Dr. Bill Morgan

QUENCHING FIERY DARTS

Eph. 6:10-18 talks about our need for the armor of God, but where do we get it, and how do we keep it?

The temple is where God resides, and in the New Covenant, we are His temple. (began a drawing of the Temple -- building, inner court and outer court.)

God's plan is for us to abide in His presence, which is in the temple. However, some are outside the courts altogether. Some are in the outer court, thinking they are in God's presence, but because they grumble, murmur, complain, etc. they are nowhere near God.

God tells us in Ps 100:4, how to enter His gates and come into His courts -- through praise and thanksgiving -- in everything (simple, but not easy).

After some discussion about the need to thank God in everything that comes our way in order to enter into the inner court, we realize that the altar is still between us and entering the presence of God. Here we must sacrifice ourselves (Rom 12:1) -- our agenda, our self-reliance, self-sufficency, self-centeredness, literally our independence from God -- all the self-orientation that we have created through the years. We must die to all of that.

When we die, we enter God's presence where we receive the fruit of the Spirit and the whole armor of God, all of which comes from the characteristics of Jesus.

Satan still fires his darts our way. Those outside the Temple get hit easily. Those inside are protected. Sometimes, however, we feel those fiery darts have gotten through, failing to realize that when they pass the wall of the temple and enter God's presence, they become His refining fire.

God turns up the heat just hot enough to drive out the "dross" from our lives, not to harm us in any way, but only for our good. His love gives us even the hard things to make us into His "reflectors", so He can see Himself radiating from us, as we allow His life to flow out through us.