THE BELT OF TRUTH
 

 

By: Norm Rasmussen

 

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,  -- Ephesians 6:14

 

 

Disciples of Jesus Christ realize we are in a spiritual battle.  God tells us in Ephesians 6, starting with verse 11, “to put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” 

 

Our mind is the battlefield where most of this spiritual war is fought. God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 key insights to this spiritual battle:

 

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, [which is given to us in the Word], bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ [which is obedience to the Word].  Because our mind is the primary area Satan intensifies his attacks, is it any wonder why God wants us to learn “how to take our thoughts captive that are not Christ-like?  It is our protection!”

 

The First Piece of Armor is – God’s belt of TRUTH – (see Ephesians 6:14).  It is NO COINCIDENCE God lists this as the FIRST weapon!  This weapon has a two-fold application. 

 

1):  Jesus is the Word, (see John 1-1 & 14 and Revelation 19:1), as Jesus is also Truth personified.  Everything Jesus speaks, or has ever spoken, or ever will speak, is the Truth of God. 

 

The entire Old and New Testament is the written Word of Truth (see John 17:17).  Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make [keep: emphasis mine] you free.”  God's written Word is truth, and if you believe the written Word rather than sin-tainted human reason, or what circumstances might seem to indicate, you are applying the Word of Truth.

 

God's Word is further divided into two different categories as well:  1): God's Logos Word, which is the written Word (Holy Scriptures).  2):  God's Rhema Word, which is specific direction from God for specific situations.  It is hearing directly from God to an individual, from His Spirit to our spirit.  (More about this is a different writing). 

 

The Devil's Strategies:  Once the Holy Spirit brings you to the place where you are able to believe with your whole being that the Holy Bible is mankind's sole source for written Truth ... demonic spirits will then try to get you to believe things written in the Bible in a way that God never intended.  Satan is ever diligent in trying to twist the correct intent, the correct understanding, and correct application ... of Holy Scriptures.  Here is an excellent writing on this very topic that I would encourage every Christian to read:  Twisting Holy Scriptures.

 

2):  Anything hidden in a Christian's life that they would not want to be made known either to their family, their employer, their spouse and children, and especially in front of the local "church" assembly ... is an open door for Satan to "sift them like wheat."  Saying it another way: Hidden sin opens a legal door in the life of a Christian to bring pain upon them that God never intends.  Christians struggling with one or more sins is not rare, of course.  But ... the longer one struggles with one or more sin, and tries to keep it hidden ... the more susceptible they become in allowing Satan to bring pain in their life that God does not delight in.   

 

Scripture tells us in James 5:7:  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  

 

When we continue to engage in one or more "secret sins" ... we are not resisting the devil, and therefore we are opening up a legal door, inviting him to "sift us like wheat."  

 

God has mercy and grace for each of us, because no two of us are made the same.  God may allow you to engage in one or more "secret sins" for a much longer time than another person, but just tuck this away:  The longer you keep silent about your secret sin/s ... usually the greater the pain ... by the time Satan gets done with you.

 

If you want to stay engaged in effective spiritual warfare, confess your areas of sin you are struggling with to people you can trust, precious believer in Christ.  To not do so will invariably bring a lot of pain into your life that didn't have to be there!  Then get serious with God and repent of that sin.  God's definition of "repent" is to strive to forsake to never commit that sin again when temptation knocks.  Confession and repentance go hand in hand: confession and forsake probably best describes the process.

 

"Secrets" is Satan's breeding ground, saints.  Truth means "nothing hidden - NOTHING!  If I have to keep my private life a "secret" ... I'm heading for BIG TROUBLE.   

 

The devil is constantly trying to convince us we are falling short of how God sees us – how God thinks of us.  Satan in the Greek language is also known as: the accuser.  Revelation 12:10 confirms this. To counter the devil’s lies - to counter his accusations against us - we must remind ourselves often of the position we have in Christ as born again Christians.

 

Romans 6:3-6 gives us an incredible statement of fact and truth.  Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.  Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

 

God’s Weaponry: 

 

Your position in Christ: “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and establish in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.  Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:6-10). 

 

 

                                                    

AS A BORN AGAIN BELIEVER, YOUR POSITION IN CHRIST

 

When negative or tormenting thoughts begin to bombard your mind, you need to “take these thoughts captive by replacing them with truth.”  

 

I renounce the lie that I am rejected, unloved, dirty or shameful because in Christ I am completely accepted.  God says that …

  • I am God’s child (see John 1:12)

  • I am Christ’s friend (see John 15:15)

  • I have been justified (see Romans 5:1)

  • I am united with the Lord and I am one spirit with Him (see I Corinthians 6:17)

  • I have been bought with a price; I belong to God (see I Corinthians 6:19,20)

  • I am a member of Christ’s body (see 1 Corinthians 12:27)

  • I am a saint, a holy one (see Ephesians 1:1)

  • I have been adopted as God’s child (see Ephesians 1:5)

  • I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 2:18)

  • I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins (see Colossians 1:14;1 John 1:9)

  • I am complete in Christ (see Colossians 2:10)

I renounce the lie that I am guilty, unprotected, alone or abandoned because in Christ I am totally secure.  God says that …

I renounce the lie that I am worthless, inadequate, helpless or hopeless because in Christ I am deeply significant.  God says that …

  • I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world (see Matthew 5:13,14)

  • I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus, a channel of His life (see John 15:1,5)

  • I have been chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit (see John 15:16)

  • I am a personal, Spirit-empowered witness of Christ’s (see Acts 1:8)

  • I am a temple of God (see 1 Corinthians 3:16)

  • I am a minister of reconciliation for God (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

  • I am God’s coworker (see 2 Corinthians 6:1)

  • I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm (see Ephesians 2:6)

  • I am God’s workmanship, created for good works (see Ephesians 2:10)

  • I may approach God with freedom and confidence (see Ephesians 3:12)

  • I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! (see Philippians 4:13)

          

I am not the great “I am,” but by the grace of God I am what I am.  (See Exodus 3:14, John 8:24,28,58; 1 Corinthians 15:10).

 

God wants us to know beyond all shadow of a doubt of how secure we are in Him.  Knowing how secure we are in Him is not license to continue on in our sin, but rather letting that security be the fuel that kindles the fire of determination inside us to allow God to break any stronghold/s of sin in our lives.  Bare also in mind: our uncrucified areas of flesh delights in working in concert with Satan, and we can’t cast full blame on Satan everytime we sin.  Satan almost always tempts us in the areas of the flesh we are the weakest in.

 

As children of God, we will be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ for setting our standards as high as God has set them in His Word.  It is easy to apply 1 John 1:9 every time we sin, and keep sinning the same sin over and over and asking forgiveness for it year after year, time after time.  (Sexual sins especially come to mind, of the "personal" nature).  God wants us calling sin ... "SIN" ... criminal acts against God's laws, which are criminal acts against God Himself ... and putting to death every sin we keep committing.  When we raise our standards of holiness of what we will tolerate in our lives and what we won't, it is amazing the power God gives us to gain victory over temptations of sin we have not been able to gain victory over previously.

 

I'll repeat: Set your standards of personal holiness as high as God sets them in His Word: no compromising.  God will reward you for it in eternity, I assure you.

 

Also, we will do well to remember … giving place to sin gives the devil legal right to establish a greater presence and influence in our life.   The less we sin … the less influence Satan will have in our lives.  We walk in dangerous territory with God when we refuse to believe our pet sin/s are not sins.  It becomes a huge victory for Satan to deceive us to the point where we don't believe our sin is a sin any longer, or that it was a sin in the first place. 

 

Be humble and wise and admit to God sin is sin.  He has grace and mercy for those who will do so.  For those who refuse to do so ... I personally would not want to pass over into eternity holding onto my deception.

 

There are three broad areas that Satan continuously, relentlessly tempts us in, as Jesus told us about in Mark 4:19 & 1 John 2:16.  They are listed as follows:

 

 1) “Cares of this life.” – Becoming overly concerned about problems in this life can become so consuming that Satan will use them to cause you to grow cold toward God and His Word, bringing about potential depression, apathy, unnecessary fear and worry, faithlessness, anger and bitterness, resentment, addictions, being withdrawn from The Body of Christ ... the list sadly goes on and on.

  

2) “Deceitfulness of riches” - One's life-long pursuit is to be "spiritually rich towards God."  (see Rev. 3:17).  It does not require money to be "spiritually rich" toward God.  It requires dedication and obedience to the priorities of God, and the understanding that true riches are stored up in eternity for ourselves and others.  There is nothing wrong with having money.  We are to control our desire for more money: it is not to control us. When the pursuit of making more and more money crowds out one's quality prayer life, one's call God has upon one's life, one's understanding that there is no real and lasting security having money -- then we have a better understanding of how money fits into our lives and how we're to treat it.  Does your daily and weekly actions manifest a desire to have and/or make more money ... or are your daily and weekly actions of putting God first in all areas of your life evident?  Only you can answer that, by being honest with yourself, but you'll do yourself the greatest favor you can do by making sure your love for God grows stronger by the week than your love to have more money.

         

3) “Desire for other things” – Anything we desire and pursue more than God's will is harmful, and the devil will use it to draw us away from intimacy with God.  Hobbies, excessive work, excessive socialization -- pursuits like these can become substitutes that can draw us away in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, forcing the Holy Spirit to be crowded out of our lives.

As born again believers and followers of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit admonishes us in Colossians 3:1-2 to "Set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth."   To spend all of our time, energy and financial resources pursuing earthly happiness and security at the exclusion of not diligently seeking God in how we can help expand the Kingdom of God here on earth as well - in the lives of other people especially - we are not fully setting our minds on "things above" as God admonishes us to do so.

As a final warning ... be extremely careful about Bible teachers/preachers who place an over-emphasis on the Old Testament.  The New Testament - the New Covenant - superseded the Old Covenant (The Old Testament).  Everything we need to know about pleasing God is found in the New Testament.  That from the Old Testament which confirms the clearly interpreted and wisely applied New Testament Truth is wonderful, but if it does not: BEWARE!  

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are not saved by obeying the Old Testament.  But as true born again believers of the New Testament, as we mature in our relationship with Jesus Christ, we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey the 10 commandments listed in the Old Testament.  Having no desire to obey the 10 commands and calling yourself a true "Christian" is like a bicycle trying to disguise itself as a Chevy truck. 

I'll say that a different way, so you fully understand the importance of it.  You are NOT saved from your sins and assured entry into heaven by obeying the 10 commandments found in the Old Testament, nor any other commandments found in the Old Testament, for that matter.  You are saved by trusting what the New Testament has to say about being saved.  What does it say?  That the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what paid FULL PENALTY for your sins, and placing your trust in THAT Truth is in the ONLY thing that will save you or anybody!

Here is another writing on truth that you might benefit from reading: Exposing Demonic Deception

There is another component that needs to mix with truth.  That is grace.   Here are some valuable insights regarding truth and grace from Randy Alcorn:

What should the world see when it looks at us? Christ. But we've come up with hundreds of principles and thousands of rules attempting to be Christlike. It's too complicated to wrap our minds around. And Christ gets buried under lists, rules and formulas.

John 1:14 boils down for us what it means to be Christlike. It means to be full of only two things: Grace and Truth. Instead of a dozen, this gives us just two balls to juggle. It's succinct, a two point checklist of Christlikeness. Everything we do can and should be measured by the test of grace and truth.

Christlikeness means living by grace and truth, extending both to others. Instead of the world's apathy and tolerance, we offer grace. Instead of the world's relativism and deception, we offer truth.

If we minimize grace the world sees no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show the world Jesus, we must offer full-orbed, unabridged truth and grace, magnifying both, never downsizing or apologizing for either.

The grace question:  Why did sinners want to be around Jesus, but don't want to be around us?

The truth question:  Why did sinners crucify Jesus, but have no problem with us?

Truth without grace breeds a self-righteousness legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.

Truth is quick to post warning signs and guardrails. Yet it fails to empower people to drive safely, to avoid plunging off the cliff, and fails to help them when they crash. Grace is quick to post ambulances and paramedics at the bottom of the cliff. But without truth, it fails to post warning signs and build guardrails, and therefore encourages the very self-destruction it attempts to heal.

Grace without truth deceives people, and ceases to be grace. Truth without grace crushes people, and ceases to be truth.

Any attempt to "soften" the gospel by minimizing truth ultimately keeps the world from grace. Any attempt to "toughen" the gospel by minimizing grace keeps the world from the greatest truth—His redemptive work on man's behalf. Christ went to the cross, in the ultimate act of grace, because He would not ignore the truth of His holiness and our sin. Grace never ignores or violates truth—rather, it offers restitution and joy by satisfying Truth's demands. ("Go and sin no more.")

Like a binary star consisting of two suns that revolve around each other, truth and grace are equal and inseparable. Luther said the devil doesn't care which side of the horse we fall off of—as long as we don't stay in the saddle. A saddle has two stirrups. To stay in the saddle, the church needs to mount the horse with one foot solidly in the stirrup of truth, and the other solidly in the stirrup of grace.

Grace and truth make us live in such a way that there is no human explanation for our lives—in the absence of human explanation, people turn to God as the reason behind what they see. Our children, our neighbors, and we ourselves long for Jesus—we can offer Him only by offering His grace and truth.

Anyone desiring to have greater insights into Grace and Truth, we strongly recommend you obtain a copy of Randy Alcorn's book:  The Grace And Truth Paradox.
 


To learn about the other weapons of our warfare, click on the ones below you are interested in knowing more about: 

 

1)  Helmet of salvation

2)  Sword of the Spirit

3)  Praying always

4)  Breastplate of righteousness   

5)  The Belt of truth

6)  Gospel of peace

7)  Shield of faith    

 

Back to main document:  Why The Need For The Armor Of God?

 

If you would like to read Norm's born again testimony, you can click on this link:  http://precious-testimonies.com/BornAgain/L-N/Norm.htm

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God?  If not, you can be.  Do you know what awaits you when you die?  You can have the assurance from the Holy Spirit that heaven will be your home, if you would like to be certain.  Either Jesus Christ died for yours sins, or He didn't (He did!).  Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day and tell Him that you didn't need the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to cover your sins?  We plead with you ... please don't make such a tragic mistake.

To be at peace with God; to make certain heaven will be your home for eternity; to make certain that you are in right-standing with God right now ... please click here to help understand the importance of being reconciled to God.  What you do about being reconciled to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one.  Your decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make in this life. 

The staff and our ministry supporters so greatly appreciate hearing how God is touching lives for His glory through this outreach.  If this ministry has blessed you in some special way, would you please consider taking a brief moment and share your blessing with us?  Simply email us at: ptoffice@precious-testimonies.com

We truly thank each of you who allow us to publish your testimony, for those who faithfully pray (and fast) for this outreach, for those of you who help support the ministry financially, and for those of you who pass along these testimonies and other ministry writings to others.  The part the Holy Spirit has you play is vital in helping win lost souls and being engaged in discipleship, and we can never thank you enough for the labor of love and support you provide on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Precious Testimonies is supported financially by those God directs to sow into this ministry.  We ask each person reading this to please ask God on an on-going basis if He would have you sow a financial gift to this evangelistic outreach of His - trust that He will clearly communicate His will to you in the matter - then simply be obedient.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the current financial needs of this outreach, or any other questions you may have.

For convenience, you can simply click on the secure Pay Pal donate button below if you want to donate by credit card.  Otherwise, you can send your precious gift to:   Precious Testimonies, P.O. Box 516, Jenison, MI 49429.

Precious Testimonies is a non-denominational 501-C-3 evangelistic ministry, and financial love offerings to this ministry are tax-deductible for those who qualify.  A financial summary can be viewed by clicking on the following link:  Financial Summary.

Inquiries or comments are welcome at our E-mail address: ptoffice@precious-testimonies.com

Thank You, and God bless you!

Born Again Testimonies | Hope & Encouragement | Exhortations | Answers to Prayer | Index

HOMESearch Screen Copyright © Precious Testimonies. 2006 All rights reserved. Send us an Email message

Like This Page? Send it to a Friend!