The Whole Armor of God

February 2, 2016

The Whole Armor of God

“Let your bearing towards one another

arise out of your life in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 2:5 NEB (1962)

My personal mission to seek the life in Christ as my way of life is grounded in this verse from The New English Bible I received in high school when I first began wrestling with God’s call on my life. This is the light that goes before me: learning to relate to others out of the abundance of the life of Christ within me. Some days I relate well; other days, not so much. Two of the lessons I have learned in my journey are: the more I am consciously aware of my identity as the beloved of God, the more Christ is visible in my mortal flesh, and the more I consciously put on the whole armor of God, the more I am consciously aware of my kinship with Christ. (Ephesians 6:13-17)

I think our need for the belt of truth, the breastplate God’s righteousness, the Good News, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit is clear. As so equipped, we are surrounded by the fullness of our God. However, there is one more part of our armor that is not always included in Paul’s list. We find it in verse 18, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.”

In Romans 8:26-27, Paul teaches us about the Holy Spirit praying for us, and with us in our times of weakness. Paul amplifies that teaching in Ephesians 6 by encouraging us to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit in all of our prayers. Certainly the infilling of the Holy Spirit is an essential component of the whole armor of God. As I ponder how my Godly armor enables me to rest in the conscious awareness of my Abba-child relationship with God, I am reminded of what I wrote just three weeks ago (January 12, 2016):

We all will do well to make the first line of EVERY prayer, “Help me Holy Spirit.” Then let us rest in His hands and allow the Holy Spirit to manifest his presence. Then we let him lead us in the rest of our prayer.

By your grace O Lord, let it be that I wait patiently on your Holy Spirit to pray in and through and for me. Amen

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.