Spiritual Warfare and 5 Fingers in the Shape of a Gun

SIG Pro semi-automatic pistol“Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11)

TWO ROBBERIES

I have to tell you about a couple of robberies I read about in Reader’s Digest. Each was similar in that both robbers used their hand as a gun (that’s right – hand!).

Crazy, huh?

ROBBERY NUMBER ONE

The first one actually tried to do it twice. He walked into a bank and communicated that the hand under his shirt was just what it looked like. (You’ve formed your fingers into the shape of a six-shooter, haven’t you?) But then his “gun” slipped from his shirt.

So much for the first attempt. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” as the saying goes.

The second time, at another bank, the robber’s trick was found out and he was “promptly shown the door.”

ROBBERY NUMBER TWO

And then the second incident had another guy that tried to do the same thing. (He obviously didn’t read the first guy’s story – or did he?) But this robber didn’t even bother to put his hand under his shirt! It goes without saying that he wasn’t put up with for very long.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE, THE WRONG WAY

And this bit of humor from real life had me thinking of how important it is to have the right equipment to do the “job.” I’m not talking about robbing banks or anything of the sort. But what I am talking about, and in light of the Ephesians verse above, our “right equipment” to fend off the devil’s attacks – the full armor of God – do we even use it? Do we even “put it on”?

I won’t take the time to talk about all the ins and outs of God’s armor and what it means. (For an intro to that, see the two video blogs below.) But I can summarize it this way.

If you’re not praying, if you’re not reading the Word, if you’re not going to church and fellowshipping with other believers, then the devil looks at you and it’s as if all you’ve got is a hand and five fingers in the shape of a gun under your shirt. You’re no match for him!

(SIG Pro semi-automatic pistol picture file above is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: click here.)

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About Pastor Mike

Pastor Mike is making the most of web technologies to encourage disciples. A self-proclaimed “twitterholic,” one twitter follower describes him as the “jogging, blogging, tweeting Pastor.” Visits to Pastor Mike’s blog (A Heart For God) number in the hundreds of thousands. His video blogs have been viewed over a half a million times.