You Put On the Armor of God by Renewing Your Mind

My journey to put on the armor of God has been intriguing. When I first heard of the armor, I rejoiced. I was facing spiritual warfare and not doing well with it. The voice of the enemy constantly accused me of past sins even though I had accepted Christ and been forgiven. Putting on the armor of God sounded exactly like what I needed.

One day, I listened via Christian radio to a recording of a live service where a preacher taught on this subject. He vividly described each piece of the armor. He had everyone in the audience stand up. Then, he coached them through the motions of putting on each part while they confessed it aloud. This was a militant, boisterous, and electric service.

I immediately adopted this method as a prayer routine and practiced it every morning. I assumed God would place over me some kind of spiritual armor that resembled Roman armor while I prayed, visualized, and confessed it. I never expected to have another bad day. 

Here is the prayer I prayed aloud:

Then I would add:

Discouraged by Inconsistent Results

I quoted any other scriptures I could think of. Every day that I prayed this way was a better day. God loves to answer militant prayers of protection! I know this kind of prayer is integral to many people's prayer routines.

So, after praying this way for years, I assumed the armor was by now permanently fastened and protecting me. So, I changed up my prayer routine to emphasize other prayers and was surprised when my level of protection dropped.

This bothered me! I wondered why the armor had not become a part of me even after years of praying it on. My protection seemed dependent on daily prayer to put on the armor, among other prayers. So, I went back to “praying on” the armor. But I was confused that I couldn't get the armor to stay on and work more consistently.

A Fresh Approach to Putting On the Armor of God

Years later at a conference, a speaker mentioned in passing a unique method of putting on the armor. He said that we put it on by receiving the revelation of each piece. He got my attention but didn’t explain what he meant in his message.

Afterward, I asked him, “You said that we put on the armor by receiving the revelation of each piece. What exactly does that mean?”

He admitted he wasn't sure, but that he was quoting a well-known man of God, whom I knew of and respected. He had read that statement about the armor in one of this man's books but couldn’t remember which one. (Thanks, I think.) So, I left the meeting gripped by the new idea but not knowing how it worked.

The following week, I read Ephesians 6:10-18 repeatedly, praying and meditating on it. I asked the Holy Spirit to show me what the revelation of each piece meant. And He did!

What I Learned about Putting on the Armor of God

First, I realized Scripture defined each piece of the armor as a biblical concept, not as a series of spiritual objects resembling earthly armor. The active elements of God's armor are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer (more about this one here). Roman armor is merely an illustration for the real armor. However, I had been so caught up imagining Roman gear that my thinking never moved beyond it.

For example, when we put on the belt, it's truth we are fastening around our lives, not a spiritual object that looks like a belt. For the breastplate of righteousness, we put on righteousness—the righteousness of faith Paul preached—and not an invisible breastplate. We take up faith in God’s Word to extinguish the flaming thought arrows the enemy shoots into our minds, not a shield-shaped spiritual object.

My natural thinking operated under the assumption that God dropped external, spiritual objects on me from heaven as I "prayed on" the armor. However, I now saw that the armor did not consist of invisible objects that resembled Roman armor.

To be clear, God always honored the intention of my prayers for protection and powerfully answered them. I'm sure he does for you, too. But prayer and confession alone are not the complete answer to putting on the armor. He was helping me take things a step further.

Putting On the Armor in a Fresh New Way

As the Holy Spirit coached me, my mind slowly adjusted to this new way of looking at the armor. But it was challenging. I had to unlearn my previous assumptions to appreciate the new perspective. (Unlearning is more difficult than learning.)

Assumptions are as misleading as misunderstandings and harder to detect. Plus, I had a lot of assumptions that came from natural life. In this world, if someone throws a baseball at me, I put up my glove to catch it, or use a bat to hit it. If what's coming is a tennis ball, I use a racquet to propel it back over the net. I'm accustomed to using an external object to block incoming objects. That’s the law of this natural world.

You Can't Put It On Until You Put It In

We often assume incorrectly that the spiritual realm works like the natural realm. But the laws governing the spiritual world are different. No "object" can block an incoming "flaming thought arrow” of fear, worry, anger, etc. Only our internal faith in God’s Word of promise can extinguish the inward fire kindled by such troubling thoughts.

In the natural, armor works from the outside in. But spiritual armor works from the inside out. It's not a matter of putting something on as much as it is of putting something in. You can't put the armor on until you create it on the inside!

The armor of God works like a spring of water bubbling out of the earth to form a pool. If you stir the dirt in the pool, the spring will clarify itself by a continual flow of fresh, pure water that washes the dirt away. Like a spring, the armor of God works from the inside out.

For a fuller explanation of this intriguing idea, see the video, A New Approach to the Armor of God.

Finding the Lesson in Each Piece of Armor

As I continued to meditate in the Ephesians passage, I identified the seven concepts Paul listed to help me defend myself. They are truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, the hope of salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. But what was the revelation of each piece? Is there a protective lesson in each?

(By "revelation" I don't mean a private interpretation of Scripture, but a Holy Spirit-given understanding of God's Word that makes us say, "I see it," or "I get it now.")

As I kept meditating, the eyes of my understanding opened. What the man of God said was true. We put on the armor when we receive the revelation (the practical lesson) embedded in these seven concepts. Below is a paraphrase of the Ephesians passage that shows how I began to understand it.

Asking a New Set of Questions

Looking at the armor this way triggered a new set of questions:

• What is the practical lesson in each concept? 
• How does each piece of  armor protect me?
• What kind of threats or attacks does each piece of armor defend against? 
• Do these seven pieces of armor provide a well-rounded and complete protection? 
• How does learning about each piece make me a better disciple, servant, and soldier of the Lord?

Why Did Paul Call Spiritual Armor the Armor of Light?

I discovered another Bible verse that confirmed this new approach to the armor. In it, Paul gives us a clue about the true nature of the armor of God. Understanding what he meant verifies how to put the armor on.

Around five years before he wrote Ephesians, Paul called the armor of God “the armor of light.”

We know that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) We also know the enemy comes against our minds with dark, discouraging, and untrue thoughts. But when we fight back with the Word of God, we're fighting darkness with light. The Word is light. (Psalms 119:105, 130, Isaiah 8:20, Ephesians 5:8, Philippians 2:15) Light is greater than darkness, and darkness can never overcome the light, which dispels it. (John 1:4-5, 9, 8:12) The enemy operates in darkness, but God’s light exposes, illuminates, and drives away the darkness. (Ephesians 5:11)

We, however, play a role in our own protection. Paul wrote, “…and let us put on the armor of light.” God gives us the armor, but we must put it on. So, how do we put on the armor of light?

Receiving God's Spiritual Light

We receive the armor of light when we put the light of truth into our minds. The light we receive from Scripture becomes our spiritual armor. The armor of light is the armor of a renewed mind! We receive God's light in our minds when we renew them in God's Word. See the Scriptures below:

We put on the armor of light as we believe and embrace the truths of God’s Word. The seven-fold armor protects us from the deceptions of darkness because God’s light always dispels the world's lies and half-truths.

Meditating on the Seven Light-filled Concepts

As I meditated on the seven concepts that made up the armor, I looked for each lesson that would protect me. Here's an example regarding truth.

As I thought about fastening on truth like a belt, I knew truth referred to the Word of God. Pilate famously asked, "What is truth?" But Jesus declared to His disciples, "Your [God's] Word is truth." (John 17:17)

People view the truth of the Bible in various ways. Some people say, "My, isn't that interesting?" and then they ignore the words. Others believe it in part. "I believe the Bible except for ________ ." True believers embrace the Bible as the inspired, infallible Word of God.

A belt wraps completely around the waist, not just part of the way. Fastening on truth means allowing it to encircle every area of our lives, not just some. Belts have buckles to secure them. (That's a good thing; we don't want our pants to fall off.) Wrapping truth around us like a belt means making a clasp-like, permanent commitment to believe and obey God's Word despite resistance or contradiction. If we don't hold tight to the truth, and our belt comes loose, we will probably embarrass ourselves in some kind of sin.

The lesson I found regarding truth is to believe the Bible in its entirety and hold fast to it, no matter who or what contradicts it. Fastening truth around our entire lives defends us from the deception of the enemy and the world.

The Seven Light-filled Lessons (Revelations) of the Armor of God

I examined each of the seven concepts, seeking to discover the revelation or lesson each contained. Not only did I find protection to help me, but I realized Paul's list was in a logical order. It was a discipleship plan that put soldiers on the field capable of fighting and standing in victory. 

In the process of putting on the armor of God, I could see a spiritual "boot camp" for training warriors for the battlefield. The seven lessons to be learned and applied are necessary for our growth and protection. Each produces a huge step forward in one's journey of discipleship. 

• The first is a commitment to truth, what it is, and where to find it. God’s Word is truth.
• The second revelation comes by understanding the righteousness of faith that Paul preached, which is the grace of God. We are in right standing with God, and it's not based on our performance but on what Jesus did for us.
• The third revelation is that we must yield our feet to God's will to walk securely on God’s path. Unless we can pray with Jesus, “Father…not My will, but Yours be done,” our feet will not be shod with readiness.
• The fourth teaches us to put our faith in God’s promises rather than in troubling thoughts and circumstances. We must believe the Word more than our circumstances, more than what it looks like in the natural.
• The fifth inspires us to put on a victorious attitude of confident expectation in God’s salvation, both in this temporal life and eternally, even before we see the victory.
• The sixth revelation is discovering that we can unleash the Spirit’s power like a sword by speaking the Word of God aloud.
• The seventh teaches us to use the weapon of prayer to disable the enemy at a distance instead of fighting him hand-to-hand.

The enlightenment that comes from these seven concepts makes us victorious as we fight against the enemy’s lies, trickery, and evil schemes.

Putting on the Armor of God Is a Process

Renewing the mind in each of these seven areas takes time. I can't "pray on" a renewed mind. I can pray for the Holy Spirit to teach me as I meditate on the Word, but I have to learn the Word day by day to receive its light.

My level of protection increases the more I discover about the Bible and these seven lessons. The more I study to show myself approved, the more truth defends me from deception.

As you make each of these lessons your own, your level of protection increases, and you will stand victorious in battle.

The separate articles on each piece of the armor go into more detail on the protective lesson in that piece. Your protection increases as you internalize these light-filled Bible truths.

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