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SELAH! Pause - reflect- just think of that!

Selah Alphabetical Index

"Put on Christ"

Every Christian is in an all-out war with Satan. God has equipped us with unsurpassed and incomparable spiritual armor for this battle. It is our responsibility to resist the devil. When you reject him with the power of the indwelling Christ, “he will flee from you.”

Christ gives us His mighty strength (kratei) to resist Satan’s strategies (Phil. 4:13). It is not I, but Christ in me that I have this overwhelming conquering power.

Our responsibility in this spiritual warfare is to “put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11). You will never win in the spiritual war without it. By using the armor God has provided we “stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (v. 11). In this spiritual war (v. 12) we must “take up the full armor of God” so we can “resist” Satan and “stand firm” (v. 13). The apostle Paul makes an urgent appeal for the believer to take his “stand.”

Christ is our truth.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn. 14:6).   In His high priestly prayer Jesus asked the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (17:17). Satan is a lair and all ways will be one (Jn. 8:44). The truth in Christ is the strong integrating force in our lives. You cannot defeat a man of integrity because he has a clear conscience before God and a watching world.

Christ is our righteousness.

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).  Our righteousness is “that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9). The “sanctifying righteousness of Christ” guards the believer’s heart in our daily battles with Satan (Rom. 6:13; 14:17). Only as we guard our hearts can we be stable soldiers (2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 4:24).  The righteousness of Christ gives us assurance during Satan’s attacks. We have a positional righteousness in Christ that produces a practical righteousness in our daily life.

Christ is our peace.

In a hostile, bitter world, the Christian has “peace” (Jn. 16:33; Phil. 4:7; Rom. 5:1). We have His peace which is just the opposite from what the world offers. Our peace with God comes from a right relationship with Christ. With the peace with God we have a gospel to share with the world (Rom. 10:15; Isa. 21:7; Eph. 2:14). Our “peace with God” provides us the “peace of God” to sustain and strengthen us when the circumstances go against us.

Christ is our faith.

Our responsibility is “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2; cf. Lk. 22:31-32' 2 Cor. 4:8-9, 16-18). Our responses to everyday circumstances are dramatically different when we trust Christ. Are you appropriating by faith the power of God in Christ? “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Christ is our salvation.

Simeon in the Temple blessed the infant Jesus saying, “For my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Lk. 2:30; cf. 1 Thess. 5:8; Rom. 8:24; Acts 4:12). There is nothing insecure about this helmet of salvation. It is firm and solid in Christ. Satan attacks the mind of the believer as he did Eve. If he can get a hold on your imagination, he has his bloody hold on you (2 Cor. 11:3; 10:3-7; Eph. 4:20-21).

Christ is the Word of God.

Jesus is God’s final word to man (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1-3). The sword given by the Spirit is the Word of God (Matt. 4:3-11; Heb. 4:12; Acts 2:37; 5:33). He is “living and powerful.” The Spirit wrote the Word, wields the Word and always points to the Living Word. We overcome Satan by the particular   words (rhema) or portions of Scripture we apply to our lives (Ps. 119:11).

Christ is appropriated to us by faith (Eph. 6:18; Prov. 23:7; 2 Cor. 3:18). We are to pray continually “in the power and sphere of the Spirit” with all kinds of prayer and requests (Eph. 6:18; Heb. 10:19-20). Only then can our voice be heard above the crowd and the rabble of the world philosophers, new age movements and cults with their new “revelations” from God (vv. 19-20).

When we trust in Jesus Christ we receive the armor of God. He is the “whole armor of God.” We are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14) by faith and trust Him for the victory. In deed, we put on the armor the moment we trusted in Christ for salvation, and we must appropriate Him by faith each day. That is the only way to live in victory.

Never, never, never take off your armor for one moment! “Put on Christ!”

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006