If you haven’t read part one, please go back and check it out. It’s about how the Armor of God is meant to stand against the trickery of the devil, and a weapon for your prayer life. In part two, we’re going to take a closer look at what truth means and righteousness armor and how to upgrade it.
Ephesians 6:14 NKJV
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Truth. The Roman soldier’s belt was made of soft leather strips decorated with metal, it functioned as a piece to hold the soldier’s tunic in place, and also held small weapons. It was a symbol of status.
What truth might Paul be referring to that can hold small weapons and be a symbol of status in the spiritual realm? Truth of the Lord in the Bible. The greater measure of truth we obtain, the greater our ability to hold weapons and status can be in the spiritual realm.
I don’t think this piece should be skipped over lightly as most teachers that I have heard. Sometimes what we think is truth is not truth. For example, my father would always say, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” I actually believed this was scripture. When I was 12 years old, after searching the lexicon and combing over the Bible, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I cannot explain the joy that filled my heart as I raced to my father, with Bible in hand, to inform him of the real truth of the gospel. Another old wives’ tale that people used to quote as scripture, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” While those are silly examples, not knowing what’s in the Bible can actually ruin our belt of truth. Sometimes, when discussing a subject such as fear or healing, I’ll ask the person, “What does the Bible say?” Most often people can only repeat popular sermon comments from their pastor. I used to be no exception. I learned that truth can only come from the Word. Revelation truth comes when the Word sinks down into our own hearts.
A few years back, I moved to a new area and was dragging my feet about finding a new church. I visited a particular denomination and didn’t quite know what to expect. After the elementary level sermon, everyone was invited to go down front to pray. The women were wonderful and prayed nice things over me. But then… the pastor approached me, “I just want to let you know that we have the top doctrine here.” “Excuse me,” I replied to give him a chance to walk that comment back. “You can’t get any higher than the doctrine we have. There were the apostles, and then there is us right there. There is no ‘up’ from there.” Shocked at his arrogance, I replied, “Oh? Well as for me,” using my unimpressed face, “I always consider myself a student of the Word. I’m always learning and always growing. Going from glory to glory.” He realized that he verbally painted himself into a corner with his arrogance, “Well all I meant by that was…. uh…” And he preceded to stumble over his own tongue as he tried to talk his way out. Unfortunately, I could relate to this pastor’s arrogance when I was immature in age and spirit. I thought I had all the answers to everything. Once I humbled myself, I learned that I really didn’t know truth from the Holy Spirit, but instead, just arrogance and church doctrine from my pastor and teachers. Their arrogance that rubbed off on me was stopping me from growing in truth and grace. Since then, I’ve learned it’s dangerous to heavily rely on pastors and other ministers to interpret the Word for me. The Bible says in John 16:13 NKJV of the Holy Spirit that, “He will guide you into all truth.” The more I look towards Him for truth, the more He teaches me. While I do sit under a pastor and honor him, the Holy Spirit is still my main guide for Biblical interpretation of truth.
One of my favorite scriptures that helped me grow in truth of the spirit is
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Part of walking in a greater truth is having a teachable spirit, where we can take a correction in our belief. Just a few days ago, I was explaining to someone that if they kept doing something the Lord has clearly told them NOT to do, the Lord will take His hand of protection off of them. Sounds right, yeah? I can’t count how many ministers I have heard say this same thing through the years. The next day while I was deep in prayer listening to the Lord, a correction came to me, “I won’t take My hand off of him. The essence of his behavior will push My hand off of him.” In other words, his stink will remove God’s hand. As soon as I hear something, I immediately think what Scripture lines up with what I heard, otherwise I disregard it. The Bible says in Psalm 100:5, “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting…” and 1 John 4:8 “…God is love.” I realized a good Father with everlasting mercy that loves us wouldn’t take His hand of protection from us. In the light of these Scriptures, it makes more sense that His hand would be pushed off. In that moment, I had to change how I thought of the Lord and repent for accusing Him of removing His hand off any of his children. After I repented, I went back to this person and shared the correction I received. I’m not ashamed. I’m glad I received this correction, because now I know the Lord in a better way.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 has been an important part of squashing the error of church doctrine in my life and learning truth from the Holy Spirit. I read the NIV version and changed it into a prayer for my Bible reading, “Lord teach me, rebuke me, correct me, and train me in righteousness, so that I may be thoroughly equipped.”
And that brings us to the next piece….
Ephesians 6:14 NKJV
…having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Righteousness. The Roman soldier’s breast plate was to protect all their vital organs from an attack. It was a piece of thick metal that was attached on the sides with leather straps.
Righteousness in the Bible simply means right standing with God. According to Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, right standing with God will protect vital parts of our spirit, our heart. There are many verses in the Bible that speak of righteousness.
Proverbs 21:21 NKJV “He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.“
“But what does this mean?” I used to ask myself and the Holy Spirit. “Right standing with God, sooo… I just ask God to forgive me, because ‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21) Ok, so then I’m good!?” I was so confused. There is no more or less righteousness, you either are in right standing with the Lord in Christ or you’re not. Like I kept hearing in church, I ask forgiveness and the piece is solid, so I checked it off my list.
Thankfully it wasn’t long before a minister came to my church and spoke on the topic of cussing, or saying bad words. This man was from the south, which means the sermon was almost two hours. In that time, he said what I believe is a quote from the Holy Spirit about righteousness, “Cleaner is closer to God. Cleaner is closer.” That quote stuck with me for over 20 years. What I learned is that when you receive Jesus as your Savior, you take on His righteousness (see 2 Corinthians 5:21 above). If you want to upgrade this piece of armor, then you must live a righteous life style.
I don’t believe it’s my job to convict anyone for their behavior. I believe that job is mainly done by the Word, the Holy Spirit, and your pastor. Once a friend called me on the phone to tell me her revelation from Christ was that she wasn’t supposed to wear contact lenses. Her body was the temple of the Holy Spirit, and she wasn’t supposed to insert anything inorganic into her body. I, for one, happened to have really enjoyed my continuous wear contact lenses. To me this issue wasn’t a matter of heaven or hell. I tried to talk her back from what I thought was the edge of reason, but she insisted it was the Holy Spirit. I politely said “Lord bless you, I don’t feel convicted for contacts at this time.” In the past, I tried to live by other people’s convictions, and I can’t make it work for me. One example is coffee. A handful of ministers say the Lord convicted them of drinking coffee. To that I say, “Lord bless you, I don’t feel convicted for it at this time.” I’m going to share two of my “Cleaner is closer” convictions as examples. I don’t expect you to live by my convictions or judge by them. Just say, “Lord bless you Christi, I don’t feel convicted for it at this time.”
When I was a teenager, I learned that Nike was the Greek god of victory. My shoes were Sketchers at that time, and so it didn’t really affect my life. Many years later, I found my way into the Nike outlet trying on Nike Torches which I really really liked. Short people need a heel on their sneakers! Sure, the Holy Spirit was tapping me on the inside, “Nike the Greek god of victory.” But so what? It’s just a name. It doesn’t matter. I wore them for many years. One night while I was praying, I kept picking up that my prayers were being blocked. Something in my prayer life was just not right. I started asking God, what’s wrong? It was like someone turned on the lights. Here I am in my prayer closet, so to speak, shouting “Victory in Christ” over situations and I’m standing there in demon Nike god of victory shoes. I completely understood the dishonor I brought to the Lord. I prayed in these shoes, read my Bible in these shoes, praised in these shoes, brought these shoes into the church, and thought absolutely nothing of it. I immediately repented and cleaned my life out of Nike products.
“Lord bless you Christi, I don’t feel convicted for it at this time.”
For many years, I used to turn the national news on TV and leave it on for hours. In the evening, I would watch news shows to hear what they didn’t play over and over all day long. Of course, that wasn’t good enough. When I woke up in the morning, I started watching news from another country about the United States for an unbiased view. Then I would read my Bible and pray. Unfortunately, it took me a while to see that my ears were finely tuned to constant garbage and works of evil instead of what The Lord was doing. I lost my peace, and I became a walking talking news station. The Lord convicted me of the large volume of garbage I allowed into my life. I decided it was time to make changes, and I no longer listen to or read any news. I’m now the last to know anything, if I ever even know at all. It was a change I needed to make because I let it put distance between the Lord and me.
“Lord bless you Christi, I don’t feel convicted for it at this time.”
What does the Word say about my shoes? “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (as in “before my face”) Exodus 20:3 NKJV. What does the Word say about my ears being garbage cans? Proverbs 4:23 NKJV, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” That is exactly what the breastplate of righteousness Paul is trying to tell us it protects, our heart. In both of these situations, it wasn’t that I wasn’t in right standing with God or that He pushed me away. I was like Pig Pen, my filth made a cloud between the Lord and me. As soon as I cleaned myself, I was immediately free to walk closer to the Lord.
I’m not going to call anyone’s sin out, so I’m just going to quote two country songs:
“She’s Everything” by Brad Paisley
She’s a Saturday out on the town
And a church girl on Sunday
She’s a cross around her neck
And a cuss word ’cause its Monday
She’s a bubble bath and candles
Baby come and kiss me
She’s a one glass of wine
And she’s feeling kinda tipsy
“This Is How We Roll” by Florida Georgia Line
We love who we love and we wanna have fun
Yeah, we cuss on them Mondays
And pray on them Sundays
Pretending these are real people, 1 John 1:9 NKJV says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When these people go to church and ask the Lord sincerely to forgive them, they are just as righteous as the saint who doesn’t run around the town, doesn’t cuss, doesn’t get tipsy, and loves everyone as the Bible instructs. This truth makes religious sacred cows moo! I know because I used to own two of these cows. The problem is that we understand the concept of cleaner is closer, but we confuse it with righteousness and unrighteousness. For example, Brad Paisley’s “She’s Everything Girl,” she’s righteous on Sunday, but she never dumped her junk for good. Maybe there are still half-empty wine bottles in her house for another day. Perhaps she still has pictures from those nights on the town that she enjoys looking at or sharing on social media. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think she has cuss words in her text messages. This is where we can look like Pig Pen (the cartoon above for the young crowd). We can clean up our armor, but we can’t walk any closer to the Lord until we remove our own stink. At some point the danger of repeated sinful behavior makes sin feel normal and acceptable. “She had bubble baths with candles with that guy for a long time. Yeah, it’s like they’re married.” This is the point where armor starts taking on damage until you are no longer wearing it. Why? Because she’ll start to label herself a sinner, and comfort herself with, “Who cares?” The Lord can’t clean or repair what we chose to not wear.
Let’s look at Proverbs 21:21 NKJV again, “He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.”
Follows righteousness is the same as saying, “Cleaner is closer.” We have so many opportunities in life to veer off the path of righteous living. As Proverbs is telling us, following righteousness will result in us finding life, or The Lord.
Cleaner is truly closer to the Lord. I want to challenge you to pray your own version of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 before you read your Bible. Don’t overwhelm yourself by picking through your own life. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to your heart during your quiet times of what changes He wants you to make to walk in His truth and His righteousness.
Thank you for following along with me in this study. Next week will be on peace and faith. You don’t want to miss those very important topics.
Blessings in Christ
Christi
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