Transcription
But I've heard people say when you get up, you got to pray, and you got to put on the armor of God, right? And I always kind of, I'm not trying to bash that, but I've always just kind of wondered, how exactly does that work? Yeah, is it, is the armor of God something that we are intentionally putting on daily? Is it something that we have to say, "Okay, I have to put on my righteousness"? There will be things that you have to say, especially when confronting the culture today. There's perversion, there's wickedness, there's the twisting of reality. It's the world is becoming delusional, and so of course, you're going to have to address those things. But we're not being offensive for the sake of offense; we're being truthful for the sake of truth. And if it so happens to offend, then so be it.
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So, Encounter Podcast, episode 2. I just want to say this for the people who are viewing this via YouTube, that it was not coordinated. Our outfits today, it just kind of happened. It just sort of happened that we're all wearing black, which I guess is appropriate, 'cause we're talking about things that are black and white, truth and deception. Come on now. I'll start with the verse here, Ephesians 6. I'll read verses 10-12, and then let's hear some commentary on this. "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places."
So, very popular portion of scripture on the armor of God. I like to say, when I need something to explain to me, explain it to me as if I'm a five-year-old. Yeah, you say that to me a lot in text. Yes, yeah, I do. And so, I think even reading the scripture, I was thinking about it as we were kind of planning the podcast out, and even for me, I overcomplicate it, right? I look at the scripture, I'm like, "Okay, what exactly does it mean by truth? And what exactly does it mean by peace?" And I think that's something that we can do, especially because it's such, like, a, it's such a popular verse when it comes to, like, the spiritual, spiritual realm, right? It's, it's brought up every time you talk about demons or anything that has to do with, again, spirit deliverance, deception, demonic attack. Exactly. And I think, I feel like I've overcomplicated the scripture plenty of times, but I love the way that you said it's pretty simple, right? When you really think about it, it's a very simple concept.
So, on that note, when you're talking about making sure that we simplify it, I think one of the mistakes that many believers make, myself included, is sometimes we'll take our preconceived ideas and then try to fit them onto the scripture. Yeah. So, even in engaging with the online community in regards to this particular portion of scripture, I noticed a lot of the questions seem to be coming from a place where there was this overcompli-, where where there was this overcomplication in terms of their perspective on this text.
So, let's just break it down real simply. Yeah. Couple notes I have here. When we talk about the belt of truth, it's actually describing truth. Truth. And I know, again, to your point, people, "Well, wait a minute. Well, what exactly is meant by truth?" Just truth. Right. Studying this out, I found the belt of truth is actually truth in general. And what's interesting is that we fasten the body armor of righteousness to ourselves using the belt of truth. So, Paul here would be referring to Israeli or Roman armor, and the way that this armor was put together was so that the belt itself would hold that armor, or the body armor of righteousness. So, a very simple truth that we can glean from that simple fact is that you cannot walk in righteousness if you're not girded with truth. So, that truth is what holds righteousness to you. You know, I heard some, uh, I don't remember what page said it, but he said, "When the belt of truth is present, there is no room for doubt." And I think that was so powerful because, again, you're talking about the Roman soldier. Do a little research, right? 'Cause I, I always am curious to know. Man, you're right. When that's girded upon you, and it's so funny as we look at it as our Christian walk, we carry God's truth everywhere we go. We carry that belt everywhere we go, ready to face at any moment, any situation that comes to us or any attack. We know that we have, if we're girded with the belt of truth, there's no room for doubt. I'm ready to fight.
So, would you say it's safe to say that truth is like the foundational thought of this? Truth, as I perceive it here in this text, truth is the major theme throughout all that's being described here. So, we'll break it down just a little bit further here. So, in regards to the body armor of righteousness, I think of Romans 4:3, where Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Okay, so how do we acquire that righteousness? Well, it's imputed righteousness. It's righteousness given to us because we believe. Ephesians 2:8-9 talks about the fact that we're saved by grace through faith. We can't do anything to contribute to that work. We didn't save ourselves. We're not keeping ourselves saved. And so, in regards to the truth in reference to righteousness, it's important that the believer remembers where we get our righteousness from. So, I'm girded with truth. I'm grounded in that truth. And because I'm grounded in that truth, I have the faith to respond and therefore receive that imputed righteousness.
We go down to the shoes of peace. Shoes of peace is simply the readiness to share the gospel. And this is what I found interesting. This is actually one of the offensive weapons. And by offensive, I don't mean that people are bothered by it. By offensive, I mean that it's what you use to advance in this spiritual battle. And it was almost ironic that peace would be an offensive weapon, or peace would be an offensive part of the armor. So that as we're spreading the gospel, we're spreading that peace. As we're preaching truth, as we're seeing people converted, as we're seeing people come into the kingdom, that is the spreading of truth, and that is the spreading of peace. We're walking in that peace of the gospel.
I think one thing I found interesting is that, especially, I feel like in our, in our day and age, right? It's a lot of people kind of like hiding, taking a step back, and kind of like, "Hey, Jesus, please come back soon because, oh, it's getting pretty bad. Like, we, you know, we need you to come back. We can't do this anymore." And we, we almost look at this armor purely protective, in the defense, right? Right. But in reality, armor is to get into the battle, right? And so, like the way you said it, there's two offensive parts of the of the armor because we're not supposed to put it on and hide in our house and say, "Okay, God, you know, I'm protected. Please keep me safe." It's meant so that we put it on, and that when we put it on, we go and do what God has called us to to do, which is to spread the gospel and to do all the things that Jesus anointed us to do, engage in the spiritual battle. Exactly. Be a part of kingdom expansion.
Shield of faith. We'll cover more on this in a little bit, but we'll just give a quick survey as we go. Shield of faith. This is what we use to guard ourselves against the fiery darts of the enemy. Now, I love that the language here is "fiery darts." Yeah, because fire, like deception, spreads. And so, once that fire has taken hold, then it begins to consume everything around it. So, in the same way, once we've given ourselves over to the belief of a lie, that deception begins to take over various different aspects of our lives, the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, and therefore, then the habits that begin to form around that.
So, we see the shield of faith, which is our belief in what God has said. What is my faith in? It's my faith in the truth. Again, getting back to that core theme. My faith is in the truth. So that when the enemy launches an attack against me, I raise my belief in what God has said, thus extinguishing the fiery darts of the enemy. By the way, that's the same word used to describe extinguish. That's the same word where, where, where we receive the instruction to not stifle the Holy Spirit. So, then the Holy Spirit is, uh, being referenced there in terms of his fiery nature, with that cross-reference.
And then the helmet of salvation. Thankfully, we actually have, um, another portion of scripture here, a reference that gives us insight onto this. 1 Thessalonians 5:8: "But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation." So, that cross-reference there tells us very clearly that the helmet of salvation is our confidence in our salvation. I thought it was interesting that, uh, it had been pointed out, I forgot who pointed this out to me, but that the armor is all front-facing. So that if you turn, you're going to make yourself vulnerable because you're not, not properly equipped to be going in the opposite direction. The only thing that remains is the helmet, which is circular. So, that confidence in salvation. This is not to say that we can just live however we want to live and perform however we want to perform, or we can just go on sinning without consequence. But this is to say that we have confidence not in our performance, but in Christ's perfection.
Then, finally, sort of the spirit, which is the word of God. Come on. I want to go back on, uh, the breastplate of righteousness. I was really trying to figure out, like, "Okay, I'm a very simple man, and I like, like we were talking about earlier, things explained simply." And the breastplate, when I look at a, a soldier, it's one of the first things you see. Brit has a picture of it. Pull that up. Can you pop that up on the, uh, screen there? Yeah. So, we have this super sick Roman soldier. That is an incredible. That's how Paul described it, right there. He definitely works out. Yeah. You know, I think they're called legionaries, too. I, I'm a big fan of that. Kind of, is this a tactical advantage to have the, the tail on the top, or is that just for show? I don't know. I think that might be for show. You'd have to ask a Roman soldier. You were saying about the, the body armor of right. Look at that photo, right? The first thing you really notice about anybody you look at is what they're wearing, right? And the first thing that always, you know, looking at that kind of character, is it's worn for all to see, for everyone to see. I think that's why they kind of chose those really bright colors, too. But there's no hiding righteousness. Like, you don't want to be hidden in righteousness. You want to show who you are in the Lord. And, and that strength alone, I think, I think the enemy sees it and he's like, "Oh, man, okay. He, he's walking with the Lord. He, he, he's close." So, that dawned on me last night as I was kind of figuring this out. There's no hiding it. Like, it's worn for all to see.
That's an excellent thought. And to that point, it would then stand to reason that it's obvious to the enemy when you're lacking it. Yes. And it protects the vital organs. It's meant to protect against that strike that could take you out, which is again, spirit. In the spirit, we're talking about righteousness. So, here's my thought on this. 'Cause I, I get what you're saying, and I, I do agree with it. But I also wonder, as, as we, we had this conversation on, um, a while back, and when we were talking about resting or trusting and having faith in God's ability to, yeah, we talked about that on your podcast, right? So, in, in, in trusting in God's ability to make you righteous. So, my thought is this. I've heard a lot of people say things like, "Hey, when you wake up." And know, we're going to get into some questions, but I've heard people say, "When you get up, you got to pray, and you got to put on the armor of God." Right? And I always kind of, I'm not trying to bash that, but I've always just kind of wondered, how exactly does that work? Yeah. Is it, is the armor of God something that we are intentionally putting on daily? Is it something that we have to say, "Okay, I have to put on my righteousness? I have to put on the helmet? I have to put on all these things?" Or is it just trusting that God has already equipped you through your faith in Christ? Yeah. Right? Are we fully equipped without, not, I guess, without the intention of like, "Hey, every morning I'm going to put it on. I have to be righteous, or else I'm going to get attacked." Isn't it just resting in that righteousness that God has given us already?
Well, on that note, we have a question here from Awakening Wonderland 9665, and they ask, "How do you suggest that we practically put on the armor every day?" And then the follow-up question was, "How can we teach our kids to do the same?" So, keep me on track there, guys, with that follow-up question. We'll come back, we'll circle back to that in just a moment. But let's go back to the text and see what it says, because I think the answer is actually found right here in verse 14. Ephesians chapter 6:14: "Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth." And so, even if you go a little further back, you see in his writing, he's instructing us in verse 13 that we put on the armor of God, that we may be able to stand against all the strategies of the devil. So, I'll just read that. Ephesians 6:13: "Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm." So, here we're instructed to equip ourselves with the armor. Yeah. Now, how do we balance that thought with imputed righteousness and faith? It's not necessarily that we have to give ourselves that saving righteousness or bring that legal declaration over ourselves of justified. Rather, it's that we have to make the conscious choice to live from that righteousness that has been granted to us. Us. So, the righteousness has been given to us. The new nature has been given to us. The, the new creation, the miracle of salvation, that's been granted to us. And so, we live from Christ's righteousness. We don't necessarily work to acquire it. So, here we can balance this simply by saying that Christ gave us that righteousness, but I have to choose to make use of that which he has given to me. Wow. That's so good.
So, I, I do think, it's a, it's a trusting in his power working within you to do what he wants you to do. Yeah. 'Cause again, I'm, we're church kids, right? So, we grew up in this, and it's, it's easy to get lost in this idea that it's dependent on me, and I've got to make sure I've got all these things on. But I think there's, there's some peace in the ability to just, I, I can be, I can live righteously. I can, I can have faith. I can trust in God. I can do what he's called me to do because of the power that's already working in me. So, I, I, I love that there is a call to action, but that call to action is empowered by the Holy Spirit, right? Yeah. Yeah.
And I wanted to touch back. We had a second portion of that question. Oh, yes. It was, "How can we teach our kids to do the same?" Now, this is an interesting question because this automatically will take us to the place where we're having to explore concepts like what is traditionally referred to as the age of accountability, yeah, or ideas like self and children or infant baptism. You know, you get into all of, uh, these things. But of course, we understand that biblically speaking, there is this placing your faith in Christ that ultimately brings you into that miracle of salvation. Now, we can debate all day about whether or not we are the ones choosing to do that. You know, you have Arminianism versus what is traditionally referred to as Calvinism, free will versus predestination. So, let's just simplify, just for the sake of application, and talk about those simple ways that we can practically guide our children in walking in truth.
I think, I don't know if you want. I think for me, the one, the one thing that I try to do. Now, my kids are still young. My oldest is going to be 10 next year, so he's obviously, you know, getting older. He's got baptized, so he's, he's starting to get it a little bit. Um, but my, my thought has always been, the Encounter Podcast is brought to you by one of our many sponsors. This one being Numa Streaming. It's about time the kingdom of God had its own streaming platform. Numa features preachers and teachers of the word, and best of all, Numa doesn't censor them for sharing biblical truth. Numa is growing fast and currently features creators like David De Alba, Hernandez, Vlad Savchuk, Spencer Nakamura, and more. You can watch Numa streaming for free using their website or on one of their apps. Additionally, a portion of all Numa profits goes to support Christian Ministries. The future of Christian media is now. Start watching for free by going to stream Numa.com. That's S T R E A M N U M A.com. The one, the one thing that I try to do. Now, my kids are still young. My oldest is going to be 10 next year, so he's obviously, you know, getting older. He's got baptized, so he's, he's starting to get it a little bit. Um, but my, my thought has always been, I can, I can speak the word over them as much as I want. I can take them to church as much as I want. But if I'm not living that out at home, yep, then there's going to be no, uh, validity to it, right? They're going to look at it and say, "Well, he said all this, but he didn't practice that." Yeah. And so, I think for, as a parent, for me, how do I, how do I prepare them? How do I, how do I make sure that they're okay? How do I make sure that God's hand is going to guide them, right? Well, I pray for them, of course. But I also try to live an example. Yeah. So that they know that God is real, right? That God is real through my life, through my testimony, that I'm not just some fake pastor saying things. I think that to me is one of the most important things that we as parents need to do.
You know, I love it 'cause that's almost the exact same idea and mentality I have. I have three boys. I have my oldest son, Benjamin, he's six years old. My second son, Gideon, he's two years old. And Sebastian, he is seven months old. And being in a house of boys, I always love to compete with them. And they're really starting to show that now, that competitive side of, side of them. So, like, like you were saying, living by example. A lot of the times, what I'll do is, I'll, I'll go to my, my office, you know, and I'll start to pray. But I'll pray extra loud, and I'll leave that door open. And now, obviously, my second boy, Gideon, he doesn't really understand. But Benjamin's starting to understand some things. And so, when he sees me praying, he'll stop. And I don't mind it because I'm trying to be there. I obviously, I'm really trying to connect with the Lord, but I'm being extra loud because I'm wondering if, if he's hearing, right? If he's going to be curious enough to come up to the steps, tap me on the shoulder, say, "Dad, what are you doing? Why are you so loud?" And sometimes I will challenge him, just like when we work out together as a family. We all, my boys, we work out together now. And, uh, I challenge them. I say, "Can you do five more push-ups than me?" And with that, too, when we go to pray every night, I challenge my son, Benjamin, now because he's of that age where he understands, and say, "I dare you to pray. I dare you to pray for the family tonight." And he'll be like, "All right, Jesus, thank you for my family." You know? But that, I'm instilling in them. And, and, and I, again, I, I try to just, as Pastor Michael was saying, be an example to the family in that way. And so, I see my boys, and every time, every moment, um, I try to instill, "Hey, if I can do this, you can do it better than me." In every aspect, in every aspect of their life. And then they understand that in the capacity that they were given at that time.
So, Jess and I took Arya to a luau, and at the luau, there was this, this big, uh, pig. Yeah, yeah. That had been cooked. And Arya was just fascinated by this pig. She just could not get over this. She was talking about it the whole night, all the next day. And then a couple days later, we take her to the park, and she says, "Dad, sit down. Sit down." Like, real stoic. I'm like, "Yeah, like, what am I going to get in trouble here?" So, I sit down. She goes, "Put your hands like this." And she folds her hands like she's going to pray. And she goes, "Now, listen, Len." And she says, "God, the man of Jesus, please help the pig. Please bring the pig back to life so it won't be sad. Save my pig, God, the man of Jesus." And what she meant was, "God, in the name of Jesus." She had heard, "God, the man of Jesus." God, the man. And I thought that was funny. But I'm encouraged to know that at least she's picking up, yeah, on what she can pick up on. And so, even now, we pray, and she prays. Just, Jess, now at the time of the recording of this podcast, Jess is pregnant. You know, if you're watching this a couple months from now, Lilan will already have been born. So, Arya prays for Lilan. Arya prays for Mama. We had a moment yesterday where we're just sitting around the table, just chatting before bed. We do like a little family talk. And Arya goes, "What did she say?" Oh, she said, "I've been praying for a little sister for a long time, and now I have one." That's incredible. And my wife starts crying, and there's this whole moment there. And, you know, we, we share things. Little things, like I, I'll, I'll make sure to go out of my way to describe why I'm doing something a certain way, or, you know, "I have to work because it makes it, it brings honor to God." What does that mean? "Well, I work for Jesus, and everything I do is for him." And we pray, we worship. Um, she listens to Uncle Steve's albums. She sometimes watches Pastor Mike, her Uncle Mike, preach, right? She watches me on on YouTube. Uh, but there's these, these deposits that we're making. And so, in terms of how to teach our kids to wear the armor, I mean, as long as you're not overcomplicating the meaning of what these portions of scripture mean, then of course, you're going to model and demonstrate and train them in truth, and in righteousness, and in sharing the gospel, and in believing God's word, and in using God's word to combat deception. Again, and I want to reiterate that point we made toward the top of the podcast, where you're talking about this overcompli-, this overcomplication, because what tends to happen is, especially on subjects like spiritual warfare or demonology or deliverance or the armor of God, we're looking for all these very hidden meanings that we can then extract and then use to create some very ultra-specific ritual, or it just gets really, really tangled in, as I said, our presuppositions. And so, here the theme is very simple. The belt, the truth is truth. Body armor of righteousness is righteousness. You walk in truth, you're grounded in truth, you will live in righteousness. Shoes of peace, you're sharing the gospel. Shield of faith, you're believing what God's word says. Helmet of salvation, you're confident in your salvation. And sword of the spirit, you're using the word of God. You can't use what you don't know. You have to know the word of God.
Behamad asks, "Can a believer lose the armor of God?" Well, I mean, if Paul says to take up, I suppose it's possible that it's not always on you, depending on your application of the truth that we're talking about here. And I would suppose, too, it also depends upon what they mean by "lose," right? When you say "lose," do you mean that it's taken from you and outside of your grasp, and you have to perform some specialized ritual or prayer or curse-breaking session in order to regain it? Probably not. That's definitely not what Paul intended to communicate. But if you're saying "lose" as in you're not making use of it at that time, then I guess it does mean that, because he's instructing us here to put it on. So, depending upon how they define "lose," that would obviously determine whether or not you can lose it. I'd say, yeah. As you said, it's not about losing it. It's about, I guess, being distracted from the fact that you have it, or allowing things in life to, to remove that truth, right? Yeah. For me, my biggest battles recently have been a battle of deception, right? And so, it wasn't a matter of like waking up every, every morning again and saying, "God, I put on this armor," and I put, you know, kind of repeating that verse. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I'm just saying I didn't do that. But for me, it was a, it was a matter of just believing the word, right? Just believing the truth. And so, well, can you lose it? I don't, I don't, I wouldn't say that you can again, misplace it or lose it. I think it's a matter of you're just being so distracted and allowing lies and deception to, to cause you not to walk in the truth that you have, walk in the power that you have. That's, that's been my biggest battle, at least with this whole thing, is is not believing what the word of God says about who God is and who I am to God. That's been the biggest, the biggest thing for me, is is my distraction.
It's so, like the enemy, too, to make us even question and make us dig in and make us go a little crazy, right? And make us maybe get a little legalistic and get a little crazy. It's so like him to do that. But like, if, like, again, keep it simple. Keep it simple. What are we talking about here? And if I could choose one, it'd be impossible for me to do because every time I read it, I think, "Okay, I'm good with that." Oh, wait. But then if I have this, I'm good. But I'm like, "Wait a minute. That, oh, I need that. I need the helmet of salvation. I need the sword of the spirit." So, all of these are so simple. And I think, again, we as humans like to, like we said, overcomplicate it sometimes. And we're, we're not by any means communicating that you shouldn't study the word. I mean, the scripture tells us, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a work that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." So, to some degree, there is an element of study that we have to apply. But simply put, Paul the Apostle here is using material analogies to communicate spiritual principles, and those spiritual principles are as clear as day. He's telling us precisely what these are. Um, and so, to the point you guys are making, that legalism that can sometimes set in where we imagine that the armor of God is made in this material world but invisible to where we have to mind the different actions when putting it on, "Lord, I put on the helmet of salvation. Lord, I put on the body armor of righteousness. Lord, I'm tying up my shoes of peace." Again, nothing wrong if that helps you to embrace those truths, live in that truth. But to then say that is what's needed, or anything that resembles that is what's needed in order to walk in this type of freedom, then again, now you're getting into legalism. It's really simple in terms of putting it on. That's obeying God, trusting God, applying the word, believing what he says. And that helps you to combat deception. Yeah.
Yosu the Way asks, "How to keep the shoes of peace in these days?" Man, I would say, I think you keep that on like you would keep everything on, which is prayer and the word. Yeah. I think again, it's, it's very, it's these, these truths and and the depths of scripture is it is deep and it can get complicated. But I think as I was thinking about this topic, um, the simplest way that I can say, like, "Well, how do you keep it on? How do you put it on?" You read your Bible, you study God's word, and you spend time in prayer. That is it. Right? That's the communication. Right? How do we know what peace looks like? Well, it's found in the word. How do we know the truth of our salvation? It's found in his word. How do we know what righteousness is? It's found in his word. Right? So, I feel like this is all placed on and continually walked in through a lifestyle of studying and devoting yourself to God's word, meditating on his word, and spending time in prayer, as so that he can speak to you. And I, I feel like it's, it's simple, but not always easy.
And then, to some degree, I think that the question presumes that the shoes of peace here are my own peace, right? You know, "How do I keep the shoes of peace in these days?" In other words, with everything going on, the way that it is, as crazy as it is in the world, how do I keep my peace? Well, we know the prophet declares, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Okay? So, you keep your peace by staying focused on God. That's your peace. But what's being described in the book of Ephesians isn't the peace that we carry for our own sake. It's the peace of the gospel that we spread around the world for the sake of others. So, I'll rephrase the question using the scripture as a grounding tool: "How in this day and age do we boldly proclaim the gospel, even though the world, generally speaking, is becoming more and more resistant to it?" Uh, we take up the belt of truth, the first, right? Right. The armor of God. With that, I would say it probably has a lot to do with recognizing that the time of the age or the pressure of the age doesn't determine the potency of the message. Like, I love what you always said, Jesus, Jesus never, Jesus said you'll have tribulations. Jesus said perilous times will come. Jesus said all this, but he said the gospel will never, he never said the gospel lose its power. So, I think it's something that's very helpful is to not even associate the pressures around you with what you're going to choose to do within you. And so, I think that's something great that we talked about a lot is choosing to face the spirit instead of the natural realm. And if you're walking in accordance, like, if you have the full armor of God on, like you're walking in the spirit, you have the belt of truth, you're, you're living according to truth, it doesn't really matter what enemy is against you, you're prepared to fight. And so, I'd say whoever's asking that question, the biggest thing would just be, "Well, who can you share the gospel with next?" Not, "Who's trying to stop you from sharing the gospel with?" But, "Who can you share the gospel with?" Great reframing. I love that. It reminds me of Isaiah 6, where the Lord tells him, "You're going to go and talk to people, and they're not going to hear you. You're going to go and try to show them this truth, they're not going to perceive it." So, Isaiah wasn't so much concerned with the results of him preaching his prophetic declaration as he was with simply obeying the instruction that God gave him initially. It's not necessarily even up to me whether or not what I'm doing is considered effective or not, so long as I'm obeying God, right?
I, I think there's a difference too, and correct me if I kind of mess this up, but peacekeepers and peacemakers, right? And I think as believers, sometimes we feel like in order, what we need to do is just have peace with everybody, and everybody's going to like us, and the, me, everybody, everybody loves the message of Jesus, and nobody's going to get mad at us. But it's like, no, if you're, if our calling is to go and spread peace, the, the peace of the gospel, to go preach the word, that means people are going to really hate you. The Encounter Podcast is sponsored in part by Partners and Donors of David Hernandez Ministries. Your monthly gift or single donation enables us to reach the masses with the Gospel of Jesus Christ through events and media. Join the movement and join hands with thousands of believers around the world in resourcing this growing, effective evangelistic ministry. You can begin your partnership today for as little as $15 a month. Go now to David Hernandez Ministries.com/partner to become a monthly supporter, or David Hernandez Ministries.com/donate to give a single gift. If our calling is to go and spread peace, the, the peace of the gospel, to go preach the word, that means people are going to really hate you. They're not going to like you, right? There's, there's been times at our church where I've had to preach, especially again, especially in these times when there's a lot of twisting of the scripture and a lot of, um, people trying to just kind of appease the people, make people feel good about things, and not hear the truth all the time. I've had people write to us negative things. I'm sure you have too, right? And leave our church. Never, we never get any negative comments, right? Like, leave, leave our church and say things about me and my wife and our family. And it's like, you're, you're not a, you're not a peacekeeper, you're a peacemaker. That means that you're going to have to go start some wars in order to make some peace. Yeah. Right? Peacekeepers avoid conflict because they're intimidated by it. Peacemakers recognize that though their goal is not conflict, at some point they're going to have to have conflict if they want to eventually get to peace, especially if they're being opposed by dark forces. I like to say, "I'd rather offend you into heaven than comfort you into hell. I'd rather tell you the truth that sets you free than continue to tell you a lie that keeps you in bondage." But there has to be that balance, of course. And to what you're seeing, I mean, I love the way you approach ministry. You're very balanced. You're not intentionally combative just for the sake of being combative. You know, we have on one side, Christians who think that because they're being rude and nasty and mean and sarcastic and confrontational, that they're being truthful. But truthful and mean aren't necessarily synonymous. So, you're not being mean for the sake of being mean and then patting yourself on the back and saying, "Look at how bold I am." No, boldness is simply that you declare the truth for what the truth is. And if it just so happens to be offensive to its listener, then so be it. Jesus told us in John 3 that the world is already condemned, and that they reject the light simply because they love the darkness and they didn't want to embrace the light. So, they're comfortable, perfectly, perfectly comfortable in their darkness. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that we have to be so concerned about being compassionate and kind that we avoid saying things that we know will upset people. There will be things that you have to say, especially when confronting the culture today. There's perversion, there's wickedness, there's the twisting of reality. It's the world is becoming delusional. And so, of course, you're going to have to address those things. But we're not being offensive for the sake of offense; we're being truthful for the sake of truth. And if it so happens to offend, then so be it.
On the note of cultural pressures and standing for truth in the midst of that, I want to get you guys' thoughts on where Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness." And so on. And he talks about the spiritual battle in the heavenly places. I feel like there's a mindset where it's very easy, especially if you look at news and media, and just like, whether it's the filth of media, or if it's the tensions in governmental powers and all these kinds of things, whatever you look at, I think it's very easy to get flustered in your righteous indignation at the people, right? Yeah. And like, "Oh, they shouldn't be like this, and they're so wicked," which is true, we all need Jesus. But at the same time, it's, "Well, there's actually demonic forces that work through here." And I think sometimes we start to, in our minds, fight the people. We get on the armor of God, we're ready to go, but we're not using it on the right enemy. So, I don't know what your thoughts are.
Friendship with the world is enmity with God. And that description of friendship with the world doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, I shop at the grocery stores, or I buy the clothes that are made in this world, or I wear the shoes that are made in this world. That is talking about the embrace of the patterns and paradigms of this world, the philosophies of this world. That's what it means to be a friend of the world, to embrace its thinking. Not necessarily being kind to people. Being kind to somebody doesn't mean you're an enemy of God. But at the same time, the scripture also does say that that God is angry with the wicked every day, and that wrath is being stored up against them. We were all once enemies of God. And so, to some degree, those who are under the power of darkness are under the jurisdiction of the kingdom of hell, and do in fact serve the enemies' purposes. Yeah. Um, whether they knowingly are doing that or unknowingly doing that, it doesn't matter, because deep within, they're doing it out of rebellion against God. So, they are rebelling against God. So, I, I like that point, and I agree with it. But as I always do, I like to bring the balance. So, we're not looking at the individual as a completely lost cause. God can do a miracle, and we want to see them saved. We want to see them born again. They are the mission-filled, they are the mission souls, souls, souls. That's the heartbeat of heaven. We want to win them over to the Lord. Well, recognizing they are, yes, in fact, a part of the kingdom of darkness, that doesn't mean we don't share the gospel with them in love. But I think just holistically approaching this and acknowledging all the points, points that scripture brings up on this is important. Um, so, to your point, though, that doesn't mean that we are like, so hate-filled toward them that we just dismiss them, or that we're rude to them, or that we don't share the gospel with them. No, the Lord wants to save them. God so loved the world. So, he is loving, and he is just. I think it's important to have that balance.
You, I'm reminded of a song we all know it. "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." Turn your eyes. I wish I had the. Yeah, you, you guys want to do together right now? Okay. No, but I'm reminded of that song, and I always think about, you know, obviously, again, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, Isaiah 26:3, you said it earlier, we, our mind is filled with peace. We just have to focus on him. Obviously, everything else, chaos, the news, the media, y y, everything else. But if, if we see all that, but if our eyes are still above that, everything is going to be okay. You know? And I think that we, as Christians, again, we, we tend to, again, overcomplicate it. But it's so clear stated in scripture. Every, for, I love this, for every situation that you've ever been through, I guarantee you there's probably something in the Bible that can help you. Just got to get to that word.
I think going back to what you were talking about, um, and I think when we think about where we were, right? Bible says that we were in bondage. We were, yes, we were en-, we were enemies of God. We were in sin. But we were in bondage. And then the Bible clearly talks about, as you said, "God so loved the world that he gave his son," right? That there's this love that God has for the lost. That the reason Christ hasn't returned yet, I mean, in the scripture, is because of his patience, that that all would come to repentance. And I think for me, when I'm preaching the word, whenever I'm, I'm presenting a message to the church, sometimes it, it does become difficult not to speak to the person and blame them for the darkness that they live in, yeah, right? And kind of like, "You're wrong, and you're bad, and you need to get right." Which, yes, they are sinners, and they do need to get right with God. But I have to remember that they are in bondage, that they're deceived, right? That this, this lifestyle that they live, even like, if you look at the, the climate of the world, how how people are so divisive and against each other, and it literally is this, this, this lying spirit, this deceptive spirit that puts people in bondage. Yeah. And yes, we, we, they are enemies of God, they're friends with the world. But at the same time, like you said, they are our mission. Right? And I think remembering that, that at the end of the day, we're not fighting people, we're fighting for people. Yeah. Right? We're fighting that that they would be saved. And I think if that is the goal, then you are willing to preach the truth, not wanting to offend, right? And also not wanting to, you know, tickle people's ears. You preach the truth because you want to save those who are in bondage. Yeah. Right?
So, declaring the truth for the truth's sake. Yes. If somebody's standing in the middle of the road, as the old analogy goes, and there's a car coming, you're not going to say, "Well, I don't want to yell at them and startle them, or I don't want to yell at them and offend them, or I don't want to yell at them and then they think I'm mean." Now, you were going to be screaming at them, "Get out of the road!" because you love them, because you care. And to that point, I think we do have to, in scripture, acknowledge that tension, right? Yeah. Between, yes, enemies of God, yes, exercising their free will to rebel against their creator, yes, uh, perpetuating darkness even further through their actions, but also for God to love the world. And I think this speaks to God's mercy, M, to God's goodness, in that he is so loving, he is so compassionate, that though we all deserve that punishment, we all deserve hell, every single one of us at this table, every single person listening to this, all of us, we all deserve hell. But God, who is rich in mercy, sent his son, Jesus, to save us. That to me is a testimony of God's goodness. And so, I think that's where you find the balance for that tension. And that, as wicked as sin is, God is so loving and so compassionate that he not only made a way of escape, but he gave his life to make a way of escape, which is just astounding. The more.
You think about it, good. Okay, you had a thought. I was going to say, would you think, would you say that that is the need for the armor, then, right? Because the need for the armor is that we make it to the end, right? That we, that we, that we make sure we live our lives in a way that we get all the way to the finish line. But at the same time, the need for the armor so that we can get on the offensive and preach the gospel.
Well, Jesus said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against you." Gates don't move. And so we are the ones who are to be on the move. Come on.
That Vibes d117 wants to know, how do we know if we're missing any armor? Well, I guess that would be if the lies work. Okay, next question. You know what's funny is, I was literally about to say, let's just ask Brit. I love that. That's very succinct, good, simple. If the lies are working, if you're living in deception. Well, how do you know then? I guess then the deeper question after that would be, how do you know you're living in deception? If technically, when you're deceived, it's because you don't know that you are, right? Good point.
Maybe, maybe you're not. This is just a thought. Maybe you're not living out the fruit of the spirit, right? If you're not living the fruit of the spirit, then there's something not being produced in your spirit. Because when you have a tree, or when you have something in your life, there always should be some type of fruit. Whether it be good, bad, there is going to be fruit. So if you're, if you're believing the lies, there's that's fruit of something. Yeah, right.
Why did you point to Britain when you said you're believing the lies? Cuz he brought it up. His answer was believing the lies. The truth. No, but on that point, when you're talking about deception, that is the struggle because nobody wants to admit that they could be deceived. I mean, we have to admit that all of us are susceptible to that. I mean, Paul the Apostle wrote, "Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." In other words, don't be overconfident in your own ability. And while we trust the Lord's ability to keep us from deception, we also know that we're instructed time and time again to watch out for the enemy, to engage in spiritual battle, to fight the deceptive tactics of the enemy.
And so for me, I think there's this daily assessment that needs to be done where I'm going to the word. Because if you're not looking at the truth, then you never have anything against which you can compare the deception. So if I'm constantly in the word, I will be finding things in the word that don't match what's in my life. I can't tell you how many times I've read the scripture, the Old and New Testament, and I'm just as I'm reading it, saying, "Lord, there's so many ways I'm not like Jesus. Help me to be like Jesus."
And I truly believe Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life, and life more abundantly. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed." Colossians 1:3 and 14 says that we have been delivered from the powers of darkness. I truly believe that the life of the believer is meant to be one of victory. And what I say next is often misunderstood. I tell people, "If you are in bondage, you are not living the Christian life." I did not say that if you're in bondage, you're not a Christian. I said, "If you are in bondage, you're not living the Christian life." In other words, you're not attaining to that which has been given to you as a standard. You, you, you have been given something through God's word, something to which you can aspire. The standard is absolute victory, total freedom. Yeah.
Now, some will hear that and say, "Well, so if I lose a loved one, I'm not in freedom? Or if I'm financially struggling, I'm not in freedom? Or if I'm sick, I'm not in freedom?" No, that's in regards to the exterior circumstances that we face. I'm talking about internal victory. The fruit of the spirit, the peace of the Holy Spirit, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the righteousness of the Holy Spirit. That inner life is to be victorious at all times, despite what's going on around us.
So I think that, you know, you're under deception when you're not seeing the manifestation of what is described in the scripture. And you're only going to know what is described in the scripture if you're in the word. So if you're not in the word, you're never going to know if you are or are not deceived. So excellent point on that, Britain, where you're talking about the fact that if you're deceived, or if you're in bondage, or if there's something out of alignment, then you know that you are not, or you're not, uh, fitted with all the pieces of the armor of God. But then again, that would beg the question, well, how would I know that? And there you go, you have to be in the word.
You know, as you're talking, I'm just thinking about, you know, all the things and all the chaos that's around us. Although it's always been there, right? Throughout every generation, there's always something going on. But as much as we have a passion to save and and get those people and and bring them to the the word, they truly believe in whatever they're fighting for. As much as we're fighting for them. But see, this is why it's so important, like Pastor David is saying, we have kind of like a hidden, a hidden secret here. That that they, they're fighting, but what are they fighting for? Right? We don't know. But we know we're fighting because we have all of this, all these pieces of armor, and we know that we can save them. And yes, they have their agendas, but we have something. I like almost like a secret weapon. It's the word of God, and all of this armor attached to us, and we can go forth and get them and rescue them. You know what I mean? There's a much bigger mission. Yeah, bigger mission.
I think to, to kind of go back to what Britt was saying and what you were saying about the lies and how do you know, I think for me personally, there was a big moment where I found, I feel like I found found freedom, like really. Because, you know, you read the scripture, and as you were saying, you're looking at it, you're like, "Man, I'm not like this, right? I would, I would do that. Read, I'm not like this." And I was having a conversation with my wife, and as you know, I was dealing with a lot of anxiety for for a little bit. And I was sitting down with her, and she said, you know, we're just talking about all the things that I've gone through. And I said, "You know, I have to, I'm dealing with this. I know I have anxiety." And I kind of just went said that and moved on. And she's like, "Hey, you can't speak that over yourself." And so I kind of went to my logical mind and I'm like, "Well, I do, like, I do have anxiety, so I'm going to say that." And then I was reading the scriptures the next day, and it went into the death and life or in the power of the tongue. And the Lord, Lord was kind of like, "You, you're not speaking life into yourself." And I went, and I was like, "Okay, I prayed and I said, Lord, I'm going to say what I'm going to say what I believe to be true, that I'm free and I don't have this anxiety." And in that moment, I, I don't know what happened. I, I can't explain it. But in that moment, when I, when I aligned myself with the word, even though my logical mind said, "Well, I still struggle with this, I must still have it," and I spoke the truth in that moment, I felt peace. It's the strangest thing, right?
And as I was, I so I ended up doing a sermon on this, uh, for the church, and I realized when you speak the word, even though you may not feel like you're in victory, when you speak as if you are, you're aligning yourself with God's truth. Because God sees us not as we are, but as we're as we are, and as we, as we will be. So when I said, "I don't have this," I wasn't saying, "Mike, that I see, doesn't have this." I was saying, "I don't have this because God took it away." Yeah, right. I'm aligning myself with God's truth, speaking the truth over myself so that I'm not deceived anymore into the enemy's lies. And I think we can get so caught up in our logical minds, or caught up in in our circumstance, that we think, "Well, I don't believe God's word to be true for me because I don't feel like it is," instead of speaking what is true and aligning ourselves with what is true and living by that.
Well, it's spiritual position versus material experience. Yes. For example, as referenced earlier, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Well, if we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, why is it sometimes that we make mistakes? Yeah. If the Bible describes us as blessed, why does it feel sometimes like we're cursed? If the Bible says that we're filled with joy, why does it feel like sometimes we're filled with heaviness? If the Bible says that we're filled with peace, why does it feel sometimes like we struggle so heavily with anxiety?
And I love the way you describe that because what you're doing is you're preaching to yourself, right? Like, like the psalmist wrote, "I said unto my, why so downcast, oh my soul?" Speaking to himself, he's preaching to himself. And this is not anything super mystical in one sense. It's like you're programming the computer that is your mind with the words that you speak. You hear what you say, you influence your own thoughts, you choose your own thoughts. And so by speaking according to the word of God, it helps you to think and believe according to the word of God. And in thinking and believing according to the word of God, you begin to live according to the word of God.
Another question here from Sarah DA's Films. Do we need to make a conscious effort to put the armor on daily, or do we have it on all the time? I feel like we kind of addressed this. Do you want to explore that question a little more, or do you feel satisfied that we addressed it?
Well, I guess in my first thought would be that it depends whether or not you're already believing the truth. So like, if you're unconsciously, you're just your natural thoughts, you've renewed your mind to the word, then you are wearing the armor unconsciously. But if you're recognizing, like you said, you recognize the lie that you were facing, then in that moment, you might need to more consciously put on the word of God, if that makes sense.
That makes perfect sense. So maybe it's not a daily thing necessarily where you're intentionally saying the words, but maybe it's recognizing in seasons, yeah, when you need to, when you need to be more aware of the armor that you need.
Well, we should be using it daily, but you're saying it's not a matter of having to go through that that almost ritualistic style of prayer where I put on, I put this on, I put this on. But you can sort of judge depending upon the season that you're in and what you're experiencing in that season, whether or not you've been faithful to applying that armor.
I think it's like checks and balances in in our lives. Like just making sure. I mean, again, you don't have to, like you're saying, you don't have to. You guys hit it on the nail there. Like, you don't have to check every day, but understanding every once in a while, "Hey, let me make sure. Am I, am I speaking truth? Am I believing the word? Am I, am I covered in this?" And once you again, it's not ritualistic like you're saying, but just a nice check every once in a while. Like sometimes when I step on the scale after a while, I'm like, "Oh Lord, what happened? What did I do, Lord?" And then it makes me readjust and be like, "Okay, I know the goal. Let me try it again." Right?
I, it is what it is. Oh Lord, what did I do? What have I become? Who am I, Lord? You got to be honest with yourself. Yes. The scale never lies. Never.
Fanny Fortunate writes, "When one repents of his or her sins, is he or she covered with the armor of God immediately? Does the armor of God make us invisible from our spiritual enemies?" So that's the first question. And then they wrote a follow-up question. So when one repents of his or her sins, is he or she covered with the armor of God immediately?
I think the assumption here is that when you make a mistake, you lose the armor because of that mistake. I would rather say you made the mistake because you put down your armor. And so in that sense, yes, when you repent, you're making a commitment to change your mind and align your thinking according to what God says, and therefore obeying his word, and therefore putting on the armor. Uh, but I don't necessarily think that it's like a punishment. Like, you make a sinful mistake, and God says, "Okay, now I'm stripping you of your armor." I think that what happens is because we're not making use of the armor, we find ourselves making those mistakes.
I was going to say, why would God remove the thing that's supposed to help us live righteously as a punishment for not living right? Like somebody telling their kid they can't go to church because they've been bad. You know what I mean?
I've experienced that in the past. Not my parents, but you know.
Oh, for those who don't know, this is my biological brother. Yes. I say that because I have many brothers. Me and Mike have many brothers. Do we not? We do. One being right here, Mr. Steven Montazuma.
So we'll close with a question for conversation here. What's the most common line of deceptive attack that the enemy uses against you, and what biblical truth do you use to combat that deception?
Thanks for watching. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.