This morning I was in the kitchen when my husband left the room to shower and get ready for the day. Shortly after he left, he returned, grabbed a knife and walked back down the hall. Stunned I asked, “Did you just grab a knife?” Laughing, he proceeded back down the hallway.

Now I’m a new wife and I’m also the oldest in my family. So the art of asking questions and also voicing my opinions are pretty perfected. I restrained my questions and let him wander away with a nice brand new knife knowing he must have a good reason for it. Come to find out, he used it to pry open a cover to the hot water valve . This made me laugh only because there was a screw driver sitting out on the counter by the knives. Nevertheless he used the “tool” aka knife for a great purpose and accomplished a goal.

I’m sharing this story to illustrate the point the Apostle Paul was trying to make in Ephesians 6 as it pertains to weapons of our warfare.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:11-13 NKJV)

He goes on to describe every piece of the Roman armor in detail of how God wants to protect us. He wasn’t using this as just a nice visual presentation. It was a command to put on the armor everyday! The reality is we are in a spiritual battle! The problems that you are facing are a result of a real battle taking place in the heavenlies. The sickness placed on you is not just a natural occurrence, it’s a spiritual battle. The person who is being mean to you is not just a mean human. There are as the scripture states powers and darkness manifesting themselves through situations and messing with us in our mind and emotions. It’s so easy to take everything personally and rationally instead of rolling it onto The Lord, taking up our armor and fighting the battle where we belong, on our knees.

To illustrate: the knife that Stephen grabbed could parallel the sword of the Spirit part of the armor. Ephesians 6:17 says that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The word of God is what reveals not only what is going on around us in the unseen realm, but it also exposes and reveals our own hearts and motives. My principle to share today is really simple, but often rarely implemented and that is to take up the whole armor of God everyday. We must spend time each day to take up our “knives” and read His word. Stephen would like to add he used a screwdriver too ;-)