Two kingdoms and two armies
Last time on Choosing Peace, we dug into The Shield of Faith, a rescue squad, a testudo and more. Today we’ll look at the last two pieces of The Armor of God—The Helmet of Salvation and The Sword of The Spirit—plus two classic tales. I hope you’re blessed by the two paintings too.
Kingdom reality
When we’re saved—when God Almighty adopts us and rescues us from The Kingdom of Darkness—something extremely profound and life-changing has happened. And we don’t really understand it at the time. We know we’re different, but we can’t appreciate the enormity of what just happened. We received The Ultimate Rescue. We’re now a part of a new family. A new kingdom.
Personally, I didn’t understand my new kingdom even remotely at the time. I knew that I finally trusted God. I knew that I was headed in a new direction. But the kingdom reality, the kingdom significance of my salvation was too big for me to grasp when I was saved 25 years ago.
…giving thanks to the Father, who delivered us out of the power of darkness,
and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;
in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins….
Colossians 1:12a, 13-14, New Heart English Bible
The helmet of salvation
Let’s move on to the next piece of The Armor of God. The style and colors of the helmet identify what side we fight for, from a great distance. The Helmet of Salvation identifies us as belonging to The Kingdom of God. It also protects our thinking and much more.
Who we belong to and fight for impacts how we think,
which impacts what we see, what we say and what we do.
Our thinking
How does our salvation protect and impact our thinking? When I’m saved, I start to see God rightly in relation to me. My Creator became my Lord. I knelt before King Jesus and finally said, “I need you. I’m yours.”
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation.
Psalm 149:4, New Heart English Bible
Seeing truth
My salvation protects and impacts my thinking because I’m now in a right and reconciled relationship with God Almighty. I can, at last, start to see things the way he desires for me to see them—truthfully. The devil’s lies and the world’s propaganda start to fall away—replaced, one by one, by God’s truth.
Grab your journal and write several different ways that you could fill in these blanks:
I used to think ____________, but now I know ____________.
Transformation
The Holy Spirit can transform our thinking to align it more and more with the heart and mind of God.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2, New Heart English Bible
We have responsibility in this transformation process. We can fight against the Holy Spirit—filling our minds with garbage—or we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit—filling our minds with good things, like God’s word. This scripture passage, one of my favorites, zeros in on the importance of our thinking. If you’re wondering about your media choices, see this post.
You will keep him in peace, in peace whose thoughts
are fixed on you, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:3, New Heart English Bible
The two armies
When Christians battle against the darkness, we wear The Helmet of Salvation. It identifies that we’re fighting for King Jesus—with his authority, protection and power.
There are two armies.
The army of God and the army of Satan.
Good vs. evil
Truth vs. lies
Family vs. its destruction
Righteousness vs. depravity
Patriots vs. communists
Freedom vs. control
Life vs. death
Celebrating the victory
This summer, on the monumental day when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, our family went to our first post-COVID Texas Rangers baseball game—in their new air-conditioned stadium, no less—a very big deal in the very hot state of Texas. We went with Brandon’s best friend Isaiah and his son Jackson. What a patriotic evening. Red, white and blue everywhere. Fireworks. A spirit of rejoicing. I can’t really describe it. A lovely young lady sang our national anthem before the game. During the seventh inning stretch, she sang “God Bless America” and we did some major cheering.
The game felt like a celebration of our country and the things that make it great—things like “God Bless America;” red, white and blue; baseball; the Supreme Court making a vital ruling in line with our Constitution; and a tangible shift from a culture of death back to a culture of life.
What an incredible blessing it was to gather and celebrate
a major victory with family, friends and fellow patriots.
Camaraderie
Brandon, Logan and I met Isaiah’s son Jackson for the first time that evening. He noticed my cross earrings and asked me if I’m a Christian. I said yes and he enthusiastically shared that he’s a Christian too. We felt the camaraderie. We belong to the same kingdom and we fight for the same army.
Two tales
You may be familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which both paint the ongoing conflict and the epic battles between the light and the darkness.
I must confess that I’ve seen all the movies, but I haven’t read the books. What can I say. I read dark books in high school, read very little for many years, and got a late start on the classics. I look forward to reading The Chronicles of Narnia. They’re on my list. In recent years, I read these classics and I highly recommend them: A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter, Frankenstein and The Brothers Karamazov. Truly brilliant.
The sword of the Spirit
Now it’s time to think about the last piece of The Armor of God.
Hand-to-hand combat
In part 5, we talked about close, hand-to-hand combat and the leverage provided by The Shield of Faith. In close, hand-to-hand combat, our offensive weapon—the weapon that defeats the enemy—is The Sword of The Spirit, the word of God. That’s why Jesus spoke God’s word to defeat the devil when he was being tempted in the wilderness. God’s word is our sword.
The devil’s poison
The devil knows God’s word too. But he always misquotes part of it or misuses it, for evil intent. Don’t ever listen to his Bible quoting, because he’s messing with you 100% of the time. That’s a guarantee. Here’s more from The Trauma of Perfection, part 4:
I hope you’ve noticed that in the Bible, when Satan’s involved, there’s a lie somewhere in there—either in the actual quoting or in the intent. Don’t get me wrong. Satan knows God’s word. He knows it really well. He’s wicked smart. But here’s the way that truth and lie stuff work together. You can say two truths and throw in one lie and you’ve still got manipulation and falsehood going on. You can put one tiny drop of poison into that smooth, creamy chocolate shake and you’ve still got a Death Drink.
What to say
To assault Satan, quote God’s word. Even if the only thing you can think to say is, “God is love,” that will do it. Then throw down some truth to go with it, like, “I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, King of heaven and earth. Get behind, Satan!” Get behind means get lost.
From Intrusive Thoughts, part 2:
When a thought comes in my mind to do something that is clearly sinful, clearly wrong, clearly outside of God’s way, that intrusive thought is Satan at work. If I’m paying attention and being wise, I will quote truth from scripture, kick Mr. Troublemaker to the curb and do the right thing.
Not sure how to do some of that? Watch the movie War Room. After Brandon saw it recently for the first time, he commented, “It shows you what to do when someone is in trouble.” Well-stated. It does, indeed.
Combine prayer and scripture for a powerful weapon against the darkness.
The list
Do you need help with The Sword of The Spirit to fight against the darkness? Against the evil you’re encountering? Against the lies pressing in on you? Check out this list of 100 Bible Verses About Fighting Satan. Get out your journal or your note pad and write down your favorites. Mark them in your Bible. Reflect on them and pray them out loud to God.
Pray and ask God to strengthen you with his word—The Sword of The Spirit.
Delivered from evil
Sometimes when we’re faced with evil, the Lord Almighty delivers us. Period. (See examples 1 and 2 below.) Other times, we experience a combo deal. God does his part—revealing the truth and warning us. And we have to do The Get-Up-And-Go Part. (Example 3.) Still other times, he brings us into a group and we fight the darkness together. (Example 4.)
1. Gun-Toting Mom—see The Termination Trial thru The Murder Plot from this post
2. The Crowbar and The Martinis—see The Danger of Alcoholism from this post
3. Seeing the Evil—read Seeing Rightly thru the end of this post
4. The Rescue Squad—read Groups of Warriors thru the end of this post
Miracles and the sermon
For encouragement about God’s power to reach down and do miraculous things in our lives, go to the Miracles section on the home page and read those posts to drink in the personal, loving and powerful hand of God.
Two years ago, our student pastor preached a grand slam sermon about miracles. When our life group got together that evening, we talked about one thing he said that really stuck with us: “God comes where he’s wanted.” Which begs the question. Is God truly wanted—sought earnestly—in your life? Or is he treated like some trinket or a Get Out of Jail Free card from the game of Monopoly. Here’s the thing. Life is not a game.
Peaceful Readers, I highly recommend that sermon. On this page, scroll down and click on the image for The Jesus People series and watch the November 15, 2020 sermon, “A Supernatural Community.” I watched it again while I was writing this post and made additional notes. While you’re watching it, you may think, How could a student pastor be such an amazing preacher? Well, he’s now the lead pastor of Cross & Crown Church. You can go and hear him preach in person. We did.
Warfare and the armor
To me, this six-part post on The Armor of God has been epic. Here’s a quick recap. Is God calling you to read or re-read something?
Part 1: Gender and The Good Way, including essential resources
Part 2: The occult, the darkness, Frankenstein and the SS
Part 3: Discernment, preparing for battle, wolves, forgiving
Part 4: Stories illustrating truth, righteousness and readiness
Part 5: Leverage, danger at the door, and fighting the darkness together
Part 6: The way we think and the way we fight
I’d like to end this post with a key section from part 3.
Remember to put on The Armor of God. Declare it and wear it.
“I’m putting on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness,
the sandals of readiness, the shield of faith,
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.”
Coming next: I’m not sure what our next topic will be. I have a couple ideas. God will show me the right way to go. I’m excited about the surprises and revelations to come. Until then, thanks for reading and for Choosing Peace.
Healing through truth and music
Peaceful Readers, I’ve found great healing in my life through the beauty and truth of God’s word and through music. I hope the truths and songs that I share at the end of each post will bless you too.
Truth from The Word: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Song for Healing: This song plays on Logan’s phone in the morning as one of his alarm clock songs. It’s a very good way to start the day. Get pumped up by “Run Devil Run” by Crowder.