Your Restoration Toolkit. The Bible says to be strong in the Lord and put on His armour, but you can’t put on some parts of the armour and not others, you have to put it all on (Ephesians 6:10-18). Satan is very persistent in bringing down believers, he will always come back, so we need the armour. When we look at the passage in Ephesians 6, we see that there is no back armour, and that is because:
- You are not supposed to turn your back in battle, you aren’t supposed to look back
- You are supposed to fight going forward, the path of a Christian is upward and forward.
- You are not supposed to fight alone.
- Even when you are alone, God has promised to watch your back. Isaiah 52. 12 NLT
As Christians we are usually in one of three stages spiritually, there is a phase in our life where it looks like we are constantly fighting. When the battle is in front of you, you must fight it and secure your victory in Christ. When you are fighting, you must still know and affirm that God is still in control and no battle can drown you.
In phase 2 you are standing and resting in Christ’s finished work on the cross, there is peace all around you. The third phase is the assumption phase, here we are comfortable and we have received all we want and are no longer on fire as we were before we received our blessings and the end of assumption is apostasy. When you meet a believer going through a tough time, what they need is your support, not advice.
What is the toolkit that God has provided for us?
- The belt of truth: Truth is the foundation upon which all other things are built and whatever is built on falsehood will crumble. Satan’s specializes in distorting the truth and he can never get to you unless he distorts the truth in your life.
- The body armour of righteousness: 2 Timothy 2:19. Do your own part, ensure that you are not living against God’s standards. Always ask yourself what you can do better to be right with God
- The Gospel of Peace: 2 Corinthians 1. Instead of sinking in your problems, God is telling us to turn it around and comfort other people, this shifts our attention to become solution providers rather than just wallowing in our problems.
An excerpt from the sermon by Pastor Ayo Bankole on Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Watch the full sermon here
