Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace

Message 54

For the next few weeks, our ministry will be covering the topic of spiritual warfare from the epistle of Ephesians. This epistle is a GREAT call to work, meaning live worthy of our call. To do this requires us to continually be arrayed with spiritual armor. This message is about the “Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace” using the King James Version for text.

Ephesians 6:15: “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace”

Feet

Feet comes from the Greek word “pous” meaning a foot or footstool. Footstool means something under our feet. How many of us know that our feet are for standing and for transportation. Without our feet we cannot stand. Now feet in the spiritual represents our understanding. In Hebrew the word understanding (“biyn”) means to separate mentally or distinguish, discern, instruct, view, wisely, wiseman or skillful.

Now Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” and Proverbs 9:6 says, “Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.”

In the natural, the feet are the terminal (forming the end) part of the vertebrate leg upon which one stands. Now the Roman Soldiers wore sandals on their feet called “caliga”, which were thickly studded sandals with cleats on the bottom of them. These cleats were to dig in and stand in the face of battle.

How much more the Christian must read, study and dig in deeper into the Word of God, asking the Holy Spirit to teach you the Revelation of who the “I AM” truly is. We are the “I AM”. We must rely on the Word of God to stand in the face of battle, knowing that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

(1 John 4:4).

A common military practice of the Roman Soldiers was to plant sticks in the ground which had been sharpened to a point, burying them just beneath the surface of the ground so that they could not be easily seen. In the natural, this tactic was potentially debilitating to the enemy. If the soldier’s feet were pierced, he could not walk and he could not fight; thus the thick-soled sandals protected his feet.

In the spiritual, does the enemy not try to plant doubt and unbelief and

thoughts of the past in your mind? 2 Cor. 10:4-5 states, “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly), but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds:) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Shod

Now the word shod in Greek is “hupodeo” (from “hupo”), meaning under, and “deo” meaning literally to bind under. The word “bind” means to fasten or secure with a band or bond; to fasten around; fix in place by girding (have we not already girt our loins with the Truth?) (Eph. 6:14). Thus “shod” means to bind under one’s feet or one’s understanding. Habakkuk 3:19: “The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high (heavenly) places.”

Preparation

Now the word preparation in the Greek is “hetoimasis” from “hetoimos” meaning ready or prepared. It is a state of preparedness, whether external or internal, as stated in Psalm 10:17: “Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear”. Also note that hetoimasia can also signify a prepared foundation or base.

Another definition of preparation is firm footing or firm foundation. Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” We must have that firm foundation through the result of the gospel of peace.

We must have a firm and solid understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ which causes us to dig in. When the enemy comes at us with deception, we have an understanding, and we are firmly fixed upon the truth of the gospel. Those “cleats” on the believer’s sandals (nails in his feet and the crown of thorns on his head which was for the protection of our mind) provide a firm grasp on what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about.

Preparation is readiness or preparedness of mind (Romans 12:2: “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”); the preparedness which comes from the Gospel whose message is “Peace”. The Gospel is the firm foundation for warfare.

Gospel of Peace 

The Greek word “gospel” means to announce good news (evangelize) especially the gospel: it means to declare, bring glad tidings, preach.  We as believers know that we are the Victory; we are overcomers; Satan has been defeated. We must have a SOLID grasp, a sure footing, to speak the Word of God that we are the Victory. Colossians 3:4: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear (means to render apparent, manifestly declare, make manifest forth, shew self), then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (as very apparent, dignity, glorious, honour, praise, worship). Too many Christians “feel” saved and yet have no victory.

The Greek word “peace” means to join or bind together that which has been separated and thus setting at one again.

Col. 1:21-22: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now that he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.”

Col. 1:26-27: “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory”.

John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you”.

Eph. 2:13-14: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”

The Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit are one and are in Us. As it states in Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Now believers who have received the gospel of peace are at peace with/in God, and the war is over because the peace treaty has been irrevocably “signed” in blood, the precious blood of the Lamb. To have peace with God means there is nothing -- no sin, no guilt, no condemnation -- that separates us. And that peace with God is possible only through Christ (Romans 5:1). Outside of Christ, there is no peace. Only those in Christ know peace.

~ Minister Carol Huntsman