In part 2, Carl explores the spiritual significance of God’s peace, the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and sword of the Spirit from Ephesians 6. Discover how believers can extinguish Satan’s fiery darts of doubt, fear, worry, anger, or lust by boldly declaring God’s Word. Learn why maintaining fellowship with Holy Spirit keeps our shield of faith effective against the enemy’s attacks. Pastor Carl emphasizes the importance of standing firm in Christ, guarding our minds through the assurance of salvation, and exercising spiritual authority through the spoken Word of God to experience lasting victory and peace. Join Carl now…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, let’s just pick it up right off where we left off yesterday. On the whole armor of God, let’s go live now. Oh there’s sister so-and-so, she’s always stressed out. Man, she’s in fear all the time and flipping out. She’s a good Christian sister, amen. You know, that’s not the testimony we want. We want someone who’s going to be an anchor, okay? Someone who’s going to bring peace to that situation and an under-girding of concrete that we can stand on in a situation. And that’s what Jesus was like. I mean, I never met him, of course, but I can imagine that Jesus was extremely peaceful, calm in his authority, but he didn’t rush anything. He wasn’t the kind of guy who was rushing around. He was purposeful, amen. We need to be the same way. We need to be purposeful. So, strong stability with his armor. And with these shoes, a Roman soldier supposedly could march up to 50 miles a day with weaponry and provisions. And that would be about 80 pounds in weight. Some contend up to a hundred pounds in weight with all the things they had to carry and their provisions. But the question is, are you rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus? Because these sandals will enable you to be rooted. And then from that stability, you will walk in peace, amen. And here’s the famous one. The shield of faith. Now, this shield could pretty much protect the entire body. If they crouched down, it would come up to the head. So, you could literally get on your knees and it would protect you. They would join these shields together. You’ve seen it in the movies. They would go in a flank position, all the shields in the front.
They’d put another row of shields on top and they could create their own little fortress that couldn’t be penetrated. It’s the shield of faith. Now, notice it says that we take it up. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith. It’s our responsibility to do so, right? It’s not God’s. But it is the armor of God. It’s not our armor. Then it says, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, all the fiery darts of the wicked one. We’re going to get into that. What are the fiery darts that Paul spoke of? How do we quench them? But notice, this is interesting, the shield was covered with up to six layers of animal hide. Check this out. A soldier had to maintain his shield by caring for the animal skin, which would often become dry in those climates, right? By the Mediterranean. A dry shield would become brittle and vulnerable to fire. So, in other words, part of the management of the armor was to make sure that this shield did not dry out. If it did, if one of those fiery darts hits it, man, it’s going to explode. It’s going to go on fire immediately. Can someone see an analogy coming here? We’ve got to keep our shield moist. How do we do that? What they would do is they would rub olive oil on the shield periodically, all right? In Isaiah 21:15, it says, Isaiah instructed men to anoint their shield. Anoint your shield. In the same way we get dry and crusty, we too need to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen? He is the oil. He’s the holy anointing oil that we need to periodically feel in order to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one that could come our way. Amen? And it’s our responsibility in the sense that if we get dry and dusty and we don’t spend time with the Holy Spirit and his word, there’s a tendency for that flesh to rise up. Yeah, there’s a tendency for that flesh to start rising. And so we just rub in some more olive oil and say, Lord, just take away my cares.
I cast them now in Jesus’ name. So, the arrows of the enemy. The typology here is that these are evil thoughts, all right? Now, many scholars down the years have talked about this in commentaries. Matthew Henry talked about it. Various commentaries about evil thoughts being the fiery darts. No murder ever took place without a thought of murdering somebody. Nobody ever thought of doing a crime without first meditating upon it. Amen? It begins in the thought realm, does it not? Does not all crime begin in the thought realm? Because it has to be accepted first. Then the thought comes, it’s accepted, the dart is in, now I’m gonna proceed down this path of crime, adultery, porn, whatever else is there. If we don’t quench that fiery dart quickly, you’re gonna go down, all right? Now, here’s the deal. You cannot out-think the enemy, but you can out-speak him. You’ve got to get that. Because what happens is, in your mind, when you have a thought that’s negative, there’s a tendency for us to reason it away, right? How many have done that? When they’re worried. Well, what about this? I don’t really know. Well, what if this happens? Yeah, that could happen. And if that happens, it’s gonna go bad for you, right? Mm-hmm, yeah, it is. So you go down the rabbit hole of agreement. The enemy is looking for agreement. He wants you to agree with his lies, with his fiery darts, however you want to use in metaphor form. It’s up to us to use our shield of faith to resist those thoughts, amen? So there are three darts that the enemy launches at you. None of these are available at Bass Pro, to my knowledge. Well, maybe the normal arrow. The normal arrow is a sharp-pointed metal head. I thought they could be thoughts of doubt. Doubt is one of the major weapons the enemy uses. Well, that’s all well and good, but, you know, this word wasn’t written for you, though, was it? Question mark.
It’s not really applying to you, is it? You can’t take that scripture, Philippians 4:19, and apply it for your own life, can you? Question mark. Thoughts of doubt, friend, can actually stop us, amen? That’s a major weapon the enemy uses. You have the metal tip, you have the stem, the shaft, and the feathers. The stem is important because the stem was modified in ancient times. In a pitch arrow, it contained tar or pitch on the metal tip. They didn’t ignite it, but they would just put it on there, okay? It’s designed to place a combustible substance on the shield. So they would put the tar on the metal tip, they’d fire it, it would go into the shield, fine. The enemy thinks, great, I mean, nothing happened, right? But every single arrow was building up fuel on that shield. What comes after that? It’s the fiery dart. So not only can a fiery dart be sent immediately on fire, okay, but with the tar being built up on the enemy’s shield, one of those arrows that goes towards the shield can ignite a huge inferno, because layer after layer of arrow has already been fired. Can anybody relate to that? Sometimes we get bombarded with these thoughts, and then it’s this one thing that just makes us snap. It’s that one thought that makes us go over the edge, and it’s like, I’ve had enough, this isn’t gonna work out for me. Panic attack. How many’s been there, except pastor? Hello. Sometimes it’s a continual onslaught of thoughts that come to us. Now, like I said, instead of out thinking the enemy, declare the truth over the situation. Say, in Jesus’ name, God is gonna meet all of my needs. Amen? Now, what you find is once you speak that word, it calms the mind, it calms the spiritual realm, because you’re taking authority over it. Don’t out think the enemy, he’s good at that. Out speak him.
You declare the truth over the situation. This is self-defense, Kung Fu in the Spirit 101, kapow. This is how we do it on a daily basis. Amen? Oh, those jokes are working tonight, praise God. Pastor’s funny tonight, he feels good about himself, but next week there’ll be rejection. Thank you. Oh, the ups and downs of a man of God. Anyway, amen. We got new people here, behave. So, it was not ignited, but served as a source of fuel. Thoughts of doubt, thoughts of anger, thoughts of worry, thoughts of panic, thoughts of insecurity. Which ones travail you the most? Which one of these arrows has the enemy got lined up for you, friend? Everybody has their own unique besetting sin that Paul spoke about. What do you think about the most? Some people don’t worry about anything, but, you know, they’re angry all the time. They have anger issues, but they don’t worry, right? Other people, you know, have no anger whatsoever, but they’re worrying all the time. So, everybody has that little edge that the enemy uses that he knows, almost like family members, right? When you go and visit family members you haven’t seen for a time, and everything’s great for two or three days, and then someone can say one thing, man, it’s like, man, that was a sharp, right? Because they know how to motivate you. They know you, amen? I love my family, amen. But I’m just giving you an example. So, some have contended that fiery darts are lust thoughts, lustful thoughts that need to be quenched quickly. Images can come. Images can come to us that are ungodly, and we can have a choice. There’s a split second of a few seconds where we either entertain that image, or we cast it down, right? Casting every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, amen? It’s our choice whether we meditate on that junk or not, because all sin, unfortunately, is choice. Ouch. It has to be choice, because we have to agree with it.
Now, again, we cannot walk in perfection, okay? We have the flesh. I’ve tried to cast it out every week. It keeps coming back, all right? We have to crucify the flesh. We cast out spirits. We crucify the flesh. Some people want to deal with the flesh one time, right? I dealt with the flesh in 1978. I’m good. No, some people are like that. They just want to deal with it one time. No, it wants to rise up, okay? Paul said, I die daily. He’s crucifying daily, right? That’s what we have to do as long as we live in this body, right? So, the fiery darts can cause a very rapid fire, and all of a sudden, you’re on fire. Your mind is on fire. You’re like, man, I am feeling oppressed right now. I feel the enemy over me. Friend, it’s at that moment when you need to step aside and go into your closet, or wherever you can, get the Word of God out, and start praying right then and there. As you do so, you’re calling on the angelic realm. If you’re praying in the Spirit, you’re speaking mysteries to God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. That is our modus operandi, right? We should get into the habit of that. If the fiery dart comes, don’t just stand there and go, oh my. We need to have a little bit of a feisty spirit, step aside, and then start taking action. Amen? Taking action. So, the helmet of salvation. In Roman times, the helmet was made from a copper-iron alloy. An alloy increases strength. The helmet carried the army’s insignia on it. What is that? What is that insignia right there? Alpha and Omega, okay?
The name of Jesus Christ is right on your forehead. It talks about in Revelation that God himself is gonna write his name on your forehead and in your right hand. Who else is gonna try and do that? Satan, the mark of the beast, is gonna try and do the same thing. He’s gonna try and mock some folk before they can be mocked by God. But the truth is, in the Spirit, we’re already mocked, alright? And so, with the protection, there’s the neck guard, and then there’s the cheek guard, and the brow guard, okay? So, you’re protected from all angles. But everything begins with salvation. No one goes into battle without a helmet, otherwise you is stupid. Amen? That’s correct. That is official. Stupid people go into battle without helmets. Even the Spartans in the movie 300 had a helmet, but they didn’t have any other armor, right? So, they wanted all those ab shots, right? For the movies. No Spartan ever went into war without full armor, okay? Google it. Google Spartan armor. You’ll see them head to toe in full armor regalia, okay? But the helmet protected all angles, front, side, and back. Your salvation covers all angles, amen? You’re saved. How do you know you’re saved? Trick question. How do you know you’re saved? Through the blood of Jesus, yep. But it’s a knowing as well, isn’t it? It bears witness. The Holy Spirit bears witness that we are the sons of God. So, there’s a knowing on the inside, okay? People, I’ve never seen anybody debate with me whether they’re saved or not. They either know or they don’t. They say, no, I know that I know that I know. I’ve said the prayer. I feel his presence, amen? That is what you stand on. Without a helmet, without the knowledge of your salvation, you are not gonna go to battle for very long, amen? So, our minds are guarded from mental blows of the enemy. Joyce Meyer wrote an entire book about it, right? The Battlefield of the Mind. Extremely good book. So, let’s get into the weapons. The sword of the Spirit. There were four different types of swords. The Gladius Hispanaensis. Somebody say that for me. It was 18 inches long. It was double-edged, meant for close combat, amen? The Word of God is double-edged. What does it have? It has mercy and judgment. Mercy and judgment.
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/the-whole-armor-of-god-part-1-live/
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-the-full-armor-of-god-how-can-i-put-on-the-whole-armor-of-god.html
Title: The Whole Armor of God: Part 2 (LIVE)
Related keyword searches:
Shield of Faith in Spiritual Warfare
Fiery Darts of the Enemy
Armor of God for Protection
Roman Soldier’s Shield and Faith
Olive Oil and Spiritual Anointing
Fiery Darts of Doubt and Anger
Helmet of Salvation and Protection
Spiritual Armor Maintenance
Rhema and Logos Word of God
Six Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Why is peace so important when wearing the armor of God, and how do we achieve it?
Peace is a crucial aspect of our spiritual armor because it stabilizes us, allowing us to stand firm in challenging situations. Jesus is the ultimate example of peace, being calm and authoritative in every situation. The shoes of peace mentioned in Ephesians 6 represent our stability in Christ. When we are rooted and grounded in Him, we can walk in peace regardless of the storms we face. To achieve this peace, we must ensure our foundation is in Christ and regularly maintain our connection to Him through prayer, worship, and meditating on His Word.
2. What role does the shield of faith play in our spiritual defense?
The shield of faith is vital because it protects us from the enemy’s fiery darts—negative thoughts, doubts, fears, and lies that can penetrate our minds and hearts. This shield can cover the entire body, and when we lift it up in faith, it extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one. Maintaining a strong shield requires continual care—just as Roman soldiers had to keep their shields oiled to prevent them from drying out and becoming brittle, we must stay spiritually refreshed with the Holy Spirit’s anointing to protect ourselves from the enemy’s attacks.
3. How do we manage the fiery darts that the enemy sends our way?
Fiery darts come in the form of negative thoughts—doubt, worry, insecurity, and anger. These thoughts are like arrows aimed at our minds, designed to break down our confidence in God’s promises. To quench these darts, we must resist the urge to entertain or agree with them. Instead of overthinking or reasoning with the enemy, we must speak God’s truth aloud, declaring His Word over the situation. By doing this, we counteract the lies of the enemy and protect our minds from being consumed by Satan’s barrage.
4. Why is it important to “anoint” our shields and how do we achieve this?
Just as Roman soldiers oiled their shields to keep them flexible and resistant to fire, we must stay spiritually “anointed” by the Holy Spirit to keep our faith shield strong and effective. The Holy Spirit is the oil that keeps us spiritually refreshed and prevents us from becoming “dry” or vulnerable. To practice this, we need to regularly spend time in prayer, worship, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to refresh us, renew our strength, and keep our faith shield effective against the enemy’s attacks.
5. What is the significance of the helmet of salvation in our spiritual armor?
The helmet of salvation protects our minds, which are often the battleground for the enemy’s attacks. Without the assurance of salvation, we are vulnerable to confusion, doubt, and discouragement. Knowing that we are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ guards our minds from mental and emotional blows. The helmet represents the certainty of our salvation and the peace that comes from knowing we are secure in Christ. It protects us from the enemy’s lies and strengthens our confidence in God’s promises.
6. How does the sword of the Spirit work as an offensive weapon in spiritual warfare?
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is our primary offensive weapon in spiritual warfare. Just as a Roman soldier would use a sword for close combat, we use the Word of God to combat lies, temptations, and spiritual attacks. The Word is both a defensive and offensive weapon—it defends us from attacks and also cuts through the enemy’s lies and strongholds. The sword is double-edged, meaning it contains both mercy and judgment, Logos (written word) and Rhema (spoken word), giving us the authority to declare God’s truth in every situation.
