Post by Les Brewer on Jun 5, 2014 8:20:09 GMT
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH!
Apostle Paul, before he went to be with the Lord, wrote to Timothy, a young Pastor of the Church at Ephesus, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8)
He says that he has finished his course or race (that means nothing had been able to stop him from finishing the race that was set before him) and has kept the faith (this suggests that there were things which were challenging his faith – the life he was called to live) but He fought the good fight. What is this good fight? Is it a fight with demons? No, it is a good fight of faith,
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
We have been called to live a life of faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), and the fight we’ve been called to fight is the fight of faith.
The only fight the Christian is called upon to fight is the good fight of faith. If we are in any other kind of fight, we are in the wrong fight. We need to get out of the wrong fight and get into the right one. Some Christians say, "I'm going to fight the devil." There's no need to do that. Jesus already defeated him. You wouldn't be any match for him anyway. Because Jesus has already defeated Satan for you, there is no use for you to fight the devil.
Some say, "I'm going to fight sin." There is no need to do that either, because Jesus has the cure for sin. The cure for sin is Jesus, praise God! Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself according to Hebrews 9:26. So there really isn't a sin problem. There is just a sinner problem, and when you get the sinner to Jesus, Jesus cures that.
In 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter wrote “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (Verse 8) and then in he went on to say in verse 9 “Whom resist steadfast in the faith…” Notice, he said the devil is “seeking whom he may devour”. This tells us something, it means not all of us are available for his cunning works. Remember, the devil was whipped and paralyzed by Jesus (Hebrews 2:14, 15), the only weapon he has left is deception: if he can deceive you he can defeat you, but then he can’t deceive the man who knows the truth. So he is looking for the ignorant: those are the ones that are susceptible to his strategies. That is why Paul said, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11).
But then, if he can’t deceive you he will try to sway you from the truth. That is what Paul meant by “For we wrestle…against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12), the Greek word translated “wrestle” here doesn't mean fighting you know, like two people punching and kicking each other. No, to wrestle here means to "struggle with an opponent by grappling and trying to sway or trip him. That is what the devil is trying to do: he is trying to sway us from the truth, but Peter says “whom resist him steadfast in faith.”
This is what is called “The good fight of faith”. Our fight has been fought and won. There isn't any fight for you to fight except the fight of faith. If you are fighting any other fight, you are in a wrong fight.
WHAT IS FAITH?
He has told us that the fight we ought to fight is the good fight of faith; we know what it means to “fight” but what is faith? If we are going to fight the good fight of faith, we must need to understand what faith is. What is faith?
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
the Amplified Translation puts it this way, “ Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of the things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality-faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)
• Faith is not hope, and hope is not faith. Faith is the substances of things hoped for. In other words, it is making your hopes a reality – making your expectation become your experience.
• Faith does not have evidence; it is the evidence, the proof. The proof of what? Unseen realities. You can’t have evidence for something which does not exist. Your faith is the proof or title deeds of unseen realities. You may not see them but they are yours, and faith is the proof.
Faith is the proof that what you’ve asked for is now yours even though you don’t see it with your natural eyes.
• Faith is taking hold of spiritual realities. You see, God is a Spirit (John 4: 24), and He operates in the spirit real. To Him, things in that realm are more real than the things we perceive with our senses.
• Faith is taking God at His word and acting according to what it says
• Faith is not believing, and believing is not faith. James 2: 17, AMP, says “So faith if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power-inoperative, dead.” In other words, faith without corresponding action is dead.
• Faith is acting on the word you have believed irrespective of what you feel, hear, smell, touch or taste.
WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE?
“Fight the good fight of faith, LAY HOLD OF ETERNAL LIFE, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
Romans 6: 23 says “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The gift of God is eternal life. This gift encapsulates all the gifts of God. Eternal life means more than life which has no end. It is translated from the Greek word Zoe. Zoe is the God-life, it is the God- kind of life (like you have animal life, plant life etc.); it is the kind of life that God has – the divine life; it is life with righteousness; life that cannot fail, life that cannot be defeated or destroyed. It is imperishable and indestructible life, the Bible says in John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should (or must) not perish, but have eternal life.”
Those who believe in Jesus are separated from the perishing (suffering) ones, but those who don’t believe in Him will continue to perish. “For the preaching of the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV)
There are those who are perishing and there are those who are living the imperishable life. As far as God is concerned, the Christian is not supposed to be perishing but to be enjoying the God-kind of life. This is because we were born from an incorruptible seed:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” (1 Peter 1: 23)
The word translated “seed” here, is the same word from which we get the English word “sperm”. The sperm is a life carrying faculty of a living thing. The child gets the blood from the father through the sperm, which is the life carrier. If the sperm is perishable then the life it carries is perishable, but if it is imperishable the life it carries will of all necessity be imperishable. When you are born again it was the seed of God (God’s word, Luke 18: 11) that came to you and produced the imperishable, indestructible, indomitable, invincible life in you. You’re now a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4)
You have received the God-kind of life (the life without sickness, failure, poverty, sin and death) by faith. What you receive by faith, you enjoy by faith, and you keep by faith.
Now eternal life is not something you see with your optical eyes – it is a spiritual reality – which encapsulate other spiritual realities. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on (spiritual realities. E.g. your blessings, your health, your prosperity) eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12 Emphasis Mine)
Lay hold on that reality and let no devil decieve you out of it. Keep declaring God's word over it!
WHAT IS THE GOOD PROFESSION?
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on (spiritual realities. E.g. your blessings, your health, your prosperity) eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and HAST PROFESSED A GOOD PROFESSION before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12 Emphasis Mine)
The word “profession” can also be translated “confession”, it is translated from a Greek word which means “to say the same thing in consent” “to speak in agreement with” or “to say the same things”. When you do something wrong, and God says that what you did was wrong, and you say “yes sir, what I did was wrong. I am sorry.” You’ve confessed (1 John 1:9).
The good confession is that confession that you made which brought you eternal life.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10: 9, 10)
When you believed, you were only made right with God, but it is through the confession that you made that you became a child of God. The good confession which you made is what catapulted you into salvation.Now Paul is saying, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on the God-kind of life (and all the spiritual realities which are consistent with it), where you were also called, and confessed a good confession before many witnesses. In other words, you made that confession publicly. Verse 17 says “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession” (1 Timothy 6:13)
Jesus before Pilate made a good confession. He did not change what He had always been saying about Himself,
“And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he (Jesus) answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.” (Mark 15: 1, 2)
He did not beg Pilate to release Him or deny what He has always been saying about Himself. He kept the faith! He kept His good confession!That is the principle: you received eternal life by faith, through your confession of faith, you live it by faith, through your confessions of faith, and you retain it by faith, through your confessions of faith. Don’t change your confession to suit what you see with your eyes, change what you see with your eyes, with your good confessions.
Hebrews 10:23 says “Let us hold fast the profession (or confession) of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)”Irrespective of what your senses tell you, keep talking the word – hold fast to your confession of faith “all things are mine. I will never be poor!” “By the strips of Christ, I was healed. I am the healed of God. I refuse to be sick!” “I am blessed and not cursed, in Jesus Name. All blessings are mine”; “my life is moving forward and upwards. Nothing can stop my progress”, etc
Christianity is for word talkers! Those who don’t talk the word can’t live the Christian life. We received it by talking, we live it by talking, and we fight the good fight of faith by talking our faith without wavering. Hallelujah!
THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
The whole armour of God is not for the devil, because he has already been defeated. Nowhere in Scripture are instructed to fight against him or his demons. So the armor is not for him. What is it for? It is for his wiles (lies, schemes and stratagems)
Ephesians 6: 11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Ephesians 6: 14-18:" 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 ye shall 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 supplication for the saints"
Having your loins girt about with truth means knowing and understanding the truth.
Breastplate of righteousness means knowing the truth about righteousness and walking in it.
To have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace means to be actively involved in preaching the gospel-to be a soul-winner. (see Isaiah 52:7)
Taking the shield of faith is laying claims to what God's word has delivered to us and walking (living and acting) according to that word irrespective of the circumstances. This shield of faith is used to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, taking possession of what belongs to you according to the word of truth.
Taking the helmet of salvation sums up all of what Christ did for us on the cross, for Salvation is an all inclusive word of the gospel.
The last one is: the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Greek Rhema) of God. Meaning the confession and proclamation of God's word. You speak the word (not fire) against all that is contrary to God's revealed will concerning you. 1 Timothy 1:18 says, “this charge i commit unto thee, son timothy, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare"
Paul instructed Timothy to fight a good warfare using the prophecies-that is God's word concerning him. All the other weapons are for the defence, declaring Rhema is the only weapon for the offense.
It is all about faith. It’s about fighting to live the life of faith and to keep what you have received by faith.
When Jesus received the word at the River Jordan during His baptism, the devil came immediately for the word He had received. The Father said to Jesus “…Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) then the devil came to Him and bowed to Jesus and said “Thou art the beloved Son of God. Congratulations, I’m humbled to meet you.” No! That is not what he came to do; he came to challenge the word sown in the heart of Jesus. He knew that if Jesus could doubt His divinity He wouldn’t be able to manifest God on earth and die for mankind, so he said to Him, “…if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” (Luke 4:3) But Jesus was wise; He glued His heart to God’s word and refused to cower, He raised His shield of faith and said to Satan, “…it is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4:4) He quoted the written word (Greek Logos) to Satan. But Satan did not leave Him alone; instead he started quoting Logos too. Until Jesus spoke Rhema; until He said to him, “…it is said…” (Luke 4:12) he did not depart from Him.
Raising your shield of faith will only quench the fiery darts of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16); it will only protect you from getting injured, but won’t stop the attack. If you want to stop the enemy from swaying you from God’s word, you mustn’t just defend yourself and hope that he will free from you, you must get offensive and use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Greek Rhema) of God (Ephesians 6: 17). The Logos of God is the totality of God’s revelations encapsulated in the Bible (it is the written word; Jesus is the living Logos). But the Rhema of God is God’s personal word; it is God’s word for the now (it is God spoken word). Speaking Rhema is not quoting scriptures like some have thought, as long as you are saying “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose strips ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24) the sickness will not go, it may even kill you. You must go beyond Logos and speak Rhema; you say “by the strips of Jesus I was healed. I refuse to be sick, because I was healed. You sickness you have no power over my body, in the Name of Jesus, Chicken out!” that is declaring Rhema; you personalize the word and use it in the now. Don’t just speak Logos, speak Rhema!
Fight the good fight of faith! Then after all has been said and done you’ll be able to say like the Apostle Paul:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8)
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Apostle Paul, before he went to be with the Lord, wrote to Timothy, a young Pastor of the Church at Ephesus, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8)
He says that he has finished his course or race (that means nothing had been able to stop him from finishing the race that was set before him) and has kept the faith (this suggests that there were things which were challenging his faith – the life he was called to live) but He fought the good fight. What is this good fight? Is it a fight with demons? No, it is a good fight of faith,
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
We have been called to live a life of faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), and the fight we’ve been called to fight is the fight of faith.
The only fight the Christian is called upon to fight is the good fight of faith. If we are in any other kind of fight, we are in the wrong fight. We need to get out of the wrong fight and get into the right one. Some Christians say, "I'm going to fight the devil." There's no need to do that. Jesus already defeated him. You wouldn't be any match for him anyway. Because Jesus has already defeated Satan for you, there is no use for you to fight the devil.
Some say, "I'm going to fight sin." There is no need to do that either, because Jesus has the cure for sin. The cure for sin is Jesus, praise God! Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself according to Hebrews 9:26. So there really isn't a sin problem. There is just a sinner problem, and when you get the sinner to Jesus, Jesus cures that.
In 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter wrote “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (Verse 8) and then in he went on to say in verse 9 “Whom resist steadfast in the faith…” Notice, he said the devil is “seeking whom he may devour”. This tells us something, it means not all of us are available for his cunning works. Remember, the devil was whipped and paralyzed by Jesus (Hebrews 2:14, 15), the only weapon he has left is deception: if he can deceive you he can defeat you, but then he can’t deceive the man who knows the truth. So he is looking for the ignorant: those are the ones that are susceptible to his strategies. That is why Paul said, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11).
But then, if he can’t deceive you he will try to sway you from the truth. That is what Paul meant by “For we wrestle…against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12), the Greek word translated “wrestle” here doesn't mean fighting you know, like two people punching and kicking each other. No, to wrestle here means to "struggle with an opponent by grappling and trying to sway or trip him. That is what the devil is trying to do: he is trying to sway us from the truth, but Peter says “whom resist him steadfast in faith.”
This is what is called “The good fight of faith”. Our fight has been fought and won. There isn't any fight for you to fight except the fight of faith. If you are fighting any other fight, you are in a wrong fight.
WHAT IS FAITH?
He has told us that the fight we ought to fight is the good fight of faith; we know what it means to “fight” but what is faith? If we are going to fight the good fight of faith, we must need to understand what faith is. What is faith?
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
the Amplified Translation puts it this way, “ Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of the things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality-faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)
• Faith is not hope, and hope is not faith. Faith is the substances of things hoped for. In other words, it is making your hopes a reality – making your expectation become your experience.
• Faith does not have evidence; it is the evidence, the proof. The proof of what? Unseen realities. You can’t have evidence for something which does not exist. Your faith is the proof or title deeds of unseen realities. You may not see them but they are yours, and faith is the proof.
Faith is the proof that what you’ve asked for is now yours even though you don’t see it with your natural eyes.
• Faith is taking hold of spiritual realities. You see, God is a Spirit (John 4: 24), and He operates in the spirit real. To Him, things in that realm are more real than the things we perceive with our senses.
• Faith is taking God at His word and acting according to what it says
• Faith is not believing, and believing is not faith. James 2: 17, AMP, says “So faith if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power-inoperative, dead.” In other words, faith without corresponding action is dead.
• Faith is acting on the word you have believed irrespective of what you feel, hear, smell, touch or taste.
WHAT IS ETERNAL LIFE?
“Fight the good fight of faith, LAY HOLD OF ETERNAL LIFE, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
Romans 6: 23 says “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The gift of God is eternal life. This gift encapsulates all the gifts of God. Eternal life means more than life which has no end. It is translated from the Greek word Zoe. Zoe is the God-life, it is the God- kind of life (like you have animal life, plant life etc.); it is the kind of life that God has – the divine life; it is life with righteousness; life that cannot fail, life that cannot be defeated or destroyed. It is imperishable and indestructible life, the Bible says in John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should (or must) not perish, but have eternal life.”
Those who believe in Jesus are separated from the perishing (suffering) ones, but those who don’t believe in Him will continue to perish. “For the preaching of the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18, NIV)
There are those who are perishing and there are those who are living the imperishable life. As far as God is concerned, the Christian is not supposed to be perishing but to be enjoying the God-kind of life. This is because we were born from an incorruptible seed:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” (1 Peter 1: 23)
The word translated “seed” here, is the same word from which we get the English word “sperm”. The sperm is a life carrying faculty of a living thing. The child gets the blood from the father through the sperm, which is the life carrier. If the sperm is perishable then the life it carries is perishable, but if it is imperishable the life it carries will of all necessity be imperishable. When you are born again it was the seed of God (God’s word, Luke 18: 11) that came to you and produced the imperishable, indestructible, indomitable, invincible life in you. You’re now a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4)
You have received the God-kind of life (the life without sickness, failure, poverty, sin and death) by faith. What you receive by faith, you enjoy by faith, and you keep by faith.
Now eternal life is not something you see with your optical eyes – it is a spiritual reality – which encapsulate other spiritual realities. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on (spiritual realities. E.g. your blessings, your health, your prosperity) eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12 Emphasis Mine)
Lay hold on that reality and let no devil decieve you out of it. Keep declaring God's word over it!
WHAT IS THE GOOD PROFESSION?
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on (spiritual realities. E.g. your blessings, your health, your prosperity) eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and HAST PROFESSED A GOOD PROFESSION before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12 Emphasis Mine)
The word “profession” can also be translated “confession”, it is translated from a Greek word which means “to say the same thing in consent” “to speak in agreement with” or “to say the same things”. When you do something wrong, and God says that what you did was wrong, and you say “yes sir, what I did was wrong. I am sorry.” You’ve confessed (1 John 1:9).
The good confession is that confession that you made which brought you eternal life.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10: 9, 10)
When you believed, you were only made right with God, but it is through the confession that you made that you became a child of God. The good confession which you made is what catapulted you into salvation.Now Paul is saying, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on the God-kind of life (and all the spiritual realities which are consistent with it), where you were also called, and confessed a good confession before many witnesses. In other words, you made that confession publicly. Verse 17 says “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession” (1 Timothy 6:13)
Jesus before Pilate made a good confession. He did not change what He had always been saying about Himself,
“And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he (Jesus) answering said unto him, Thou sayest it.” (Mark 15: 1, 2)
He did not beg Pilate to release Him or deny what He has always been saying about Himself. He kept the faith! He kept His good confession!That is the principle: you received eternal life by faith, through your confession of faith, you live it by faith, through your confessions of faith, and you retain it by faith, through your confessions of faith. Don’t change your confession to suit what you see with your eyes, change what you see with your eyes, with your good confessions.
Hebrews 10:23 says “Let us hold fast the profession (or confession) of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)”Irrespective of what your senses tell you, keep talking the word – hold fast to your confession of faith “all things are mine. I will never be poor!” “By the strips of Christ, I was healed. I am the healed of God. I refuse to be sick!” “I am blessed and not cursed, in Jesus Name. All blessings are mine”; “my life is moving forward and upwards. Nothing can stop my progress”, etc
Christianity is for word talkers! Those who don’t talk the word can’t live the Christian life. We received it by talking, we live it by talking, and we fight the good fight of faith by talking our faith without wavering. Hallelujah!
THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD
The whole armour of God is not for the devil, because he has already been defeated. Nowhere in Scripture are instructed to fight against him or his demons. So the armor is not for him. What is it for? It is for his wiles (lies, schemes and stratagems)
Ephesians 6: 11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Ephesians 6: 14-18:" 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 ye shall 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 supplication for the saints"
Having your loins girt about with truth means knowing and understanding the truth.
Breastplate of righteousness means knowing the truth about righteousness and walking in it.
To have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace means to be actively involved in preaching the gospel-to be a soul-winner. (see Isaiah 52:7)
Taking the shield of faith is laying claims to what God's word has delivered to us and walking (living and acting) according to that word irrespective of the circumstances. This shield of faith is used to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, taking possession of what belongs to you according to the word of truth.
Taking the helmet of salvation sums up all of what Christ did for us on the cross, for Salvation is an all inclusive word of the gospel.
The last one is: the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Greek Rhema) of God. Meaning the confession and proclamation of God's word. You speak the word (not fire) against all that is contrary to God's revealed will concerning you. 1 Timothy 1:18 says, “this charge i commit unto thee, son timothy, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare"
Paul instructed Timothy to fight a good warfare using the prophecies-that is God's word concerning him. All the other weapons are for the defence, declaring Rhema is the only weapon for the offense.
It is all about faith. It’s about fighting to live the life of faith and to keep what you have received by faith.
When Jesus received the word at the River Jordan during His baptism, the devil came immediately for the word He had received. The Father said to Jesus “…Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) then the devil came to Him and bowed to Jesus and said “Thou art the beloved Son of God. Congratulations, I’m humbled to meet you.” No! That is not what he came to do; he came to challenge the word sown in the heart of Jesus. He knew that if Jesus could doubt His divinity He wouldn’t be able to manifest God on earth and die for mankind, so he said to Him, “…if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” (Luke 4:3) But Jesus was wise; He glued His heart to God’s word and refused to cower, He raised His shield of faith and said to Satan, “…it is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4:4) He quoted the written word (Greek Logos) to Satan. But Satan did not leave Him alone; instead he started quoting Logos too. Until Jesus spoke Rhema; until He said to him, “…it is said…” (Luke 4:12) he did not depart from Him.
Raising your shield of faith will only quench the fiery darts of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16); it will only protect you from getting injured, but won’t stop the attack. If you want to stop the enemy from swaying you from God’s word, you mustn’t just defend yourself and hope that he will free from you, you must get offensive and use the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (Greek Rhema) of God (Ephesians 6: 17). The Logos of God is the totality of God’s revelations encapsulated in the Bible (it is the written word; Jesus is the living Logos). But the Rhema of God is God’s personal word; it is God’s word for the now (it is God spoken word). Speaking Rhema is not quoting scriptures like some have thought, as long as you are saying “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose strips ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24) the sickness will not go, it may even kill you. You must go beyond Logos and speak Rhema; you say “by the strips of Jesus I was healed. I refuse to be sick, because I was healed. You sickness you have no power over my body, in the Name of Jesus, Chicken out!” that is declaring Rhema; you personalize the word and use it in the now. Don’t just speak Logos, speak Rhema!
Fight the good fight of faith! Then after all has been said and done you’ll be able to say like the Apostle Paul:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8)
KALOS CHRISTIAN CHURCH (KCC)
Bringing Beauty To Your World
