This thing of the armor is all about preparation. One of the things that We're provided is with the gospel of peace. And that sounds like a contradiction. You're in the army of the Lord - we're going to go out and battle, and we're going to do all this, and bring down this and all that stuff. They're giving you peace? Because we're coming with the answer-not with further conflict. We're coming to manifest, and put into effect the answer - because the battle has already been won. Satan is already a defeated foe.
I'd like to talk about the preparation a little bit. I was thinking about our army experience, Ron. Right how that at one, two o'clock in the morning, we would be routed out of our beds, go outside and do calisthenics, and get cursed at from one side to the other.
And in other words, what they were doing; they were preparing us for the day when we wouldn't have any time to do the things that we should be doing. But we would be prepared to do them. I think that there is a way that the man of God, the child of God, is continually in a mode of preparation. You're constantly hearing from God.
You're constantly looking at something and saying, what would God think? What would, what's God saying to me about that? It's a matter of preparation, but it is an ongoing 24 seven preparation. I don't think we ever stop preparing for who we are and what we're doing.
This is becoming a new revelation to me about preparation.
There are different avenues that we already know about. When you start getting the revelation of how important preparation is. Then you realize getting into the Scriptures, getting into the Word of God; it's preparing you beforehand so that when you run into situations spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, you're prepared by the Holy Spirit.
If you're not preparing yourself, you're not going to be ready to handle those things. And that's not the only avenue, but that is one avenue that the Lord's given us. I know the Word of God is very, very important, and it's important that we are in it daily, absorbing by the Holy Spirit what He wants to show us through the Word.
I don't think we should ever deviate from that. But this thing of preparation in warfare, to me, it's different. Gosh, I've been walking with the Lord over 50 years. But now I'm beginning to get understanding of what he's been trying to walk me through for 50 years, preparing me for this day. What we're facing spiritually in the world, on every level, if you wait, and you come into a situation that is challenging, and you haven't been preparing your heart by the Word of God, you're probably going to have a very difficult time.
Man, I just lose people to hear this. That, how important it is to read the Word and let the Holy Spirit, read it prayerfully, asking the Holy Spirit to show you what do you have for me today? And then do something about it. Don't just sit there waiting for Him to speak to you. Get into the Word. Get into worship. Get into waiting on Him. Do the things that you know to do, and He'll fill them.
That's to be our preparation, because we're not going to be prepared to walk, or to run, or to do anything in the presence of the Lord in the battle. We're not going to be able to do it without that. We have to have that preparation as individuals and as the body of Christ.
We have to be prepared. I think that's why the Word becoming more alive to us right now. The days are growing short and He is preparing His body for war. Our feet have to be ready to go whenever He says go whenever He says move, be ready to move.
I don't think that we understand how much we've already been prepared.
Yes, we have been prepared.
The preparation to walk through things that we could have never endured in the past. We have come a long way and there's so much that is buried in our hearts. Paul said that You know that God spoke to him. “Don't worry about what you're going to say to the king. Just stand before him and open your mouth.” Because I know that the Lord has been preparing all of us. We are prepared. Does that mean we stop being prepared? No.
No, we'll never stop being prepared. And don't tell me about it - it's about Jesus. Don't tell me that. That's exactly what it is. It's about the Lordship of Jesus Christ and how He prepared my heart to walk in this earth where I was never prepared before I am today.
All those hours and times that you spent alone, was that preparation? Were you listening to the Father? Were you solidifying and growing in your relationship? I'd say that by the time we put on the full armor, we're prepared, and we're invincible. If I stay hungry and thirsting after Him every day, I'm invincible. And I'm doing the will of God in the earth.
Every moment of the day, we're being, drawing on that preparation, right? We're drawing on that preparation to keep us going. To keep us going and keep us walking, I was thinking about the body of Christ and the feet - people that do the walking - not everyone is able to walk. The ones that are doing the walking, have to have a protection on them. We become that protection for them. We become that covering that protection that enables them to walk into battle and into His presence.
That's where the feet are so important, and the symbolism of the feet, because they're the mode of transportation. As Joshua said, when they faced the Jordan River to go into Canaan, which is the possession that God had promised them, it was the fact that they were obedient.
One foot at a time, one step, that's my Walk with God is a walk of obedience. It's a walk of not wandering, but going into the promised land and getting all of God's provision. I'm going to walk right in there and get it. That's why the symbolism in the legs in the feet are so important and you protect them.
I appropriate all it takes through hungering and thirsting. To make today a day of fulfillment. The fulfillment of today is the preparation of fulfillment for His next step in your walk with God.
