Putting on the Full Armor of God

Diving into the Armor of God, learning the depth and purpose of each piece, and discovering how to put it on daily as we apply it to our walk with Jesus, grow in our faith, and learn how to stand strong in Him every day.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to Jesus Talks or welcome back if this isn't your first time listening. I'm London, your host, and I am so excited about today's episode, and I'm so excited that you're just here. In all transparency, I had a completely different episode planned. I had notes ready to go. I knew what I was gonna talk about, and this whole past week, um, I've just been kind of procrastinating recording this episode, and I really sat with the Lord yesterday and just kind of prayed about it and felt in my heart that he was leading me in a different direction for this week's episode. So that is why we're here, and it is different than what I had planned, but also when the Lord leads me to something, I never want to just ignore that, and I want to trust him and where he's leading. So we're gonna dive into a different topic than what I had planned, but I am so expectant of what the Lord is gonna do with it, and I just know that he's gonna work through it in my heart, and I pray that he also works through it into your hearts as well. If you're new here, I always start the episodes with just a little Jesus moment from my past week, my past month, just little things that have been happening. And my Jesus moment from this past week has really just been with church. I mean my fiance and one of my best friends started going to this devotional Bible study at church called Rooted, and I have loved it so much, and we've made new friends from it and just seeing like the Lord's heart for us to be in community with each other and have conversations with each other that we might be nervous to have with other people, and it's just been so sweet seeing the Lord's heart through it and just being able to open up to a new group of people and the way that the Lord just works in people's lives to bring new people together and bringing friendships that are centered around him. It's just been so sweet, and that is really my Jesus moment from the past two weeks. Um, we've had two weeks of it, they actually meet tonight, and sadly I can't go, which sucks. But I have just been enjoying it so much and I'm so excited for the friendships that are growing from it and just excited to see where the Lord takes it. But yeah, that's my little Jesus moment, and I would love to hear your Jesus moments as well. If you were not following the Instagram podcast, um that is where I kind of post things when new episodes are out, or just little ways to hear about how you guys are doing, how your life is going, what I can be praying for, um, and how the Lord is just impacting your life. The Instagram is Jesus.talkspod. And so if you want to follow it, go give it a follow. I would love to connect with you guys on that end. Um, I also have been getting some questions if I am going to start actually recording like YouTube videos with this. Currently, I don't feel it in my like heart too that the Lord's kind of pushing me towards that. And so I'm gonna be kind of sticking with just recording my voice, and if we get there eventually, we'll get there. But right now, I just really feel the Lord leading me in this direction, and I just want to be able to lean into what he is telling me and not kind of the typical what the society um social media and everything is bringing. So, with all that being said, I want to go ahead and dive into today's episode, and we are talking about the armor of God and just all the depths that that brings and the true meaning of what the Lord has behind it. The Lord has made me so emotional with this topic the past couple days and has constantly brought it up. So I am so excited to just see what he has in store. But I'm gonna start us out with prayer. So here we go. Hey Jesus. I just want to welcome you into this space. Holy Spirit, I just pray that you would be intimate in these moments with us as we talk today, Father. I pray that as we learn about the armor of you, the armor of God, that you would just penetrate our hearts and help us just see you, Father, and help us know that you are teaching us something through this. You are our protection, you are our provider. And Lord, I pray that as we learn about your armor, that it would just encourage us to constantly put it on and knowing that you are fighting on our behalf in an unseen battle, Lord. I pray that you would just walk with us through this episode, but also just throughout our lives, Lord. I pray that we would feel you, your presence constantly pouring into us. And Holy Spirit, I just welcome you into this space. And I pray over this time together that you would just work in us and through us, Lord, and we're just so grateful for you. We're so grateful for what you continue to do through us every day and inside of us too, Lord, because without you there would be no transformation, and we're so grateful for the transformation that you bring in our hearts. So, Lord, I just pray this in your heavenly and powerful name, amen. All right, guys, so diving into the armor of God. I like I said, the Lord kind of led me in a different direction, and with this, I kind of just felt not to take a lot of notes and just to trust the Lord with it. So I'm excited. Um, go ahead and get cozy, grab a drink, grab a snack. Um, if you're driving, keep your eyes on the road and be safe. And I'm just excited, so let's go ahead and dive in. I'm gonna be reading out of Ephesians 6, and it's 6 10 through 19. And so, oh actually I'm gonna do 10 through 20. So let's go ahead and dive on in. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as for sh as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of treat peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. This passage right here is Paul actually in prison, and he is writing to the church of Ephesus, and he is telling them to be bold in their faith and to put on the armor of God daily. I feel like growing up, I heard this so often, like, put on the armor of God, put on the armor of God. A little bit about my testimony is I grew up going to church, but I didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus until I was about 17 years old, I think is really when I truly encountered the Lord and wanted to dive in and like have that personal relationship with him. And growing up hearing put on the armor of God, I thought it was just like, okay, like follow Jesus daily, which is true. Yes, the Lord calls us to deny our flesh and pick up our cross daily. But along with that, I think we have to realize that walking with our cross on our back is a target for the enemy. And what I mean by that is anytime the enemy, the devil, sees you following Jesus, he's gonna do everything in his power to get you to stray away from him and to deny him and not be with him anymore. That's why you hear so many Christians say following Jesus is probably the hardest thing that you're gonna do because it is. And Jesus showed us that. He showed us in the Bible as he was walking his daily walk that it is the hardest thing to do to be obedient to the Lord because it is against everything that the world wants us to do. But oh my goodness, is there the biggest reward at the end of it because we get to be in eternity with the Heavenly Father? And so, with that, picking up your cross daily, we have to have protection on us since it's like we have a target on our back for the enemy. And that's what Paul is writing here is the protecting factor that the Lord wants us to have. Um, as I mentioned in my little Jesus moment, we are in this group called Rooted. And in this group, we are actually going through a devotional book that's teaching us how to be rooted in disciples for Jesus, and it's been so sweet. I've enjoyed it so much. Um, this week is actually week three, but my silly little brain the other day, as I was going through the devotional, didn't realize that at the top of my page it said week five instead of week three. And so I started doing it and it was so cool because it was the whole um armor of God, and I don't believe in coincidences. So even though, yes, I was on the wrong page, I still like kept going. I mean, I didn't realize until I was done filling it out that I was on the wrong page, but I thought it was so cool because this is exactly what the Lord was leading me to talk about today. So it wasn't a coincidence, it was on purpose for God's purpose, and I just want to share some stuff that was in here that really opened my eyes to each different part of the armor of God and just how it teaches us to be fully covered by God on a daily basis. So I'm gonna share these with you. So the first piece of the armor that it talks about in the Bible is in verse 14 Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth. So that belt of truth, I always just kind of thought of it as like, okay, I'm just putting on the belt of like I need to tell the truth to people. But there is such a deeper meaning of it, and this rooted devotional book kind of shares it, and I thought it was so cool where it says the belt of truth, all truth is God's truth. God is the source of ethical, scientific, mathematical, historical, relational, and every other form of truth. As followers of Jesus, we should never be afraid of the truth. The foundation of spiritual, moral, and relational truth comes from the Bible. A child of God is called to arm himself or herself with God's word. Jesus gives us great promise regarding the truth. Jesus said, If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So, yes, it is calling us to share the truth and not lie and not withhold from the Lord, but also it's teaching us that the truth is setting you free. So putting on that belt of truth is such a beautiful reminder, knowing that you are a child of God. And through that, you know the truth because you read God's word and what God's word is alive, it's living within us in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the one that's teaching it to us daily, day in and day out, just right reminding us of how alive God's word is. And then with that, we have this beautiful reminder as we put on that belt that through this truth, we are literally set free. We don't need to be held down by our chains anymore. Even though the enemy is going to tell you that you're being held down by them, you're not. You were set free because of Jesus Christ who died on a cross for you and rose again on your behalf. He did that on your behalf. And oh my gosh, it just baffles me so much. Like, thank you, Jesus, for doing that on my behalf because I am so undeserving of that. But we can fasten on our belt of truth, knowing that this truth through Jesus, his truth, set us free. And that is just so beautiful to me. I don't know if that's like crazy to you guys, but praise the Lord for the truth of God. That literally set me free from chains of depression, chains of feeling like I had to prove myself, chains of feeling like I was unworthy of absolutely anything and everything in this world, chains of people pleasing, constantly trying to prove myself. And I know I already said that, but it's just like so many chains that I used to be held captive by, chains of fear. Oh my gosh, I used to live in so much fear, and the Lord broke every single chain, and it was his truth that set me free. So putting on that belt of truth every single morning is such a beautiful reminder of just knowing that like this truth is what set me free. I'm free in Jesus' name. The next piece is also in verse 14, Ephesians 6, 14, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. I know for me, this one always confused me. I'm not gonna lie. I was just kind of lost on like breastplate of righteousness, like what does that even mean? I looked up definitions on Google and Google didn't really explain it anymore to me, and I was just lost. I was like, I don't understand what a breastplate of righteousness is gonna do for protection for me. But this devotional book explains it in a way that truly just hit me and resonated with me, so I wanted to share it with you guys. The breastplate of righteousness, righteousness sometimes has a negative connotation in our culture. It seems synonyms with self-righteousness or having a holier than thou attitude. That is not the biblical meaning of the word. Righteousness is simply pursuing what is right. Righteousness is not cutting corners at work, not lying to make things easier, not falling into temptation. It is staying faithful to your spouse, following through on your word, being kind and generous. When we are righteous, we don't give Satan a foothold in our life that he can eventually use to tear us down and damage our relationship with Jesus. Most importantly, the breastplate of righteousness is not ours. It's Christ. We are only able to be righteous because of Christ within us. It is his righteousness that lives in us. Oh my gosh, Papa Lord. Oh my gosh. Literally, when I read this, I kid you guys not, I just started crying. I have never heard it explained that way to me. But oh my goodness, we need that. We need it explained this way because it literally shares with us when we are righteous, we don't give Satan a foothold in our lives that he can eventually use to tear us down and damage our relationship with Jesus. And the reason he can't use it to tear us down when we are righteous is because the righteousness does not belong to us. It's because of Christ within us. And that right there just shows that Satan has no power, absolutely no power or authority over Jesus. Because when we have righteousness in our heart, righteousness with the Lord, which again is just simply pursuing what is right, as we follow the Lord, we will then see what is right and what is wrong. The Lord will teach us discernment in that and share with us, hey, what you're doing might not be completely right, and I need you to change a little bit, take a step back and go back on the path that I have for you. And this right here is showing that when we do that, when we are righteous with the Lord, pursuing what is right with the Lord, Satan does not have a foothold in our life that he can eventually use to tear us down and most of all damage our relationship with Jesus. There's been so many times where I'll be gun-ho for the Lord, I'll be on that path, going so strong with him, and then I take a step off the course, and all of a sudden I feel the enemy tearing me down. He's trying to damage my life, he's trying to ruin relationships. And this was just such a beautiful reminder to me that if I continue pursuing what the Lord has put on my heart, what is right in the Lord's eyes, Satan will never have a foothold on my life. Not saying that I'm not gonna make mistakes because I am not holier than thou. I am not perfect. I am gonna make mistakes. I'm still human and I still have my flesh, and the enemy's temptations are still gonna be there. But when it says foothold on your life, the enemy does not have control over you. And I want you guys to hear that clearly. There is a difference between the enemy tempting you and the enemy having control over you. When I had those chains bound to me before the Lord set me free of them, the enemy had so much control over me where I would be like quivering in fear over simple things. I would be so anxious about so many different things, especially talking to people or confronting people about things that were bothering me. I had so much anxiety in my heart. And anytime that things were thrown my way, like something went wrong that I wasn't expecting, I would just crumble. But with the Lord and following what is right and standing firm in him, the enemy will not have control over me. That doesn't mean that temptations aren't going to pop up because they are. They're always gonna be there. And the Lord actually promises that in the Bible. He talks about how trials are promised. They are not, it's not always rainbows and sunshines being a child of the Lord, but it is worth it in the end because he has such a better plan for us. But following the Lord in what is right and knowing that when I do that, the enemy is not gonna have control over me, and my righteousness comes from the Lord. That is so humbling and it is so beautiful. I think that's another thing that we often forget is as we grow closer with the Lord, we forget sometimes that everything that is working within us is coming straight from the Holy Spirit. Who is Jesus? It's God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, all three, same person, three beings. And I think this is such a beautiful reminder that we are not only able, we are not able to be righteous on our own, we are only able to be righteous because of Christ within us. It's his righteousness that lives within us. That's what's teaching us to be righteous, that's what's teaching us to go on the path that follows him to eternal life. That is because of Jesus, not because of us at all. And it's definitely not because of the enemy, even though the enemy is gonna try to make you think like he's the one doing good things in your life, he's the one giving you all the wants and needs that you need. But like I said in the last episode, sometimes things that we think we need aren't what God knows that we need, he knows we need something different, and he knows what's best for us, and he's always gonna produce that in our life. So that is just beautiful. I'm sorry. I'm just in awe of this. Like this one, I think hit me the hardest out of every single piece of the armor because just knowing like Satan doesn't have a foothold in my life when I put on this breastplate and I follow the Lord and believe in his rights and follow and discern what is right and wrong because of Christ that lives within me. It has nothing to do with me. I'll say it again. It has nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with you. It is because of Jesus that lives within you. And I don't say that to be mean, I say it to be honest because we would not be the people that we are without Jesus in our lives. It's all because of him. The next piece of the armor is the shoes for your feet. It's verse 15, 615 in Ephesians. As shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. This was another one that I was kind of confused about. I was like, okay, shoes given by the gospel of peace. Like, sweet, but like what does that mean? In this rooted book, it says, feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. What does that mean? This was crazy for me to read because I was like, oh, yeah, that's been my question this whole time. That's really funny. So, what does that mean? This has to do with footwear, the foundation of your armor. The foundation. So your feet are the foundation. This, the feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, is your foundation of your armor. It doesn't matter if you have the strongest shield and the sharpest sword. If you are slipping around, you are done for. The gospel of peace, or the gospel for short, is the foundational truth that God has created you. Jesus has saved you from your sin and the Holy Spirit is restoring you in the world. This is the gospel we are to base our lives on and tell others about. Satan will do everything he can to undermine the gospel in your life because he knows that our peace and power comes from living in this reality. Satan cannot stand against the gospel as it plays out in our lives. So every single day, putting on that belt of truth, knowing that the truth has set you free, putting on that breastplate of righteousness, knowing that it is because Jesus within us that we are able to know what is right and wrong. And then the third piece is these shoes that come from the gospel of peace. And it's just a reminder that. The gospel should be the foundation in your life. We should put on these shoes every single day, knowing that Jesus and his gospel, his truth, is our foundation for our daily lives. Going back to what I said earlier, laying down your flesh and picking up your cross, that is the daily reminder of the gospel is your foundation. Laying down your flesh, what I mean by that is if I have a temptation, like, oh, I want to go gossip about this person, no, I'm gonna deny my flesh and pick up my cross because the Lord wouldn't want me to do that. And I'm standing firm in the shoes that I put on every single day, knowing that my feet are fitted with the gospel of peace. And that is my foundation. And with that, Satan cannot stand against the gospel as it plays out in our life. He will do everything he can to undermine the gospel in our lives because he knows that our peace and power comes from living in this reality. Satan wants to destroy your peace and the authority that you have in Jesus Christ. He will do everything he can to undermine that. He will do everything he can to make you forget about the gospel. But when you stand firm in this and put these shoes on every single day, he cannot do anything about it because he does not have authority over Christ. The next verse, verse 16, talks about the shield of faith. It says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. The shield of faith, I think, is the easiest for me to visualize and the easiest for me to like grip onto. And before I share what the devotional says, I want to just share an analogy that the Lord gave me. Um, this actually was an analogy the Lord gave me this past summer, which is so cool how it's just connecting to right now and what he's doing in this moment. There was a moment this summer where I just felt really defeated. I was exhausted, I didn't know what to do. I felt like I was failing at my job, and the Lord just reminded me like he is my shield. And imagine you have like a very, very tiny little shield and someone's like throwing something at you. Most likely that shield is not gonna do anything to protect you. You're gonna get hit by whatever was thrown at you, and it's just gonna go downhill from there. The Lord gave me the visual that I was holding this tiny little shield trying to protect myself when in reality I should be letting him be my shield. And what I mean by that is like letting him actually come in front of me, stand and be my protector, and be the shield that I need in my life, because this tiny little shield is gonna do absolutely nothing. But the creator of the universe that nothing in this entire world has authority over, and that every knee will bow and praise his name, that is my shield. That is who I need to be my shield instead of trying to be my own shield and have this tiny little thing that's not gonna protect me from anything. I need to allow him to step in and be that shield for me because my goodness, is he the biggest shield I could possibly have? But I've tried to do it like so many times on my own, and my shield's not protecting me from anything. So with the shield of faith, it really is diving into the fact that we are facing an unseen battle. Constantly, the enemy's trying to tempt us to do things. The Lord's gonna be fighting on our behalf as long as we partner with him and we are with him, giving everything over to him and letting him fight on our behalf. In this devotional, it says the shield of faith. Faith simply means to believe in God and to grab onto the tools he has provided for you. When you find yourself fearful, it is an indication that you've lowered your shield of faith. We are encouraged to do what we must to keep our faith strong, pray, read the Bible, and stay in close relationship with other believers. Like I was kind of talking about, me being fearful is an indication that I've lowered my shield of faith. Mainly just talking about I took my eyes off of Jesus and I was trying to do it on my own. I was being fearful, I was scared, and I lowered my shield of faith because I wasn't letting him step in to be that shield for me. My mind goes to this story in the Bible where Jesus is walking on the water, and Peter says, Lord, if that's you, let me walk out to you. And as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, he is walking on the water. But it is the second that he turns his head, he notices the storm around him that he starts to sink. And I feel like that is such a beautiful visual to go along with the shield of faith because when we let our fear consume us and take our eyes off of Jesus, that is lowering our shield because our eyes are no longer on the Lord and we start to fear everything around us and it starts to make us sink. But what is also so beautiful about this story is Jesus let him sink because Peter took his eyes off of him, but he did not let him drown. He picked him back up and said, Why are you fearing? Like, do not be afraid. Keep your eyes on me, stay locked with me, and let me be your protection. Let me be your shield. And that is why the Lord calls us to have a shield of faith, because he wants to be that shield of faith. He wants to be that protection for us. As long as we keep our faith in him and we keep our eyes on him, he will be that shield for us. The next little bit is verse 17. It says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. When I think of like the helmet of salvation, I really think of just like quite literally placing a helmet on my head. And what does a helmet do? It protects your brain, all the features of your head. So if you were to ride a bike and you got in a really bad bike accident, you wouldn't crack your head open. Your face would not be distorted. It protects your head, ultimately protects your brain. And the helmet of salvation to me is truly one of the main pieces I have to constantly remind myself of and put on because the enemy attacks my mind so often. And it might be different attacks for everybody. Um, it might be physical attacks where you just your body feels like it's breaking down and you're tired, you're fatigued, you're just not doing things as you used to. For me, it is definitely my mind. The enemy attacks me in my mind so many times, making me feel like I'm not good enough that I should be tired. I'm not doing the right things. I am not living up to a standard that the enemy gave me, not the Lord, but I'm not living up to that standard, and it just starts beating me down. And then the Lord just redirects my eyes with him, kind of going back to that shield of faith. I've got to be redirected honestly, probably every single day. There's at least a time every single day where I notice my eyes are off the Lord, and he's like, hey, look back at me because you're starting to sink, and I need you to be here with me. And so the reminder of putting on this helmet and knowing that with this helmet, my brain and my thoughts are protected. It is a reminder that I need on a daily basis, and with that, too, also just talking about in the Bible where it says, like, make your thoughts obedient to Christ, putting on this helmet does that. I am constantly having to put on this helmet because of the thoughts that the enemy will drive my way. And putting on this helmet makes my thoughts obedient to Christ, and how it does that is putting on this helmet, and let's say a thought comes in that I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy of this, and I'm gonna be completely transparent with you guys right now. This podcast, the enemy has been getting in my brain so much, telling me I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy of doing this. But the Lord comes in and tells me, I have designed you for a greater purpose. I have put this on your heart and made it possible for you to do this. That is taking those thoughts through the helmet of salvation and making them obedient to Christ because the lies from the enemy are not equivalent to the truths of Jesus. Because the lies from the enemy truly don't have authority or power over my life because I have Jesus within me. But that doesn't mean that it's not hard. Those thoughts will come in and I'll just break down, I'll cry, and it will be so hard. But then the Lord reminds me, your helmet wasn't fastened, it wasn't put on. I need you to put your helmet on and remember that I have designed you for a greater purpose. I have put this on your heart for a reason, and it's for his kingdom, and that's the only purpose I want is just to glorify him and spread his kingdom to people around me. But also with thoughts of just not feeling pretty or not feeling good enough. The Lord just reminds me, like, you were made in my image. I made you in your mother's womb, like I knitted you together, and you're fearfully and wonderfully made. Just it might be different little things for you guys, but that's really for me. Like, my brain is where the enemy attacks me the most in my mind, and helmet of salvation is what protects that. And in this devotional, it talks about the helmet of salvation. Salvation is not just what happened when we trusted Jesus with our lives, it also means the eventual reality that our victory as a follower of Jesus is assured. Satan is a bully who wants to believe that the sins still tripping us up, the habits or addictions are still entangled to us, the pain we caused others, and the fear we still experience are all that should define us. He wants us to buy into his lie that we are weak, pathetic creatures that will never amount to anything. That is not how Christ sees us. Because of his salvation, we are right now precious, adopted children of God, being perfected and guaranteed of becoming everything God had in mind when he created us in the first place. I really just want to leave that off there. I don't feel in my heart to share much more on that, but I just want to encourage you guys to dwell with this. I'm going to be posting on Instagram every single piece of the armor, and I really just want to encourage you guys to take the time just to sit and learn about the armor. Learn about what the Lord can do in your heart by putting on this armor daily. I'd be lying if I said I put this armor on daily because I truly don't. But this episode is encouraging me to do that on a daily basis because the enemy never stops. He is constantly coming after us. But with the protection of Jesus, as we lay down our flesh and pick up our cross, this is his protection, and with his protection we can get through it. He's literally laying out the ways that he wants to protect us, and that is through his armor. The last piece of the armor is the sword. Verse 17 says, And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. The sword of the spirit, the only offensive weapon in the armor is the sword of the spirit, aka the Bible. Of course, it isn't the Bible by itself. Just having a Bible on your bookshelf or next to your bed or even in your hand is not helpful. It is only when we read, study, memorize, and practice God's word that it becomes alive and active. Like I mentioned earlier, God's word is alive, but you have to actually practice it and put it to use for it to become alive and active in your life. With the sword of the spirit, we are able to fight off temptations. We're able to know the truths to tell our mind. When those lies come into our mind, we know the truths when we have the sword of the spirit or scripture, aka the Bible, as it says. We have the sword of the spirit and we're able to fight against everything that the enemy is telling us. My mind goes to when Jesus was in the wilderness and he was fasting, and the enemy was tempting him with food, and he was saying, like, you could just eat, it's gonna be okay, like you're gonna be fine. He was tempting him. The way that Jesus responds is with scripture because he has the sword of the spirit. He had the biggest weapon that he could use against the enemy, and that is the gospel. It literally we talked about it earlier that Satan cannot stand against the gospel as it plays out in our life. So knowing scriptures, knowing the gospel and having these as weapons in our back pocket is having the sword of the spirit because it's the only offensive weapon in the armor, aka the Bible. It's not just a Bible on your bookshelf or on your bed or even in your hand, it's studying, reading, memorizing, and practicing God's word. That's when it comes alive. So I just want to encourage you guys the next time that you have a temptation pop up in your life, or you have a lie pop up in your brain, or anything that the enemy might throw at you, use your sword, use scripture against the lies that the enemy is telling you because the way that you can definitely discern if it's from the enemy versus the Lord is those lies or what the enemy is telling you will never align with what Jesus has in store for you. He'll twist the words of Jesus, he'll try to make it seem like it's coming from the Lord, but really sit with it and think, would Jesus actually tell me to do that or would he actually say that to me? And if it's hurting you, if it's knocking you down, if it is something that you know wholeheartedly goes against the Lord, it is not from the Lord. And that's when we can step in and use that sword of the spirit and be like, actually, you say I'm ugly, devil, but the Lord says I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Using those scriptures against what the enemy is throwing at us. To finish out, I just want to leave you guys with a few notes that the Lord did put on my heart as we were going through this. But God's armor lays the foundation for our entire life. He is the foundation that we need to survive. His armor is what we need to survive. God's armor is all consuming and will protect us from all evil as long as we put it on daily. So daily taking up your cross and denying your flesh, and daily putting on your armor, knowing that the Lord's gonna protect you throughout your day. Thank you guys so much for just tuning in and listening today. I feel so encouraged and so loved, and I pray that you guys feel the same way because this is our Heavenly Father that is teaching this to us. He wants us to put this on daily so he can protect us daily. And it is just such a beautiful reminder. I am so thankful for each one of you guys that constantly just tune in to listen and spend time with me, but mostly spend time with Jesus. Yes, it's me talking, but I pray that you guys just feel the Holy Spirit um moving through me because I want it to be the Lord every single time and not me at all. But thank you, friends, for being here, and I will see you guys next time.