Breastplate of Righteousness

God tells us to put on the "Full Armor of God" and part of that armor is "The Breastplate of Righteousness (Ephesians 6:14)." Wearing a breastplate is huge in a fight because it blocks body blows. Without it we will spend most of the fight on defense so that we don't get hurt.

What is the breastplate? The breastplate of Righteousness. We have a huge need in the body of Christ today to realize that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We have been made righteous through what Christ has done. We are in right standing with God. This righteousness doesn't come and go based on how we perform as Christians (whether we sin or not in situations), but is based on what Christ already has done. We cannot become more righteous than we are right now, and we cannot be less righteous. Not even when we go to heaven will we be more righteous. The only thing that makes us righteous (in right standing with God) is the blood of Christ. In the Old Testament animals were sacrificed and through their blood the people were temporarily put in right standing with God, but through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have been made righteous now and forever if we accept his blood offering. We become righteous when we accept Christ and will never again gain or lose any righteousness because we are completely righteous right now.

Our defense becomes Jesus and His righteousness. We no longer have to defend in our own strength or works. With the righteousness God has given us protecting us, we can fight the enemy offensively.

In general, The church, the body, has failed to realize this. We think we are miserable sinners saved by grace. Well we WERE sinners and we were saved by grace. Then we became brand new creations and Christ's blood made us righteous and we are saints. The body is not a bunch of sinners no different than anyone else, we are saints and the righteousness of God.

If the church of body of believers tries to fight spiritually without the knowledge of their righteousness, they will be fighting without their breastplate. No wonder the church is steadily trying to maintain their congregation size. Without putting on the breastplate of righteousness we spend most if not all of our time playing defense.

Christ told us to expand His kingdom. Expand means go on offense. Put on the breastplate of righteousness so you can stop using your sword for defense and let your breastplate do the that work. Use your sword to go on offense and expand the kingdom.

The Fear of the Lord

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs 1:7).

The fear of the Lord = Taking heed, doing, and giving more honor to the things God says, His Word, than to anything men/women say

The fear of Man = Taking heed, doing, and giving more honor to the things men/women say over the things God says

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There are two different "realities" in the world. One is "Truth" and the other is "Lies." If we believe God's Word is truth then we will reside in that reality and act out of that truth. If we fear men's/women's opinions of us over what God says then we live in the reality of lies. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We can only begin to gain wisdom when we believe God's word is truth and are not swayed by anyone's opinion otherwise. When we reside in this reality of truth we will become wise to the degree of the amount of time we spend there. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Taking God at His word is the beginning to gaining wisdom.

Tree of Good and Evil

Adam and Eve both felt like they had to/could do something to become like God. The serpent came to them with his message and said, "in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good from evil. (Gen 3:5)"

The problem with this kind of suggestion is that it implies that there is something you can do to make yourself like God. The message that if we do enough then somehow somewhere along the line we will perhaps be accepted by God. This is fruit from the wrong tree. We send mixed messages like this all the time in today's church. We tell people to abstain from the evil on the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," but we tell people to gorge themselves on the good. What we have been failing to see that the good from this tree will kill us just as quickly as the evil. It is still the same fruit! What we need is to switch tree's. Instead of eating from the tree that by our effort we can be accepted and in right standing with God, we need to eat of the tree of life which says that everything that was needed for you to do to be saved was completed by Christ. We need to eat the tree of Life. We need to realize that God has made us righteous (in right standing with God). We need to find our life "In Christ" because In Him we have peace, we no longer strive for God's favor since it is already ours, and our works come out of resting In Him. Let's stop fooling ourselves in thinking that the "good" from the wrong tree is good for us. Its just much more deceptive. Let's eat from the truly good tree the Tree of Life.

Some quotes taken from "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" by Lynn Hiles

He is or He isn't

It's kind of embarrassing how simple my last revelation from God is. Its so simple yet so profound and life changing. Either He is, or He isn't. If He is then He will guide our steps, He does have a plan for us, that plan is good, He loves us, He is always faithful, and we can completely trust Him in everything and not be anxious about a thing. If He isn't then there is no use pretending and we may as well grab as much of what feels good as we can in this life. I am fully convinced, however, that He Is.

If I believe that He Is, why do I live my life at times as if He isn't? Why do I find myself having a hard time trusting that God will come through? He either is or He isn't, He isn't sometimes. That was my revelation. God is. Why am I living as if He isn't when I know that He is? Every time I begin feeling those doubting feelings I just need to remind myself that He is. He always has been and always will be. The Lord I serve is faithful. I don't need to be anxious about anything. Praise the Lord for He is who He is.

Faith / Works

"It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8)"

It is clear in the Bible that works do not save us. It does not matter how many good things we do they will never make us worthy to be saved. Jesus saves us through faith, through believing in Him and what He did for us. What did He do? Before Christ, the human race was "In Adam" who brought sin into the world and all men were sinful by nature. Christ came and died AS US (Romans 6:3-4, 7:4). When we accept Jesus in our life we die to our sin, we are longer "In Adam" but instead are now "In Christ." We no longer have a sinful nature (Romans 5:19, 6:6-7, 7:1-6, 8:1-4, Galatians 5:24), but live according to the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). We have a new nature, old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has saved us through Jesus, not by anything we have done. When He saved us He did more than substitute Himself for us, He died as us, because since we died with Him we also live with Him now that He has raised from the dead. God put us in right standing with God (made righteous) not because of anything we have done, but through faith in Jesus.

"Faith without works is dead (James 2:17)"

Now it is by grace that we have been saved but then we realize that if we don't have works then we have no faith. A truth we must realize is this - "We always act out of what we believe." We can give lip service to whatever we like about believing this or that, but what we truly believe always shows in our actions. Every choice we make in life we make based on what we believe is the best choice, even if we are completely misguided we act a certain way because we believe certain things. Our actions always show what we believe. So while faith saves us, we actually don't have any faith if it isn't evident in our works.

"Faith works through Love (Galatians 5:6)"

God is love, and our faith in God works through Love. Love is an action. If we have no love our faith does not work. We can say we believe this or that about the Bible, but our faith is broken if we are not living in Love. This is the "works" God is talking about. He isn't saying that if we believe in Him we need to do a whole bunch of things for Him to prove our faith is real. He is saying that when we have faith and believe in Jesus, and receive our new nature, and live "In Christ," we will live with God's love overflowing out of us. We don't need to strive to do alot things for God, but instead rest in Him and allow Him to work through us by Love. Resting in Him means not striving to do things in our own effort or strength, but resting in His strength and allowing Him to do the work through us. We don't have to strive to do a whole bunch of things for God. We fulfill all He asks of us when we Love! (Romans 13:8)