When I was in the Marines we had an expression: “full combat load.”  This term could be used to refer to the individual Marine or equipment.  For the Marine it meant that you would be carrying on your body every item needed to wage war in the field against the enemy…all of the ammunition, weapons, grenades, food, gear, medical equipment, communications gear etc.

If you went into combat without your combat load you could quickly find yourself at a disadvantage.  Not only that, but you would also be risking your life and the life of your brothers who went into combat with you.

In previous posts we talked about the fact that we are at war.  This war is a very real spiritual war that is going on all around us…unfortunately, too many of us have failed to show up for the battle.  We talked about how important it is to know who our REAL enemy is: the devil.  His plans for you are different than God’s plans.

Paul says in v.11:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God…

Literally what the verse says is this: “Put on the whole armor of God and keep it on.”  That is your “full combat load.”

There are no furloughs; there are no truces; there are no leaves of absence; there are no cease fires in this spiritual war.  You’ve got to keep your armor on and you’ve got to keep your guard up.

You don’t get weekends off…you can never let your guard down because just as surely as you do, Satan will hit you.  He will hit you at your weakest moment when you least expect it.

There is no point in denying it: Satan is dangerous.  He is deadly.  He is deceptive.

But listen to me carefully.  He is not invincible.

I will never forget how frightened people were of Saddam Hussein at the start of the first Gulf War, and people thought his armies would be incredibly strong (I believe he had the fourth largest army in the world at the time) and that he would be a dangerous enemy.

But after the war was over, in just a matter of hours, General Norman Schwarzkopf stood before a press conference and gave this assessment of the same. 

He said, “Saddam is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier; other than that he is a great military man.”

• Satan is not omnipotent.
• Satan is not omnipresent.
• Satan is not omniscient.

God is all three.

But other than those qualifications he is a powerful foe.

“But greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”  You see, we have an advantage over Satan.  It is the armor of God.

Hold your hands 24 inches apart, that is how thick some of the walls are on older battleships.  In fact, the armor-plating on an American battleship is so thick that a Russian Styx missile would bounce off an armor-plated bulkhead on the direct hit. 

Armor on a ship is placed in areas where the ship is the most vulnerable to enemy attack. 

Normally, an armor belt is placed around the sides of the ship from about ten feet below the water line to just above the water line.  Theoretically, a torpedo hitting the armor belt would not penetrate into the hull and cause flooding. 

Likewise, armor-plating would be placed along the upper surface of the ship to repel bombs dropped from airplanes. 

God has given us armor guaranteed to repulse the most powerful missiles, the strongest bombs, and the mightiest torpedoes that Satan can fire at us.

No wonder James said in:

James 4:7 (NKJV) — 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Did you know there is not a single verse in the Bible that tells us that we are to run from the devil?

The Bible says we are to flee temptation.

The Bible says we are to flee sin.

But the Bible never says we are to flee from the devil.

The Bible says we are to resist the devil and he will flee from us.

Jeffery C. Ward in his book, The Civil War, tells a story about a scene that took place on a battlefield during the battle of Gettysburg.  He said:

“Right in the middle of the Battle of the Wilderness, all the staff men who had been fighting in the east all this time—Grant had just come from the West—kept talking “Robert E. Lee, Robert E. Lee.  He’ll do this, he’ll do that, he’ll do the other.” 

Ulysses S. Grant heard all he wanted to hear and finally said to them, “I am tired of hearing about Robert E. Lee.  You would think he was going to do a double somersault and land in our rear.  I want you to quit thinking about what he is going to do to you, and I want you to start thinking about what you’re going to do to him.”

We’re in a war.

We need to stop thinking and worrying about what the devil can do to us and start thinking about what we can do to him.

How will we win?

Our victory is assured because of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, because of the awesome power of the Holy Spirit, and because of the armor of God.

It’s time for all of us to carry a “full combat load.”