Armors of Light and Righteousness

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. The source of my information is from the New King James Version Spirit Filled Life Bible. This message is about the armor of light and armor of righteousness.

Armor is considered to be weapons and pieces of equipment. It sounds like some fighting is going on. Well, all who belong to the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son have the forces of the kingdom of Satan against them. Our walk with Christ does include spiritual warfare.

In the natural, military forces don’t take men and women and put weapons in their hands and send them out to fight. Absolutely not because their battle is hand to hand combat. It’s a process, meaning they undergo intense training to make them physically and mentally able to endure their mission. This includes studying the enemy’s behavior, learning and training with the weapons used in warfare, and strategically planning how to defeat the enemy.

Spiritually, it’s no different. It’s a process. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, we must undergo intense training in the word of God. We must demonstrate 2 Timothy 2:15 to “Study to show thyself approved unto God”. We must learn His voice when He speaks to our ears, and obey His command. We must learn that our battle against the enemy is not hand to hand but a battlefield of the mind. Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded (meaning weak, worldly), is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. The carnal mind is an enemy to God and not subject to the law of God. 2 Corinthians 10:3 “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” so human weapons are useless. We need weapons that are empowered and mighty in God to demolish anything opposing God’s will.

God has left no stone unturned. He has both provided and bestowed upon us weapons to use against the adversary with one requirement, and that is to put it on. The believer that puts on this armor is marked, and the enemy cannot defeat them. Ephesians 1:20 tells us that Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand (a place of power) in heavenly places (higher realm of spirituality) above all the power in Satan’s realm. Understand that He is not there alone because Ephesians 2:6 states that God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. So the authority given to Christ belongs to us through Him, and we must exercise it right here and right now. If you want to be a soldier in the army of God, guess what? He can’t use a coward soldier. So put on the armor necessary for battle!

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to put on the whole armor of God. If you want to be fully dressed, you must first put on the armor of light stated in Romans 13:12 and the armor of righteousness in the right hand and the left hand in 2 Corinthians 6:7 to effectively operate the seven pieces in Ephesians. Why? These are powerful weapons and come out of the white light which is the Spirit of God.

Think of the colors of the rainbow. Every color reflected in the rainbow represents a Spirit of God that’s listed in Isaiah 11:2. Wisdom (yellow/gold), Understanding (red), Counsel (orange), Might (blue), Knowledge (green), fear (purple). All of these colors come out of the white light which is Righteousness (innocent, Holy, pure, justified), and it’s the very character of God expressed in Galatians 5:22, which is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, etc. In Isaiah 11:4 “But with righteousness He shall judge the poor.” Revelation 19:8 tell us that it was granted that the church (You and me) should be arrayed or dressed in fine linen, clean and white for this is the righteousness of the saints. We were instructed not only to put it on but to put it on the right hand and the left hand. Why? You can’t be half dressed. Both hands must be fully prepared for battle. Weapons in the right hand are for offensive attacks, and weapons in the left hand are to protect and are defensive weapons.

You must put on the armor of Light, which is the Mind of God. 1 Corinthians 2:16 states that we have the mind of Christ. Philippians 2:5-6 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God”. We put on the ALL KNOWING MIND: 1 John 2:20 “but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and YOU KNOW ALL THINGS” and Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

This light is a revealer, and there’s no darkness at all. In Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, Let there be light” meaning what’s stated above in 1 Corinthians 2:16 & Philippians 2:5.

2 Corinthians 4:6: God commanded the “light to shine out of darkness.”

Ephesians 5:8: He told us to “walk as children of light”.

Matthew 5:16: Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men”.

Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye” (the Mind). Our body is the tabernacle (holy dwelling, where God resides). It is God’s Power in action. It is His movable structure in the earth, and if He is Light, and He is, then “as He is so are we”. (1 John 4:17)

When Moses built the tabernacle, God designed three degrees of light in it, which are natural light, the light of the candlestick and the seven lamps, and the light of God himself. Now each of these degrees of light are manifested in three areas of man’s makeup, which is his body, soul, and spirit. These are the areas God wants to preserve blameless according to 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Let’s take a look at the first light, the natural light which shines in the outer court. The outer court was opened to the light of the sun. This was the entrance to the tabernacle, and it faced the East where the sun rises. It’s the region of light, denoting the dawning of a new day. It is in the court yard where the brazen altar stood (Exodus 27:1-8; 35:16). It was the place where the brazen laver stood (Exodus 30:18-21). This is the place where the sacrifice was killed, and the cleansing took place before the high priest entered the holy place. This area of the tabernacle symbolizes the “body” of man or the natural man!

When I speak of the natural man, I’m speaking of that carnal or flesh aspect of man that’s hostile toward the things of God. This aspect of man (male and female) has to be killed or sacrificed on this brazen altar and washed by the water or the Word of God before entering the holy place. The “old man” or “natural man” that opposes God is the one that walks in the light of darkness or evil, which is hatred, ignorance, sickness, death, and anything that’s not like God. 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Matthew 6:23 says, “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.”

If all that has been fed to the “old man” is philosophy, vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world (systems of men – their ideologies) and not after CHRIST (Colossians 2:8), then he is walking in darkness and needs the light of life to dispel that darkness so that he can live! Matthew 6:22 says, “The lamp of the body is the eye (spiritual vision, revelation knowledge): if therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light”!

This light is wisdom, knowledge, understanding, power, dominion, authority, health, peace, and joy that comes out of the Divine Mind of Christ that dwells in you! This area of the tabernacle, the court yard facing the East, is the region of light. This natural light of the “sun” represents the light of the “Son” of God. Once this natural man is killed, he can be awakened and quickened in his mind by the light of the “Son” of God This awakening light is knowledge and understanding of the light of life that directs him into the Holy Place. Malachi 4:2 “But to you who fear my name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go out, and grow fat like stall-fed calves.”

The holy place is where man walks in the light of God from the candlestick and seven lamps. Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” In the holy place he also eats of the bread of life that’s on the table which is the Word of God! St. John 6:33 ”For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”; verse 51: ”I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world!”

Here he worships God and also intercedes for others at the altar of incense. It is in man’s soul that his emotions are manifested, and he shows affection. But affection is the fruit of love. He must go on unto perfection to manifest the agape or unconditional love! This is the going into the Most Holy place. Exodus 25:22 lets us know that this is where God met with Aaron and talked to him or communed with him through the “urim and thummim” (light and perfection) that was on the breastplate of the high priest. This area symbolizes the spirit of man. God communes with man through his spirit. St. John 4:24 “God is Spirit”! Man has his own spirit. (Proverbs 20:27) “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” But man needs God’s Holy Spirit to purify his spirit! When man’s spirit is perfected by the URIM and THUMMIM (light and perfection) of God, it will bring his soul and body in line with that same “light” of perfection in God through Jesus Christ! (1Thessalonians 5:23)

~ Evangelist Brenda Hansley