The Armor Bearer

When I attended this last Women’s Retreat, I reacquainted myself with two old friends and met a new one. While all three are soldiers of Christ,two of these women are armor bearers. How do I know this? The Holy Spirit revealed it to me.

Not knowing what an armor bearer was, I knew it was a new path of study for me. And that’s just what I did. While not much Scripture is given to mentioning armor bearers as such, we can glean from what our studies reveal. The dual word “armor bearer” means ‘To lift, to carry, to take”.

First, every soldier has at least one armor bearer who walks with him/her. The soldier cannot carry the load of weaponry required to be a good soldier by himself; thus the armor, or weapon, bearer gets to carry the rest. The soldier goes into battle wearing the basic gear, as outlined in Ephesians 6:10-20. Commanders had several armor bearers to carry their stuff.

Second, slain does not mean killed. It could be that as a man went into battle against the enemy, it was enough to just knock the opposition down and keep on going forward, pressing in until the last was down. The armor bearer would be the one to make sure the foe did not get back up again.

While we know that soldiers wore protective gear, such as breastplates, greaves and helmets, we are not sure the armor bearer did. The soldier used a hand sword, a dagger, when slashing while holding a shield in the other hand. It stands to reason, though, that smaller shields, or extra shields (in case one broke) would have been carried, and perhaps used, by the armor bearer(s). But, the weapons they carried were different. Clubs and knives for in-you-face dispatch. After all, the enemy was on the ground; the armor bearer just had to dispatch him.

But, just what does it mean to us as Christians? By looking at the definition of armor bearer, we see we are to lift, to carry, to take. How do we lift? We lift each other up in prayer. We lift the heavy load on our pastors and teachers by helping where help is needed. We lift up our pastoral staff and ministry teams in prayer, real prayer.

We meet the needs of our pastors and leaders, when we tithe out of our income into the offering plate/basket. That offering pays the bills of the church. The missions offering goes into the mission field to financially help support the missionaries who are using your offerings to lead people to Jesus. The building fund offering goes back into the church to keep the roof on, the walls up, the furnace running and the windows intact. It is also there for emergency repairs.

We tithe our time. We go door to door telling folks about Jesus. We hand out Bible tracts while we shop, walk or dine out. We send Come and Visit postcards to new residents of our towns. We reach out into the community using whatever means is at our disposal to do so, in the hope that our words and our actions would draw someone to Jesus.

We carry our church leaders with emotional support. We tell them we love them on a regular basis. We thank them for all the work they do that many times goes unnoticed. We honor them by using our gifts and our talents which God has given us to help the church to grow. We carry them in our hearts and in our thoughts, sending up little prayers throughout the day as The Spirit leads. In their social media pages we post encouraging little notes. We carry out the trash, vacuum the floors, wash the windows, clean the bathrooms.

We carry water bottles and cool, damp towels for our leader(s) because the anointing oil is warm when The Spirit falls and the preaching begins. We have our soldier's back, when an enemy comes against them, protecting them with kind words, putting their foe in confusion and keeping them at bay. We stay near our soldier, without hovering, ready to go where we are directed and do what needs to be done.

We take up the slack when our leaders need to be absent from within our church walls, whether due to illness, family emergencies, vacations, speaking engagements or for whatever reason they cannot be with us at that time. We teach. We preach. We praise.

It doesn’t matter how old we are or how limited our abilities are. We may think we can do nothing, but we limit God, and our soldier, when we say or think such thoughts. We are the people God has called to be the support staff for our leaders. Whether that leader is our minister or our president or our king.

We are the armor bearers. We are the prayer warriors. We are the church.

Fully Clothed

     Well, I went to church last night. And the whole sermon was meant for me. Yesterday's blog, I was so exhausted, it was a cry for help on my part and also an encouragement because it reminded you that I am just a person, too. Everyone gets tired at some point; it's natural. But to be exhausted to the point where thought and motion are next to impossible, that's different. 
     Ephesians 6:10-20 describes the armor a Christian is to wear each time we go begin our day, every day. Because every day that we remain in God's will we are a double threat to Satan. Knowing this we need to exercise great wisdom and strength in overcoming his tactics against us; one of which is 'weariness'. What I have been feeling for the last few days is exactly that: weariness. Until now.
I got the message I needed to hear and I got the rest I so badly craved; 1 1/2 hours of the Word of God preached (and taking notes) and 10-12 hours of rest.

     This a small example of the armor a Roman soldier would wear. The armor Paul instructs us to put on is compared to this. Half of his ministry he was in prison, guarded by Roman soldiers. (Think how many of them came to know Christ through Paul's witness and faithful testimony!) Knowing what the Roman soldier needed to protect himself, Paul was able to line up each piece of our spiritual armor on that same scale. As each of them needed to dress himself daily, so do we also need to wear the full armor of God. 
     BREASTPLATE: Protection. Worn on the back and the front, it is held together on the sides and the shoulders; on the sides with straps; on the shoulders with metal shoulder pads. Protects the back (kidney, spleen, spine), the front (heart, lungs, ribs) and the sides (liver, pancreas, abdomen). This part of the armor is so heavy that they needed to help each other put it on. Underneath the breastplate, a soldier wears a protective garment, called a tunic, which reached to the middle of his thigh.
     GIRDLE: Protection. It would have been more than just a belt. The higher the rank, the more costly the item. Decorated leather strips hung down from the middle of the belt to protect the soldier's manhood. Other strips would hang down all the way around the belt, like a leather skirt, protecting the hips and thighs. The higher the rank, the prettier or more decorated the girdle. These belts jangled when the soldiers marched to warn their enemy that they were approaching, giving the enemy an opportunity to flee the vicinity.  
     HELMET: Protection. Centurions and other officers wore crests on top of their helmets so the other soldiers would know who to follow in battle. The helmet protects the head, the neck and the sides of the face. 
     SHOES: Protection and Weapon. Their shoes were made of leather. The topside of the sole had leather straps attached to it which were laced across the foot and up the leg, tying in the back of the calf. While some soldiers wore greaves which reached over the knee and up the thigh, most wore a shorter greave which covered the calf up to the knee. This would protect them from falling down and being killed if the enemy stabbed their legs. For marching purposes the underside of the sole had metal studs, to make them last longer. In times of battle, some could switch shoes to ones that had a metal spike attached. This gave them the ability to grip the ground and fight better. The spike could also be used as a weapon. Either by lifting that leg and striking out, or if the soldier had fallen he could still lash out at his enemy and do some damage. 
     SWORD: Protection and Weapon. A short sword (18"-24"), it was used in hand to hand combat in the crush of battle. Worn close to the hip it was always at hand. Kept sharpened it could wreak havoc on the enemy. 
     SHIELD: Protection and Weapon. The Roman soldier's shield was the nearly the full length of his body. It was rectangular and rounded, able to protect the soldier not only from a frontal attack, but from the side also. Some shields had decorations on the front, showing where each unit was from. Sometimes they would raise the shield above their heads, together, giving them protection from an aerial assault in the mountain areas of battle. 

     And just how does knowing all this about a Roman soldier's armor help us today? Each piece of armor is also needed in our daily walk, our daily battle with God's enemy, the devil. And all of us need to be wearing it.
     Ephesians 6:10-17 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 devil's 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 full 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 of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

     Now we are ready. Ready to face the day. Ready to face the enemy. Ready to win. 

Joshua 1:6, 7 and 9

I could have said, "Be good", but you already strive for righteous living. I could have said, "Be safe", but I gave you to God when you were only a few months old. Your father and I dedicated you to God and promised to raise you with Godly values. Your safety has always been in His hands.

I could have said almost anything. But I didn't. I asked God what He wanted me to say to you; the last conversation we would have in person together before you go. And what did He say?

"Be strong and of a good courage." God's strength is not our version or understanding of strength. Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that "They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary,; they shall walk and not be faint." Our strength is renewed all day long when we wait and see what God wants for us, instead of rushing into things without thinking of the consequences of our actions.

Waiting on God means when we pray, this conversation is a two-way street, not a dead end. How can we know God's voice, if we don't even take the time to let Him talk?

"Good courage." The boldness of the Holy Spirit of God to be a living witness, a faithful testimony, a humble servant comes from saturating our spirit with God's Holy Word. His Written Word: the Holy Bible. Read aloud or read softly, the written Word of God pours over us with power for living a righteous holy life. His Spoken Word: hear the Word of God preached when you are able, read it out loud when you are not able. His Living Word: Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

"Be strong and of a good courage." Courage is not found in alcohol. That is foolishness with a designer label. Costs more, but is worth less. Good courage is seldom found, because in order to wield it, we must first use Wisdom. Without the wisdom and counsel of God, good courage will be sought, but not found.