For the past few weeks we have been encouraging to put on the garment of Love.

Colossians 3:12-14 (MSG)
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Last week I shared that Love is a Powerful Force.

2 Peter 1:3 (AMP)
For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] everything necessary for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

How can I tap into that security you may ask?
Put on the garment of Love.
Live within your position in Christ.

Ephesians 6:10 (AMP)
In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him] and in the power of His [boundless] might.

Listen how The Passion Translation says it:
“Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last. Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of explosive power flowing in and through you.”

This word “strong” is an explosive power that has been deposited within us as a vessel. God is the giver, and we are the receptacles into which this power is deposited.

Ephesians 1:19 (AMP)
...and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe.

This is real power. A demonstrated power that raised Jesus from the dead that now lives in you. But here is the best part, it is backed by His might. It is backed by His strong hand, like He is the body builder with the great big muscles backing us up.

This makes me feel wrapped in His love even more.

Put on the garment of love and the armor of God is the byproduct. When we wear this armor, darkness must flee. Putting on the garment of love helps fight the battlefield of the mind.

When we choose to put on the garment of love, we will start to live in peace. Love will start meeting needs and the gifts of the spirit flow from being full of the fruit of the spirit.

What are you wearing? Is it powerful?

A little over six year ago I really dug deep into the Word. I had read it here and there. I had devotions, but I had not really just sat and read the Word on a daily basis.

What changed?

I was going through a rough time of rejection and humiliation. That song Surrounded, This is How I Fight My Battles really was my anthem. It was not a pity party song. It was a song of surrender.

We hear about the love of God. We know the scripture of how God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son, so anyone who believes will be saved and have eternal life (John 3:16).

There was a dept of that love that I did not know yet, and I am sure some of you have been there or are still searching for that fullness.

My salvation story…that was in summer of 1998.

However, I did not know the fullness of that love until I surrendered the broken pieces of myself. Even the stubborn pieces.

Isaiah 52:2 (AMP)
Shake yourself from the dust, arise,
O captive Jerusalem;
Rid yourself of the chains around your neck,
O, captive Daughter of Zion.

Paul said it differently:
Ephesians 4:21-24 (MEV)
if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off the former way of life in the old nature, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new nature, which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.

I have been given everything to live a dynamic spiritual life in Christ, I have to put it on.

What was I lacking?

The Fullness of His Love.

The love we are so familiar with is transactional. That is how I knew it. When you are pleasing and do what is right, then you are rewarded with affection. If you do not do right then you are punished with silence.

In transactional relationships, love is used as a weapon, but the wrong kind of weapon. It is meant to harm in all the ways that it is meant to empower you and make you strong.

This kind of love is warped and is the cause of many of the emotional battles we are facing. The love we knew did hold onto hurts, was jealous and envious. It rejoiced when we failed with “I told you so’s”. It never believed we would succeed. It could not be our cheer leader. It would not bear with us. It would never admit they were wrong. They never asked for forgiveness.

You do not have to live with that definition of love. You can let that go.

Here is the scripture that I held onto:

Ephesians 3:16-19 (AMP)
May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

This is the love that I longed for. This is the love that is available to all of us. This is the love that we put on with the garment of love.

What happened when I started reading the Bible and searching for God? He revealed Himself is such a deep way.

Ephesians 6:17 (AMP)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

The helmet a Roman soldier wore was fitted to their head specifically. It was heavy, but it was ornate. Highly decorated and looked like a piece of art.

Your salvation is the most gorgeous, most intricate, most elaborate, most ornate gift God had ever given you.

When we walk confidently in the salvation given to us, we are a noticeable individual.

If your salvation is not worn tightly around your mind like a helmet, the enemy will come to chop the multiple blessing of your salvation right out of your theology.

The enemy will try to hack away at your foundation, telling you that healing, deliverance and soundness of mind were not really part of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross. By the time the enemy is finished with your mind, the only blessing he will leave you will is Heaven.

Before I get to the Sword of the Spirit, our only offensive weapon. I want to talk to you about the threshing floor.

In 2 Samuel 25, King David purchased a threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord. It was located on Mount Moriah and later became the site for the Temple.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What is the significance?

A threshing floor serves as a platform for separating grains from the outer husks or chaff. The process involves beating the harvested crop, typically wheat or other grains, with wooden flails or using animals such as oxen to trample over the crop. This action loosens the edible part of the grain, known as the kernel. The weight of the animals or the flailing action typically breaks the hard outer protective layer of the crop, exposing the kernels. The next step involves tossing the crop into the air, allowing the wind to carry away the lighter chaff while the heavier kernels fall back to the ground. The threshing floor grounds collect these kernels for further processing or storage.

A type and shadow of what Jesus did for us is seen in the story of Boaz redeeming Ruth as she submitted herself at his feet on the threshing floor.

So let’s look at the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

The sword in combat is not the same as the sword used in training.

Roman soldiers practiced the art of warfare continually. Daily sword practice. The two edged sword was not used for battle but for practice. It built strength with it’s weight.

Hebrews 4:12 (AMP)
For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged [a]sword, penetrating as far as the division of the [b]soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The logos must become rhema, so that you can give a heavy blow to defeat the enemy. Training is reading and meditating on the Word daily.

The sword used in close combat is called a machura – it caused the victim horrid pain. The tip was turned upward, sometimes twisted like a cork screw. Shredding the insides as it was removed.

The Spirit will place a razor-sharp sword at your disposal anytime the enemy gets too close. The sword’s power will be available the moment the Spirit quickens and a specific word for the specific situation you are facing.

This is exactly how Jesus defeated the devil when He was tempted. Jesus was fully loved and lived loved.

John 15:10-11 (AMP)
If you keep My commandments and obey My teaching, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. 11 I have told you these things so that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing.

Love is my weapon. Now Joy is my strength.