“Where is all your equipment? You thought you were that strong? You didn’t know our plan was to trick you all along?”

Have you ever seen one of those bloopers-shows on television where someone is deliberately set up? Take for instance; somebody leaves a bag on a park bench and appears to exit the area… Someone comes along – who the bag doesn’t belong to – and as they take a look inside it blows up purple powder in their face! Insult is added to injury and there is no escaping guilt!

Not to say Tim was doing something unethical, just unwise. He didn’t get that swollen head by pure innocence!  On the other hand, he was set up for the fall. Set up, yes. Forced to yield, no way! What went wrong? Long before the equipment came “off”, he had already ceased to utilize it. Huh? He decided that he didn’t need it long before he laid it aside. Which points to the obvious conclusion: Tim forgot that he was in battle training. (He sure wasn’t wearing that strange looking outfit for nothing!) The fact of warfare in enemy territory is that it can happen anytime, so readiness and watchfulness must be constantly practiced. And when things seem to be going the smoothest, you may want to pay extra attention!

Every believer in Jesus Christ is in a spiritual battle – whether we like it or not, whether we recognize it or not, whether we’re ready or not. We have a real enemy in the devil and his entourage; we have a constant battle against sin in this current age (the here and now); and probably most disconcerting is the battle that happens within the walls of our physical being. It’s there the spiritual (born again spirit) confronts the advances of the fallen human nature.

Are you following me on this? Or do you think I stayed in the deep end of the pool too long? If your answer to that last question is Yes! you may be dangerously close to pulling a “Tim”.  How so? If you don’t believe you are in a battle, or if you’ve forgotten the battle that the Bible tells us of in Ephesians 6:10-20; you may be an ill-equipped target for pitfalls of pride, lures of lust, failures of faith, or… you get the idea.

If you aren’t dressed for success in spiritual battle using all that the Lord has provided – truth, righteousness, salvation, the readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace – then you better make sure you have received the shield of faith, and pick it up and use it! (Tim will have to wait till Chapter 15 before he knows about the shield of faith…) And don’t forget about the Word of God!!!

In the New Testament of the Bible, 2 Peter 1:3, we’re told:

By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.

As believers in Jesus who have come to know Him, we have received all we need to live godly lives by His divine power. We are dressed for success in warfare!  Are we using it?