STANDING FIRM — GROWING STRONG, PART VI
Back in the 1960s, very few people wore helmets when riding a motorcycle — including me! I was a teenager and helmets looked stupid! There were no helmet laws, so helmets were somewhat rare.
Appreciation for helmets came, however, when I went into a motorcycle shop to pick up some parts.
While at the parts counter I noticed a helmet on display with big, black knobby tire marks running right up the side and over the top of the helmet. It seems that one of the guys at the shop had been out riding his dirt bike, dumped it, and his friend, who had been following close behind, couldn’t stop in time — and ran right over his head, leaving these tread marks! No injury was sustained. Talk about great advertising: Our whole family became outfitted with Bell Helmets!
The Bible says a spiritual battle is in progress; war is being waged for the minds and hearts of men. This conflict is taking place in both the visible and invisible dimensions of reality. The “mastermind” behind our struggle is Satan. When challenged or opposed by him, believers are to respond and not retreat.
In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Apostle Paul uses the analogy of a Roman soldier’s armor to describe our offensive and defensive “weapons of warfare” to be used against the devil and his minions.
Studying these pieces, we’ve determined that the…
• Belt of Truth (v.14) is growing knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures and how they apply to life
• Breastplate of Righteousness (v.14) is knowing who we are in Christ and resisting Satan with that truth when he attacks our identity in Christ.
• Gospel of Peace (v.15) is overcoming worry with the promises of God (Isaiah 26:3).
• Shield of Faith (v.16) is believing that God is faithful in every circumstance.
In verse 17 of Ephesians 6, Paul presents the next piece of equipment: the Helmet of Salvation: “Take the helmet of salvation…”
The Roman soldier’s head was protected by a helmet made of tough leather or brass. Spiritually, Satan’s desire is to attack and seize the minds of men. Win a man’s mind and you’ve won the man! In his great little book Dealing With The Devil, C.S. Lovett notes, “The only way to capture a man is to get him to think as you do. Ideas capture men, not weapons. Win a man’s mind and you have him. Capture his thoughts and you control him. If you can find a way to get your ideas inside another, so that he thinks as you do, you gain that man. Man is the product of his thinking.”
We see this born out in recent history: A mere handful of men have radically conditioned the minds of Western man to oppose the truths of God:
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) proposed that knowledge and values are not absolute. These depend on what you feel is right.
• Georg Hegel (1730-1831) taught that there are no unchangeable truths; everything is relative to time and culture.
• Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) said “Truth is subjectivity”; what you feel is right is more important than what you think is right.
• Charles Darwin (1809-1882) introduced the theory of evolution, concluding that man has no special beginning and therefore no special purpose or destiny.
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the “father of psychoanalysis,” maintained there is no God, therefore man has no real purpose.
Concerning the mind and God’s Word, we’re told that Satan can effectively attack and seize the minds of non-believers (II Corinthians 4:3-4) as well as believers (II Corinthians 11:3-4)! It’s clear then that Satan’s modus operandi is mind control! Think about this: If the devil can chart the entire course of human history through mind control, he can certainly manipulate an individual like a feather in the wind!
Therefore, I believe the Helmet of Salvation is “the mind under God’s control and protection”. Why do I believe this is what Paul is referring to? The word “salvation” means to preserve, deliver, rescue.
When Paul instructs us to don the helmet of salvation, I think he’s saying: “Put on the helmet of deliverance, protection, and preservation.”
Since the context is spiritual warfare, he’s referring to deliverance, preservation, rescue from the forces of darkness. Think about it:
• every temptation of the enemy comes to us via the mind
• emotion comes directly from what we think
It’s therefore easy to see why it is essential that our minds be subject to the will of God as found in the Word of God — it’s critical that we monitor our self-talk! Important Scriptures on the mind include:
• II Corinthians 10:3-5
• Romans 8:6; 12:2
• I Peter 1:138-
• Hebrews 3:1
• Philippians 4:8-9
When Harry S. Truman became President, he worried about losing touch with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out and be among them. Those were simpler, safer days when the President could take a walk like everyone else.
One evening, Truman decided to take a walk down to the Arlington Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River. When there, he became curious about the mechanism that raised and lowered the middle span of the bridge. He made his way across catwalks and through the inner workings of the bridge — and suddenly he came upon the bridge attendant, eating his dinner out of a tin bucket.
The attendant was completely unsurprised and composed, even though he was looking at the best known and most powerful man in the world! He just sat there, continuing his dinner, then paused, swallowed, wiped his mouth, smiled, then said, “You know Mr. President, I was just thinking of you.”
It was a greeting that really moved President Truman, one he never forgot.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if Jesus were to suddenly appear before us, and we could say, “Ya know, Lord, I was just thinking of You!”
