Take My Hand Inspirations
ARMOR OF GOD SERIES
And take the helmet of salvation . . . (Ephesians 6:17a).
In
my Salvations Series, we journeyed through the seven steps and concluded with a
prayer of salvation to seal our commitment to God, the Father, the Son,
the Holy Spirit. Salvation Step 6 has given you that blessed assurance that you
are saved, and the 7th is to fire you up to step out into your own
“Jerusalem” and tell others about Christ by simply sharing your own salvation story—what
you were doing before you were saved; how you made the choice to take the seven
steps to salvation; and how you are living now as a born again child of the
Living God. And, guess what? Step 7 never ends while you dwell on earth.
Apostle
Paul was an ordinary man like you and me who struggled with personal issues
which rendered him soliloquizing: For what I am
doing, I do not understand. For what I
will to do, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do (Romans
7:15). That’s why he later admonished us
in Philippians 2:12b to work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling.
Being
born again and saved into the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should not make us
become complacent Christians—pleased to be accepted into His Kingdom thinking
we hold a lifetime membership card.
Apostle Paul certainly made it clear that there are one or two (or more
for some of us) issues we still have to work out after taking step seven unto
salvation. That struggle with
addiction—be it chemical (drinking, smoking, inhaling, injecting, chewing); or
emotional (insecurity, bitterness, jealousy, anger); or spiritual (plagued by
the demons of your past which seem uneasy to shake off)—must be loosed, bound
and burned by Holy
Spirit
fire.
Understand
this principle: It is a miracle which
brings us into the Kingdom of Heaven; it is a commitment to stay in the Kingdom
of Heaven. IT IS NOT ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED. I asked you before: Can a Christian who does
not obey the very reason for why Christ died, be given God’s Armor? Can a cold (disobedient) or lukewarm
(complacent, apathetic) Christian be entrusted with the Holy Spirit’s fire-hot
weapons of warfare?
Turning
back to a world of secret sin is turning your back on Christ Jesus. To be committed to the Kingdom of Heaven, we
must steadfastly guard our salvation in the fear of losing it to worldly
pleasures and with trembling—in this case, with a cautious outlook at what is
going on around us that could lead us into devil-devised temptations that are
too hard or impossible to come out of.
And they overcame him [the wiles of the devil] by the blood of
the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives
to the death
(Rev. 12:11).
This
means that times are not always going to be full of sunshine. As far as the devil gives woe to the
inhabitants on earth because he has great wrath knowing his time is coming for
eternal lock down, there will be rains of pains. The battle never ends in spiritual warfare. That’s why your faith, your belief in the
power of the Blood of Jesus and His Resurrection, must be your SHIELD.
The
devil is very well armed, very well prepared and very well planned. He observes every weakness we have to use to
his advantage to make us give up our salvation, just as Esau gave up his
birthright to his twin brother Jacob just because he was hungry. The devil can wet our appetites, making us
give up our birthrights as children of God, to satisfy our hunger for complacency
(Read Rev. Peter Osei Anyamesem’s blog: Complacent Christianity at www.narrowgatejourney.blogspot.com). Once we exchange our birthrights, giving up
our membership in the Kingdom of Heaven (and eternal life), we become members
of the Kingdom of Hell (meeting our spiritual death).
I
had a terrible time trying so hard to figure out a way to get my daughter into
a tertiary institution by the deadline given—Monday, February 25th. I looked for financial assistance from so
many sources; it seemed like the devil was laughing at me while making me look
like a beggar. But I was like the widow
that kept going to the judge to collect her property of land due her. I asked; I sought; I knocked on every door I
could find. Then my sister and my
encourager in the Lord said, “Sister Pat, remember Philippians 4:6, 7 and
19). It is very well.”
You
see, all of us struggle with issues. So
every night, I got down on my knees and prayed like Hanna for a baby. I gave everything to God in prayer with
supplication and thanksgiving. And
that’s when I wrote the Blog: Shield of Faith.
I was stepping out on faith for a miracle; and God was speaking to me
through that message I shared with you.
Well,
Friday the 22nd came; and I knew I had to have that money in the
tertiary institution’s bank account. No
money. On Saturday, the 23rd
as banks were open, I woke up at dawn and headed for the bank not knowing how
or where the money would come. Just got
up and went to town. What else could I
do? Give up and cry as I look into my
daughter’s disappointed eyes? At around
9 o’clock a.m., I got a call: “Sis. Pat, I came into some money and I will send
it to you soon. I told you that it is
very well!” MY TESTIMONY came in due
time. By 12 noon, a deposit was made
into the institution’s account and, with the contributions of my praying father and mother and my dearest brothers and sisters in the Lord, we were on our way to purchasing items
listed on the prospectus!
During
my time of trial, I could have made a decision to give up on God; go into the
world in misery asking myself: “Why did God abandon me? He didn’t come through for me when I needed
Him.” A once save and sanctified, but
now backslidden Christian brother told me, “My sister, when I needed God the
most, I didn’t get a testimony like yours, so I left Him.” He gave up his birthright to the Kingdom of
Heaven because he felt God did not come through for him at the “eleventh hour”.
God
came through for me. Am I any more
special than any other Christian? I
don’t know; but I do know that I made a promise to God at the time I was saved
that I would commit 100% to the Great Commission He entrusts to all Christians. I promised Him that I would give my life to
Him in full service; and for almost 20 years now, I have not doubted or been
double-minded about the power of God working in my life and in the lives of the
1000s of children He’s put into my care.
To go back to the Kingdom of Hell was not and is not an option for me. Yes, every day I work out my salvation with
fear and trembling.
And
my testimony is sure. Yet, I also felt the pain of parents wanting the best for
their children, but meeting financial barriers due to life in the rural
villages of Africa, where there are plenty of brilliant pupils and students,
but lack of financial strength to meet school fees and tuition. And I made another promise to God called Gifts Promised (to be shared with you in a future blog).
The
HELMET
is the most essential piece of a soldier’s armor. It protects your thoughts which create how
you imagine daily events and people in your life: rose-coloured or dark (Read
Blog: Shoes of Preparation). The weapon
is SALVATION.
You
must stay focused on your own salvation and on winning the salvation of lost and
backslidden souls in your “Jerusalem”.
Now look at yourself in your Armor of God. With the Helmet and with the Shoes, He’s got
you completely covered in His Salvation.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who
brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things,
who proclaims salvation . . . (Isaiah 52:7).
KEEP
ON PROCLAIMING, SOLDIER OF THE LORD’S SALVATION ARMY!
© 2019 by Take My Hand Inspirations, a
division of PepParadise Society Ltd Publishers.
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