Prepare for Spiritual Warfare with the Armor of God

If you grew up in church, or even spent much time there as an adult, you have talked about the armor of God. You made the craft in Sunday school. You were in the skit where you put on the oversized helmet. You have heard it. But what does it mean? 

When we get to Ephesians 6, the repeated word is stand. Whenever we’re talking about the spiritual war that we are in, Scripture is constantly commanding, exhorting, and admonishing us to stand firm. To hold our ground and to not be moved. 

You Have One Enemy

Ephesians 6:10–12 (NIV) reads, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

The Holy Spirit, through Paul, was saying to the church in Ephesus, “Nero is not your enemy. The Sanhedrin is not your enemy. The Pharisees are not your enemy. Rome is not your enemy. You have one Enemy, and he is the devil. Satan!” You only have one Enemy who operates through people to discourage you. 

If you can just get your head and heart around that idea, you’ll fight differently. You’ll start to realize, “Oh, this person who just yelled at me and is giving me a piece of their mind with their finger in my chest is not my enemy. There is someone greater than them working through them to discourage me. I have one Enemy, and that is Satan, and the battle is not of flesh and blood.” This is a paradigm-shifting idea for us to understand. 

The Full Armor of God

Once Paul told us to put on the “full armor of God,” he rattled off a list of what we should do. Reading the list, it can feel abstract. But think about it: most likely, as he wrote, Paul was chained to some Roman soldier, and he was grabbing for an illustration. As he sat imprisoned, he looked at the soldier’s armor and started to attach it to ideas to help Christians win the battle. Let’s read what he said. 

Paul was saying that when the day of evil comes and when the Enemy attacks you, you can do these things to defeat the Enemy. When he comes after you, you will be able to stand your ground. If you want to win against the Enemy, do these things.

The Belt of Truth

The first instruction is to stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. This is Paul saying, “You need to know what is true and what is not.” Many battles have been fought over real estate — an effort to control a territory. The spiritual war is fought over the real estate of your mind. The Enemy is after your thinking. He wants to bend the truth and distort the facts. The scriptures you read, the podcasts you listen to, and the worship songs you sing as you go about your day, these are all helpful tools as you focus your mind on the things of God. 

Gain a Heart of Righteousness

This begs the question, how should we live? Well, we follow the ways of Jesus. We do what Jesus would have us do. This is so important in every situation for the rest of our lives. For as long as we live, no matter how hard it is, no matter what it costs us or how difficult, we just do what Jesus would have us do. To be righteous is to conduct ourselves in the same way that Jesus would.  

Stand on the Gospel

In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter exhorted, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Having the peace that comes from the gospel in an anxious world is going to confuse the people who have not trusted in Jesus yet. Peter told us to always be ready to explain why we can be so hopeful. This is what it looks like to be ready. 

Hold on to Faith

Paul used the Roman shield as a metaphor of how to protect ourselves from the fiery arrows flying our direction. Faith can be difficult at times. The Enemy wants us to doubt and despair. Sometimes it’s easy to hold up our shields, but other times it’s not. Learn to do whatever you can to hold on to the shield of faith so the Enemy’s arrows are extinguished as they come toward you. 

Be Mindful of Salvation

Paul said in Ephesians 6:17 to “take the helmet of salvation.” I believe he was instructing us to be mindful of salvation. What’s the most important piece of protective equipment? The helmet. This is true in the skate park, on a bicycle, in a football game, and in a spiritual battle. The brain is the command center for everything in your body; everything you say and do happens as a result of your brain. If you are in battle and your brain goes down, it is game over. If we are mindful of our salvation, that means we are confident in our salvation. Then all the other actions of a disciple flow out of that. 

Have the Word Ready

In Matthew 4, Jesus came face-to-face with Satan — not just some demon — and was tempted after forty days of fasting. Satan tempted Jesus with His greatest earthly natural desires. Jesus was hungry. He had not eaten for forty days. And Satan said, “Here’s some food.” Jesus responded with scriptures that He had memorized. In short, Jesus was modeling for us what it looks like to use the sword of the Spirit. This is how we win against the Enemy. We pull Scripture and use it as a way to proactively fight against sin and temptation presented to us by the Enemy. We do this, and we will win.

After all the equipping with the “full armor of God,” the last thing Paul said was, “pray . . . on all occasions” (Ephesians 6:18). I’m convinced: if we will commit to prayer, we will loosen the Enemy’s grip in a whole new way.

Personal Application Questions

1. Read James 1:2–4. A common tactic of the Enemy is to first cause destruction in your life and then try to get you to believe that God would have prevented it if He were truly loving and good. (This is why you need to make sure you are putting on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness each day.) According to James, what purpose might those trials be serving other than the immediate discomfort you are feeling at having to endure them? 

2. Think back to a season of your life when the Enemy was successful in harming you or knocking you off the path of righteousness. What did you learn during that time? What mistakes did you make that you can avoid in the future? 

3. We are instructed to “take up the shield of faith” (Ephesians 6:16). Faith is a word that gets used a lot today, but often we don’t examine what it really means or what it looks like in everyday life. How would you describe what faith is and what faith requires from us? 

Adapted from Your Story Has a Villain by Jonathan “JP” Pokluda, with questions from the accompanying 5-session video Bible study for churches and small groups.

Are you ready to change your narrative and live a different story today? If you’re weary from the struggle and ready to experience life as God intended, this book will help you explore the tactics of Satan, equip you to overcome spiritual battles, and remind you of the victory already secured through Jesus. 

We know the grim, eternal outcome for Satan and his demons — but the battle still rages. Are you ready to fight back, find freedom from sin and toxic thinking, and walk in the abundant life available to you?

Jonathan "JP" Pokluda

Jonathan "JP" Pokluda is the lead pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. He was formerly the leader of The Porch in Dallas, which grew to be the largest weekly young adult gathering of its kind in the country. He is the bestselling author of Welcome to Adulting, Outdated, and Why Do I Do What I Don’t Want to Do? JP is a popular speaker at many churches and conferences, including THINQ, Passion, and others. JP’s wife and partner in ministry is Monica, and together they disciple their children Presley, Finley, and Weston.

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