You never don’t need armor!

“ There’s Always Been a Need for Armor

The Old Testament is full of men and women who went into battle with the Lord’s covering. They knew that the battle is the Lord’s! He is who goes before us. He is our fortress (see Psalm 59:9). He is our shield (see Psalm 33:20). 

King David - In the Old Testament, when you read about David as he goes out to face Goliath, he is offered another man’s armor. It’s just too big and doesn’t fit right. And it was man’s armor. So, he goes with what he’s accustomed to, a slingshot and five smooth stones. 

He turned down the offer for man’s armor. 

What he went out to fight with was God’s protective armor.

David knew he had a spiritual covering. He knew God was his shield. He said to Goliath, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Sam. 17:45). 

David’s covering, his shield, was the Lord of hosts. 

God had prepared him for that time. David later said, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word” (Psa. 119:114).

Gideon was a fearful farmer hiding in a winepress while threshing wheat. But God called him “O mighty man of valor,” and turned him into a mighty warrior (Judg. 6:11–14). In that passage the angel says “you” and Gideon says “us”. 

It had not hit Gideon yet that the angel was talking about him, not just a general group. We too tend to focus on what can be done in large groups. But God speaks to each of us through His Spirit. “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9–13).

If your faith is small, your ability to fight your battles will be, too.

Joshua led Israel in the battle of Jericho. It was a different battle in the way they won. The Lord went before them. Yet Joshua and Israel lost the next battle. But it was because of the sin of Israel (see Joshua 7:11). Back to David…he won many battles. At one point David did not go to battle, but the enemy worked at taking him out by using Bathsheba to draw him into sin. David would have never seen her if he had been out with his army. 

Deborah fought when others would not move forward (see Judges 4). The Lord was willing to step in front of them back then. He will also step in front of the arrows for temporal onslaught against your soul.

If you have armor on, then as you move forward, the Lord IS in front of you, and goes before you. From p. 30 in Tiny Armor