Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:10-11.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
I made the earth for you. I gave mankind authority to rule over the works of My hands. The first man and woman chose to give their authority to the devil, it was an authority delegated to the devil not by Me but by them, but they were free to distribute what I had given them in any manner they chose. But now Jesus has won that back as one like you in all things but sin, and all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Him and He has delegated it to you who are born again from above. However, there are still those who have chosen to continue giving their dominion authority to Satan, even among believers, because they are not aware of what is going on in the spiritual realm. They have not renewed their minds. They fail, as My Son told the Pharisees was their problem, to understand Scriptures (My Words) and My power. My servant Paul understood these things by revelation, and his continual prayer was (and still is) that your minds would be enlightened to know these things.
It all has to do with the thoughts of your mind, for I cannot do anything for you if your mind will not let My Word in. And that is why I have given you the helmet of salvation as a very important piece of My armor. Thus, today’s Life Lesson is “The Helmet of Salvation.”
Your body does what your head tells it to do. So what you decide upon in your mind is what you are going to do and where you are going to go with your body. That is why I told Joshua, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Joshua 1:8. I was telling him to renew his mind to think as I do so that he would have the results I have.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2.
A body submitted to Me and a mind cleansed and renewed by My Word are what you need to reign in life through Christ Jesus. It is then that you can exercise dominion authority bringing the Kingdom to earth.
The helmet of Salvation is the renewed mind, that is, when you have lined up your thinking with My Words and not with the words of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The renewed mind is the Mind of Christ, that is, the mind of the anointing and the anointing lifts the burden and destroys the yoke. And Jesus’ Name in Hebrew is “Yeshuah,” which means “Salvation.”
And when your mind has been renewed you will not fall prey to the fiery arrows shot at your mind by the devil. Here I am speaking of the thoughts he sends you, which will always be lies but they are carefully wrapped in familiarity with your past and ways so as to make you believe they are your own thoughts, and thus let them loose in your mind and speak them with your mouth fueled by hell. You thus have submitted your body and your mind to him, and if the light in you is darkness, how deep will that darkness be. Your life will be out of control and will eventually destroy you. But that is his plan. He comes to steal My Word, which is truth, kill your destiny, and destroy you in hell for eternity.
“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Ephesians 4:17-24.
When you believe in Jesus as Lord you are born again from above in your spirit so your spirit, which was dead to Me and alive to sin, is now alive to Me and dead to sin. You are a new creation in Christ and your sins are gone and you are right with Me, but your soul, that is, your mind, your will, and your emotions, are still the same as you were before your spirit was born again. But now you can hear from Me in your spirit, and your spirit will speak to your mind so that message gets out into your body and your life, but until you renew your mind it is still thinking in its old patterns and will not be able to receive and understand spiritual things. They cannot be assessed carnally but must be discerned at a higher level. My level. And you can do this by renewing your mind by diligently studying, reading, meditating upon, and speaking My Word so that it becomes your way of seeing things. Then you will do according to all that is written in it; and it is then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
And there is more for I have given you the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16. And what does that mean? At the basic level it means I have given you the life and Words of Jesus to show you how to think and operate in the world. At another level it means that I have given Him to you as the Head of the Church, which is His body, and you, being a member of His body the Church are guided by your Head, which is Christ, just as physical bodies are guided by their heads. And on another level it means that I have given you the anointing, that you have an anointed mind, and the anointing lifts the burden and destroys the yoke of Satan. And who anoints you? “The Spirit of the Lord LORD is upon Me, He has anointed Me . . .” The Holy Spirit is the anointing and He bestows gifts—grace gifts—and works with your spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24.
The helmet of salvation is to guard what you allow into your mind. It is like a filter in some ways in that it filters out the thoughts from Satan that would harm your walk with Me and your receiving divine communication. My Word discerns the thoughts and imaginations of the heart. It is important to discern where thoughts are from, Me or Satan, by testing them against My Word. Any imaginations, speculations, impure, or proud things raised up against the knowledge of My Word should be taken captive by this filter and immediately deleted. But as you know, when you delete emails you have received, they go in trash, but they can still be retrieved until you delete them again, this time with no chance of recovery since they are permanently deleted forever.
A very good way to renew your mind and keep your helmet on is to cast all your cares on Me and rejoice. If the devil keeps shooting a thought or multiple thoughts at you without ceasing because he has had success with them against you in the past he is trying to terrorize you into submission, or just seeking to wear you down for he is watching for a time you are weak and will give admission to ponder the thought, for then he knows he has your attention, which is what he did with Eve. But come to Me and I will give you rest, for I am your peace, Yahweh Shalom, and I will teach you what you should say to counter the attack by My Spirit in you. And the way you do that? “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7. And then what do you do after you have cast that care on Me with thanksgiving until the answer manifests? You keep speaking against the thought, the pain, the symptom, or whatever other weapon the devil is shooting at you by declaring My Word about it and telling it to go, but you still refuse to entertain it. The helmet of salvation is still to bar access to mind to thoughts of fear, offense, hopelessness, lust, impurity, but not just leaving your mind empty, for an empty head is easy game for the devil, it must be filled with My Word, that is, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8. And then, I, the God of peace, will be with you.
You may ask, “how long will this take?” It is a lifestyle and as long as you are still in the flesh living in the world you will have to be watching carefully what you are allowing into your mind and what you are speaking with your mouth. For as a man thinks, so is he. The Israelites, though I had brought them out of Egypt as more than conquerors, did not renew their minds. They saw themselves as “grasshoppers” and kept their slave mentality, and as such, they determined that they could never conquer the land I promised to give them, even though I had promised to be with them and send My angel ahead of them, and they had seen that when I was with them I fought for them and gave them the victory. And yet they went with the evil report of the devil against My good report.
You have to be so careful about what you think about and allow your mind to dwell upon for that will determine whether or not you are going to have a happy life. I warn you about judging others. The devil will bring your attention to the faults of others and try to make you dwell on these until you detest the person. What you must do is what My Son did with His disciple, Peter. When Peter did not like too well what Jesus was telling him about his future, he questioned what about would happen to John. Jesus simply told Peter, “how does the concern you? Your business is to follow Me.” And when Satan tries to point things out to you about those you must work and live with you need to answer him the same, “How does that concern me? My business is to follow Jesus.” And that is that. But you also need to remind yourself is that and stop dwelling on others’ faults or on what they have that you don’t. None of that is going to give you joy.
Jacob’s son Joseph understood this. His brothers were ugly to him and even were going to kill him and then instead sold him into human trafficking. For the next thirteen years, he ended up a slave in Egypt and then in prison, but he never dwelt on that in his mind. He just walked in excellence with Me whether he was a slave or in prison and kept in good spirits. He hung onto his dreams and onto Me. And when I promoted him to the highest government position next to Pharaoh in Egypt and entrusted him with the work of feeding Egypt and the countries around it in seven years of severe famine, he even brought his brothers down to live near him in Egypt and gave them prosperous good lives during famine. When in fear that he would retaliate against them his brothers plead with him to not hold that against them, he replied, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” Genesis 50:19-21. I keep in perfect peace those who keep their minds stayed on Me.
It is a matter of where you set your mind. Get your focus off the devil’s flaming arrows in the sense they you are trying to wrestle with them. Just speak My Word and laugh at them. Since I have raised you up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at My right hand. And, in the Spirit, I have seated you there with Him. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in Me. When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4. Put aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to My image and put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as I forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Let the peace of Christ, the Head of the Body, rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let My Word richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to Me. Thanksgiving will put an end to many of the devil’s fiery darts of resentment, regret, offense and fear. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to Me, your forever Father.
I am sure you are seeing that all of My armor that I give you is bound together in a unity of response to the devil’s tactics to steal, kill, and destroy you. And it all has to do with answering his onslaughts, no matter what they may be, with My Word that addresses that particular issue and shutting down his activity with My Word. And a wonderful thing will happen, that same Word that goes out to shut him down will return to work its promise on you. Telling him that you are healed and Jesus took your pains and infirmities will stop him from telling you that you cannot be healed and that the pain and illness he has put on you is beyond remedy but it will also go to work healing you and setting you free at the same time. My Word never returns void but accomplishes the work for which I spoke it. I sent My Word and healed you and delivered you from all destruction and it does just that.
Put My Word to work. It is a two edged sword. And that will be the next Life Lesson—the Sword of the Spirit. Never put it down. Keep it in the hand of your tongue.
I love you. And that is why I gave you My Word, the Blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and My armor. And now I am teaching you how to play the devil’s game of chess so as to have checkmate every time he comes back to advance across the board in an attempt to take all the pieces of your life. Check him immediately before he gets any piece, whether it be health, finances, relationships, or peace of mind. Jesus died to give you shalom.