Eph 6:10 (NIV) Finally, BE strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. As Jesus has already shown us, doing everything to stand doesn’t just consist of getting the full armor of God on. We have to first allow Him to start with internal sanctification (spiritual cleansing through growth). Jesus’ full armor of God protection is from the outside in. And, He and it only resist those things we are wanting to be defended from. So, once we have done Sanctification Spiritual Growth for the inside, we must be ready to have the preventative warfare equipment on.

NOTE: We actually need the full armor of God on prior to this; but, do to our lack of training and empowerment, we don’t typically do this. But, by the time we get here, in Jesus’ training and empowerment, we must put it on. Salvation provides us with the full armor of God. It was given to us at salvation to be put on as soon as possible.

And AFTER YOU have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with.... From this first part of this verse, Jesus goes on and gives us the list of the full armor of God. He is instructing us concerning the importance of getting the warrior ready for the armor. The full armor of God is only as good as the person wearing it. The armor is worn by a person; it only does what the person wearing it causes it to do. Jesus is expecting us to first “do what it takes” to stand. We have been learning how to “do what it takes” to win over those things that are wrong, bad, and evil.

1 Cor 16:13 (NIV) Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. From this point on, we will be concentrating on the four major issues of this verse. First, we will quickly look at all four. Then we will concentrate on: Be on your guard. As we get ready for Jesus to take us into a more in depth look at each item in the full armor of God, we need to allow Him to help us see how vital is all the training He has done in us so far.

• Be on your guard is a watchful condition that helps us wear the full armor of God with readiness. The armor is only in a ready position if we are in a ready position.
• Stand firm in the faith is a relationship with Jesus. The full armor of God is only supernatural if we have all our faith in Jesus.
• Be men of courage is a yielding to the bravery that Jesus puts in our heart.
• Be strong is a yielding to the power that can constantly flow from Jesus into us AND OUR ARMOR.

Rom 16:17 (NIV) I urge you, brothers, to WATCH OUT for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. Being on your guard is a process of joining Jesus in allowing Him to help you be looking for what kind of a person you are associating with. If they are divisive, argumentative, obstructive, and unbiblical, you and your armor need to get away from them. Keep away from them is telling us not to use our armor to fight them. In this case, it is a matter of leaving and going elsewhere. 1 Tim 6:11 (NIV) But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Luke 21:36 (NIV) Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. There are circumstances that we are to avoid; Jesus not only wants to tell us WHO to avoid, He wants us to allow Him to tell us WHAT to avoid. Pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen.

Luke 21:8 (NIV) He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.” Our Jesus-armor is designed to protect us from deception; but, it only does what we allow it to do. We can’t just put it on and expect IT to watch for deception. We must keep our dependency in Jesus for pointing out WHERE we need to use it. So, Jesus helps us use our armor of God in the right places by telling us WHO to be with, WHAT to be involved with, and WHERE to go with it.

Acts 20:28 (NIV) Keep watch over yourselves AND all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His Own blood. We are to expand our being on guard to us watching over ourselves AND those who don’t have their armor on yet. We are also to help protect those who aren’t very skilled in using theirs yet. The way to do this is to allow Jesus to help us see and understand things that others are going through. Our armor isn’t just to protect us; it is for protecting the new and untrained Christians around us as well.