Wearing the Light of the World

It’s audio devo day!

When you put on the armor of God, you put on Jesus Himself. He is the Light of the World. His own light wrapped around you is blinding to the enemy! Join me today here as we kick off a brand new series:

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“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11, NLT).

These are turbulent times we are living in. We can safely say that never before in the history of the world has humanity faced what we face today. We desperately need God’s provision for the current unparalleled challenges we face. Here is some magnificent news, though. Long before any of these unprecedented difficulties came to be, our Father had a plan for them. He had already designed a way for us to live victoriously in the midst of it all. An essential part of this plan of His was the gift we read about here in Ephesians 6: the armor of God.

So vital is this gift, that we are going to spend the next series on this podcast talking about it. This is a “now” word for you and me, my friend. Holy Spirit wants to take us to the next level in grasping this subject. He has provided everything we need for winning the battles of our day in history. He wants us to fully understand and take a hold of this provision.

Here’s the first thing we’re going to chew on together about this. Do you notice the connection between the two verses we just read a moment ago? Take another listen: “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” Do you see that? Putting on the whole armor of God is directly linked to being strong in the Lord. We cannot have the one without the other. Learning to wear His armor is going to help us experience His supernatural strength for winning in new ways.

Notice, though, what God is not saying here. He is not saying, “Be strong in yourself and in your own strength.” He is not saying, “Dig down deep into your own willpower, wisdom, and abilities, and push through your battles by the sheer force of your determination.” Nope. Instead, He is inviting you and me into His strength. Oh, how refreshing to know that we get to be strong in His mighty power! His! How limitless is the resource available to us in Him!

As we continue our introduction, let’s look at another key Scripture that references God’s armor: “So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12, ESV). Do you get a visual when you hear that phrase, “the armor of light?” I do. I see a person shrouded in brilliant light, light that is blinding to the enemy. It reminds me of when Jesus was transfigured and His clothes looked like lightning. God’s light is not a dim light. It is resplendent. Remember, it’s not your own strength that you are to draw on for victory in spiritual warfare. It’s His. Neither is it your own light that you are to put on and wear to your battles. It’s also His. His strength and His light… now, those are some amazing provisions!

This same passage in Romans 13 tells us just a couple verses later, “…Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rom. 13:14, Weymouth). When we put on the armor of light, we are clothing ourselves Jesus Himself. Jesus is the Light of the World. We get to literally dress ourselves with His brilliance. God is inviting us to be arrayed in the presence of Jesus in a way that is just as real, or even more real, than putting on our physical clothes in the morning. Everything that Jesus is, we get to have wrapped around our very being every day. With such dazzling battle attire, who can be against us?

Now let’s consider this one: “For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6, NLT). What is God telling us here? What does it mean that He made light shine in our hearts? It means that He is showing us His glory. He is turning the light on inside of us. It’s exactly like in the cartoons when someone suddenly understands something – you’ve seen it. A lightbulb turns on over their head. That’s what happens to us with God’s light. We finally get it. It “dawns on us,” another common metaphor depicting fresh insight as new light. God’s light is His revelation. When He makes light shine in our hearts, we suddenly understand what we didn’t understand before.

This verse also says that when He turns His light on for us, we see the face of Christ. What’s in a face? Well, does your phone read your face, to trigger its unlock feature? What is it doing there? Recognizing your identity. The face of Christ is where you get to know His real identity, His true nature, the essence of His character. God makes His light shine in your heart, so you can know of Him what you didn’t know before. It’s in those moments that this prayer of His comes to pass: “…So that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand… (Eph. 1:17-18, NLT).

Growing in the knowledge of God. Having our hearts flooded with light. This is what is going to happen as we study His armor in this new series here on the podcast. Each piece of His armor is a piece of revelation. As we examine each one, we are going to learn something about who Jesus is. We are also going to discover how these aspects of His nature are given to us as a provision for victory in every battle that we face.

So yes. Right now we are experiencing warfare never before encountered since the beginning of time. However, in the midst of it all, His light is shining brighter than the world has ever seen before.   

“For God, who said, ‘Let brilliant light shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has cascaded his light into us—the brilliant dawning light of the glorious knowledge of God as we gaze into the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6, TPT)

Jesus has given us His brilliant light. We get to wear His lightning-bright glory into every conflict and every clash we face. My friend, who can be against us? No matter what enemy we come up against today, you and I overwhelmingly conquer!

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In your spiritual battles, have you been aware of God’s armor protecting you? If so, how has that awareness affected the way you perceive the battle?