Armor Up Podcast
Weekly Bible teachings focusing on Jesus’s principles and how to apply them in today’s world.
Armor Up Podcast
Spiritual Warfare: His & Her Battles
Marcel Burke and Erin Marie explore spiritual warfare from masculine and feminine perspectives, examining how the battle with control and submission manifests differently yet stems from the same fundamental struggle. They share personal experiences of navigating submission to God's authority and to each other in marriage, revealing how biblical roles create harmony when properly understood and followed.
• The male spiritual battle often centers on control and submission, challenging traditional masculine expectations of demanding respect and being the ultimate authority
• For women, submission involves both yielding to God and respecting husband's leadership when aligned with Scripture
• Biblical marriage creates balance when husbands provide love and wives offer respect - reversing these needs creates dysfunction
• Marriage mirrors Christ's relationship with the church, with practical implications for daily interactions
• Christians must establish clear boundaries in hostile work environments without judging non-believers
• Leading by example rather than words creates the most powerful testimony in secular environments
• Your reputation precedes you - maintaining a good name that represents Christ should be our priority
If you've been blessed by this podcast, please share it with someone who might need encouragement in their spiritual walk, and join us next time as we continue exploring how to armor up for life's battles.
Good afternoon everyone. This is Marcel Burke, back again with the Armour Up podcast.
Speaker 2:Hello, this is Erin Marie. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:All right. So what we're going to do, guys, we want to pick up a little bit where we left off from the last podcast about spiritual warfare. This time we're going to speak from two different views male and female. Male and female. So I'm going to speak from my perspective of what I deal with in my spiritual battle, and my wife is going to present her battles when she goes through her spiritual warfare, and we might just come together at the end and tell you how we combat it together. Now, let it be known that everybody's spiritual battle is different, but it's all the same battle, it's all the same war that we're facing. So, from a male's perspective, I would have to say, the biggest thing Well, it's a few things.
Speaker 1:I think the number one thing that I've had trouble with as far as battling this, this battle that we deal with the evil, is being in control and being submissive unto the Lord, and as a man, we always want to be in control. We always desire that one thing, which is respect. You know we can take anything out of contact as a man, especially if we're raised up in that type of household where you know a man can't have feelings. A man need to demand respect. A man need to be, you know, aggressive all the time time. So I find that rather rather struggling for myself, as sometimes you know, and have to take a step back and take a breather. You know, to know that I have to be gentle with my words A lot of times. I have to be specific in what I want. I have to be more respectful than the respect I'm given, because we are called to be salt and light to this earth.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So from the woman's perspective, I would like to say that it's pretty much the same thing. It's the control aspect, the submission. Jesus talks about that in Matthew, picking up our cross and following him, dying to ourselves on a daily basis. And for the man, I feel like it might be easier, because all you need to die to is the Lord. For the woman, you have to come under not only the Lord, but your husband as well, but everything that you're doing, you're doing unto the Lord, and so I think that's a good way to look at it is you know, as your husbands are leading you and you're falling in line with him as your leader. Oh well, my husband's saying. It's like well, if he's following in line with the Bible. Well, of course.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you just a little bit of pushback there. When you said it's easy for men only, because from my personal experience, I believe that you know this is a human problem. Of course you know this is a human problem. Of course I believe that pride plays a major factor in manhood plays a major factor and for us to submit unto any authority besides ourselves, speaking as a fleshly person right now. Then I'm going to get to the Christian aspect.
Speaker 1:It's hard to take orders from another man when you deem yourself an alpha man or the leader of everything. Now, on the flip side of that, christ is our authority as a man, because it's a second order. Christ is the head, then man, then woman, then the family Right. So being up under rulership, kingship and leadership of another man is hard. But Christ is not just another man, he's our Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1:That's what I had to come to terms with and that's what I struggled with a lot, and not only the aspect of obeying him, but having that in the back of my mind. Like man, I'm submitting to something else, greater than myself, because, like I said previously, I've always considered myself the higher authority, which is not the case. We're mere clay, which is mud. Right, jesus, god himself, breathed his breath into our lungs. That's what keeps us moving, and the breath that he gave us is his Holy Spirit, and we should act accordingly and move about this earth as such. For, as a woman, I can't speak to how you guys struggle or or how you deal with it mentally, but I can say one thing it's for sure, two things for certain we all go to the same spiritual battle. It's all.
Speaker 2:it's all a battle, it's all a race to finish, and it's a marathon, not a spring yeah, um, I can see where you're coming from, because, um, one of the hardest things for a christian to do is submit themselves unto the obedience of christ, right, um, I think what really helped me was walking through ephesians, or having the lord walk me through ephesians, because you understand every gift that has been given to you prior to even accepting the Lord, and then the gifts that are given to you when you accept the Lord, and then it allows you to just sit and see.
Speaker 2:Man, lord, you have done all this for me. Why wouldn't I submit myself to you? Why wouldn't I live out this life, this Christian walk for you? After seeing everything that you've done, seeing how you've loved me, seeing how you died to yourself for me, right, that's the whole cross. And then he's just asking us to do the same in return. I think when we understand who Christ is I said this in the last podcast when we understand who Christ is, we understand what he's done for us, I feel like the Christian walk is somewhat easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's somewhat easy. Yeah, and to pick up what you said, we are to die to ourselves because he calls us to be living sacrifice. Now let's just touch on what that means. We're not dead per se, but we're dead to ourselves. We're denying our flesh those things that it so seeks, that are not pleasing to the Lord. Right, what is the flesh?
Speaker 1:The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, these are the things that hinders our walks. These are the things that we must kill every day, because if we go out there just satisfying our flesh like we used to do in the world, we become filthy rags in God's eyes, we don't even be seen by him, we're not covered by the blood of Jesus. And dying to yourself it is an easy thing, like you said it is, but it is also hard to do when you're presented with things that your flesh really wants. And that's when that murdering comes in murder to yourself, wring out those sins, wring out those flesh desires. And I would, I would go say it's kind of a hard walk, yeah, but it's also an easy one. It's like a double-edged sword, but at the end of the day, if you walk that narrow path. Eternity with him is the ultimate end goal, and that's what we need to be looking forward to.
Speaker 2:I would say for the woman, right, and for our walk. Well, in Genesis 3, I mean that's part of the curse is women, you know you will want to take the place of your husband, right, you desire. It says the desire would be for your husband and what it's actually meaning is that the woman would want to take the place of the husband. We don't want to be obedient, we don't want to be submissive, right? We want to run things and to be completely transparent. And you can agree there. I've been working on that for years and there's moments still where you know you'll be correcting our kids or you'll be saying something, and here comes Aaron to say exactly how I feel, and then I have to quickly apologize. Hey, babe, I'm sorry I stepped out of line in my comment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it's just not our household. I'm pretty sure a lot of believers go through this as well. I mean, it's not necessarily a learning curve, it's an obedience thing. We have to go with what the scripture says, and one of the things that I find fascinating is a woman's needs is different from a man's. A man needs respect, a woman needs love, and when those two things get reversed when the man thinks he needs love and the woman thinks she needs respect, your whole household is out of whack. Or if one is not giving to the other what they're supposed to, then everything is out of balance, out of whack, and we're never to switch roles in the household.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm a firm believer. Just like the Bible says, a man is the head of his household unto the authority of Christ, though, because a woman should never do the things outside of Christ when her husband asks her to do or be a godly woman, because that's what she's supposed to do as long as that man is fallen under the authority of Christ. Because if I ask you to do something that's not Christ-like or that will cause you to sin or is out of character of what you are as a godly woman, then you are not supposed to listen to me whatsoever. And that's why I think God put these things in place, because, if you think about it, marriage is always descriptive in the Bible. Christ always considers us, the church, his bride, and he holds that sanctity close to his heart. That's why he describes us as the bride and him as the groom, because he loves us, he takes care of us, and that's what the same thing a man's supposed to do for his wife and his family.
Speaker 2:And I will encourage men by saying, from a woman's point of view, when you see your husband falling under the lordship of Christ, when you see your husband reading his word, when you see your husband praying for his family, when you have your husband loving you as Christ loves the church, there's nothing and I'm sorry to use the word, but there's nothing sexier than seeing my husband in his word, seeing my husband pray with me, seeing my husband hey, baby, ready to get into this word and just washing me with the word that what culture defines as attractive can't compare to a godly man, a godly man leaving his house.
Speaker 2:And that's what I was saying. It's easy for a woman to fall under the authority of a man who is walking his walk with the Lord, and even in error because none of us are perfect Go ahead and let's be real, fellas.
Speaker 1:We can work out as much as we want. I'm a huge advocate of working out lifting weights, calisthenics, all that. We're going to get old, we're going to look like a prune one day. But once you're attracted in this phase, same as a woman, once you're attracted in this phase, what is there to hold on to but the love that Christ has instilled in you for your spouse? That is the ultimate and supreme thing right there. It's to love your wife for who she is and who Christ has made them to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I love how I mean the Bible's. I mean super old, right, 6,000, 7,000 years old and, as we're going through Ephesians, maybe 2,000 years old. And yet what Paul writes in Ephesians as far as women loving your wives and husbands I'm sorry, husbands loving your wives and women respecting your husbands, it still applies to this day. Right, because I can see when I'm having a mouthful to say, on those days and I'm not respecting you like I should, I can see your whole demeanor begin to change, and then that's when the Lord and the Holy Spirit will correct me quickly. Hey, you know, your husband's doing what he's supposed to do right now. You're not and you need to stop it quickly.
Speaker 2:And we see, I mean we both. We've lived a marriage that has been horrible right, as both of us were not being obedient to Christ, and now we're experiencing a marriage where we are both submissive unto the Lord. We're both submissive unto one another. As far as you loving me and me respecting you, and the fruitfulness that comes from the obedience to the word is more precious than honey, more expensive than gold. It's something beautiful.
Speaker 1:Now, speaking back on the spiritual warfare aspect of this, let me ask you a question. So, as an employee, I'm a mail-write mechanic, I'm in the carpeting scene, right? So how do you demonstrate your walk amongst unbelievers? Because you know this type of people, this type of men I work around. We're rough, we're rugged. Some of them use foul language. A lot of them do Smoke cigarettes, drink off the job or whatever, make dirty jokes. How do we maintain our straight and narrow path amongst those type of individuals? Because they're lost, just as we were. We're not to judge them like that, but how do we set that example?
Speaker 2:Coming from a woman perspective and I get on mine- Okay, well being that, I'm a nurse and I work in the prison system. I work with a lot of correctional officers, more so males than females. The spirit that's within the facility that I work at is a spirit of, of lust, of anger, uh, of empowerment, right and um. And so when I walk into the, the work field, first off, I don't, I lead by example, so I don't cuss whatsoever. I lead by example, so I don't cuss whatsoever. And they'll quickly pick up on it Like oh hey, you know, I noticed you don't cuss, yeah, I don't. Or when they talk about oh, you know, we're getting out of work, we're going to go get drinks, you know? Oh man, two beers sound amazing.
Speaker 1:Now, what do you say to those individuals who will probably say oh, she thinks she's better than us or she thinks she's holy moly. She's holy, holy roly, walking around here thinking her crap don't stink and she's too good, too goody two-shoes. What do you think about that and how do you combat that?
Speaker 2:Right. Well, that's what I was going on to say is, when they make these comments, you know, oh, let's go get. You know, oh, we're going to go get drinks, I can't wait. I'm like, oh, I don't drink, oh, you don't drink. And I'm quick to say no, and I don't judge anyone who does right. That's not what I'm there to do. I'm not there to judge the cussing person or the alcoholic or the adulterer. That's their issue. But I'm a living example of what the Bible preaches Right, right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Now, on the other side of that coin, my job environment. See, this is what I do. I lay down some non-negotiables, right. So my thing is I'm not going to go drink with you. I'm not going to say it in a rude manner, I'm not going to participate in your carousing and your dirty jokes. This is who I am as a man. I'm a man of God, I'm a man of Christ. What you do outside of the job as your business, but just know I'm not going to participate in.
Speaker 1:And if I find a window of opportunity and you know I've got a couple of guys who come over here and train boxing with me that I share the word with, and a couple of them are starting to turn, you know, starting to see the light. But I let it be known who I am as a man. I'm a man of Christ. That's who my ultimate authority is, that's who I fall upon. I don't have to answer to you If I do drink, come to work drunk, I might get fired, but my ultimate, my ultimate authority is Jesus Christ. I don't want to do anything to misrepresent him and there's been times I have as a fleshly human being who still has this sin nature. Obviously I stepped up cussing and laughing at certain jokes. But I have to immediately reel that in and remember who I am in Christ. Hey, that's not who I made you to be. You're supposed to be a light and example, because I don't want to blaspheme the Lord in front of them, I don't want to misrepresent him, because who knows what they may be one day in Christ, they might use them for ministry or something.
Speaker 1:And here I am showing them a hypocrite, pretty much putting on a facade, putting on a mask. That's why when I go to a job site, when I meet an individual, they know where I am as a man or who I am in Christ. Period, point blank. So I don't get asked those questions again. Or if they make those jokes. Some of them even stop the jokes around me because, hey, marce, they make those jokes. Some of them even, you know, stop the jokes around me because, hey, marcel's right here, let's, you know, let's kind of chill out. The only thing I can say is, hey, man, do your thing. Man, I'm just doing my job, you know. It's that respect thing. Once they know who you are, where you stand, which is the rock, jesus Christ, you won't have any issues. Now you may get flack from certain individuals. As a man who will whisper behind your back well, he thinks he better than us. Who cares? Who cares what they say? Your walk is not for them. Your walk is for the Lord, for them to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can give a quick example is I had a woman CO talking. She worked with us one day and she was talking about how all nurses are you know bad words, right that they're adulterers and apparently her husband had cheated on her with the nurse and I was sitting in there and I had no clue that she had made that comment prior to me coming in to eat my breakfast, that comment prior to me coming in to eat my breakfast, and so I saw one of the officers that I hadn't seen in a week and my sergeant was sitting across from me as well and I told the officer I said, hey, you know how you doing, I've been praying for you. And he was like you have. And I was like, yeah, you know, you've just been placed on my heart. I was praying for you, you know, like we're a family here.
Speaker 2:And he was like, yeah, I was going through a really hard time and and I looked towards my sergeant and the look that he gave me was so proud and it I had no clue that the conversation, what the conversation was prior. But he looked towards her and he said these are the nurses that are in my facility. They're believers. And yeah, it was just a testament, you know. And it made her stop and think you know, wow, you know, I shouldn't maybe judge prior to knowing the situation.
Speaker 1:Exactly. That's good. Let me read this verse in Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 15. He says pay careful attention, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise. Let's pause right there for a second. Now.
Speaker 1:What Paul is telling us is to be mindful of how you live your life on this earth, not as unwise, but as wise. Who is the ultimate wisdom? Who is wisdom? Wisdom is Jesus Christ. We are to get our wisdom and knowledge from Jesus Christ how to walk upon this earth Because, like we said before, we're setting examples, whether we know it or not.
Speaker 1:The moment we tell somebody, the moment we proclaim Christ, like Tupac said, all eyes on me, all eyes on us, trying to see if we're going to slip up or do anything that's contrary to what we say. That's why Paul put emphasis on he says pay careful attention, like walking on a tightrope. Be very mindful of how you walk around other people, because you're ultimately being looked at, you're being scrutinized, and God sees that. Obviously, because he's omnipresent, he's going to see your walk and people are going to see what you say. It doesn't match up with how you walk. They immediately going to continue on doing what they was doing around you, as if you never said you were a Christian, because people forget what you say. They go off of how you act and how you live.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's that whole, the commandment, where it says I shall not take the Lord's name in vain. I what I think when I read that is okay, well, yeah, you shouldn't be using the G or, you know, the GD or the JC when you're angry, right? But um, I think more so it's the representation of Christ. If you say that you're a Christian, then your name, god's name, is on your walk, and so to take his name in vain would be the misrepresentation of Christ, right. And what helps me is Psalms 19, 14, where it's a prayer.
Speaker 2:I always pray in my heart and it's something that's always on my mind, and it's a prayer. I always pray in my heart and it's something that's always on my mind, and it's a prayer unto the Lord. It says may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, lord, my rock and my redeemer. And so that's what I have to keep at the forefront of my mind. Is what I'm speaking or how I am acting.
Speaker 2:Is that a representation of Christ, right? And what I'm saying, let it be edifying, let it be giving God glory at all times, even if they're not believers, right? And it's not like I go around quoting scripture or walking holier than thou. No, I, if you know me, I'm um, I can get along with anybody and I don't judge one person whatsoever. But I, I myself, walk with the, with the understanding that I do have a judge and and I have a Lord who, um, who I happen to love with all my heart, and I would hate to break his heart, I would hate to cheat on him, I would hate to misrepresent it.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I'm going to close with this, guys. I tell my youngins that I work with all the time your reputation. It precedes you. Your good name or your bad name is going to go well before you come walking through that door.
Speaker 1:And this brings up a verse from Proverbs 22, 1. It says A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. Now what is the psalmist essentially saying here? Just what I said your name goes before you. Your name is going to get around from people to people. However you act around them, the word is going to spread. So it will behoove us as Christians to set that example first and foremost, and then carry it on now, because our name is something that we hold, especially as a man. Our name is everything, our reputation is everything, but we want to be reputable in the name of Christ and before man, and we'll be honored before man because we are honored who, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to thank you guys for giving us your time. God bless you, guys and have a wonderful evening.