ARMOR of GOD: Sword of the Spirit with Pastor Allen Nolan

about a month ago I begin a series on the armor of God in the first week this series I talked about the importance of putting on the whole armor of God in the second week I explained how to put on the armor of God and if you weren't here you really need to watch that video on our website because every Christian needs to know how to put on the armor of God in order to stand against the wiles of the devil and the third week we begin studying the individual pieces of the armour of God and so far we've covered the loin bed of truth and the breastplate of righteousness now because Easter is next week and we'll be starting a new series the week after Easter I have to finish the last four pieces of armor today this morning if I don't get through them well we just won't get back to it so there's no ifs ands or buts we're going to finish the last four pieces of the armor of God now we're not gonna go is in depth as I normally do because of time instead we're just going to hit the high points and I'm gonna make some application and give you the basic information that you need to know and we're going to start with the shoes of peace we'll turn with me if you would to the book of Ephesians chapter six follow along with me as I read verses 13 through 18 so swear for taken to you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand there for now you get the idea that you're supposed to stand that's been mentioned three times here and it's actually in the Greek so it's a good translation anyways stand therefore having your loins Girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints now as I told you last week Paul was imprisoned numerous times which means he would have been very familiar with the armor of a Roman soldier and that's probably what he was thinking of when he wrote this passage of Scripture so as we study each piece of armor I'll be comparing it to the armor of a Roman soldier at the time of Paul and that goes for the shoes as well as the shield the helmet and the sword so let's talk about the shoes of a Roman soldier the Roman soldier shook ensues consisted of two parts the sandal and sometimes it was a boot depending upon the climate if you were stationed in Britain or maybe in northern Germany the Germanic people up there you would not wear sandals in the wintertime so they didn't just have sandals we have the tendency to see that because we go back to the time the the Middle East the time around Jesus and we look to see what they wore in Israel well because of the climate most of them wore shoes but it could also be boots the second piece of the shoe was called the Greve here's a picture of an ancient grief from the first century around the time of Jesus Christ you can see those are ancient Greaves actually you find that in the museum but regardless of whether it was a sandal or a boot their shoes had metal spikes or what we would call cleats 1 to 3 inches long in fact the cobbler who made the shoes would begin with two small pieces a flat metal with spikes attached to them and then he would sandwich those two metal plates between two pieces of leather that were cut out in the shape of a soldier's foot one of the pieces of metal was placed where the ball of the foot would be and the other was placed at the heel and then he would stitch those two pieces of leather together forming the sole of the Roman soldier shoe now if the soldier was stationed in the city the spikes were one-inch long if he was on the battle line if he was getting ready going to the battle the spikes were three inches long now the spikes had a three-fold purpose first of all they acted like an athlete's cleat in order to give them traction because you didn't want to slip in the heat of the battle if you fell to the ground it was a great possibility that you were going to die because anyone was laying on the ground it was just too easy to take a spear or sword and stab them or step on them because the Roman soldiers were not the only ones that had spikes and on the bottom of their shoes so if you went to the ground nine times out of ten you realize you were going to end up dead so they gave you good traction secondly they were used to kick your opponent's shins believe it or not that was common tactic in hand-to-hand combat especially against opponents who didn't have the proper armor and last but not least they were used to crush the enemies neck when he had slipped and was on the ground or maybe was wounded on the ground you didn't want to have to go around doing this so you just step on their neck and you would kill them as one of the spikes went through the jugular vein now let's talk a little bit about the grief the grief was a beautifully tooled piece of brass that began at the top of the knee and went all the way down to the top of the foot and it curved around the sides of the soldier's legs it looks something like this again here's another picture you find this in a museum now the main purpose of the Greve was for protection in fact with their Greaves on a soldier could walk through thorns or briars and never get a scratch but more importantly the grease protected the soldier shins when they were in hand-to-hand combat again the favorite tactic of a soldier was to kick their opponent in the shins and what most people don't realize is that a good hard kick would either break the opponent's leg or it would lacerate their shins very severely and the only protection that they had against that were the Greaves in fact with the Greaves on you could be repeatedly kicked without actually receiving any type of serious injury so that's why you always see those soldiers in that period of time unless they were from what they would consider to be an uncivilized nation with Greaves on so as you can see the shoes of a Roman soldier were designed to protect but also to be used as a weapon with the spikes you could severely injure your enemy and at the same time the grease protected you from your enemy now let's see what Paul had to say about the shoes in God's army look back at verse 15 and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace now I want you to underline the word preparation preparation is translated from the Greek word hit Amasya and it means to be ready or to be prepared but more importantly it's written in the instrumental of means case which tells us that being ready to share the gospel is the means by which your feet are shod in other words when you're ready to share the gospel when you're prepared and you're wanting to share the gospel of Jesus the shoes automatically come into existence and are automatic we put on now let me ask you a question why in the world would Paul like in the gospel of peace to a Roman soldiers killer shoes because let's be honest the whole purpose of having spikes on the end the bottom of your feet was so that you could severely injure your opponent so why in the world would Paul liken the gospel of peace to a Roman soldiers killer shoes because most of us would never do that in fact for most of us that would never even cross our mind because when we think of the gospel we think of feet what do we think of we think of verses like Isaiah chapter 52 verse number seven look at that scripture notice what it says how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news or in other words the gospel the good news of peace and salvation the news that the God of Israel reigns now the reason we think that way is because we see things from the perspective of the person being saved from the perspective of the person who's hearing the gospel for the very first time but Paul is seeing this from a different perspective because Paul knows that there is a spiritual battle that takes place in the spiritual realm when we begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ it's a battle between angelic forces and demonic forces and the shoes in God's armor are designed to crush the enemy and free the captive you see the gospel does two things and you always need to remember this number one it crushes Satan's power over individuals and number two it sets the captives free so from Satan's perspective the gospel is very deadly but from the captives perspective the gospel is liberating now listen to me we can never forget that the gospel of peace crushes the enemy most of us never think that way because when we think of the gospel we always see it from our perspective when we first heard the gospel and we responded to it but you see we forget about the the perspective of Satan to Satan it's destroying him it's crushing him in fact turn to Romans chapter 16 verse 20 and I'll show you what I'm talking about it says the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet do you see that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet you see the only way that God can bring peace to this world into individuals is to crush the one who's responsible for all of the upheaval in this world and also the up evil in individuals lives and who's the person that's responsible for that Satan Satan is the person who's responsible for that so as I said from Satan's perspective the gospel is very deadly but from the captives perspective the gospel is liberating but let's make a little bit of an application here because we're talking about spiritual warfare and normally when we think about spiritual warfare it's because the enemy is attacking us maybe he's attacking our finances maybe he's attacking our marriage maybe we're having problems at work and you know really we've done nothing wrong we have good work ethics for doing exactly what we're supposed to but you're having problems at work and many times we say you know I'm under spiritual attack but here's normally what we do when we're under spiritual attack normally we withdraw inside of ourselves and we become an end introvert instead of an extrovert and what we do but what we forget is that we need to go on the offensive and one of the best ways to go on the offensive when you're being attacked by the enemy and start sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ but here's what's sad most of us never think of that when we're going through an attack we're not going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ all we can think about is ourselves but you know that truly mature Christians it doesn't matter what attack they're going through they're still very prepared and very ready to show the gospel of Jesus Christ and I always think about my mother when my mother started getting sick you know I really thought you know she'd all be concerned about herself but she wasn't what she was concerned about was the church and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and you know because of what my mother had she started having hallucinations and so she would think something happened that really didn't happen I can remember one time my dad my mom came to my house my dad said would you tell her something didn't happen what is it and she thought someone had called her from the radio station and they were in a sense talking with her and she said something that might have been a reproach to the church and it was just eating her up said I would never do anything so mom I know you wouldn't do that but here's what was interesting about my mom no matter how bad she got and course she began to deteriorate at the end she was still thinking about the souls of others and how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and I want you to understand even though she the ultimate victory came of course when she passed away and now she's with Jesus but I want you to understand she was still witnessing to people if you want to be what God wants you to be when you're under spiritual attack you have to forget about what's happening even you have to be ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ you know some of you are always complaining the people are talking about you or spreading rumors about you or people are stabbing you in the back Oh get over it you want that to happen become a pastor I'm serious you know I didn't grow up in a pastor's home and I thought when I became a pastor I thought everyone was gonna love me because I'm gonna share the gospel I'm gonna help people and I found out just the opposite is true most of the people have roasts pastor for lunch after Sunday sermon yeah and when people get upset and they leave they go out and they tell all sorts of things and people have never even attended my church are saying things about us you know I learned that early on and where's what I learned I learned if people aren't calling you your cult you're probably not doing what you're supposed to be doing it's amazing what goes around how many of you heard that quarter some fellas it's a cult before you start coming to our church yeah go ahead and raise your hand see all those hands yeah I had a person come up to me one time and they said yeah I heard if you come to your church to become a member we they have to show you is w-2 forms what all kinds of rumors go out I had a person that came to see me about six months ago knee he'd been coming to my church for about six months and I've learned more to your church so I've learned in all my years as a Christian and he said but I want you to understand when I first came here so my ex pastor came to see me and said you need to stop going to that because they're deceiving you they're gonna lead you astray and I thought to myself oh my gosh there's probably no other in church in town that has talked about like cornerstone fellowship and I I don't understand that but I learned early on but I don't worry about that when under the tack don't worry about that you just keep sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and let me tell you something that's great about our church almost every service we have someone who's one - Jesus Christ and sometimes we'll have three or four and sometimes we'll have seven or eight people who will raise their hand to accept Jesus Christ now I grew up from the Baptist Church and I'll be honest with you if we saw one person walk down the aisle in a month we saw did you see we had a person saved you know now we see people saved all the time but I'll tell you why it's because we teach the Word of God but I'm here to tell you when you're under spiritual attack you need to still be ready and prepared to share the gospel of Jesus because they are killer shoes to the enemy and if you just keep on going I want you understand those things would just roll right off of you now let's look at the next piece of God's armor which is the shield of faith so turn with me to verse 16 in Ephesians chapter 6 it says above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked now as I told you last week the Roman soldiers were issued two different types of shields one was for public parades and ceremonies it was called an aspis the other words for battle and it was called the thery us now the shield that Paul is referring to is 2:3 us it was 4 foot long by two and a half feet wide and it was shaped just like a door which is interesting because the Greek word 3oz is derived from the Greek word thourough which literally means door so it aptly describes what a Roman soldier shield looked like now with this large of a shield a Roman soldier could completely cover himself from the aerial assaults of the enemy and if you understand the battle tactics back then you would literally have your army lineup and you would face the other armies battle line and and what was interesting is you began to march toward each other the archers on each side would shoot arrows and when you saw those arrows coming I'm telling there could be so many it would almost blackened the sky make it dark and the only thing you could do is actually get down on your knee put your shield up and their shield was so large it completely covered them when they were under in an aerial assault now as I said last week the shield had an iron frame and was composed of six layers of animal hides treated in a special way to make it as strong as steel the middle of the shield had a metal boss at the center of it because that was his weakest spot its weakest point and this eliminated any weakness and made it almost impenetrable now verse 16 Paul said that the shield of faith is able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked look back at verse 16 you'll see what I'm talking about says above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked now one in the world our fiery darts well the word darts is translated from the Greek word bellows which stir in which is derived from the greek verb ballo which means to throw so bellows refers to anything aerial such as arrows javelins or darts but most of the time it referred to arrows now lucidity was a Greek historian who lived about 400 BC and his writings revealed that there were three types of arrows that armies used around the Mediterranean Sea in fact let me explain something about the people who lived in the Middle East around the Mediterranean Sea that was the cradle of civilization in fact if you go back and you study these ancient empires they were the most advanced empires in the world I'll give you an example when you go to some of the museums over there in the Middle East maybe you go to Israel you're going to Jordan or you're going to Egypt you're going to these museums and you'll see certain pieces of equipment that are three thousand four thousand years old and you can't believe it you're thinking how in the world did they do that how in the world did they build the pyramids at the time of Abraham in fact they were actually built before Abraham how many of you know that the Pyramids of Giza Cheops yeah I I like to ask this question I will say things like this when Abraham went to Egypt did he see the pyramids most people I don't know yes he did they were built at that time when Moses he saw the pyramids when Jesus parents Joseph Mary took him to Egypt there were the pyramids they saw the pyramids they saw those things and when you look at the things that the these ancient civilizations had the houses they lived people they didn't live in huts they lived in houses now you go over there today and you think man they're so backward the third-world countries what in the world happened to them z1 now Islam Islam Islam is built on 7th century nomadic tribe customs and culture from Saudi Arabia they still wipe their hand with their say well still wipe their butts but their left hand that's the way it is in fact if you go to Egypt today you never hand anything with your left hand because that's an insult why you'll wipe with your left and you eat with your right yeah but the reason they're so back working at one time they were advanced it's because of Islam but here's what I want you to understand through sin ADIZ was a Greek historian who lived about 400 BC and his writings revealed that there were three types of arrows that were used by the armies that are around the Mediterranean Sea the first arrow were were plain arrows just like our arrows today they had metal tips yeah some of you enjoyed going in and finding arrowheads today and you find one and it's all chipped out you look in the arrowhead it's probably 300 years old isn't that sad because 4000 years ago the Persian Empire the Greeks the Babylonians the Assyrians the Egyptians they had mantle their arrows had metal tips so you had arrows with metal tips just like our arrows today the second type were flame arrows they would dip them in tar and then they would like them on fire and shoot them the third were arrows that were filled with combustible fluid a combustible fluid sealed and then shot now these combustible arrows were made from slender pieces of that were hollowed out and they were filled as I said with a combustible fluid and then they were sealed with wax or clay and then they were shot and when they hit they would scare the crap out of you because they exploded on impact now to the natural eye they look like a plain arrow so when the enemy would shoot these arrows would be all there's just an arrow I'll put my shield up but when they hit they exploded like a bomb now these fluid-filled arrows were not used in normal combat situations they were reserved for use against before to find positions of the enemy that's when they brought out these type of arrows but here's what's interesting Paul's word usage in the Greek is identical to through Siddha tees so this is what Paul was talking about when he said fiery darts yes now people this is really applicable to us as it pertains to spiritual battles that we face as Christians I want you to think about this how many times does it look like the devil is throwing something small at you oh yes this is an attack of the enemy but you know it doesn't look very big and before you know it explodes into something major in other words it looks like a normal attack and then it explodes into something much larger well Paul says that the shield of faith is able to quench the fiery darts now that word quench is translated from the Greek word spin to me and it means to extinguisher to put out and that's what faith does it puts out or it extinguishes the fire but here's what you need to understand it does not stop the explosion it does not stop the explosion all it does is it puts out or extinguishes the fire and it protects you from getting harmed now what am I saying on this here's what I'm telling you maybe at work you know someone spreads the rumor on you thing well you know this is just a little thing and then you find out that everyone knows about it and your boss calls you in so it was something you that you thought that was small I'm being attacked all of a sudden exploded in something bigger here's what you need to understand has given you the shield of faith and the purpose of the shield is to extinguish the fire and to protect you from harm but it does not stop the initial explosion everyone get that because there are some people that think because they're a Christian everything's gonna be roses well honey I want you to understand they have roses there's got to be a lot of fertilizer so crap will happen in your life but here's what you need to understand when those things hit and it explodes and it seems to be much larger than what you thought you know you got a letter from the IRS and now they send you a second letter and they've seized your accounts and you're being audited oh my gosh how did it explode into this you crying this is when you take the shield of faith you take what's your work what the Word of God says and you realize the faith will quench the fire and protect you from harm but it doesn't stop the explosions from happening that's good teaching pastor Allen now let's look at the next piece of armor which is the helmet of salvation so turn with me if you would to verse number 17 in ephesians chapter 6 says then take the helmet of salvation now I want you to underline the word salvation salvation is translated from the Greek word so tarry on but more importantly it's written in the ablative source case which means the salvation is the source of the helmet in other words the moment you get saved the helmet comes into existence and it's automatically put on and as a result of that you now have what Paul refers to as a saved mind let me say that again you now have what Paul calls has saved mind in fact turned with me if you would to the book a second Timothy chapter 1 verse number 7 and I'll show you what I'm talking about it says for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind now I want you to underline that phrase sound mind sound mind is translated from the Greek words so front is must or I should say this so front us muss that's about the best way I can pronounce it now so Fratus moss is a compound word that simply means that it's made up of more than one word in this case it's made up of two words it's made up of the word so which means whole or health in fact so is a common stem in the Bible it's the stem for the word sotiria which means salvation so ter which means Savior and Sojo which means saved now hopefully if you notice that all three of these words deal with the act of saving and that's because the stem so indicates the act of saving us from anything that jeopardizes our health or what the Bible would call wholeness so it's usually translated as saved so what is so what does the stem so mean it means saved the second word is from that oh and from there o refers to the mind so when you combine these two words it literally means saved mind so notice what Paul is telling Timothy he says for God has not has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a saved mind so if I were you I would open up my Bible to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse number 7 and I would cross out that phrase sound mind and I would write right above it saved mind because that's what it literally says now you won't understand what Paul is saying unless you understand the background of this book so let me give you a little bit of background information that you need to know Timothy pastored in the city of Ephesus and it was the very first mega church in the world outside of Jerusalem yeah scholars think they believed that his church had over 25,000 members and people the population of Tahlequah is fifteen thousand six hundred somewhere in there it's going to go up by the Year 2022 around 20,000 but here's what I want you understand even if it goes up to 20,000 he had over 25,000 members in his church so Paul wrote the book of first timothy 2 timothy to teach him or to tell him and to give him some instruction on how to administrate this large growing mega church because Timothy was a young man and he has all of these members and he's kind of overwhelmed so Paul writes the book of first Timothy to instruct him on how he should administrate his church that's why they're called the pastoral epistles yeah they're good advice to how to administrate a church now shortly after Paul wrote the book of first Timothy persecution began and Timothy's mega church just crumbled he went from a church of over 25,000 members to a church under 100 can you imagine having a church of over 25,000 members and then persecution begins and you have a church of less than a hundred and almost all of his leaders left the church and even Timothy was fearful for his life but he was also bitter at his leaders because he felt like they had deserted him and that's why Paul wrote the book of 2nd Timothy so in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse number 7 Paul told Timothy God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a saved mind in other words Paul told Timothy quit your stinking thinking God's given you a saved mind so start using it quit thinking the way the world thinks and start thinking the way that God's Word tells you to think you think I saved mind doesn't mean that God supernaturally renews your mind when you get saved it's not like all of a sudden when you get saved but whoa I just think like Jesus thinks now you have to renew your mind because God doesn't do it for you in fact turn to the book of Romans chapter 12 verses verse 2 and I'll show you what I'm talking about very familiar passage of Scripture Paul is writing this and he says and be not conformed to this world the problem is most of you have conformed to this world you think like the world thinks do you think that success is all about money and prestige and power and being popular or whatever it is you think that's what success is all about of course Jesus comes alone he says that it's not he says life is not about material things yeah so he tells them don't be conformed to this world but be transformed now how are you transformed by the renewing of your mind why do you want to be transformed so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God you see that word prove it's translated from the Greek word deeakron oh and that literally means to make a distinction between so the whole reason we're supposed to renew our mind is so that we can make a distinction between the acceptable the good and the perfect will of God see some of you just want to do the will of God well you're a bang I don't just want to know the will of God I want to know the distinction between the acceptable will of God and the perfect will of God most of you have settled for the acceptable will of God and that's why your life is kind of I want the perfect will of God but the only way I can make a distinction between the acceptable will of God and the perfect will of God is not be conformed with this world but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind so that I can make a distinction between the acceptable the good and the perfect will of God so what is a saved mind I still haven't told you what a saved mind is well let me see if I can explain it to you before you were saved your mind was blind to the truth of God's Word but now that you're saved your mind has been opened to the truth so a saved mind is a mind that's no longer blind to the truth but now it's able to see the truth of God's Word look at 2nd Corinthians chapter four verses 3 and 4 and you see what I'm talking about it says if the gospel we preach is hidden it's hidden from the people who were lost you know I can't understand why everyone in the world is not saved you want to know why because salvation determines where you going to spend eternity and we're going to die there's not a person out here that's not going to die hey I've got news for you you're going to die unless Jesus comes back before but if not Menace appointed once to die but there's all these people who are saved why aren't they say well let's just keep reading if the gospel we preach is hidden it's hidden from the people who were lost Satan who is the god of this world hath blinded the minds of those who don't believe they are unable to see the glorious light of the gospel they don't understand this message about the glory of Christ who is the exact likeness of God so as you can see those who are lost are blind to the truth but those who are saved are no longer blind to the truth but they're able to see the truth of God's Word so that's what Paul was telling Timothy he was telling Timothy that God has given him a saved mind a bond that can see the truth he said wake up Timothy God's not given you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and have saved mine all these lost people they're blind to the truth but you have a saved mind you need to renew your mind because you can see the truth of God's world so salvation opens our mind to the truth and truth is what protects our mind from the lies of the enemy and from the stinking thinking of this world and that's why it's referred to as the hamlet of salvation people and it protects our mind and it protects our thought process but that's why so many of you you get attacked by the enemy oh you're kind of like Timothy everything's going to hell in a handbasket no it doesn't matter what happens to you I want you to understand something you are a child of God and you have the promises that God's Word says you have you need to quit your stinking thinking quit being conformed to this world be transformed by the renewing of your mind and start walking in God's Word and pretty soon that Shield of faith comes back up pretty soon you have on the shoes well I like to call killer shoes of the gospel you're going to crush the enemy as you prepare or as you share the gospel with other now let's look at the last piece of armor which is the sword of the Spirit so turn back to verse 17 of Ephesians chapter 6 and let's read that again and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God now most people after reading this verse think that the sword of the Spirit is the Bible how many of you have ever heard a pastor saying and take the sword abuse of the Spirit the Word of God I'm gonna anyone ever heard that yeah most of us after reading this verse think that the sword of the Spirit is the Bible but that because that's what it seems to say the people it's not saying that and let me explain how I know that first of all in the original Greek there is no definite article before the phrase Word of God that means it should have been translated a Word of God not the Word of God yeah secondly God is in the ablative the source case which means it should have been translated from God not of God so if you have your Bible here's what I want you to do I want you to cross out the word of and I want you to write above it the word from so a literal translation would read something like this and the sword of the Spirit which is a word from God Wow as I've told you before 99% of the Bible you can read in English or whatever language that you speak and you can understand it but there's about one percent of the Bible that if you can't read the original languages the meaning is kind of lost and this is one of those times because we translated it as the Word of God when really what it says the original is and the sword of the Spirit which is a word from God and last but not least that term word is translated from the Greek word Rhema not Lagos you see when you're talking about the Bible as the Word of God you always use the word Lagos people this is the Word of God this is the Lagos of God so when you're talking about the Word of God is the Bible you always use the word Lagos you never use the word Rhema you see a Rhema is a word that God quickens in your spirit in other words it's when God speaks to you either through a particulars or maybe through what the pastor is saying or maybe you're doing your quiet time and you're reading the Bible or you're praying and all of a sudden God just drops this word into you and it's like God was speaking to you people that's a Rhema it's God speaking to you personally and that's what the sword of the Spirit is the sword of the Spirit is a Rhema from God it is a word that God has quickened in your spirit now whenever you're in a spiritual battle a Rhema for Rhema from God is always exactly what you need to overcome and be victorious yeah if you're being hit by the enemy and you're going to the Lord in prayer and you're praying about this one of the things you should be praying is God give me a Rhema speak to me what I should do what I should say Lord give it to me and you'd be surprised the number of times you'll open up your Bible and they'll just be a verse or he'll just say one word to you or he'll speak to you that's a Rhema so whenever you're in a spiritual battle a Rhema from God is always exactly what you need to overcome and be victorious in fact let me give you two examples to illustrate what I'm talking about turn with me if you would to the book of Acts chapter 14 verses 8 through 10 while they were at Lystra one of the most exciting places to ever visit is Turkey you want to know why Turkey is the second holy land most of us don't know that but in the early church here's what's interesting all of Paul's missionary journeys went through Turkey the seven churches in Revelation the seven churches of Revelation are all in Turkey yeah guess where Lister is modern-day Turkey so notice what it says while they were at Lystra Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet you could tell right away you could look at his feet you could say something is wrong with his feet he had been that way from birth so he had never walked he was sitting and listening as Paul preached looking straight at him Paul realized he had faith to be healed so Paul called to him in a loud voice stand up and the man jumped to his feet and he started walking God spoke to Paul telling him the man had enough faith to be healed so Paul told him to stand up and bam he was healed in other words Paul received a Rhema now technically this was a word of knowledge everyone knows what a word knowledge is right we have different gifts you have the motivational gifts and you have the manifestation gifts the motivational gifts are referred to in the book of Romans and they tell you the things these gifts that every one of us has that motivates us to do what we do Lisa's motivational gift is serving she likes to serve me I like to be served we're very compatible my motivation will get this teaching I like to teach so I bore Lisa but because she's a server she listens to me as I preach sermons at all so we're very compatible everyone see that those are motivational gifts but then Corinthians tells us that there is something that's called the manifestation gifts they're manifestations of the Spirit those are the gifts that if you're from this assembly God or the Pentecostal you're very familiar with those gifts those are the gifts like to get to prophesy to get to ward a knowledge to get to word of wisdom the gift of faith the the gifts of healings the gift of miracles those are the manifestation gifts those things happen as the spirit wheels so the motivational gifts they affect your personality they affect who you are you know it's kind of motivation it's why they're called motivation because motivate you to do what you do the manifestation gifts there ask the Holy Spirit wheel so these supernatural gifts that we talk about well technically what Paul received was a word of knowledge in other words he knew something that he had no way of knowing in the natural he knew that this man had the ability or had the faith to walk so here he is preaching he looks at this man and he's been looking at and all of a sudden God just drops in the spirit he tells him this man has enough faith to be healed and so he looks at that Mesa stand out the man stands up and walks around but here's what I want you to see even though technically it's a word of knowledge the reason that Paul knew it is because God told him God told him so it was a Rhema but it was a Rhema for that specific specific situation when God speaks to you it will always be for a specific situation there have been times that God has spoken to many times that God has spoken to my wife in fact I can remember one time we were in church and God didn't speak to me on this because I'm ready to preach and I'm concentrating on the Word of God but all of a sudden my wife just knew makes he's in danger now this is the time that we were doing three services we're doing a Saturday night service and eight o'clock or a nine o'clock service and 11 o'clock service and so we're getting ready to start the eleven o'clock service Macey had gone to the Saturday night so she stayed home and Lisa had asked her to water the flowers and so something just hidden and God totally said face is in danger you need to pray so she just praying the Spirit didn't tell me she didn't want to worry me I got a therm preached we're going home and she said something just told me to pray for amazing so I was praying if you looked like I wasn't paying attention to you I wasn't because I was praying so I'm not gonna say anything that may see it on one scare so we get home and Macy says mom dad something strange happened this morning said I went out to water the flowers and there's a person parked in the park in a band he was just staring at me and he got out and was staring at me and I felt uncomfortable so I turned off the water I didn't act like I scare and I walked out I got in and I locked the door he said I went upstairs I looked out the window and said he was going from the side-to-side look like he was looking at something else and then he gets in that van and he slams this misty recruit and he drove off so mom and dad that scared me of course Lisa tells me the story but you see God speaks to us he gives us Ramos for the specific situation now let me give you a second example as an illustration look with me if you would in Acts chapter 16 verse 16 16 through 18 now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination Medus who brought her master's much profit by fortune-telling she's dealing with familiar spirits that's why this girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation now we think why in the world would she do that well you need to understand something the original Greek it doesn't say the way of salvation it's no definite article there she was proclaiming a way of salvation she back then they taught that there were many ways just like they do today to the mountain of God there's many ways to get to heaven she was saying oh this is a man of God he's preaching you away to heaven see Paul had allowed this to go on for several days and then notice what happens this is verse 18 and this she did for many days but Paul greatly annoyed turned and said to the spirit I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out that very hour God spoke to Paul and told him that the girl was possessed by a demon he'd been allowing this demon-possessed girl to follow him around and then he turns around and he knows that she's possessed by a demon because God told him so he commanded the demon to come out of her and bam was delivered now again this was a word of knowledge Paul knew something that he had no way of knowing in the natural but the reason he knew it is because God told him so even though as a word of knowledge it was also a Rhema and it was for that specific situation let me explain the purpose of growing in the Lord the whole purpose of growing the Lord is to strengthen your relationship with God to be able to do his will but there's benefits to knowing God and one of the benefits is you begin to know God God begins to speak to you personally you know we look at these people in the Bible we think men these are great men of faith and many of them were but the Bible tells us in Hebrews they're just like us they're men of flesh so the very things that God did for them God can do for us now when you're in a spiritual battle what you need is for God to speak to you you need a Rhema and when he does it's a sword in your hand in that moment you'll know exactly what to do or say to overcome them be victorious so it truly is like a sword in your hand but it's even better it's a word from God so when we look at these different pieces of armor and the ones that we covered this morning we realized that we need every bit of these we need to have these shoes of peace we need to be prepared to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and even in the midst of our spiritual battles we need to be sensitive we need to be receptive we need to be prepared and ready to share the gospel of Jesus because when we do that it crushed us the enemy the other thing that we need is a shield of faith because sometimes it looks like a little arrows coming at us and we put that up and then boom and explode into something major the shield does not stop the explosions but what it will do is it will quench the fire and it will protect you so you can come out of it unharmed the third thing we need is the helmet of salvation we need to have a saved mind and think the way the Word of God tells us to think because if we don't we'll believe the lies of the enemy and as long as you believe the lives of the enemy you will never be victorious and last but not least you need the sword of spirit which is a word from God

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

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Keywords: armor of god bible study, armor of god bible study videos, armor of god bible project, armor of god bible story, armor of god sermon, armor of god sermon series, armor of god, armor of god explained, armor of god in bible, what is the armor of god, how do you put on the armor of god, what are the parts of the armor of god, why is armor of god important, armor of god allen nolan, angels and demons allen nolan, demons in bible allen nolan, armor of god encouragement

Id: l9ECFzyKc8M

Length: 46min 20sec (2780 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 31 2018