Phase three of spiritual growth is to allow Jesus to empower us and teach us how to keep our internal spiritual condition the way He likes it, keep it the way it helps the most people, and keep it in the best condition for us; that is where Jesus and the armor of God come in. This phase is called Preventative Spiritual Warfare; this is because Jesus is teaching us how to prevent wrong, bad, and evil things from getting into our lives in the first place. Jesus designed the full armor of God to keep all of those harmful things out that He and we don’t want in our lives. It is preventing us from having to let them in and then having to deal with them from the inside. Prevention is far superior to letting bad deeds, mistakes, and wrong decisions in and then trying to get rid of them.

Eph 6:11-18 (NIV) Put on the full armor of God SO THAT you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, SO THAT when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. This explains WHY we put the full armor of God on; it is so we are able to stand our ground.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. This explains WHAT we are putting on.

Put on the full armor of God SO THAT you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Two things are presented here: First, you allow Jesus to empower and train you to put on the full armor of God. Second, you and Jesus take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

The “so that” words are saying that the putting on of the full armor comes first. And, it is saying that, that makes it possible for us and Jesus to stand against the devil’s schemes. Now that Jesus taught us in the previous studies how to submit to God, and now that He has empowered and trained us to live in a submitted relationship with God, we are ready to start resisting the devil. James 4:7 (NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. This explains HOW we put it on and HOW to use it.

In Study One of the General Spiritual Growth, Jesus taught us how to WILLINGLY close the doors to our body, the world, and the devil. In this Preventative Spiritual Warfare He is now teaching us how to KEEP those doors closed. James 4:7 is the Scripture that Jesus will keep using to get and keep us heading in that direction. It is the main instruction for how this all works. Let’s look at it again.

James 4:7 (NIV) SUBMIT yourselves, then, to God. RESIST the devil, and he will flee from YOU. SUBMIT and RESIST are the two things Jesus is wanting to keep teaching us. He is showing us who and what to submit to and who and what to resist.

To put on the armor of God we are going to have to do the first part of the above Scripture, submit to God. To take our stand against the devil’s schemes we are going to have to do the second part of that Scripture, resist the devil. Submit yourselves, then, to God. That is what we have to do to get the armor of God on. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That is why we submit to God. And, it is why we put the full armor of God on.

• Put on the full armor of God tells us WHAT to do. But, it doesn’t tell us HOW to do it. It just says do it.
• Submit yourselves, then, to God. That is telling us HOW to put the full armor of God on and HOW to resist the devil. They both happen through submission to God.
• SO THAT you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Resist the devil, AND HE WILL flee from you. These two Scriptures tell us WHY we submit to God and WHY we put the full armor of God on. God and His armor give us victory over Satan.

Now we have all the information. We know WHAT we are supposed to do (put the armor on), HOW we are supposed to do it (through submission), and WHY we are supposed to do it (victory over the satanic).