The Armor Of God-What Is It And How To Use It.

Sometimes we forget the one thing that is true. This world is a battlefield. Day by day, hour by hour, we face a spiritual war and an enemy who’s real. He wants nothing more than to bring defeat, for his main aim is to steal, kill, and destroy. The forces of darkness don’t wait for us to be ready for their attack. They’re ruthless, determined and cunning. Satan could care less if we feel prepared, or prayed up for our day. In fact he prefers we are not.

God has given us His Word and Spirit, powerful and true, so we’ll have the wisdom and protection to stand against the enemy. As I was reading the Bible this morning this ready struck me because the enemy of so profound in our world right now. Paul wrote while in chains, in prison. But the truth says- this enemy we face, no matter how cruel our spirits that have been set free by Jesus. Paul was not silenced by the attacks from dark forces. Neither should we be silenced.

What Is The Full Armor Of God?

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full Armor Of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this take up the shield for faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this is mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6: 10-18.

Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words you are praying. It refers to how we are praying are we praying from our hearts. Being lead by the Spirit in our prayers. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us.

The Belt Of Truth

It’s integrity, a soldier in Paul day had a leather girdle or belt that he tightened around his waist to protect his loins to carry his weapons of warfare, like a dagger or a sword. The belt also held his tunic together so it wouldn’t be snagged. His integrity is what held everything together. If you do not have integrity in the big and small things in your life, you are going to lose the battle. Would people say that you are a woman or man of integrity? If not, then you cannot win the battle.

The Breastplate Of Righteousness

Purity-The breastplate of a soldier was sometimes made of woven chain and used to cover the soldiers vital organs. The breastplate is righteousness.

The enemy wants to attack you not only with lies, but also with impurity. He wants you to read filthy magazines, watch immortal movies, and engage in all the temptations of the flesh. The bottom line is Satan wants to get into your heart and mind and get you to believe the lies of evil ones so he can find a crack in your armor. And don’t be fooled. Satan knows where your crack is. Is your heart pure? If not then you cannot win the battle.

The Shoes Of Peace

Tranquility. The Roman Soldier would have hobnails on the soles of there shoes. Much like football cleats but the would be sharpened like spikes because when they were fighting they needed solid footing to move.

Unless you have a solid footing of peace, you can never make war. Sounds like a contradiction doesn’t it? When Satan comes against your tranquility, he throws out stones and briars (massive thorns) of doubt and discouragement to cause you to stumble. Do you have peace right now? If not you cannot win the battle.

The Shield Of Faith

Certainty. The Roman soldier’s shield measured approximately two by four feet and was made of wood covered in leather. In that day, soldiers dipped arrows in oil, then lit them and shot them at the enemy. These shields were vial to protect the soldiers from getting burned.

Satan is going to fire flaming arrows of doubt at you. He wants to place subtle doubts in your mind about God and His Truth. He knows a spark can ignite a big fire. You will need to feed your faith and starve your doubts. Are there any seeds of doubt in your mind today. If there are then you cannot win the battle.

The Helmet Of Salvation

Sanity. The soldier used a helmet to protect his head because if his head was wounded, he wouldn’t be able to think. Everyone has to have a mind Christ under control of Almighty God.

When a person is saved, for the first time he has his right mind. A person without the Spirit of the Jesus has a form of insanity. They do not operate with the mind that God made them to have. The most important thing for you to have at all times is an assurance of your salvation. Do you know that you are saved? If you aren’t then you cannot win the battle.

The Sword Of The Spirit

The Word of God. When we are tempted, the most effective weapon that God has given us is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Jesus modeled this so beautifully during His temptation in the wilderness. When the devil tried temptation after temptation against Him. Jesus used the sword of the Spirit, Jesus spoke the Word of God to Satan. In Luke 4:1-13, Jesus responded,it is written, “You shall worship the Lord God only. Him only you should serve.” And again brought scripture back into context. “It has bee said, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”

The sword of the Spirit works. Memorize Scripture and use the Word of God to defeat Satan’s, lies and attacks.

God has plans for our lives. The enemy has a plan for us too. We just have to decide which voice we’re going to listen to, and who we’re going to choose to follow each day. And chances are if we don’t make a determined choice to follow God we will eventually fall into the evil ones trap. God gives specific instructions in His Words, he will give us all we need to stand strong in life. Yet all too often we race through busy, full days, I’ll equipped, unprepared, or simply not aware of what we’re up against and who the real enemy is.

Focus on today, putting on His Armor, staying alert, and praying, that God will equip believers everywhere to stand strong.

What A Difference Hope Makes

Hope is a fragile thing. It is not stagnant. Hope swells. Hope thinks.

It’s what we put our hope in that makes all the difference.

My hope is a strong confidence in God- the one who has unlimited power and resources. He is the one who is able to make profound changes in me and produce results far beyond my imagination when I cooperate with him.

I know I have to get to know God in such a way that I am clear about who he is.

When my hopes are dashed, I know my hope has been misplaced.

Hope is choosing to see my present circumstances from God’s perspective.

Hope is focusing on God’s faithfulness, His abilities, and His immense love. Remembering that He keeps His promises, and that, while things might seem wild and out of control, He is not a chaotic God-He just goes about things in ways that are drastically different than we would do it.

A couple weeks ago I was feeling discouraged I had several issues with everything I had done that day. I admit I wanted to give up. No matter who I tried I felt like my efforts were in vain.

You see putting hope in my own efforts ultimately lead me to discouragement because my abilities are limited. That’s why it’s essential to place hope in God and trust in his ways. I was trying to get too much done on that day. I was not listening to be able to hear what God was telling me. I had shut him out.

Here’s a few hope busters that can mess up hope.

Waiting

Hope seems to have a element of waiting attached to it. I am pretty patient when it comes to waiting but God always seems to take longer than we would have dreamed possible to make things happen. I’ve been told God is always on time. It seems when your about to give up then God comes through.

Doubt

It can be challenging to visualize some of the things that God has promised. We don’t see the step by step plan God is doing behind the scenes. We don’t see the details because we wants us to trust in Him always. When we dwell on our doubts it eats away at our hope and leaves us discouraged.

Striving

Hope is not about striving it is about resting. Hope is a place where we can settle, relax, and dwell. We must do our part without striving, and trust God will do His part.

Fear

Hope disappears when we let fear consume us. It might be fear of failure, fear of missing out, fear of a sickness overtaking us, fear of not enough money. It might be our core fear raising it’s ugly head. Whatever your fear is know that Hope and Fear cannot co-exist.

Preconceived ideas

Whatever God has called you to do and be. Many of your goals are connected to our purpose. In our great wisdom we think we know how things should go and what they will look like when we reach our goals. When things don’t pan out as you imagined they would. It nibbles away at your hope. We don’t want to sit back and patiently wait for things to materialize what it must look like in our thoughts. In my experience, God’s plan is far better that mine and produces far greater results while at the same time bringing Him the glory He deserves. We must hold our ideas with a very loose grip.

When I was younger my only dream for my life was becoming a Crime Scene Investigator, I went to college for 3 years to be a degree in this very dream. I lost hope when I realized I was not about to finish college. Do to family issues. After coming to believe in God I learned that it was not part of God’s plan for me to be a crime scene investigator. What he has done instead was far greater than I had ever dreamed for myself.

Comparing

Focus on you journey and the things the God is doing in your life and compare that to your life never ends well. Either we feel prideful about how far we’ve come on our own, which does help us or please God or we feel disappointed in our progress. Try to measure yourself against you will only steal your hope.

Stay connected to your why

For me quitting would be disobedience to God. It would also be turning my back on things I’m passionate about and the purpose I was created for.

Signs Your On The Right Path

The universe has a funny way of showing you that things are going well.

Most often than not we doubt ourselves and get the feeling that we are not doing something right or what we are doing isn’t getting us where we want to be.

Because of this mindset, we lose our motivation and begin to fall victim to the world around us.

The more you believe that you’re on the wrong path. The more you manifest that idea and mindset, the more reasons for you to continue this thought process will seem to appear.

But what if the path you’re on is the right one but you just don’t know yet.

The universe has a weird way of showing us sometimes that what we’re where we want to be.

You may be wondering- What are the ways the universe shows us we’re on the right path?

Here are some signs that lets us know we’re on the right path.

Things Get Tough

If life’s feeling like a constant uphill battle that seems to bring on challenge after challenge. You see roadblock after roadblock with no signs of them stopping anytime soon.

When we are on the right path and moving towards our goals and desires. The universe can be throwing curve balls and situations that change us. This helps us focus on developing the skills we need to succeed.

The late nights and tedious jobs are only making you stronger and teaching us more. Even though many times it does not feel like it.

If everything was easy, you would never want to move anywhere in life and you would constantly find yourself going nowhere. Remember, sometimes it’s the darkest before the dawn.

Don’t Give Up

You’re Forgetting about the past

The past, while nice to think about from time to time. It can be anchoring to our past experiences.

When you start to find yourself always looking forward instead of back.

Thinking about the next two, three, and even four steps in your plan and you will start to feel freer and closes to your dreams.

Sometimes you can almost sense that the universe is listening to you and your call for help moving forward.

It is recognizing that you are moving towards your goals and cutting all the ties to the anchors of the past that are holding back.

I can also feel the Holy Ghost telling me to keep moving forward and do not give up.

Quality Relationships Are Starting To Form

Everyone needs friends, humans are social animals. But not every person you meet is focused on helping you succeed in achieving Your goals. And because of this reality, you will meet a lot of people who will hold you back and make your dreams seem further out of reach.

A strong sign from the universe that your on the right path is the appearance of strong relationships.

These are the kinds of people who seem to be invested in you and your success and want to see you grow and become the best version of you as possible.

When you meet this kind of people you’re experiencing a clear-cut sign that you’re going in the right direction.

Things are start to line up

Similar to how you begin to form strong relationships with people who seem to push you closer to your goals, overall your situation will begin to improve and change for the better.

For example, if you want to be in an upper leadership position at work you might notice that you’re working on a lot of projects with the current leaders.

Or maybe you find out you’re getting a big promotion that you didn’t know was coming.

Things won’t give you everything at once. But it will feedit in small chunks so you can digest things and get used to it.

Ride the wave and get ready for things to keep lining up.

You feel right

Humans have this sixth sense that lets us know when things are going right. Some call it a gut feeling while others call it intuition.

The truth is the universe or you’re gut is reminding you from within that you’re moving closer to your dreams and goals.

When you feel this feeling don’t let it go. Keep moving in the direction you are moving in and don’t stop until you find yourself on the top of the totem pole as they say.

How To Listen To Your Heart, Even When Your Head Disagrees

Listen to your heart it will guide you back to your truth and back to living the meaningful and fulfilling life you deserve to live- Luminita Saviuc

Have the courage to listen to your heart

We’ve all been there. Stuck in the middle of our decision-making mode. Our heart tells us one thing, while our minds try to keep us safe. Two different directions. One feels right, while the other is the most logical option.

What have you been following in the past? Do your decisions sound right or feel right?

Take a look at where you are right now. Your life might be filled with logical and safe decisions. This is great, but it’s leaving a lot of unused potential on the table.

You would love to be free-flowing, in love with your decisions and the place you’re at in your life. For some reason, you’re both there yet. You’re close but always feel on the edge.

You’ve tasted the times in your, life when you’ve been fully immersed in your decisions. Engaging with the uncomfortable-ness of not having a plan, but at least it felt right. If only you could be here more often.

You need to give yourself time to develop heart-centered confidence.

Listening to your heart can be a completely new concept. Today we are so wrapped up in making decisions based on endless pro and con lists, that we never allow any space for new opportunities or potentials. The notion of living in a cause and effect world invades our every thought.

Even though we’re notoriously bad at predicting the future, we pretend like we have the insight of Merlins crystal ball. But we can only predict so far. I’m guessing most of your decisions come in the form of receiving a feeling you know you should see out, but that’s usually overridden because it doesn’t seem possible.

As humans we love falling back on routine. Our same thoughts and beliefs, based on our past, direct our lives or we can inject new life into them.

The decision is up to you.

The morning your eyes in the morning were faced with decisions. This route of that route to work. Take a new job, or move across the country. Most decisions aren’t life changing, but still, add up to our overall life experience.

By adding more space and deeper feeling into your decision-making process you bring more possibilities into your life. We all need is to balance two aspects of your being, the heart and the mind.

Logic and analytic thought saturate our world, there is no way around it. We’ve been on a binge of rationality. A well piece of writing is a truly a beautiful thing, but when rational thinking dominates your life, you’re leaving spontaneity and the potential for unseen growth on the table.

Rationality isn’t inherently bad, but since we’re imbalanced we end up playing life with half the cards. We can see dominance of rationality, fear, and control throughout the world. Worldwide issues can give us a glimpse into where our inner worlds have gone wrong.

An imbalance of logic over subtitles of an intuition-based language. Instead of following our hearts and operating with trust at the forefront, we place a higher degree of value on conforming and what makes the most sense. The big issue here is our individual nature is lost in fear of rebellion from a whole. We’ve created a cultural footprint that’s almost Impossible to step out of.

Rebellion is met with resistance and a lot of times resistance wins.

By strictly living in the realm of rationality we cut off contact with the deeper-source of life and the random events that change us and the course of history. The freewheeling nature of heart-centered decision reaches farther than the contents of our mind can follow.

Bring the power home and listen to your heart

In utilizing your heart you open a entirely new stream of possibility into your life. By making decisions with your heart wide open you develop the trust muscle. In doing this new source of self-love and trust emerges where there was only emptiness before.

Big changes and shifts in your life seems a little less scary as you begin to become familiar with the uncertainty in your life.

I have learned to take advantage of every opportunity I get. I have learned new things and have grown in things I never thought possible. By living in tune with the part of yourself that always has your greatest interests in mind you’ll bring more of what your looking for in life. This isn’t woo-woo law attraction imaginings but instead, a way of viewing and feeling through the world instead of judging and analyzing yourself into a box.

Overcoming Darkness

When it feels like there is no light or hope, that life is too hard, or that we don’t see the light in the dark. We need to remind ourselves of important life truths which can help us overcome the darkness.

The darkest hour is just before the sunrise

Usually, the darkest moments of our life also represents the most important life-changing moments we will ever experience. It’s usually once we hit the bottom and we cannot cope with the pain anymore that we get the courage and strength to make the change in our life, even if it seems as scary as hell.

I hit rock bottom before I decided I had to change or die, those were my only two options I had. I surely didn’t want to die, so I began with the good Lord’s help my transformation. It’s in your moments of decision that your density is shaped.

The most painful and darkest moments in our life are usually those moments when due to our pain we are coping with, and we are not able to tolerate any more we finally decide enough is enough and we get the courage to help ourselves. And change.

I got to the point where I was done, I was tired of trying, I was done going out of my way for my friends and family when they wouldn’t even give me the time of day. There comes a time when you have to stop crossing oceans for people who won’t even jump a puddle for you.

Move out of the place that is suffocating your spirit.

We need to feel grateful for the dark periods in our lives, the darkest hour only how’s that we are very close to making the drastic, incredible, and super exciting change in our life, which makes us happier in the long run.

Pain is an indicator that something isn’t right

The definition of pain is

  • Pay
  • Attention
  • Inwards
  • Now

When we get burned the pain signal to our body that we are touching a hot object, so we can become aware of the danger and get away from a toxic environment. The same happens with emotional pain. The pain is there to tell us we are in a wrong relationship, wrong job, wrong friend circle,

Pain is telling us that this thing is hurting us and we need to move away from it as fast as you can. Pain tells us that we need to make a change. If we don’t respond to the pain, it only gets worse and worse until we realize it is killing us,

When you feel helpless, help Someone else

This sounds really messed up. I know but I learned this while visiting a lady who I confided in many times. Helping other people reminds us that there’s are people who are suffering from their own misery. Helping others will give us a sense of purpose and meaning to our lives even if our life feels empty.

I have found is I help others I will be helped when I feel the darkness of on bad days.

During this virus I am not able to go to people’s houses or take them to lunch but I can call them and let them know I’m thinking about them and praying for them. Take a look at how you can help people around you as you will experience the inner shift of emotions from negative to positive.

Remind yourself of all the blessings, even in the darkest moments of your life. In the month of November, we did a thankful project. So many times we focus on the negative things in our life. Instead of the positive things. Something as simple as remembering the positive things can become a huge light for in the darkness.

I received the gift of life today, I can continue to help someone in need. I can help my children when they are struggling. I can give someone wise words when they come to me for advice because I’ve been where they are. I have a purpose for my life, and I’m living that purpose.

I am blessed I have food on my table, I had a right to go to school. There’s a old saying that a healthy man was a thousand and one desires, and a sick man only has one: To get better.

You don’t have to walk down this path alone

If you’re in a dark place ask for help if your experiencing deep emotional pain and feeling depressed ask for the help you deserve. You deserve help like everyone else, you need respect just as much as everyone else.

I always think it’s great to pray to God. Sometimes he is the only one who listens. Have no doubt he cares for you and is listening to your heart, your words, and your tears.

Salt And Light

We are called to be the salt and light For The World. Matthew 5 says being salt and light is not optional, Jesus did not say you can be or you have …

Salt And Light

Are You A Over thinker?

We may not realize it, but thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts become your reality. Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.

Most successful people have realize have learned how to harness the power of thoughts to help them achieve.

This is good news for those who want to stop overthinking. All people have patterns of behavior. These patterns develop over time based on life experiences. Patterns that are learned can also be unlearned.

Identifying what’s causing us to overthink then take a decisive action to change your mindset.

What is Overthinking

The definition of overthinking is when you think about something way to long. Yes, it’s human nature to think things through when making a decision or evaluating a situation, it becomes overthinking when you can’t get it out of your head. It happens to all of us at some point in our lifetime.

We all experience events that cause us to worry or stress us out. Some people cannot turn their worries off, and dwell on them. They worry about the future making predictions that leads us to believe that something catastrophic will happen that never will. also tending to ruminate on the past, beating ourselves up about should haves and could haves. And worry constantly over what others might think about them. And let negative self-talk build up in us.

Overthinking a decision you have to make can cause problems. Overthinking everything will make things worse than they really are.

When my husband cheated on me when we were a young couple newly married. I was devastated and began to overthink it would destroy our marriage. I was angry and hurt, overthinking all of this instead of telling how I felt nearly destroyed my our marriage and my life. It didn’t happen the way I predicted in my head. We are happier and stronger today than ever.

Tough decisions can lead to a analysis and freeze you into thinking what’s in your head is true. You’re afraid to take the wrong action, so we make no action at all.

Whether you’re a chronic over thinker or need to make a tough decision we’ve all experienced sleepless nights when our brains just won’t shut off.

Overthinking can increase symptoms of depression, elevate stress levels and cloud your judgement.

When I was struggling with my childhood and how it affected me. I heard over and over in my mind- you are worthless, stupid, you will never amount to anything. This caused my overthinking to run on overdrive. And I began to believe those words we true. After being in this thought pattern for nearly 30 years it took a toll on me, my physical, and my emotional life. It nearly destroyed my life completely. I tried to commit suicide many times, and in many cases. With the number of pills I took I should have succeeded. I nearly destroyed my marriage, my children’s lives.

It took a long time for my to realize I was not only destroying my life but everyone around me. Change your thoughts patterns and change your life. The best advice I ever received is. You have a right to change your negative thoughts to positive one’s there is no law against that. Start replacing you ugly overthinking thoughts with positive thoughts. And change your life.