10 Finally, ebe strong in the Lord and in fthe strength of his might. 11 gPut on hthe whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against ithe schemes of the devil. 12 For jwe do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against kthe rulers, against the authorities, against lthe cosmic powers over mthis present darkness, against nthe spiritual forces of evil oin the heavenly places. 13 Therefore ptake up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in qthe evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, rhaving fastened on the belt of truth, and shaving put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, tas shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up uthe shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all vthe flaming darts of wthe evil one; 17 and take sthe helmet of salvation, and xthe sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18
The first piece of the armor is the belt of truth. We talked about this a little bit a couple of weeks ago before I decided to do a whole study as a devotional on the armor of God, so let’s look at it again to refresh our minds. The Scripture says that truth sets us free, and the Roman soldier who wore the flowing garment would gird up that garment and tuck it in his belt so to have freedom of movement. Each of us as believers have the mind of Christ, and to have our mind transformed is to simply live in agreement with how Jesus thinks, and sees. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when I briefly talked about the belt of truth that we can’t afford to entertain any thought about ourselves, or about others, or about any situation that God does not have. The enemy of our souls is a deceiver, and the father of lies, and James tells us that there are only two kinds of wisdom in this world; that which comes from above, and that which is earthly and fleshly and demonic. If we are not perceiving reality from Christ seated in the heavenly places win Hum, then we are walking in deception. Cultivating a lifestyle where we are wearing the belt of truth (seeing things from the mind of Christ) brings great liberty, because God sees everything through the lenses of redemptive possibilities. When Jesus said that 5000 He did not just see the five loaves and two fish, but he looked beyond Earth’s limitations and saw the resources of heaven and the faithfulness of His Father. This was the reality from which he acted in that situation, and as a result Heaven came to earth and the reality of the earth submitted to the reality of the kingdom of Heaven. Ultimately, the Christian does not look toward heaven for answers, but instead, being seated in the heavenly places with Christ, and having His mind, we look from heaven with solutions. Girding up our mind with Jesus’s perspective releases miraculous liberty.