3 - God Equips His Team to Win Through Holiness
(A) CONSIDER YOUR EQUIPMENT
Every team has equipment. Ball teams have a ball. School teams have books. Business teams have tools. When you became a member of God’s team, you gained access to equipment that enables you, helps you, and makes it possible for you to beat/defeat your opponent, Satan.1. The Gift of the Holy Spirit
The most important piece of equipment that you gained access to is God’s indwelling Spirit of Holiness (Acts 2:38; 5:32). Do you understand that it is only by the Spirit of Holiness that you can overcome the spirit of unholiness?
(a) This Gift Is Primarily for Overcoming Satan
“You are from God, little children, and have
overcome them [false teachers]; because
greater is He [the Holy Spirit] who is in you
than he who is in the world [Satan].” (1 Jn 4:4)
Here John tells us how we actually overcome
false teachers and “he who is in the world”,
Satan, who is the source or originator of
false teaching. We gain the victory because
of “He”, the Person of the Holy Spirit who is
inside of us. We defeat, conquer, beat,
prevail over, triumph over, gain the victory
over our enemy because of the greater Spirit
of Holiness that indwells us. God is more
than just on our side; He is inside.
(b) The Gift Is Primarily for Living a Holy Life
Contrary to what some may think, we should
be looking for and quickening the Holy Spirit
to manifest Himself in disciples, not primarily
in a particular talent or gift, which has value,
but in living a holy life (2 Tim 1:9). We see in
Matthew 7:21-27 that “many” people will try
to trust in their talents on Judgment Day,
saying, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
Your name, and in Your name cast out
demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?” (Mt 7:22) But Jesus rejected them
to hell because of their unlawful, unholy
lifestyle. So understand that how you live is
more important to God than how you serve
Him with your talents. Your talented efforts
for God are important, but they are not
important enough by themselves to gain you
salvation in the end. If you disregard, or
neglect your call to live a holy life, you will be
lost (He 12:14). On the other hand, according
to Matthew 25:14-30, if you fail to use your
talent(s) for God’s purposes, you will be
judged by Him as wicked, lazy, and lost. So we do
not want to neglect one thing over the other,
but understand and do both but with more
weight, importance, or priority on obeying the
Spirit of Holiness in our own life.
Conclusion
As soon as we join God’s team, we are equipped with the Holy Spirit. Receiving Him is the best thing we can do to overcome our opponent and to live a holy life. God is the one who works in us to give us the victory. No wonder Paul could say about all of the battles we face: “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” (Ro 8:37) Truly, overwhelming winning is through the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit who indwells us. Rely upon Him for your success against Satan.2. Holy Armor
To strengthen us for our battles against the enemy, to make the weak strong, Paul compared certain Christian qualities, fruits, virtues, and holy states of being to a soldier with armor.
Keep this in mind as you read this comparative illustration below so that you do not get lost in the earthly, physical illustration of the soldier. But instead zero in on understanding the depth of the spiritual words that Paul compared to the soldier’s armor and weapon. It is easy to understand the soldier’s armor. It is not so easy to understand spiritual things.