How to stand during times of testing and attack

When God tells us to STAND in spiritual warfare by taking the whole armour of God, we tend to stop reading there and focus on the armour. But the Scripture does not stop there, it does not say the armour is the only way to stand. Let’s have a look at it:

“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; PRAYING ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:14-18)

What can we see here? It tells us to stand therefore, having …. (lists the whole armour of God here) … AND PRAYING always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6: 14-18)
So, how do we stand? We need 2 things, not just one:
1. Take the whole armour of God.
2. Praying with all kinds of prayer and supplication, with ALL PERSEVERANCE and supplication for all the saints.

HOW DO WE TAKE ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD?

When the Bible tells us to take the whole armour of God, it does not mean that we are just to repeat that you are putting on every piece of the armour like a magic formula. It actually shows us our part to play if we are to succeed at standing and not be knocked over by the enemy of our souls:

1. Having girded your waist with TRUTH – this tells us we need to make a deliberate choice to believe the truth of the Word instead of the messages your circumstances or the wispers the enemy sends you;
2. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness – we need to believe that we have His righteousness even when you are not perfect, but we have confessed any known sin to God, therefore not allowing the accuser of our souls to discourage us
3. Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace – we need to choose to live in the peace He has provided through the Gospel over worry and fear
4. ABOVE ALL, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one – since it says above all, this is the most important part of the whole armour, though each part has its necessary role – to be full of faith and trust in God, so when the enemy lies about God to you or about your future, you will not accept his lies and be wounded spiritually
5. And take the helmet of salvation – we need to be filled with hope in a faithful God who will save you
6. And the sword of the Spirit – we need to deliberately attack the enemy with the Word of God spoken out of our mouth; we need to find the Scriptures that relate specifically to what we want to achieve in the spirit. 

HOW DO WE STAND BY PRAYING?

Observe the words in this passage:

“praying ALWAYS with ALL prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watching to this end with ALL perseverance and supplication for ALL saints.”

We are told when to pray – always. How to pray – with ALL kinds of prayer and with ALL perseverance.

We are given specific instructions on how we can do our part to help the Body of Christ, the church, stand – by praying with supplication for ALL saints, with ALL kinds of prayer and with ALL perseverance, praying ALWAYS.

If we look at the apostle Paul, he was a great example of this. He always prayed for all believers around the world:

“Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” (Philippians 1:4)

You can see again the emphasis here – ‘always’, ‘every’, ‘all’. Apostle Paul would not have spent a lot of his time on something that was not important, so we can learn from him what are the things of greater value and follow his example.

If you want to dig deeper in the riches of the word of God, I encourage you to do a study based on the words: ‘Always’ and ‘all’ and you will find the things that God values the most throughout the Scriptures. Prayer is at the top of the list, together with giving thanks and rejoicing.

Note: Since Jesus revealed that some demons will not budge out of our way except through prayer and fasting, I would include fasting, especially in times of great difficulty, as a tool to overcome the enemy.

I encourage you to not walk away from this article and say: Oh, what a wonderful article and I am so glad I know more now, but rather take 5 – 10 minutes to consider how you can start to apply this in your every day life as a doer of the Word of God. God rewards those who diligently seek Him, not the casual enquirers.