The Armor of God

I met with my friend Ashley tonight.  She's my childhood friend who's now going to school at Seattle University.  She grew up in the church - in fact, before I came to Christ, she was my only friend in Hilo who was an evangelical Christian.

She heard that I had become a Christian, but we hadn't had a chance to talk about our faith. When we saw each other, we hugged and jumped and screamed because we were so happy to be sisters in Christ!

We were standing in the parking lot of Starbucks (it closed on us) and realized that we were right next to the building where the funeral service was held last month for our friend Jesse (our classmate who took his own life).  We got to talking about suicide and all the other problems that especially plague the people of our generation, as demonstrated in the "Everything" skit by Lifehouse.   The youth seem to be particularly dangerous in satan's eyes.  

I confessed to her, as I will to you, that I sometimes become really afraid of satan's power...  it seems like he's just waiting for a chance to attack us and others like us.  I know satan has already been defeated, but I still fear the bad things he will try to do to others.

To build up my faith, Ashley told me to read Ephesians 6: 10-20,

"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"

"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."

She reminded me of how protective our God is.  He doesn't send us into spiritual warfare unarmed -- heck, with His ammo, satan's got nothing on us!

We then talked about how we both struggle with our faith whenever we come home to Hilo. Why do we feel so dry?  Is it laziness on our part or spiritual oppression?   

I believe it's a combination of both, and I think it has a lot to do with lack of community.  For both of us, coming back to Hilo means leaving our churches, mentors and friends, and being surrounded by other friends and relatives who don't know Jesus.  This dawned on me when we started praying together for a revival - for the Holy Spirit to fall on our town and cover the people with the armor of God.

Only God knows when Hilo will experience a revival, but I know that He granted me a personal revival tonight.  I can't think of anything else that would re-ignite my passion for Jesus more than praying with my girl Ashley, who I've known for almost my whole life, and who only now will I begin to REALLY know as a sister in Christ.