Breastplate of Righteousness

 

    The breastplate of righteousness is the spiritual armor that protects your heart.  The belt holds all the clothing and items together for a sturdy foundation to faith.  The breastplate is your salvation that makes you righteous by faith.  It covers the belt, so the truth you believe is covered by faith.  Your righteousness protects your spiritual life and enables you to love like Jesus because it is supported by God's truth.

    The breastplate of righteousness fortifies the truth you believe.  It is protecting what gives you life.  It allows you to live free without fear.  Believing in Jesus, repenting your sins, and declaring your faith provides you with God's justice.  You are justified to enter Heaven when you die and to live like Jesus now.  The truth teaches you God's expectation, but you obey because you love Him.  

    The breastplate protects you according to how you apply God's truth.  If you try to change it to meet your lifestyle or desires, then you will not have much protection.  If you submit to God's will and obey according to His direction, then nothing can harm your heart and soul.  Your righteous lifestyle will produce a reputation that will protect you from all kinds of evil attacks.

    Righteousness protects your thoughts, ambitions, feelings, morals, and direction you take in life every day.  You take the time to learn the truth and how to apply it to your life.  It is part of the maturing process.  As you mature you move closer to God you make Satan nervous.  It means you start carrying power in the spiritual world to draw people to Jesus.

    Living righteously makes you a threat to Satan, so know that it is a matter of time before he comes to attack the areas that righteousness protects.  He will attack your mind first to influence your will. Then he will come after your emotions and conscience.  If he can make sin look innocent, then he has entry.  Learn to recognize the warning signs: you start thinking negatively, focus turns away from God, feelings become a storm, your confidence becomes confused, your consciousness starts to become silent, or your mind feels cluttered.  As soon as you discover this, repent and seek alone time with God to work it out.  

Psalm 81:11-16, Proverbs 4:23, Ephesians 4:1-4, 6:13-14, & James 4:13-17

How to use Truth

 

    You are in a spiritual battle.  You need the belt of truth to be able to fight properly, but do you know how to use the truth to fight your battles?  It is knowing God's truth that makes it where you can utilize it to defend yourself.  It is knowing God's Word that tells the world what you believe is true.

    The truth protects you from embarrassment.  It keeps you from falling for Satan's lies.  You need to be in God's Word, praying over what you read and how to use it, pray for discernment, and pray for understanding.  When you have that in your belt, then you will know in the situation on how to use the truth as a weapon.  

    You need to know God's Word to be able to strategize how to protect yourself from evil.  God will give you insight everyday as you spend time with Him in His Word and prayer.  The truth will help shield your heart from temptation.  However, you have to choose to invest yourself into God's Word, meditate on it, and pray over it.  You choose the direction your mind and heart go by what you allow your mind to linger on.  Meditate on the truth instead of fantasy or delusions.  

    Satan has a strategy to work against you.  It attacks when you are vulnerable.  He hits your insecurities, desires, and complacency.  He will distract you, so that you do not seek or focus on the truth.  His goal is to make you fall apart, pull away from God, and destroy you.  Do not allow him to deceive you.  Use the truth to build your character, virtue, judgement, and values.  Lean on your church family to help you be strong when you feel weak.  The truth allows you to live free.

Genesis 2:15-17, Psalm 119:105-112, Isaiah 59:15-19, John 8:31-32, Romans 8:1-4, & Ephesians 6:13-14

Walk in Truth

 

    Walking in truth sounds easy, but sometimes it is not.  Satan's deceptions can be very convincing.  His goal is to have your believe the lie, fraud, illusion, manipulation without ever detecting it.  He tweaks the truth just enough to have you self-sabotage.  He is a wolf dressed as a sheep.  It takes intentional maturing in your Christian walk to be able to know where to go in the Bible to discover the truths that reveal his lies.

    Truth is not on a spectrum.  It is simple.  It is direct.  It is narrow.  It requires discernment at times.  Pray for wisdom and discernment to be able to see the truth from all the lies the world is telling you.  This is how you use the belt of truth.  God's truth will always reveal the lie.

    If you fall for the lie there are some indicators.  You will feel a loss in joy, life becomes boring, you feel empty, and you become vulnerable to distractions like addictions.  When the lie becomes your truth then sin becomes your lifestyle.  What may have seemed wrong once is okay because your situation is different.  That is buying into the lie and it will destroy what you love.  

    It is hard to step into the light when you have been living in the darkness.  It can feel overwhelming to have all your sins exposed.  However, it is better if you step into the light willingly and wanting to repent than to have the light brought upon you while you try to hide your sins.  Either way sin will be exposed eventually.  Come to God on His terms to find what you are really missing in your life.  

    The Holy Spirit will not lead you astray.  Trust the gut filling that He gives you.  It is an indicator that Satan is trying to pull one on you.  As you mature your conscience will become a stronger indicator that something is not right.  It will help you from willfully walking into a sinful lifestyle.  However, if you are in the sinful lifestyle, then you have tuned it out so much that it is no longer working properly.  Do not shut down the Holy Spirit.  He is your best friend and protector in this world.

    God's standard does not change.  That means you can find it at any time in your Bible.  Pray for understanding that will lead to discernment.  You are not perfect.  You mess up, but the point is to repent and turn back to God as soon as you can.  Trust the Holy Spirit to guide you even if it feels scary.  The more you walk in truth and faith the less scary it will feel.  It also reveals Satan's lies.  

Exodus 17:5-6, Numbers 20:6-13, Isaiah 30:19-22, John 8:12-32, Romans 1:21-23, 2 Corinthians 11:12-15, & Ephesians 5:6-14

Protection of Truth

 

    The belt of truth is protection.  Protection comes with strengthening your salvation through learning and obeying God's Word.  God's Word supports you as you walk with Jesus while making you stronger to carry the burden of truth.  The truth gives you security in your salvation.

    The truth is your protection because it gives you salvation.  Once you are a true Christian, then you have the security to follow Jesus no matter what the world puts in your way.  God's Word organizes the truth for you to make you secure in your Salvation which stabilizes who you are enabling you to walk confidently in life.  

    The truth found in God's Word teaches you righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and prayer.  It teaches you how to use everything you have and who you are to defend yourself in confidence without doing evil.  The more you are in God's Word the more easily you are able to use it for good.  It takes some of the pressure off that you have to be perfect to be able to serve God.

    God's Word reveals the truth about your heart and right standing with God.  Jesus paid the heavy price for you.  You only have to be strong enough to walk with Jesus now.  If you have sin in your life, then the weight is heavier.  Repent your sin and following Jesus will become easier.  

    God's truth protects you where you can move freely in confidence.  Salvation brings freedom.  God's Word teaches you boundaries that protect your mind and heart.  God's truth is your weapon that can be used in every attack.  It can only be used correctly though if you are a Christian.  

    Without God's truth, you can't live up to His standards.  You are not truly free.  You will never understand how to self-regulate in a way that protects all of you.  You will never be a citizen of Heaven.  Your version of the truth is legalism.  It is not Christianity.  If you don't believe God's truth, then you will only be tripping over the truth trying to make it work for you instead of you submitting to it.

Psalm 119:105-112, Proverbs 30:5-6, John 8:31-32, 17:13-19, 2 Corinthians 13:7-9, Ephesians 6:13-18, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, 1 Peter 3:13-17, & Jude 1:3-4

Biblical Truth

 

    The truth can be hard to hear.  It may shock you to learn certain truths about yourself.  However, the truth is always better than a lie.  When you are delivering truth to people you need to do it in love.  That way you can meet them where they are like Jesus did.  You need them to hear the truth and not reject it before it is given.  Either way the truth will make itself known in it's own time.

    When you accept the truth it changes your course in life.  If you accept the truth that comes from the Bible it changes you from the inside out.  It changes your soul and perspective for the rest of your life.  It changes how you love.  It also makes Satan mad.  He likes you living in the lie.  He controls you and you don't even know it.  Once your eyes are open the truth become apparent.

    Living in the lies of Satan makes you weak.  You reject the truth for the more comfortable lie.  The lie allows you to live the way you want to live.  The truth directs you to uncomfortable change that leads to freedom.  Some people will choose comfort over freedom.  The truth gives you strength, but you have to go through discomfort to get there.  

    The truth comes with pressure.  It can feel heavy, but Jesus promised that would carry the majority of the weight.  Your load is a little compared to what he carries on your behalf.  You can endure for His name.  

    When you learn to love like Jesus you love in truth.  The truth can hurt at times, but it also protects you.  Your heart grows strong, but it doesn't turn hard.  You get a thicker skin and realize that some things are just people's opinions.  They are not necessarily true.  It they do speak truth that is hard, then you become grateful that they cared enough to be honest.  It opens the door to change and a stronger relationship.  Truth with love enables you to reject worldly jealousy, rage, hatred, and consuming anger that leads to bitterness.

    Biblical truth gives you direction.  When you get tired or fatigued, then Jesus will help you to keep going.  When your faith endures the truth gives you what you need to keep going.  The Holy Spirit in you will strengthen and protect you.  He will give you supernatural energy that no one can take from you.  God's truth gives you stamina.  When you embrace Biblical truth, then wont fall for Satan's lies that would destroy you.

Genesis 3:6-19, Numbers 20:6-13, Psalm 106:13-18, Jonah 1:1-6, Romans 1:21-32, 2:5-11, Ephesians 4:14-27, & 2 Timothy 3:6-9

Belt of Truth

 

    The belt in armor protects your core which is what connects all of your body.  Without your core no other muscle would matter.  The Belt of truth is God's Word.  God's Word is what makes you a warrior.  It connects the spiritual together to make you stronger.  

    When the armor of God was written, the armor was put on in a specific way to give maximum protection.  The first item to go on was the Belt, then the breastplate, sandals, shield, helmet, and sword.  In the armor of God the belt of truth is the foundation of your armor.  Everything builds the same way, but add on prayer to basically the glue that seals the protection.  

    The Roman army also went out in legions (thousands of warriors) to be strong.  Your fellow spiritual warriors is the church.  You need fellow believers to be strong.  Not everyone who claims to be Christian is Christian.  Do not allow a few people in a church keep you from accessing the strength you need in fellowship, prayer partners, wisdom, and more assets that can be found in a community of believers.

    The belt of truth protects your most vulnerable parts of your spiritual body: mind, heart, and soul.  The protection comes in the format of righteous living and choices that honor God.  The stronger your core belief is the stronger the protection is.  Faith in God's Word makes you more durable in the world because there is power in the truth.  The Truth is strategic in how it protects you.  It is the only thing that can fight deception.  

    The truth is what God says it is.  There is no personal truth that can change with what you want, how you feel, or the direction society decides to take.  There is only God's truth that can be found in the Bible.  The Bible is what will hold you together in spiritual warfare.  It is your core protection.  

    You use the belt of truth as protection by allowing the Bible to build and affirm your standards in life.  It is the source of boundaries.  You commit yourself to God's way of living.  You align your attitude and expectations in life by what you learn in God's Word everyday.   You allow your character to become like Jesus even when it makes you unpopular.  God's Word will only protect you if you are in it and use it everyday to direct your physical and spiritual life.  You decide how much protection you want.  

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Psalm 119:153-160, Ephesians 2:11-18, 4:14-23, 6:13-14, & James 1:2-4

Prayer Stategy

 

    God has a plan for you.  Satan has a plan for you.  Do you have a plan?  Prayer and faith is your defense against Satan's plans.  It also makes it more clear of what God's plans are for you, even if He may only reveal one step at a time.

    Satan is the original schemer.  His plans are full of manipulation.  He is systematic on how he attacks your habits, activities, hobbies, mindset, and goals.  He will use discouragement to disarm you.  He will sabotage you in your blind spots.  He fights dirty.  You can't afford to be blind and hope for the best.  You have to be active in your spiritual life that carries into your personal life.

    It starts with faith and prayer.  The more precise and thought out your prayer life becomes, the more you are in the fight.  If you are not blind, then you can be prepared.  You may be deep in the fight, but you are still better off than the blind.  

    Your prayer strategy needs to be using the name of Jesus not a ward, but as your protective power.  His name activates your spiritual armor.  It provides the ability to have victory.  You have to be grounded in prayer to be grounded by Jesus.  

    Your strategy also needs to include thanksgiving, gratitude, intercession for others, direction, protection, future, dreams, request, and recognition of who God is.  When you are reading God's Word, use what you are reading to pray over your day.  There are many scriptures that are prayers, but you can create your own from what you got out of your Bible Study. 

    Do not pray a general or vague prayer.  Be specific with what you want, need, or whatever else is going on.  Keep it authentic and true to your heart.  Do not try to pray like someone else or the way you think you need to pray.  Keep it real with God.  It is okay to be messy.  God will work it all out.

Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 26:1-6, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Ephesians 6:10-19, Philippians 4:6-7, & James 1:5-8