How To Pray On the Full Armour of God (Proper 21b)

 Welcome to graduate school of spiritual warfare. This teaching on how and why we must - not may; pray on the Full Armour of God, may shock you. Jesus teaching in John 6 on feeding our spiritual life is so important we have been repeating much of it for the last 3 weeks. It includes something I had not noticed in 30 years of preaching - “no one may come to Me unless the Father has enabled him”:

• Calvinists interpret tis as predestination
• I interpret it as God sending the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth to  guide and protect us 
• Paul urges us to put on the full spiritual armour of God so we can “take our stand against the the devil’s schemes”
• Struggle is against the spiritual “Rulers” “authorities”,“powers and forces of evil” in the spiritual dimension
• Example: Principality over Calgary blocking healing ministry

PRAYER OF SPIRITUAL PROTECTION

This is what Lucille and I pray every day (in bold):

1. We pray the helmit of salvation over our heads to protect our minds from spiritual deception and lies,

• Example of standing with Lucille at busy intersection - hearing the demonic - “You could just push her into the traffic and be killed and nobody would know it was you”

1. We pray the breastplate of righteousness over our hearts to protect our hearts from being deceived,

• We all have unholy desires, feelings and emotions such as anger, jealousy, lust, covetousness

1. We pray the belt of truth over our waist to hold us together in this confusing time,

• We live in a post-truth culture that has lost its foundational truths 
• We are surrounded by lies, deception and spiritually ignorant and confused people - need to read Bible to know truth

4. We pray the shoes of the Gospel of truth over our feet so we can not be moved, 

• Our Church and other churches have been fighting a loosing battle against the gradual deconstruction of the Bible 
• Revisionist liberal version of Christianity considers Satan and the demonic mythical and questions the virgin birth, divinity of Jesus and our need for forgiveness and salvation

5. We pray the sword of the Spirit of truth into our hands so we can beat back the lies of the evil one and protect ourselves and those we care for

• Satan knows the Bible better than we do
• Need to know truth - read the whole Bible ourselves
• Need help from the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth 

6. We pray the shield of faith in front of us so we can stand against the attacks of the evil one, and

• Need a strong faith, courage and strength to challenge Satan as Jesus did
• Need experience in personal prayer of the Holy Spirit acting in our lives to give us this courage

7. We pray the mantle of praise over us so we can be a sign of the glory of God in the world” 

• Praise, worship and thanksgiving is our most effective weapon 
• Satan and the demonic can not stand it and be present.

I will show you exactly what this looks like in practice then invite you to stand if you are able, and pray the bold type prayer with me.

This prayer protects and enables us and could save your spiritual life - Don’t leave home without it!  Amen