Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:10
In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you. Isaiah 54:14.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלבים) says:
The first man and woman unanimously gave the dominion authority they had over the earth to the devil, to a lower created being that was not meant to have authority but to serve. He was not created to take the role of being your master so consequently his leadership always ends in disaster even if at first it seems to be liberating and profitable. This is deception for the wages of sin is death and apart from Me you cannot be fruitful because you came forth out of Me and that is the only environment in which you can thrive. I spoke to the earth and it brought forth vegetation as I directed, Genesis 1:11-12, I spoke to the waters they teemed with fish and the creatures of the sea, Genesis 1:20, but when I created mankind, I spoke to Myself and brought you out of Me in My image and according to My likeness. Genesis 1:26-28. And just as plants must stay rooted in the earth to grow and be fruitful, for if you take them from the earth they no longer grow but die, and fish must remain in the waters to thrive and produce or they will die, so too you must abide in Me to thrive and be fruitful in good works or you will wither up and die.
The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, and you see this happen to every leader, place, and nation that he has taken captive to do his will. Godless leaders, teachers, and heads of households are very dangerous and disruptive to those who are under them. They take you out of the flow of Heaven, that river of delight and blessing, the living water. Miracles become scarce where My Word is not known and valued.
But the good news is even though Adam and Eve established the reign of Satan on earth by abdicating their throne of dominion authority over to him, you individually can opt out of his leadership and enter covenant with Me. Your dominion authority is still available to you and you can stand up, take it back, and exercise it the way it was originally designed to operate, that is exercised in union and communion with Me as the source of the delegated authority. How? By transferring your citizenship to My Kingdom by taking Jesus as your Lord and thus taking refuge in another country, a heavenly one, that will surround you with a shield of favor, and by renewing your mind to reject the devil’s thoughts and ways and taking on the Kingdom’s thoughts and ways, which are My thoughts and ways. My thoughts and ways are higher than the ones you learn from the world, that is, the death mentality of the curse (sickness, poverty, and eternal death) and the earthy devilish cunning and shrewdness, which the world calls wisdom and business acumen.
And dominion authority, as any king or leader will tell you, is taken by words and actions in keeping with those words. A king rules by decree, by spoken authority which is then enforced. But it comes from words of command. And so does your authority.
But you must always know, and this actually is a great comfort and blessed assurance to you, that no one but Christ is designated to be your head.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Colossians 1:15-20.
I have only designated One to be your Lord, teacher, master and savior. Jesus. No one else is qualified to act in that position. And you only have one Father who is over all and in all, and that is Me. No one else is qualified to act in the position of independent sovereign. Every other being is a creature, and not the creator, and is not their own source. Every good thing given and every perfect gift comes down from Me, the Father of lights, in whom there is no darkness and no changing.
But the devil tricked Adam and Eve into thinking they could be their own sovereign lords, but man is not his own source, is not the creator, and is not all knowing. But instead of being the master they were mastered by the devil, for man will always have a master, whether to reign with Me through Christ in life or to be dominated by the devil in the slavery of sin and death. The devil, by their submission to his word, became their “god” of this world and, contrary to their expectations of power, it changed what was righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, to unrighteousness, anxiety and sorrow in the realm of darkness. It turned the rest I had pulled you into with Me into toilsome painful labor. But it does not have to stay that way. You can shake off the chains and stand up strong in Me and the power of My might. How? Awake to righteousness.
And that is today’s life lesson and the next piece of My armor that I give you: “The Breastplate of Righteousness.” And that is how you guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life. You will never overcome the devil until you are established in righteousness.
“In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you.” Isaiah 54:14.
But this is not a righteousness that you work to attain on your own merits, it is the righteousness you receive from Me by faith. It is starting at the finish line when you are born again from on high and become a new creation, a sinless one, in Christ. How can that happen? In Jesus I transform you.
“He [the Father] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Righteousness is right standing with Me. My eyes are too pure to look upon sin, it is not acceptable in My sight, so in order to pull you back into Myself I had to cleanse you from and remove from you all your sins. Not even one could continue for it would create a dividing wall between us and I do not ever want that.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18.
And I did this for you in Jesus, you who have received Him as Lord have washed your robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14. He took the blood of sin off your hands and filled his pierced hands with the scarlet of your sins.
I have clothed you in Christ before Me, Galatians 3:27, that is, the garments of salvation (Yeshuah) and the robe of righteousness.
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10.
And how did this come about? Not by your righteousness but by Mine. By speaking the word of faith: if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that I raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:9-10.
When Adam and Eve sinned, though they came under the sentence of condemnation and their sin resulted in death that descended down to all born from their corrupted seed thereafter, I promised them a Savior—the seed of the woman that would crush the devil’s head (his rule) but that the devil would bruise his heal (that is, his flesh to death). But it was My Son’s death as propitiation for your sins whereby He took your condemnation and went to the dust of death that crushed the devil’s head. If the devil had figured this out, he would not have so vehemently gone after Christ’s crucifixion. But he at first thought his defeat was his victory. Checkmate.
“But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.
But being assured of your righteousness by faith in Christ is of paramount importance if you are to stand up against the attacks of Satan.
“Therefore, having been made righteous (dikaioó: to show to be righteous, declare righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2.
I spoke to Jeremiah of a new covenant I would make whereby your sins and offenses I would remember no more and all would know Me from the least to the greatest. Jeremiah 31:31-34. And what Name did I call Myself to Jeremiah? The LORD your righteousness, Yahweh Tsidkenu. Jeremiah 23:6. I AM YOUR righteousness. In Jesus I gave you Mine as if it were your own. I put all your faults on Jesus and His righteousness on you. It is no longer YOUR fault that you should mourn over it and despise yourself for your sins. He took it away from you, as He did your sicknesses and your pains, and bore all that in His own body and took the punishment that was due to you as His own since He had taken the sins into His own flesh that required that justice be done. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4.
And when you receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you REIGN in life through Christ Jesus. Established in righteousness, you will be far from oppression. But how do you maintain this as the devil tries to rob you of your robe of righteousness?
“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Ephesians 6:13-14.
I will show you the answer:
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment YOU will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, for their RIGHTEOUSNESS is from Me (Aleph Tav, את ),” says the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17.
The breastplate of righteousness, in other words, your confidence and assurance in My promise of having made you righteous in Christ, will guard your heart and keep oppression and fear from you BUT to keep it in place with no penetrations you must put down the weapons and accusations of the enemy. And YOU must answer them, you cannot just accept them as if they were formed in you, and as it is written, you do this by condemning them before they go to your heart. And this is the way you check the enemy:
1. You answer his accusation very specifically with the truth of My Word that contradicts his accusation. Then it never gets past the breastplate.
2. You tell him to go in no uncertain terms, but you tell him using the Scripture that justifies this. For example, say he is speaking an immoral or obscene thought to you, just tell him “I do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead bring them into My Father’s Light; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by people in secret for I have become light in the Lord and I walk as a child of Light. Be gone and I refuse to even mention such things and you shall not in My presence.” Ephesians 5:11-14; Ephesians 4:3-4.
3. Then you must worship for that is the atmosphere and flow of Heaven. With joy and thanksgiving sing of who you are in Christ and the beauty I have bestowed on you in Him. For that is what they are singing in Heaven. Revelation 5:9-13. Sing of how forgiven, loved, prosperous, and blessed you are and lift up your hands and heart before My throne, for, in Christ, I have made you holy and blameless, beyond reproach, before Me. You can come with confidence but always with thanksgiving, that is the only way you even get into My gates.
Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness, and everything you need for life and godliness will be added to you. Matthew 6:33. Do not be seeking so hard after things you need in life for food, clothing and shelter that you have no time for Me, no interest in My Kingdom, and no interest in how I make you righteous. I did not say “seek only,” I said “seek first.” From morning to evening and the entire night, I should be the center of your life and then everything else will flow from there into your life. You will become far better at your work, far more organized in your time, and filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And it will show.
I love you. Finally, be strong in Me and in the strength of My might. Put on My full armor, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. I have equipped you to enforce the victory you already have in Christ Jesus.