The Armor of God – Helmet of Salvation

Salvation literally means saved, or delivered. It is taken from the Greek word soterios, which means to be saved, to be delivered from danger, and to be brought to a safe place.  Salvation has saved us from our sin, salvation is delivering us from darkness, and salvation will give us total freedom from sin.

As we put on the last piece of armor, let us review what we have put on up to this point.

• We have the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith, designed to protect us, give us the courage, confidence and assurance, so we can move forward in the worst of times.
• We have our shoes of peace to enable us to enforce and demonstrate Satan’s defeat.
• All of this is connected to the loin belt of truth. Without this central piece of spiritual armor the other pieces of armor cannot function properly.

Now we will look into the helmet of salvation.

Take up the helmet of salvation . . . (Eph. 6:17)

The Roman soldier’s helmet was a very ornate and intricate piece of weaponry.

• Rather than being a simple piece of metal, it was highly decorated with all kinds of engravings and etchings.
• It also had a huge plume of brightly colored feathers, or horsehair, that stood straight up out of the top of the helmet.
• These helmets undoubtedly made the Roman soldiers easily identifiable on the battle field.
• It also defended against the battle axe of the enemy.

By using this example, Paul is telling us, when a person is confident of their salvation, they are noticeable.

The helmet of salvation guards the most influential organ in this invisible war, our mind.

• Most of the battle is in our thought life – that is where Satan can manipulate us towards his ends.
• Satan knows that our mind is the control center of our life. If he is going to attack us, he must start in our mind.
• If he can get a foothold there, he can move beyond that.
• If he can distort our thoughts, our emotions, and our knowledge, then our behaviors and relationships will fall the way he wants them to.

When we put on our helmet of salvation it protects our mind from attacks of the enemy.

• It is imperative that we keep God’s Word in our mind, and keep Satan’s lies out of it.
• Our intellectual understanding, and comprehension of salvation, and all that comes with it, must be ingrained in our minds.
• When our minds are convinced of these realities; that knowledge becomes a protective helmet in our lives. If Satan has no say in our minds, he has no power in any other area of our life.
• When we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased for us, the enemy will no longer be able to attack our minds.

For we are not unaware of his schemes. (2 Cor. 2:11)

We can know and reflect on this truth, when our days are casual and running smoothly. But, can we default to this truth, when we are in a crisis, or under attack? This is how important our mind is, if the devil can wear out our mind we will lose in life.

• If the devil can beat down our resistance, he can begin to wage warfare on our mind with his games. He baits us with lying accusations, and slanderous allegations.
• If we perceive these lies to be true, the process of deception is then fully implemented in our life. We have surrounded ourselves with a stronghold of the enemy.

Strongholds are rooted in our minds and emotions and, can either be walls we use to keep others out, or a prison we’ve built which keeps ourselves locked in.

• There are two kinds of strongholds: rational and irrational.
• Rational strongholds are usually the hardest to deal with, because they seem to make sense.
  • We try and rationalize our lives to what makes sense to us, instead of trusting God.
• Irrational strongholds are completely unrealistic and eventually we will wake up to the realization of the works of the enemy.

When our adversary first begins to attack a believer’s mind, the Holy Spirit will try and warn us.

• Our logical mind can work against our spiritual life, if we don’t submit to the Holy Spirit.
• If we allow the lies to go un-resisted or un-challenged the larger the stronghold the devil can build until we become prisoners of war.

God gave us the helmet of salvation. With it He has given us all we need to withstand every assault of the enemy. With the authority given to us we must command Satan to release his claim on our mind and emotions.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4-5)

We must first recognize our responsibility in the strongholds.

• Have we accepted the lie of the devil over the truths God has given us?
• The devil has left his marks and scars all over our minds and emotions during the time we were under his control.
• Repentance, for allowing the mental and emotional strongholds to develop, will redirect our minds.
• With the repentance, God will guide us in the renewing of our mind.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

We think differently when we wear our helmet of salvation.

• With our renewed thoughts, it seems rational to walk by faith, and sounds logical to obey God.
• We can begin to comprehend the multitude of blessings contained in our salvation.
• As we walk in our helmet of salvation, we think like God thinks, we reason like God reasons, we believe like God believes, and we begin to act like God acts.

We must not underestimate the importance of filling our mind with the proper understanding of our salvation.

• When it is allowed to function correctly in our life, our salvation will defend our mind from every mental attack the enemy might bring against us.
• The moment we take off our helmet of salvation, the devil will start attacking our mind, and emotions.
• If we don’t put that helmet back on, we may become double minded – believing God one moment, and doubting Him the next.

God does not want even one area of our mind to think like the world, He does not want one cell of our brain to have unbelief. God intends for our mind to think in accordance with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Lord, I am so grateful for my salvation! It is the most wonderful gift You have ever given me. It changed my life and set me free; it brought healing to my body and deliverance to my mind. I want to wrap the knowledge of all that my salvation includes around my mind so tightly that the devil can never steal these benefits from my life. Holy Spirit, I ask You to help me study and to understand everything Jesus purchased for me at the Cross. Reveal it to me; convince me of its truth; and help me to wear that revelation knowledge on my head like a mighty, fortified, spiritual helmet. I pray in Jesus’ name.

I confess that I wear my salvation tightly around my mind like a helmet. When the enemy tries to attack my mind and to chop away at the benefits of my salvation, his attacks are completely ineffective. My mind is convinced of all that salvation means for me, and my mind is trained and taught to think correctly according to that knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge of my salvation becomes a helmet in my life. It doesn’t matter how hard the devil tries to hack away at my mind, I still stand strong because I know what Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased for me. I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name.