wrestle not · 2017. 10. 22. · we must face things head on, geared up, face to face, full...

LIVE THE WORD & WALK WITH POWER!

October 22, 2017 Mark Wallace

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Copyright © Mark Wallace. All rights reserved.

While chained up in a Roman prison, the great Apostle Paul voiced, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.”

To add depth, he also said our fight is multilayered and multidimensional even spiritual at times.

Like it or not, we were born into this fight and we were born to fight. God has given us a way and the

equipment to handle things at every single level.

Today I will show the mindset necessary to fight through problems that stem from us, from other people we

know, from low-level bureaucrats with just enough authority to make things miserable, even up to world

leaders who have the power to manipulate countries, and all the to the wicked spirits that pull all their

strings.

We are told to “wrestle not against flesh and blood” because most problems run deeper than that; they dip

into the spiritual. A lot of people don’t believe that, but that’s just the way it is. I believe if the Bible says it,

there has to be something to it. We will see that there is a more effective way to handle problems that stem

from the spiritual than a simple athletic mindset can afford. We must face things head on, geared up, face to

face, full contact, eye to eye, all up in their grill, “mano a mano,” hand to hand, armored-up and battle ready.

You will be amazed at what you are designed to handle.

Be Amazed!

While I was in the timeworn cities of Rome, Pompeii, and Taormina Italy, I tried to imagine what life must

have been like in these towns during the first century. They are teeming with history and just as much

conflict.

We hired an English-speaking tour guide to walk us through one well preserved ancient Roman city. She had

her entire spiel memorized and at times would walk ahead of us, talking away, arms gesticulating Italian style,

whether we were with her or not (also just like an Italian). When we would catch up, she would turn to us

and say in a monotone voice, “Are you amazed?”

The amazement was clearly gone for her but I was fired up! It was amazing, I felt transported. It was

otherworldly to me to see and be in places that some of the heroes I’ve read about in the Bible and in other

books lived and walked and did things.

To be in a place that was once teaming with people from all walks of life; shop keepers, soldiers, prostitutes,

politicians, slaves, children, parents, athletes, gladiators, the elite, and possibly strolling the very same streets

that the followers of the Apostle Paul walked. After all, he was twice a prisoner in Rome and many believers



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came to see him. So, to be at the same place…the same piece of stone that they might have stepped on, to

me, was exhilarating. I was amazed!

Rome is where Paul wrote the amazing letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians; and the very personal

letter to his wealthy friend Philemon from Colosse. Paul, who was imprisoned in Rome, somehow befriended

a runaway slave named Onesimus. This slave turned on to the Word, accepted Christ, and told Paul he was

run away from his master, named Philemon. Paul knew Philemon and lovingly sent a letter and asked to

receive Onesimus back but not as a slave but as a brother. He said and if he’s been any expense to you, just

put it on my account! You know he would never do that; Paul was in prison.

During Paul’s second imprisonment in Rome, just before Nero lost his mind and burnt down Rome so he

could rebuild his palace and began savagely persecuting the Christians. Paul penned his second letter to his

young protégé named Timothy.

I am amazed that Paul was able to write such amazing God-inspired letters, while he was under strict Roman

guard awaiting vindication or death. So be amazed! What we’re going to learn about is going to be amazing.

Finally

Now let’s dip into one of the letters Paul penned while in that Roman prison. Let's see what it really takes to

deal with our problems.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

“Finally” means, “Okay, from now on, in addition to all the other things I have taught, hang onto what I’m

about to share, this is probably going to be important.”

He is telling us to be strong, not that it just possible to be strong in the Lord. There is a difference. All

Christians know they have the ability to be strong and to do the same works that Jesus Christ did and to do

exploits, and to walk with power, and to walk with dominion, to walk with light, love, truth, all these good

things, but to do it is a whole different thing. We’re going to learn exactly what it takes to do it and it’s really

not all that hard. It’s not all that hard.

These things will help us whether it’s peer pressure, whether it’s getting bullied on the internet, whether it’s

people at work, whether it’s clients that mistreat you, a boss that’s a jerk, whether it’s a politician you don’t

like, or a whole group of politicians you don’t like, or a country that you don’t trust. This will help you learn

how to deal with that.



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Here is how to be strong in the Lord.

Ephesians 6:11

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

This is really easy to say. But what does all of that mean?

“Put on” means to sink into. Have you ever slipped on your favorite pair of jeans and they fit you perfectly or

you sat down in your best easy chair, your best Lazy Boy and you just fit? Ah, I feel good. Or you lay down in

your bed at night after traveling for two or three weeks. It’s like oh I forgot how good this bed feels. You put

on, you slip into, or to invest in the full armor of God. You make it yours. You’re putting time and money into

this.

Sometimes Roman soldiers had to buy their own equipment. In all the movies you see, everybody looks the

same. The helmets are the same, the breastplates are the same, but that wasn’t really the case. The Romans

were pretty frugal. If they were going to the quartermaster to get supplies, they’d give them what they had

that would fit. It could be from a hundred or two hundred years before. It didn’t matter, so they looked a

little bit hodge-podge.

Sometimes they would make their own stuff. The richer people that were in the legion might buy it from the

best metal fashioner around and they would look great.

So “put on” means you make it fit. So how do you make this armor of God fit? What is this thing called armor

of God? Now we’ve all been taught a lot of things. You sang songs when you were in Vacation Bible School

and you’ve been in different ministries that taught different things. I read some crazy stuff this weekend!

We need this whole armor of God thing if we want to be able to stand against the “whiles” which could also

be translated the much traveled and booby-trapped roads of the devil. It’s the well-traveled path. We already

know that’s the way of the world, right? IT’s always well-traveled; almost everybody is walking down that

path. When you go against it, do people notice usually? Oh yeah! Sometimes it’s disconcerting to them when

you’re walking one way and everybody else is going the other way.

So, we need this whole armor if we’re going to stand against the “whiles”. “Whiles” could be translated

methods but that’s not the typical translation. It’s sort of the same. It’s the much-traveled way where he is

hiding in wait.



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Four Levels of Attack

Now we get into what I am calling four levels of attack or four levels we need to attack. For years I thought

these all meant the same thing. Just listen.

Ephesians 6:12

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the

rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

A lot of us are familiar with that verse. Before I get started, the word “against” means more than something

that you are against because it hassles you. It’s not just being against something; I don’t like that thing. The

word “against” is being in the ring, barehanded, trying to muscle and finesse your opponent like a wrestler.

You are face-to-face with that person, it’s head to head, it’s contact, eye to eye, you’re grabbing their sweaty

body, you’re all up in their grill, “mano a mano,” hand to hand, armored-up and battle ready.

Now we see those words, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” That simply means people, human

beings, meat; flesh and blood people. It’s hard sometimes to think that it could be more than that. A lot of

times we want to think she said something bad to me and she hurt my feelings or my boss is a jerk; he doesn’t

respect me and it hurts my feelings. The politicians say something I don’t like and it hurts my feelings. We

think it’s that person, but there is more to all this than meets the eye. That’s what we’re going to get to.

I’m going to show you something a little bit different than you might have been taught.

Our fight is really on four ascending planes so to speak. It’s Principalities, Powers, World Rulers, and Wicked

Spirits to simplify; those are the four points.

For many years I thought they were different words meaning basically the same thing. I thought they all

meant the adversary; well I guess in a sense they do but I thought they all meant the devil – principalities,

powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. I thought it was all talking

about devil spirts. They are not the same. A principality is not as powerful as a power is not as powerful as an

evil world leader is not as powerful as wicked spirits. You’ll see the difference here as I go through these.

We’ve got to remember he’s using the Roman Empire analogy here that everybody understood. Everybody

understood this. They had strict laws administered strictly by different levels of government, from the lowest

level to the highest level, and Paul is talking about and beyond.



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A principality was a like a government or a magistrate of something. It doesn’t say what. They have the title

of leader or boss of something. This is the kind of person you’ll deal with and be hassled with more than any

other. It could be somebody who has a name tag at the grocery store and they treat you poorly. It’s a hassle!

Have you ever had that happen? They are rude. What’s the point? Why would they do that? There is no

reason. Well that could be a principality. It could be a governor. It could be somebody in a higher position of

government. But it’s usually somebody who has a position of power.

These are all things that hassle you. These are all things you have to deal with. You don’t know when you’re

getting hassled spiritually all the time do you? No. It’s that person, it’s your boss, it’s the girl in the internet,

you fill in the blank. Principality just means a top dog of something.

A power is a higher-level bureaucrat who is out in the public. This is somebody who is out there trying to

make things happen; a community organizer of sorts. They have a position of authority and love to use it.

They’ve got power and are going to use it. They take control with that power. You may have seen this person

if you were ever in a state job. You’ve absolutely seen that person if you’ve worked in a union or church

employee or member in a church; you have seen that person. These are people who can really hurt you.

These people have the power and authority to make your life miserable if they choose to.

I was at a job one time when I was working as a machinist at a shipyard. My first day there I was working,

working, working so hard, as hard as I could, as fast as I could work, and I got surrounded by all the old union

guys. They said, “Son, if you don’t slow down, we’re going to get you fired.” That is sort of how this kind of

person is. They could have; so, I just asked to be moved to another section where I could work alone and not

near them. They were happy to do that; they didn’t care. Then I could work as fast as I wanted to. But they

didn’t want the competition. They didn’t want to be showed up.

You see these people on teams. They have power. It’s like the coach’s son could get you kicked off a team or

get you put on the bench; that’s still that power.

Now remember this is more than just the flesh we’re talking here. Ultimately this goes beyond the flesh.

You’re dealing with the person but they’re influenced by some other influence. It doesn’t mean they’re

possessed, but it could mean it, but they are influenced. Sometimes the benefit to us isn’t any different.

A world ruler or “ruler of the darkness of this world” could mean the devil but because of the next term I

think it is more like an evil Emperor. I’ll prove what I’m saying here. Now this may cut across all the things

and maybe I’m wrong. I don’t care. Just hear me out here for a minute.



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This world ruler is a person who can literally change the world. They have the military, and political, and

economic might to do just about anything they want to do, at anyone’s and everyone’s expense. Do you think

the Empire of Rome was like that? Do you think the Emperor was like that? He could have done anything.

They worshipped him. So, Paul is using a purely Roman example here. We’re going to get into the armor in

just a minute here. Right now, we’re talking about these things. Now you can also think seed of the serpent

there as a world ruler. Is that still a person? Yes.

So, you have principalities, you have powers, which we just talked about; now world rulers. There are not

many people today who are world rulers but there are people who go to these summits and these different

things and change the world; sometimes for the better but usually for the worse.

Finally, wicked spirits. We don’t need much explanation for this. But these fallen angels, these spiritual

beings, these devil spirits, who run the world leaders, who in turn run the powers, who run the principalities.

IT’s run top down much like a military. It’s a top down thing.

So, this is what we’re up against folks every day. It’s not just the check-out girl, it’s not just the person who’s

bullying you on the internet, it’s not just the cousin who every time you’re around brings up all that stuff

from your past that you wish they left dead and they should. Why does it keep happening? Why do they keep

doing it? Well there are reasons folks. Remember he lies in wait to deceive. He lies in wait. He lies next to

that well-traveled road and you jump on that well-traveled road baby, you’re going to feel a blast.

These are what we have been wrestling with our entire lives. These are why we feel so beat up or beat down

at times. It’s because we’ve somehow allowed ourselves to be influenced by these because we think they’re

just people. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. That is the key right here. It’s NOT flesh and blood. It’s

always coming from something else so we need something spiritual to take it on.

These four levels attack us each and every day. Let’s see a better way to attack back because folks you have

to attack. You’re going to learn how to protect yourself and you’re going to learn how to go on the offense

here. But it’s something we have to do at every one of these levels. At some point in your life, you will have

to deal with all of them.

It could just take a vote, right? Sometimes you’ll never see the top world leaders but in our country, you can

vote, right? You can convince other people to vote the way that you think too. That is what a lot of people

do. They get out there and campaign for somebody because they want this to go the way they want it to go.

So, let’s see a better way to attack back.



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We now jump from athletic terminology to the full military gear worn at all times by a Roman warrior. I see

how people could have thought this whole thing was athletic because it starts off that way. But it doesn’t end

that way. Most athletes were naked, okay. So, it’s not like we think of it today. Most athletics were to

prepare people for war; the discus, the javelin, running, wrestling, boxing. All of these were war-type events

that people did when they were relatively out of war at that moment.

The Whole Armor of God

Now I know that some of you have been taught that this armor is not military but is athletic in nature. You’ve

got to really twist things to get that. This is not what Paul saw running around Rome all the time.

First, he talks about all those different levels of government that we have to deal with and they affect you at

every single level; from the friendships to the powers, to the world leaders, to the wicket spirits, so it may not

be the case. The athletic was only to support the military during times of relative peace in Paul’s day and

time. There wasn’t much peace then, folks. Israel was starting to uprise about this time.

In fact, the coliseum I was in in Rome, the great big coliseum you see all the postcard pictures of, that was

built right after they really persecuted the Christians in Israel around 60 A.D. Then the Jews started uprising.

They went against the Romans. The Romans just squashed them and took all their money. Rome had already

been there a hundred years but now they wanted to kick them out fully and they got squashed with

everything taken. The money they took from Israel was what built that coliseum in Rome. Isn’t that crazy? In

70 or 71 A.D. I think the uprising was 69 A.D.; I’m not exactly sure. These guys were in full battle gear all the

time so we have to be talking about battle gear.

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,

and having done all, to stand.

Now in a wrestling competition at that time, you get thrown down three times, you’re out. It’s sort of like

baseball and strike three. There weren’t many rules then.

There were two basic rules—you can’t gouge somebody’s eyes out and you can’t bite them and they looked

very harshly on breaking somebody else’s fingers to gain purchase on them, but you could still do it, but it

wasn’t really good; it wasn’t good sporting to break somebody’s fingers. But they would do whatever it took

to win. These were warriors! They weren’t used to playing around. They were schooled in the art of death.



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Now we’re going from wrestling right into military gear. Now he’s going to use a piece of military gear, there

are six pieces he’s going to show, but each one is going to have a spiritual point. If you can get all six of these

down, if you can learn to do all six of these and they’re not all that hard, folks, then you can handle pretty

much any problem that you face. Any person you face you’ll absolutely be able to handle if you know first

you’re not dealing with flesh and blood.

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,

and having done all, to stand.

This is the second time Paul uses this term “the whole armor of God” in this section. The first time he said put

it on, now he says take unto you. Jesus talked about this in Luke 11:22-23. How even if you are armed to the

teeth, that if you let down your guard, someone more prepared or stronger could come in and take it from

you then give it away to their friends. So, one soldier could take what another soldier had just right away

from them if he’s stronger or if he’s better at what he does. So, this is used more than one time.

So back to Ephesians. We want to withstand each and every attack so we can maintain standing. It’s available

to keep standing. You talk about people “taking a stand”. Take a stand! Well now we’ve got to learn how to

stay standing because there are people who will try to knock you down a peg; try to push you down enough

times where you’re not going to want to get back up again. It’s a type of mental slavery. It’s a type of abuse.

Some woman gets talked down, talked down, pretty soon she doesn’t think much of herself or if she gets

beat up or he gets beat up now days; whatever the case is. You just stay, and you stay, and you stay.

A wrestler could hardly stand against a well-trained fully equipped warrior. You could have the best wrestler

in the world and you have a top-trained soldier in full battle gear, who is going to win? The soldier because

he’s just going to run him through, right? I don’t care how good the wrestler is, a hand isn’t going to be as

good as a sword or a spear.

What I’m trying to say here, the enemy I just talked about cannot stand up to a well-trained Christian. Your

problems cannot stand up against a well-trained Christian. That person on the internet, that person at the

check-out, they can’t stand up to it. Or the problems you create for yourself because we feel low about

ourselves, they can’t stand up to this. Nothing can!

Because all problems – are they flesh and blood? No.



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It is always “the evil day” because we live in an evil world. There are people out there waiting to trip us up

and to take what we have. It’s just the way of the world. They’ll steal your sale from you. They’ll steal your

bonus from you. They’ll steal your job from you. They’ll talk the boss down against you so they can get

promoted above you. It happens every day all day long. They’ll steal your money on the internet. They’ll steal

your identity. It doesn’t matter. It’s still steal, kill, and destroy, right?

Sure, some days are nicer than others. Have you ever noticed that? I had a nice walk yesterday with my wife

when we were talking about this. I was trying to do this teaching from memory to her chagrin! She said, “This

is really a nice day.” So, I was thinking about that. Sometimes I think it’s a nice day because we did some of

these things. We did some of these things right even if we didn’t know we were doing them. You do them all

the time, you that I know; that’s why you amaze me!

Ephesians 6:14-17 14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of

righteousness; 15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the

wicked. 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Let’s break this down a little bit.

Paul mentions six pieces of very visible, very common, very well-seen, very familiar equipment that everyone

reading his letter would have known. They would have known about those things. It is a perfect analogy.

We cannot get by without any one of the six parts.

1. Loins girt with truth 2. Breastplate of righteousness 3. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace 4. Shield of faith 5. Helmet of salvation 6. Sword of the spirit which is the Word of God

Allow me to amaze you with a quick breakdown of each part.



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#1 -- Loins Girt with Truth

Our loins are one of our most vulnerable body parts especially men. It must be protected. All athletes do, do

they not? The Roman soldiers wore a thick leather belt with thick straps that hung down in front of their

crotch for protection.

We need Truth in order to protect our ability to enjoy and propagate Truth. What is Truth? Is it different than

#6, the Word of God? Or are they exactly the same thing? Why would he say it at the beginning and the end

here? Is it a sandwich or is Truth a little bit different? Here’s it’s something a little bit different.

The word Truth means “not concealed.” If we tell the truth we are open and honest. This is step one in

standing against our enemy. We are truthful, we are open, and we take great pleasure in speaking the Truth

or living the Truth even better. We protect that Truth that we have. How do you do that? What if everybody

is telling you that you’re no good? Well then you have to figure out a way to tell yourself you’re great, right?

Only you can do that. Sometimes a friend will. But we can’t depend on friends all the time but you can

depend on you. So be open and honest. Sometimes this means being open and honest to the people who are

hassling you. Unfriend them; whatever it means. Get in the face of that politician who just said something

stupid. Write them a letter. Be open. Be honest.

#2 – Breastplate of Righteousness

We have all seen the armor that covers the torso of a Roman soldier. This is to protect the heart and the

organs. People of that day were taught that the brain was in the heart or the heart was the brain. We think

everybody knows the brain is in the head. They thought the brain in your head was to cool the blood for your

heart. That is what they were thought. The top thinkers of the day realized hundreds of years later that the

brain was for thinking. It wasn’t until we got electricity that they really started figuring it out. Because you

know when you think good thoughts then your heart might speed up. You see a pretty girl, boom, boom,

boom, boom. They thought because it was acting like that it must be the brain. That is the seat of your

personal life; that is what people thought.

But we still talk with the same lingo they did back when they thought your brain was right in your chest. I love

you with all my heart or I love you with all my brain. Which sounds better?! But it doesn’t make any sense.

Your heart has no thinking ability, right? So really, I love you with all my brain is better but it doesn’t sound

good. I love you with all my heart. It all came from that old way of thinking.

The breastplate covered what they all thought was the seat of their life, the center of their will, the heart of

their mind.



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We protect what we know is right. The breastplate of righteousness is the breastplate of what’s right. You

protect what’s right. You cover the Truth. You protect that Truth. You’re going to propagate Truth. You’re

going to move that Truth when you can but you protect the Truth. Then you really protect your heart which is

right. It’s doing what’s right, thinking what’s right, speaking what’s right; it’s what’s right! Now, it’s not easy

to do in this world because some things that we think are normal are just way out there. They’re gone. I don’t

care what society you’re in. Even in our society there are things that we think are totally acceptable and

they’re crazy wrong. When we allow that, we are not protecting what’s right. When you know it’s right or

when somebody speaks to you, you know if it’s right or wrong. You protect yourself.

#3 – Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace

The soldiers of that day wore sandals that had nails or studs sticking out of the bottom. This gave them

traction in battle when they were shield to shield shoving the enemy back.

We are to be always prepared to spread words that bring peace. That’s what it’s saying. Be prepared. Get

traction. Give peace traction. Give peace a chance. Peace is another great weapon.

This is another way we battle back the four aspects of our enemy. Like a soft answer turneth away wrath,

have you ever heard that? That is peace, folks. Don’t just talk about it. Always be ready to spread a little

peace wherever you go.

In the Boy Scouts it was always leave an area better than you found it when you camped. Well I think leave a

person better than you found them. You should be spreading light everywhere you go or in every

conversation. When you answer the phone, if you smile, people can hear that you’re smiling! Do you know

that? They can tell when you talk if you’re smiling or not. Spread the love! Spread peace.

Spreading peace is another way we battle back the four aspects of our enemy – principalities, powers, rulers

of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness from on high. This can back them down.

#4 - Shield of Faith

This is a great one! It says “above all take the shield of faith.”

This above all does not mean it is the most important, it means to literally set it above everything else. It’s to

literally hold it up. Hold the shield up. It’s shields up and we’ll get to this in a minute.

The word faith could mean both faith in Christ and the believing kind of faith that you may call total

conviction, totally committed, or 10x commitment. That’s believing. So, it’s probably both of those. You’ve



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got to have the Christ or you’re not going to have the spiritual power. You’ll have power but not the same

kind.

In the first century Rome, all the shields were made of similar size shape and curvature. This is because the

Legions had formations that required exact placement of shields.

This shield was made exactly a certain way. It was laminated layers of wood put together with horse glue. It

had a layer of dyed animal hide on top of that with a metal edge on it that would catch the edge of a sword

just for a second so they could parry with another move.

With this thing called faith, or believing, we can quench all the flaming arrows of words that are hurtful to us.

With faith, you’ve got to hold something up. There’s got to be something or you’re going to keep getting

hurt.

If you have somebody who keeps hurting you, maybe you need to just be truthful with them, right? Maybe

you need to do what’s right to protect your heart. Maybe you need to push some peace their way. When it’s

on the shoes it means you’re moving peace. You move peace.

Here this is total protection but the mind picture Paul had at this time and that all these believers would have

seen the Romans practicing because they practiced all the time. That’s why they had a kingdom that lasted

over a thousand years. It took team work. We’ll see how this shield is not just for the person, it’s for the

group. It’s for your family, your friends, and for you.

Putting a shield over the head was typically a formation called the “testudo” which means tortoise in Latin.

Testudo formation (56 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgmFycuRwAw

Testudo formation used in the Siege of Jotapata (7:46)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-E5J6LNUBU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgmFycuRwAw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-E5J6LNUBU



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When the Roman soldiers got the order to go into the testudo formation, they knew exactly how they were

supposed to do this. Each one would get a certain distance together and they would snap into protective

position. There would be shields all around the perimeter facing out and then the people in the middle would

put the shields up so if arrows are coming, they couldn’t get through those things. That is how you quench

them—you put them out.

If you saw a whole dark sky of arrows coming at you, when they would blow the horn or give the signal, then

those guys would have enough time when those arrows left the bow and they were starting to fly, to snap

into that testudo.

There’s one record of one guy having over 100 arrows in his shield at the end of a battle. Think the shield

saved his life? Yes! It’s a defensive thing but it’s for the group. Everybody has to work together. If one guy

opened up that shield, it could kill three or four guys in there.

Each shield protected them and the entire group from front, sides, top, and back. They could do this in

seconds.

Faith in Christ and the faith, or full-on conviction of a believer is what we use to protect each other. Faith is

our testudo – shields up.

#5 -- Helmet of Salvation

A helmet was for protection and intimidation. A helmet then usually had a horse hair crest on top of it that

would make them look taller and more ferocious. The Centurions which would be like officers wore it going

one way and the legionnaires wore it the opposite way, the gladiators if they did wear it, wore it from ear to

ear instead of front to back. All the different crests on there were different.

A helmet of salvation. It was for protection and intimidation. Helmets had a lot of different styles by the first

century. By then there were three different styles and whatever was available was what they wore. They all

had the crest on them. It made them feel taller and bigger.

I’ve talked to military people and they say once they strap that helmet on, they felt like it was business time.

When they put all their body armor on today, they feel powerful. These guys did too. Today when a soldier

straps on his or her helmet, it means business.



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I remember when I played football, we had something called head hunters. They were these little skull and

cross bone stickers. If you did a good hard-hitting play, it was really for the linemen, they stuck it on your

helmet. We had some guys on our teams that had them all over their helmets. They were just rubbed

together. When they came to the line, the other teams would know what that was so they would know this

guy would be a little more difficult; he’s going to hit me hard. Whereas, I maybe had one on my helmet! But

it’s sort of the same.

You play hockey, the one who looks a little more banged up, you know he or she is going to take some hits,

right?

This verse talks about the helmet of salvation. The word “take” means to receive the helmet of salvation. The

word “salvation” here is not the Greek word sozo that you’re thinking. It doesn’t mean made whole. The

word salvation here means the defender. It means receive the defender. You put that on. In other words,

God I’m asking for some help here, baby.

Have you ever done that? You don’t know what to do – God, I just got to have some help; I don’t know what

to do here. The helmet of salvation is accepting help from the great defender. You’re receiving it. We have to

figure out how we get ourselves to the place we can humbly receive help. Because some people can’t; they

can’t ask for help. I’ll guarantee they’re not going to be able to withstand the whiles of the devil. You’ve got

to be able to receive help. You’re going to need help.

#6 -- Sword of the Spirit Which is the Word of God

I think you all get this one. You know what a sword is. You know what the Word of God is. Our only true

offensive weapon that we’ve talked about here is really the Word of God. It takes it to them.

Now we’re talking about principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in high

places. Those four things – these six things I just mentioned – all will take you right through their lines.

But we always have to remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

In the rest of the chapter Paul talks about praying by speaking in tongues and then pray for all the believers,

look out for them, and pray for me so that I can speak more. He can use these same attributes to go out and

attack.



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In summary, like it or not, we are born into this fight, folks. You didn’t ask for it but you’re here. You got born.

Once you got born again, you really entered the fray.

Christians a lot of times get hammered like crazy, the ones that are doing stuff, and here’s why. They don’t

understand that it’s not flesh and blood. They have to get to the point where they walk with these six

attributes.

This is the mindset necessary to fight through the problems that seem to stymie us; from other people, from

bureaucrats, from authorities who try to make your life miserable, or world leaders who manipulate the

whole world or countries around the world, all the way up to those dang spirits that just drive them to do

horrible acts because they hate God.

They don’t hate you, they just hate God, and they get to God just by getting to you. Just like people getting to

your kids to get to you sometimes.

All we need to do is put on the Truth, protect ourselves with what is right, spread the peace, never get

pushed back, keep our shields of faith ready to protect ourselves and each other, and humbly receive the

helmet, the help, of our defender, and wisely use the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.

We don’t wrestle anymore with flesh and blood but we do take a stand against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places, and we do it

with Truth, with right, with peace.

We do all these things with that sword of the Spirit. We just keep moving ahead. We protect whatever we

can protect.

Then we’re aggressively out thinking and speaking and doing and living the Word. I guarantee you will see the

results that you’ve really been wanting to see. You will get over some of these problems you might have had

in dealing with family and friends or politicians.

So, Wrestle Not.

God bless!

wrestle not · 2017. 10. 22. · we must face things head on, geared up, face to face, full...

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