Polemistis

Over the past 15 years I have lost count of the number of times that I have had the prophetic word 'Warrior' spoken over my life. It's been such a big part of who God is calling me to be that a few years ago I decided to make a reminder of that calling. Moses had his staff to mark off the things God had done for the Isrealites as a reminder, I used my left arm and had the word as a tattoo as a constant reminder of what God has called me.

I read a lot, all kinds of things really, and recently I picked up a book in the library off the cuff called Raven: Blood Eye, its about a band of Norse Vikings who land on the south coast of England and destroy the village they come across taking two prisoners with them. One of those has one red eye due to a blood clot.

Throughout the book so far (I am only half way through it) the Norsemen have gotten into a few battles with the English, and there has been a lot of mentions about things such as Brynja, as well as the weapons that the Norsemen use, however there has not been much in the way of explaining what they are, so I looked them up.

Brynja was the chain mail body armour that the vikings wore, historians speculate that it was probably elbow and knee length and worn over thick clothing, and was designed to protect against cuts from bladed weapons. Recently the Spike TV programme Deadliest Warrior demonstrated it effective capabilities against a Katana sword.

Then today in church one of the guys came to the service in full medieval armour, this guy does re-enactments and spends most of his weekends off somewhere fighting with authentic armour and swords and the like.

For hundreds of years men have relied on armour for battles, for all manner of reasons wars have been fought for all kinds of gains, and armour has played a massive part in all these warriors lives, just the other day I was reading a newspaper article about new advancements in modern body armour for our armed forces. There was a photo with the article that showed this new armour which made the soldier look like a Star Wars storm trooper.

As Christian we are no different, we are in a battle: -

For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms
Ephesians 6:12

Its true that the weapons of our warfare are prayer and fasting etc, but just like many aspects of life the natural speaks of the invisible, and God Himself has set aside armour for those in the fight.

Ephesians 6:13-17 gives us the details of this armour

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (KJV)

I have always been a firm believer that is the bible says something in a particular way then there must be a reason God chose to state it that way. So I will stick with the same format here.

Belt of Truth
As Christians we stand on the truth of God's word, as a warrior, the belt would have held everything together, it kept the clothing in place, provided a place to hang your weapons, its the very thing that keeps it all together, and without the truth of God, then its really all for nothing

Breast Plate of Righteousness
Its our protection, when Anthony wore his armour into our church service tonight, he demonstrated how the bastplate protects him, he had our Pastor take his sword and strike him hard in the chest, his point was that yes he still felt the blows, but he could move forward with confidence that the breastplate protected him from any harm. The fact that is it righteousness attached to is is all about our conduct, if we can stand firm on God's truth with is girded round our waist, our character shines through as that of Christ Jesus, our protection is clear.

Gospel Shoes of Peace
The commission of Matthew 28:16-20 tells us make disciples of all nations, we can not do this without the gospel, its central to our story of Jesus. But its not just something we can speak, as a witness we have to put on the gospel, walk it out. Francis of Assisi is attested to have said ' in all things preach the gospel and if necessarily use words' The gospel message is one that actions speak far greater than any words will, we need to walk it as well as talk it.

Shield of Faith
More protection, the passage itself says its so you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy.


Helmet Of Salvation
This part of the armour seems self explanitory, but there are more aspects to look at, its about having purity of mind, Jesus took the commandments and expanded on their actual meanings, salvation brings a new creation for christians, so the helmet is in place to protect the mind from the 'old man' as well as salvation being vital for our souls.

Sword of Truth
I mentioned earlier about the weapons of our warfare being things like prayer and fasting, but the most important weapon in our arsenal is the sword of the spirit. Its our protection and our offense, without it we are lost. Its our direction and our guide.


The interesting thing is that in feudal Japan, the Samurai viewed theor sword as their honour, their beliefs taught them that the Katana was the samurai's soul.


If these warriors could view their sword so strongly, and be wrong about their views and belief, how much more should we view our sword as christians in the army of the Almighty???

The sword that we carry as part of the Armour of God is none other than the word of God its our bible.


In 2000, I attended a conference were the speakers were Pastor Judah Smith of The City Church in Seattle - you can view his website here and Noalan Clark of Jesus Feast Fellowship in Canada (Jesus feast Fellowship website)


During the conference they were talking about the importance of the word to us as christians, and something that was said really impacted me, and it should be one of the fundamental aspects of our walk.


'What Kind of a warrior can you be without your sword?'


We need to know the word, we need to carry the word, I hopeimpacts you as much as it did me.


I want to finish with a quote I first saw at the end of the film Tears of the Sun. Which for me sums up the importance of being the warrior we are called to be and to daily put on the armour of God in our lives


'The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'