The Full Armor of God

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:11‭-‬13 KJV‬‬‬
 
Principalities is roughly defined as a political state of empirical status that is ruled provincial by a council of prince’s.  The Persian empire would have been an example of this as well as the Assyrian empire among many others. 
Paul states that we do not wrestle against flesh and bone but against Principalities. These Principalities are the rulers of the darkness in this world, the powers, and their ways are the spiritual wickedness in high places.
A key word there being that they are not flesh and bone. They are spirits, and demons that exploit the primordial darkness within our selves deep within our souls. 

I’m going to go off track for a moment in hopes that I may circle back around to the case in point with more clarity by discussing one of the spiritual gifts, discernment of spirits. 

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;  To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12:8‭-‬9 KJV‬‬‬‬

In Christian mythology this ability of “discernment of spirits” is defined to indicate the judging of various spiritual agents for their moral influence.
These spiritual agents are listed as: concupiscence,  divine grace, angels, devils.
Concupiscence in the Jewish perspective is the inclination of man kind to do evil. Christian view is that it is the desire of the lower appetite that is contrary to reason which is very likely influenced in translation from the koine Greek influencing or influenced by the tripartite soul of platonic philosophy. 
However, the literation across the language barrier came to the same point and that is, that our basic survival instincts can consume us to the point of gluttony, lust, greed, etc. To the point that we become obscene in our flesh and spirit.
Divine grace is our balance in this that we have a divine influence of God where virtuous impulses rule as principalities that are not wicked allowing us to turn away from temptation.

Angels. Our benevolent guides empowered by God to protect us as servants of God and intermediaries.

Devils. The personification and spirit of evil. The emperor of all the Principalities of darkness that dwell within us which divine grace delivers us from through the vision of God in balance and harmony. 

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; Ephesians 6:14‭-‬18 KJV‬‬‬‬

So therefore, keep yourself free from all impurities. Be truthful and balanced in all desires. Lies begat lies begat lies, to ourselves and to others to the point that it becomes a sewer of impurity that we drown in. 
If we get caught up in lies, our own, as well as those of others then the we cannot stand righteous in our defense and balanced in peace and harmony within ourselves before the powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.
Walk in faith and live in the word of God that you may be bold. Salvation comes with perseverance. Be righteous in word and action. Talk to God from the voice of your soul in that righteousness that you may hear the still small voice. 
And you will have understanding of the mysteries of God revealed to you by the spirit that embodies both the spirit of the word of knowledge and the spirit of the word of wisdom. 

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:19 KJV

The mind of the body and the mind of the soul have to whole heartedly seek disunity from invading spirits. These things that we become when possessed of an evil spirit are our own psychological archetypes. These supernatural beings: demons, spirits, so on and so forth are simple. They have simple tasks, simple functions. Its humans that are diabolical. These things prey on the intricacies of our minds and our souls right down to our basic instincts no matter how deep they are buried. Once they become a part of that and settle into our thought processes it makes it harder to remove them. God can heal all things,  but we have to be willing.
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul was teaching how to live a healthy clean Christian life in love and harmony with each other. Paul, by tradition wrote this letter along with many other while in prison in Rome.
Paul’s first visit to Ephesus was actually a hurried one that was recorded in acts. His work was carried on by others and when he returned he found Ephesus to be the gate way to the rest of Asia Minor. He stayed three years, and worked hard to establish the church where the Christian influence was spread throughout Asia.
The last time he came to Jerusalem he landed in Miletus where he summoned the church elders of Ephesus and gave them a Farwell charge. Afterward he was imprisoned in Rome where he was eventually beheaded.
In another historical note, the high places referred to in Ephesians 6:12 is a reference to places of idol worship. 
It was common among the peoples that occupied the promised land, when the Israelis arrived, to build alters on hill tops and mountain tops hence the phrase “high places".
The Israelis often angered God by building alters in high places to worship idols. King Josiah of the house of David was noted for religious reform in Judah and had all the high places torn down.
In Paul’s time this was still a problem. In our time, it is still a problem.

From mind and body,
Johnny R Draper 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Molok

• Leviticus 18:21 "And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD." • Leviticus 20:2: "Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones." • Leviticus 20:3: "And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name." • Leviticus 20:4: "And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not" • Leviticus 20:5: "Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom w...
Read more

The Intimate Death

In Lloyd Chandler's folk song “conversations with death" later made popular by various artists and most popular by blue grass recording artist Ralph Stanley, death is once again given depiction entitatively as a spiritual being born of Appalachian bible belt southern folklore.  “ I’ll fix your feet till you can’t walk” says death to its unfortunate victim in the song. I’ve heard it said of the old timers how people talked about their legs going cold giving them indication that they were were dying. This feeling of icy cold associated with the touch of a spirit whose one purpose in existence is to rend spirit from flesh, knowing no barter other than the coin passed or prayer spoken for mercy in itself becomes the spirit if mercy in distant whispers that quiet pain with cold numbness. This spirit calls the soul away locking bone and muscle in place like a door forced closed till there is nowhere to go but out. These days, however, outside of sudden tragedy, we die differently, f...
Read more

To Profile Possession

For the purpose of exorcism or the blessing of a home or land to rid it of unclean spirits, it is important to know exactly what you are dealing with before hand, where it came from, and how it came to be in the geographical perception of where it is now. To do that, you would start with the who? Below, I have outlined some different types of summoner or spiritualist in correlation to how or what they would summon. The first being, Primo-scriptural.    Primo-scriptural : primo-scriptural is a compounding of the words “primordial” and “scriptural.” This type of summoner would be someone with a basic education and an inherent ability to be charismatic. Their education of the spiritual would be most likely limited to Bible scripture therefore, the demons they would summon or spirits they would call upon would be the ones they were familiar with from the Bible. They’re methods would be the same as those from the Bible as well. A crude alter and, or a perversion of rites in...
Read more