Righteousness its use in the armour of God Brendan Mc Crossan

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3 The body armour of God. Righteousness its use in the armour of God Brendan Mc Crossan One Ephesians Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: {King James Bible} Christians think they are putting on their armour and that is not scriptural truth, they are told in God s word to put on the whole armour of God. It is not their armour they should have on continuous, never taking it off for even an instant; it is supposed to be a permenant fixture. There is nowhere in scripture that tells you to take off your armour. Your armour is not scripturally true, the bible says. Put on the armour of God or put on all of God s armour depending which bible you use. This is the NIV Bible version; Ephesians Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil s schemes. 12 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, {NIV Bible} I have written a book called Naked Christian s who think they are wearing the armour of God, but in this book I wish to point out just a few of the parts of armour, that the Nominal Christian is not wearing. Now I understand even more, how significant Righteousness is, and I wish to share what the Holy Spirit is teaching me regarding this subject. The two most important parts of the human body is the head, {the brain} and the chest {where the heart is}, the two most vital organs

4 Ephesians-6-11-Put on God's whole armour [the armour of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. 12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. This is whom you are wrestling with every day of your life, your greatest enemy is not an old friend who done the dirty on you, or a parent who abused you, or a teacher who made your life hell in school but it fighting with the forces behind the friend who done the dirt on you and the parent who abused you, and the teacher who made your life hell in school. The devil and his hoards of evil spirits use people to get at you, to bring you down, to confuse you, to abuse you. There are evil people in this world but these are people whom evil uses because they have opened themselves up to evil somehow or other and have become evil. No child was born evil, something happened to them growing up to make them susceptible to Satan s influence. You don t have the right to judge or condemn anyone because scripture says, you also sinned and have done evil things, but you have now moved into grace and have become born again and have come under the influence of the Holy Spirit who is guiding you into all truth. This book Two In this book I am trying to show you that we have had our perspective pointed in the wrong direction for far too long. You have been graced with righteousness when you were born again, wicked people did not receive that grace, - either because they didn t hear about it, or because they refused it. So evil uses them to get at others, and the worse they become the more evil uses them and they begin to enjoy the hurts and wrongs that they do to others but behind that wicked {evil} person is an even greater evil, an evil spirit. I am not saying that this evil spirit is great in power or size or strength because these things are defeated by Jesus and are insignificant when it comes up against the born again child of the living God who knows they are righteous and in right standing with God at all time and have the name of Jesus at their command. The born again child of the living God needs to know that they are righteous and sad to say most Christians I know don t believe or feel righteous, they in fact feel the very opposite they feel unworthy or sinful. They don t understand that the moment they received Jesus as lord and saviour they were instantly presented with righteousness by Jesus, a robe of righteousness was placed on their shoulders. Isaiah-61:10-New-American-Standard-Bible I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me

5 with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. At the point of salvation you were clothed with garments of great beauty, and on your shoulders was placed a robe of righteousness. Do you know most Christians don t even think of the importance of knowing and believing this fact? Over their armour they have on their shoulders a royal robe of righteousness, your robe covers you and your helmet saves you. I have been watching Merlin, a TV programme about Arthur the king of England, and I seen the knights of his round table wearing on their shoulders a red robe signifying that they are chosen knights, and I know that this program shows what life was like for the king and his knights, which I explained in detail in another book I wrote, but to also instilled in your mind the picture of the robe of righteousness. Now keep in mind that you have a robe of righteousness on your shoulders. And you also have a breastplate of righteousness on your chest, you are doubly blessed. I will say that again, you are doubly blessed. It is only when you know what God has done for you that you will become aware of righteousness and its value and how significant this is for you the born again child of the living God. God protects his children and you need to understand that fact. 13 Therefore put on God's complete armour, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. 14 Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and righteousness, right standing with God, This translation tells you to put on God s complete armour, leaving nothing out. It does not say put on your armour, and when the day comes to a close take it off before you get into bed. In my book Naked Christians, I explained to the reader that the armour of God remains on you and is never discarded at night; you don t get up each day and put on your helmet of salvation, unless you stopped believing that you are saved. I have heard preachers tell folks to put on your armour the first thing in the morning or simply telling them to put on their armour when a crises comes; you re too late when that happens. This armour is God s own personal armour that he created for you when you became a child of the living God, but you must remember it is his armour { the armour he himself wears} and not yours. The devil cannot shatter through God s armour; there is no weapon that he can use to break through the helmet of salvation, because that helmet is sealed on your head from the beginning of your salvation. It s God s armour and the first piece of armour he gave you

6 was the helmet of salvation, and the second piece was the breastplate of righteousness, these two pieces of armour are the most imperative. Without them on, the rest is not on you either. This armour is not physical armour or you would have to take it off going to bed or going to the toilet or for a bath, this armour of God s is spiritual and you can sleep comfortably with it on permanently. Wear your belt of truth at all times believing the truth of God s word, if he says it in his word then it is true regardless how you may feel, the truth holds your pants up by the way. Three Think about this carefully and deeply! If you can t believe for your righteousness, then you won t believe for faith that shield you need to stop the fiery arrows Satan fires at you. Do you believe that you can stop the fiery arrows aimed at you without a shield of faith, and if you can t or don t believe for righteousness then you cannot also believe with faith that you can stop those fiery arrows. Righteousness fits all the pieces of armour and holds them together through faith. Are you able to wear shoes that will last when you go to preach the good news of salvation with God? If you can t believe that your salvation and righteous are linked together as one, how can you preach what you don t believe yourself and expect others to believe it. I know it is the word of God but unless preached with faith in it then it is useless, it is just a good book. God is the one who calls you righteous not me, I could call you lots of things but not righteous, God is the creator of righteousness and he is the giver of the gift, and all the gifts of the armour are supposed to fit together with no missing links in the armour. If there is a missing link then the enemy can get at you through this vulnerable area. 15-And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.; 16 Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith; upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one]. 17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God. 18 Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people). {Amplified Bible} Take the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, and the word of God tells us that we are righteous, in good standing with him at all times. How can the Christian who does not believe they are righteous wield the sword of the spirit, when the sword tells them clearly they are righteous? And they believe they are unworthy. How can faith arise by hearing the word of God when you don t or can t confess righteousness and don t give God his glory for making you righteous; Righteousness is God s work not mans, man can do nothing to make themselves righteous no matter how good he tries to lead a holy life.

7 Righteousness is a free gift given at the point of salvation. Righteousness is the greatest covering that God could give us, remember he gave us a robe of righteousness and the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation to cover the entire body and he gives us other garments of salvation the belt of truth, the good news shoes to wear, the breastplate, the sword, the spirit yields, the belt of truth. The word of God is truth and if you don t believe in the truth of righteousness for you how can you believe for a mighty miracle or even a small miracle, you can t because there is no faith in the word of God who calls you righteous. You are fighting a spiritual battle against evil spirits and their master Satan the devil that is behind every temptation and lure and attack and you can t see him anymore than you can see your spiritual armour, but both are more real than you or I put together. The gifts and powers of God are obtained by faith not by sight, they operate by faith and not by the will of man; the devil is real, he hates you and so does every evil spirit of his; you have a great enemy and if you can t believe for the simple gift of righteousness which you cannot see either then you are in deep s*** as the saying goes. I understand more about righteousness now, and its use in the kingdom of God, and for those who believe and act on it, than I did a few months ago, God has been revealing to me that without righteousness the child of God would fall under the least amount of pressure from Satan. That awesome splendid gift is given to us for a reason, it is to give us faith to believe in a loving father, to see a righteous God make us in his own image and God is righteous and as his children he made us in the same image as him, and yet most Christians don t accept this gift they are so busy pleading their case of unworthiness and sinfulness, and they are denying God his awesome glory for this good act of enormous love he performed in us who belong to him. That breastplate that covers your heart is vulnerable and it s not even there if you can t accept God s gift of righteousness. Righteousness covers your heart, the most vulnerable part of you, and the best target that any soldier is taught to fire his weapon at. Satan has been telling Christians for centuries that they are unworthy, or are sinners, no good, worthless, having no value and not worthy of God s love, and you know we weren t worthy but now we are made worthy; but this has nothing to do with us our worthiness - it is a gift from a loving father God who holds us dear to his heart and overlooks our failings and sins because he wants to! You can t get greater love than that can you, someone so obsessed with you that they can t see a single fault or failing and this is how we are supposed to believe that we are before God through his gift of righteousness. Your helmet of salvation and your breastplate of righteousness cover the most exposed part of your body, you can be shot in the body anywhere and be seriously hurt and your chances of survival is good, but it is only on rare occasions that someone shot in the heart or in the head survived. These are the most vulnerable and exposed areas in our body. That is why you have a helmet given to you by God to cover your head and your mind his helmet of salvation, and

8 his breastplate to cover your heart. And to cover over the other parts of armour he has given us a robe of righteousness. You must be strong in the power of his might as this scripture tells us, putting on his and not your own armour. This is so that you can stand against the wiles of the devil your greatest enemy, not your friend or teacher or parent who hurt you, but the devil who uses people to get at you. If the devil can t get at you personally he will attack you through your closest relative be it your children or friends, but behind their hurting blistering attack is the real enemy hiding behind the cover of your child or friend. It is the evil spirits he uses, and your only defence is to have the armour of your God on you at all times, never even thinking about taking it off, it fits like new skin on you. Always remember that when you are attacked by someone, there is someone else behind that attack; so deal with this evil first, by using the name of Jesus quietly or loudly if necessary to rebuke the enemy when he attacks, stand firm if the attack continues until you have booted him out; and the devil will flee from you in terror. Righteousness is your free gift, now ask God to forgive you for not believing this gift was really for you, and begin to believe that you are righteous because God made you this way and not yourself and thank him every day confessing that you are righteous because he loved you so much. Keep wearing your armour and the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness on at all times and use the armour you were give to glorify God. 2-corinthians-6-7-New-Living-Translation we faithfully preach the truth. God s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defence. You are to attack with the right hand using righteousness as a weapon, and with the left hand as a weapon of defence, believe the word of God - defence and act on it - offence. Not only is righteousness a covering for your breast it is also a weapon to be used. Knowing the word of God, and knowing how to use it against the enemy is your greatest offence, and knowing your righteous make any weapon formed against you to fail to prosper. There is more to righteousness than I know and more than you know and God is only beginning to reveal those scriptural truths to his church, and the more we research righteousness and study the word of God and pray for understanding the more will be given to us; ask and you shall receive says God s word. It is time we began asking for spiritual revelation and revolution, to go out into this world fully equipped for the lord s work. The word of truth is God s word, the bible, it is by the power of God that you were made righteous now wear it proudly, share with others your good news.

9 We are to wear the belt of truth around our waist to hold our pants up with and if we don t believe truth of the word of God the pants will fall down and expose our weakness. If you don t believe that you re righteous then your pants are probably around your ankles. Four Your naked my friend if you re not righteous All the covering of the armour of God depends on this one fact, are you righteous? If you don t believe that you are righteous, then you have no breastplate on and are vulnerable to attacks from Satan. Believing that you are not righteous means that you don t have the helmet of salvation on either, protecting your mind from the devils influences, because salvation and righteousness are intertwined as one, this does not mean that you are not saved but means you don t believe half of your salvation package from God. Having no belief in righteousness for you means there is no belt of truth holding your pants up so be careful they are slipping down exposing your vulnerability, you can t believe for truth when you don t believe the truth in righteousness for you, and if you can t or don t or won t believe that you are righteous then where does your faith lay? It does not lay with the word of God, so it must lay with the devils lies, you believe him over God. By not believing in the fundamentals of salvation and righteousness the first gifts, you lose out in belief in the other gifts of God, you are robbing yourself. The sword is the word of God and you are supposed to wield that sword as a weapon striking terror into Satan and his evil followers, and if you don t believe that you are righteous, that very basic root of salvation then you won t be able to wield that sword with any effect. Are your shoes long lasting or have they worn out or worse still never been worn. If you can t believe for righteousness for yourself how can you go and bring Good News to others; I personally believe that the reason there is literally very little power of God displayed in the present day churches is because they do not preach and teach the very basic principles of salvation. Sure salvation is preached and souls get saved but without any great power from on high. God says he will back up his word with signs and wonders, where are the signs and wonders in your churches. I can see there are some little healings and miracles done through individuals and sometimes as a body there are miracles happening some times. But can we honestly say with sincerity that our church is displaying the promises of God in reference to signs and wonders. Sometimes I wonder where the signs and wonders are. If our present day churches were preaching the full gospel of salvation with righteousness as the one package then I believe that the signs and wonders would come. Because without righteousness and salvation together there is no full gospel being preached and that is why most church services are as dead as a door nail. There is no presence of God in a strong tangible way, no full anointing of the Holy Spirit, because righteousness covers a multitude of things regarding scripture; faith, truth, the word of God. Without righteousness at the centre of our services and the people feeling righteous and worshipping in righteousness then we

10 have a watered down presence of God. God is glorified in his people knowing who they are and who done it for them. I have been in church services when the presence of God came, but it lacked the fullness of his presence; I know the difference between the presence of God in a large scale and in a small scale, and sad to say we are experiencing a small scale and we are robbing ourselves of the mighty presence of God by our lack of faith, truth, and believing. For without faith you can never please God. Take a serious look at what I sensed the Holy Spirit says to leaders. What harm could it do if pastors and priests and leaders taught their flocks the full gospel of righteousness; we do God no justice with weekly empty services strictly controlled by man. Do I think that you should be doing as I say, that you should be following my teachings, doing what I believe, following me? No the truth is there for all to see. Never believe anyone including myself without checking the scriptures out for your own self and if what I say is not true then denounce me as a false teacher. But if what I say is true then give God the full glory he deserves and begin to teach the word of God, the words righteousness and righteous are used 706 times in the NIV Bible, that s more times than angels or healing, and if God has mentioned righteousness this amount of times then it must have great importance. DONT BELIEVE ME! READ THE WORD FOR YOURSELF. I am only a man who makes mistakes and who believes he is led by the Holy Spirit in righteousness; it will never cause any of your church members any harm spiritually to be taught that he or she are righteous because you sing about it in church, and sometimes you even say a few words on it, that they are righteous and that is the extent of it. Knowing what God done for us helps us to give thanks with a grateful heart. God done all this and God alone deserve the glory for doing what he done making us righteous. We are his children each of us is made in his image as his word tells us, we do him a disservice when we deny what he done for each of us personally, in other scriptures God says we are Holy, like Jesus, and we are forever perfect in his sight, he calls us beautiful, precious of great value and worth; how can we believe this is we can t even believe him for his righteousness and it is his righteousness that covers us not self righteousness. We wear the clothes of kings and priests and have the garments of salvation on us and the robe of righteousness around our shoulder, and a breastplate of righteousness on our chests, let s be proud of our God and show him how much we appreciate what he done for us, his children. We are his own children and would it not stand to reason that he would make his children righteous, so that they could come into his presence boldly right into the throne room of God to receive a glad welcome, and so his word says.

11 No unrighteous person shall enter the kingdom of heaven, only those washed in the blood of the Lamb and made righteous, shall enter. Romans 13:12 King-James-Version The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light The night is far spent, the day is at hand, in other words time is running out for the world, and people need to know they can be saved and made righteous with their God and lord and saviour, so get rid of the deadness of darkness, those empty works that darkness brings with it, and get that armour of light, God s armour on you and keep it on from now on. The Christian children of God need to get out into the entire world and tell the lost world about Jesus and God s gift of righteousness good standing with himself, a lot of people think that God hates them and wants to punish them. Catholics are told they re unworthy all their lives when they go to mass, they hear it again and again, not only does the world put down people but the church does it for the devil also, telling children and adults they are no good they re worthless and that is when they say before communion; Lord I am not worthy. {I am a Catholic} a Catholic Apostolic. No you never were worthy but now God makes you worthy at salvation and you don t need to feel ashamed anymore, if Jesus is your lord and saviour then you are righteous always even if you sin, and you will sin again, so don t worry when you do, just repent, and your forgiven; and your still in righteousness, righteousness never goes away even when you sin it stays there with you alongside salvation, you don t lose your salvation when you sin and you don t lose righteousness when you sin either. The Holy Spirit is in you convicting you of the sins you commit and you repent and sincerely say, sorry lord, your forgiven and your righteousness never changed just because you sinned or because you repented, but because you are a child of God, who is a righteous God and your father. Sin is wrong and you should try and avoid it, but if you do sin then there is someone there to plead for you to God the Father, his name is Jesus, your saviour. The armour we wear is not flesh and blood or steel, or iron, but light and is spiritual and it is the armour of our God who is light himself so wear that armour and never take it off for anyone. It is the armour of your loving father God, a gift from him to you, and a gift of Righteousness a robe for your shoulders. It is the armour of our God himself who wears the same armour he gives to you. Is God righteous, does he have armour on? Yes he does, he wears the same armour as you, truth, faith, and sword in his mouth, breastplate of righteousness on him and so on, it s his armour you are wearing, try and understand, his nature is all of these things and it is his new

12 nature that you have covering you, he sees Jesus when he looks at you, he sees his nature in you and you are a mirror that reflects the glory of God. He has faith in you, his word is set on you, his heart loves you deeply so deeply that he gave you his own armour to wear. Wear that suit of armour proudly and let it shine for all to see, wear your helmet proudly as a crown on your head, and your robe of righteousness cover you; your strong belt of truth secure around your waist and hold your shield of faith in your hand, and wear proudly those new shoes that speeds you on to tell the Gospel of good news and having put all the armour of God on let it stay on as it merges into you becoming a part of you. Cast off the works of darkness this scripture tells us, let us cease believing the devils lies for he is the father of liars, there is no truth in him at all. Let us cast off of us his works of darkness, lies, lies and more lies. Believe God and what he done for you. Amen