gear off to perform maintenance and then put it back on, so the Christian must "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." The believer, with great intention must put on and wear the Helmet of Salvation.