Spiritual Warfare (4 page)

The devil can come up to a man and whisper, “Watch your wife, she’s taking advantage of you. She doesn’t respect you any more.” And yet, all the while, the man’s wife is totally innocent. The devil plays mind games with us and we have got to watch out for his tricks.

Don’t Fall For The Devil’s Mind Games

Let me give you another illustration. Joyce and Judy are talking to each other. Irene, not too far away, is minding her own business. All three of them are friends. Then, Irene notices that her two friends would look at her every now and then as they talk, laugh and giggle. Irene soon becomes suspicious. She starts to think that her friends are saying bad things about her. Now, that is the evil genius of the devil. He will play mind games with you.

The next day, Joyce calls Irene and says, “Hello, Irene, are you doing anything tomorrow? Judy and I would like to take you to this really happening restaurant in town.”

“Well, I’m not sure! I am quite busy nowadays,” says Irene.

Sensing tension in Irene’s voice, Joyce asks, “Irene, is everything okay with you?”

“Yes,” says Irene.

Not convinced, Joyce asks again, “Is anything wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Irene answers. Now, whenever you hear that kind of answer, trust me, something is wrong!

Joyce persists: “Look, Irene, we would really like you to come. We insist!”

“Okay, all right, I’ll come.” Irene finally gives in.

The next day, Irene goes with her two friends to the restaurant. When she steps into the restaurant, she sees a crowd of friends and family there, and they shout, “Surprise! Happy birthday!” Ribbons are flying around the room and balloons are floating everywhere! Joyce and Judy are right in the middle of it all shouting, “Hey, Irene, happy birthday!”

It is amazing how we can spend days being angry about something that doesn’t exist.

Then, Joyce laughs and says, “You know what, Irene? Yesterday, while we were discussing your birthday party, we saw you looking at us and we thought that you had figured out what we were doing. We thought that we had given our plans away. In fact, I think you knew that we were organising your birthday party, right?”

Isn’t it amazing how we can spend days being concerned or angry about something that doesn’t exist, that is based on a lie? Sometimes, we even spend weeks or months consumed with self-pity, fear or worry because we unknowingly believed in a lie. What a waste of time and energy!

Knowing The Truth Sets You Free

The truth alone does not set you free. It is when you
know
the truth, that you are set free. Jesus said,
“And you shall
know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
(John 8:32) When Irene knew the truth, she was set free. She was no longer angry with her friends.

Let me give you one more illustration. Once, I had a nightmare. I dreamt that I was in BMT. For those who don’t know, that is “basic military training”. And I was late for my first day of training. The sergeant was standing in front of me and shouting angrily.

“Something is wrong here,” I said to the sergeant. “Why am I going through BMT again?” You see, I had already completed basic military training in my younger years.

In my nightmare, the sergeant ignored me and continued to shout all kinds of profanities at me. “You’re late! You’re late!” he yelled.

I stared at him and said, “This is not supposed to be happening!”

He looked me in the eyes and said, “Now listen, you are marked! In fact, you are marked for the next three months!”

“Something is wrong!” I repeated.

Then, I woke up. I soon realised that it was all just a bad dream and I was so relieved.

Boy, what a relief when you know the truth! You are set free when you know the truth!

chapter
4

The Breastplate Of Righteousness

chapter 4

The Breastplate Of Righteousness

“Stand therefore… having put on the breastplate of righteousness.”

Ephesians 6:14

Your Righteousness Is A Gift

T
he second piece of the armour mentioned in Ephesians 6 is the breastplate of righteousness. What is the breastplate for? It is for protecting your heart. You see, if you receive a cut to the leg or arm, you will survive. But if you get stabbed in the heart, chances are, you will die. Now, when the devil attacks you, he wants to shut down your faith. So what does he do? He goes for your heart, your spiritual heart.

1 John 3:21 says,
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God.”
So the devil attacks your heart with accusations. He will tell you things like, “You call yourself a Christian? You are such a hypocrite. You are such a lousy Christian. You are such a backslidden Christian. You haven’t prayed and fasted long enough. You haven’t read enough chapters of the Bible.” Or he might tell you, “You said the wrong thing yesterday. And last week, you made a bad decision.” With the devil, it is always about something you have done or not done.

To protect your heart from such accusations, you have to know what the righteousness of God is and is not. It is not based on what you have done right or done wrong. No, being right with God is a
gift
. In Romans 5:17, Paul tells us that
“those who receive abundance of grace and of the
gift
of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ”.
So righteousness is a gift and it is based on what Christ has done. Moreover, Daniel 9:24 says that Jesus brought in
“everlasting righteousness”.
That means you cannot lose this righteousness. It is everlasting!

If you believe that righteousness depends on what you do, the devil will get you every time.

Let’s say you wake up in the morning and you feel moody. There are times when we all wake up feeling moody. Then, you hop into your car and as you drive to work, you find yourself caught in heavy traffic. Suddenly, someone cuts into your lane. You lose your cool, and you overtake him and shout at him. As a believer, you know that you should not have done that. Then, the devil comes and condemns you. Now, are you still righteous? You may not feel like it but yes, you are still righteous because your righteousness is a gift that is not based on what
you
have done, but what
Christ
has done. So if you have just shouted at someone in anger today, know that you have not lost your right standing with God. Your righteousness is a gift from God.

Some Christians still believe that we have got to learn to conduct our affairs in all righteousness. In other words, they say that righteousness is what we
do
. If you believe that righteousness depends on what you do, then all the devil has to do is point at something you have just done wrong and you will feel condemned. Friend, if righteousness depends on what you do, the devil will get you every time. Even when you have done some things right, he will tell you that it is not good enough, or he will point you to the things you have done wrong. Either way, he gets you because you are depending on your own performance.

So you must know that righteousness is not based on what you do, but what Christ has done. God gives it to you as a gift because of Jesus and He says to you, “Even when you fail, I still see you righteous.” That is the only kind of righteousness that is going to carry you through. The more you realise that your righteousness is a gift from God based on the obedience of Christ and not your obedience, the more you can defeat your bad temper, the more you can defeat moodiness and the more you can defeat pride. Let me ask you: When you know that you have failed and you are still right with God, does it make you want to sin more? No, not at all! In fact, you will love God more! Once you wake up to this fact that you are righteous in spite of your failures, you will not want to sin. Paul told the Corinthians,
“Awake to righteousness, and do not sin.”
(1 Corinthians 15:34) When you awake to righteousness, when you recognise how righteous you are in Christ, you will not want to sin.

Be Convicted Of Righteousness, Not Sin

Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8,
“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
What sin is that? It is the sin of unbelief —
“of sin, because they do not believe in Me”.
(John 16:9) Once, before you were a Christian, you were convicted of that sin. Then, you repented and believed in Jesus. So the Holy Spirit no longer needs to convict you of this sin. What does He convict you of then? He convicts you the believer of righteousness, not sin!

Let me explain. When Jesus was on the earth, people could see the approval and acceptance in His eyes. Now, let’s say John, the youngest of the 12 disciples, sees a pretty Jewish girl walk by one day and he looks at her longer than he should have. When he realises it, he says, “Oh, my goodness! I shouldn’t have looked at her like that!” He turns back to look at Jesus. Jesus looks directly at him. And John still sees the acceptance in Jesus’ eyes! What has just happened? John has just been convicted of righteousness! He is still accepted by Jesus, who is there with him. But some time later, Jesus goes back to be with His Father and John sees Him no more. So who will convict John of righteousness now, especially when he fails? The Holy Spirit will. He is on the earth today to convict believers, not of sin, but of righteousness —
“of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more”
. (John 16:10)

Sadly, some Christians still believe that the Holy Spirit is the “convicter” of their sins. They have made Him look like a fault-finder or nagger, and no one wants to live with a nagger!

Be Established In His Righteousness

Hebrews 10:15–17 tells us that the Holy Spirit witnesses to us that God remembers our sins no more. The emphasis here is the forgiveness of sins. We are now settled about that — all our sins are forgiven. So today, we have no business being depressed, sad or oppressed. All our sins are forgiven!

As a believer, you must be settled about your forgiveness and your righteousness in Christ. If you are not settled about these things, you will never know Christ or know God intimately, or know the power of His resurrection. Paul said in Philippians 3:9,
“… not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
…” If you want to walk in the power of His resurrection, you must be settled in the knowledge that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, and that this righteousness is not based on your performance, but His performance — what Christ has done.

Isaiah 54:14 declares,
“In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression…”
By the way, oppression includes sickness. Acts 10:38 says,
“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed
by the devil, for God was with Him.”
Sickness is an oppression. So when Isaiah says,
“You shall be far from oppression”
, it also means that you shall be far from sickness!

Sometimes, we see symptoms of the curse in our lives. We may face oppression, depression, discouragement, limited resources or even sickness. These are symptoms of the curse, and once you see that, you can immediately have a way out. And the way out is this: Be conscious of your right standing before God. Right there and then, declare, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ!”

Once you are made righteous, you cannot become unrighteous.

Now, in whose righteousness are we to be established? Our righteousness? No! If it was our righteousness, we would be asking questions like, “How long should I pray?” and “How many chapters of the Bible must I read each day?” No, Isaiah 54:17 declares,
“… their righteousness is
from Me
, says the Lord.”
And Romans 5:17 reminds us that this righteousness is a gift —
“… how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the
gift
of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Be Righteousness-Conscious

We are told that when we receive Jesus, we receive the gift of righteousness. The Greek word for “receive”,
lambano
, implies a continual receiving. Does this mean that we can lose our righteousness? No! But we can lose our consciousness of it. When you fail, it is time to
lambano
your righteousness. It is the time to say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ!” The moment you say that, something happens to you. Like a balloon that has been pressed down into the water, you rise quickly to the surface again. The devil cannot keep you down for long. You rise up again because you awake to your righteousness. It is not something you earn. It is something given to you because you have Jesus.