SPIRITUAL WEAPONS OF WARFARE 11

SPIRITUAL WEAPONS OF WARFARE 11
Hello everyone, for those that have been reading, blessed are you. But, a greater blessing is upon those that are beginning to read so as to do them. Yesterday, we started looking at the Weapons of Warfare that Apostle Paul shared with us in Eph. 6:10-18. We have looked at the BELT OF TRUTH  yesterday; the armour that holds every other ones together, that makes for smartness and distinguish between a soldier and a civilian. Today, we are looking at a Very important armour and I will like to take my time to deal thoroughly deal with this topic because there are a lot of erroneous teachings along this line.

THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Eph. 6: 14 '...and having on the breastplate of righteousness;'

The Breastplate of Righteousness refers to the consciousness and experiential knowledge of the truth that you have about righteousness.

What is Righteousness?
Many have defined it as RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD. This is a partially true definition. It is more than this.
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS ONE OF THE NATURES OF GOD IMPARTED INTO OUR SPIRITS WHEN WE GAVE OUR LIVES TO CHRIST.
This is one of the greatest benefits of redemption. It was the lack of righteousness that made Adam and Eve to hid themselves from God in the garden. Let's digress a little. This just occurred to me. Have you carefully thought about Gen. 3:8a? 'And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day'
How can a voice be walking? It will be clear to you when you see the connection between this verse and Gen. 1:3 and 1John 5:7. May God give you understanding.
The lack of righteousness made Adam not to be able to stand before God again. But, through the substitutionary work of Christ, our sin nature from the first Adam has been replaced with the RIGHTEOUS NATURE  from the Last Adam.

THE ADAMIC NATURE
The Bible uses different names for the Adamic Nature like the Flesh, Old man, the body of sin,etc. All are talking about the same thing. This is the sinful nature passed down to all human beings born from the intercourse between a male and female. It is the nature of sin. No wonder, David says in iniquities did my mother conceived me. PS. 51:5. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory. ROM. 3:23. This is why you don't have to teach a young chap how to do wrong, the guy just know it. The Sinful nature came to us by default. But, in Christ Jesus, we have NATURE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

             SIN AND SINS
You are totally wrong if you are thinking SINGULAR and PLURAL. They are not. One is the tree while the other is the fruit. Sin is the tree while sins are the fruit. BLESSING and BLESSINGS fall into the same category. A BLESSING IS AN EMPOWERMENT TO PROSPER, TRIUMPH,  SUBDUE AND TAKE CHARGE while BLESSINGS are the result of the empowerment. In Mal. 3, God says He will pour out A BLESSING (just one) and you won't have room enough to contain it. I am going too far. Someone should remind me to teach on this later.
Back to our subject.
 SIN is the nature while SINS are the fruits of the nature. If you study Genesis very well, you will observe that Cain was the first murderer, who taught him?
Lamech was the first polygamist, whose example did he followed?
Nimrod was an embodiment of wickedness; first idol worshipper, killed his father and married his mother who was said to be the Queen of Heaven,
In Sodom and Gomorrah came homosexuality. Where did all these people learnt them from?

SIN. It produced different fruits in different people and sometimes in different location. Adam disobeyed God only. But, his son killed his brother and dug the ground to hide him. Who taught him? Do you know till tomorrow, we still bury people after the order of Cain?

We inherited the nature of sin and we all died spiritually and physically that day in Eden.
During the Easter period, I will teach ELABORATELY about why Jesus had to die. Watch out.

The Sin nature produced and it is still producing in some people all manner of wrong things. That is why God made Jesus to become SIN (the nature) not SINS (one of the manifestations of SIN). He made Him become what was common to all the dispensations of men in the past, present and the future. He took Jesus' Righteous nature and gave it to us and took our SINFUL NATURE and gave it to Jesus. So, when they crucified Jesus, it was SIN that they crucified. Oh may God opens your eyes to see this. Sin and all the consequences/ his entourages were all packed into the man nailed to the Cross. Isaiah says he has no form nor comeliness that we should desire him. Is. 53. Even God had to turn His back on Him because He can't behold sin. Jesus had to cry out, My God, my God why have you forsaken me? He was such an ugly creature. It wasn't the beatings that made him ugly. No, all of those rubbish packed into Him deformed Him and God exhausted all His judgements against sin on Him. Let me not go too far. During Easter, just go to the blog. You will see the full teaching there.
 Let me also offset your wrong theology here; HE THAT SIN IS NOT A SINNER. Selah. If you don't believe it, then, you are saying  'he that barks is a dog'.  You must know that first of all, SIN IS NOT AN ACT, IT IS A NATURE. GOD HAD TO ADDRESS THE NATURE BEFORE HE ADDRESSED THE ACT. To discern error in this days, you have to look at the Source not just the act. For example, many Christians can easily be deceived when a popular Secular Artist release a Gospel Album. They will buy it and think the person is now one of us. That a  Secular Artist sing  'I worship you Jesus' doesn't make the song a worship song. The NATURE MUST CHANGE FIRST. Then, other things can follow. If the nature hasn't change, the song is a DEMONIC SONG. You see, I can hear many of the readers raising objections. Have you ever asked yourself why did Paul rebuked the spirit of divination in that girl?
Listen, she heralded the ministry of Paul for many days. Naturally, that lady was a Plusfactor but, the source of her contributions/word was demonic. Acts 16:16-19. May God opens your eyes.
A believer that commit sin is ACTING AGAINST HIS/HER NATURE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHILE AN UNBELIEVER THAT COMMIT SIN IS ACTING IN ALIGNMENT WITH HIS/HER NATURE.

So, a believer that commit sin IS NOT EQUAL TO  UNBELIEVER THAT COMMIT SIN.
To God, one person is out of FELLOWSHIP AND ALIGNMENT while the other DOESN'T EVEN HAVE RELATIONSHIP AT ALL WITH GOD.
The  challenge is this IF A BELIEVER PERSIST/CONTINUE IN SIN, HE/SHE MAY WIND IN SPIRITUAL DEATH AND SOME TIMES, PHYSICAL DEATH. Apostle Paul says such a person should be delivered to Satan for the destruction of his body that his/her spirit can be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Cor. 5:5. Sin is such a terrible thing.

SIN CONSCIOUSNESS VS. RIGHTEOUSNESS CONSCIOUSNESS
You need to know that the consciousness of sin will always produce sin while the consciousness of righteousness produces righteousness. A sinner(unbeliever) and a believer that has the sin consciousness will always commit sin and they will end up in the same place-SPIRITUAL DEATH. Rom. 8:6.
Righteousness consciousness is the solution to sin and sin consciousness.
THE WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IN A BELIEVERS' LIFE.

1. It enables a believer to stand in the presence of God without any sense of guilt, sin, insecurity or inferiority complex.
It is the sense of righteousness that makes a believer to come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4:16. This is why some preachers defines righteousness as RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD. All these  'I am so unworthy, I am so unholy, I am just a peace of clay, I am a pencil in your hand' disappear into an oblivion when the consciousness of righteousness get a hold of your spirit. Listen up, these words are rubbish and jargons that must never be uttered before God in worship or any other time.  I wonder where they got this idea that man was a clay from. Man was made in the image and likeness of God. It was Man's house (body)that was made of clay. Adam was the god of this world before he lost to the Devil. Righteousness enables us to enter the Throne Room BOLDLY. Don't drag your feet. Walk in confidently like you would to your own house. As a matter of fact, advanced knowledge of God makes us to know that we dwell there in the PRESENCE OF GOD. Not just that, we are sitter in Christ on His Throne. Eph. 2:6.

2. RIGHTEOUSNESS ENABLES US TO DO RIGHT THINGS
Listen, the doctrine of righteousness is never complete if your behaviour remains the same. Righteousness IS NOT A LICENSE TO CONTINUE IN SIN. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. ROM. 6:1-2. Righteousness will gradually begins to produce GODLY CHARACTERS IN A BELIEVER. It is an INSIDE TO OUTSIDE CHANGE; a change that starts from within and manifest outwardly. Righteousness has a nature cannot tolerate sin. It is God's way of empowering you to live like Him.
 You cannot be confessing that you are the righteousness of God and you are messing up yourself with sinful deeds. No, Brothers and sisters! They don't go together. Light and darkness cannot co-exist in the same place.
 He that is born of God does not make a practice of sin. 1 John 3:9 The seed of righteousness doesn't tolerate/condone sinful deeds. You cannot be living LOOSELY and still claim grace covers you. This is the error in the LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY; too much character defects and yet, we shout 'we are born of God, we overcome the world'. All manners of scandalous and immoral dressing and yet we claim 'Christianity is from the heart, we are not under the law, We are under grace'. It's not about what I wear'.
 I have discovered by personal research among the Liberal Christians that THE BETTER THE PACKAGING OF THE CONTAINER, THE LIGHTER THE CONTENT. Many flamboyance in dressing yet, the content is porous, shallow and sometimes empty. You find a Lady can spend 5hours at the Saloon and cannot pray for 30 minutes. You are in a limbo; a disaster waiting to happen.
All we shout is 'Jesus has paid the price for us, we are under grace'. Yet, we forget that Jesus, the embodiment of grace Himself wakes up early to pray. Mark 1:35. He prayed at Gethsemane till His sweat became like the drop of blood.
Kenneth Hagin of blessed through revelation from Jesus mentioned LIGHTNESS, LOOSENESS, TALKATIVENESS, GLUTTONOUSNESS and some other acts as GRIEVOUS SINS AGAINST GOD.
Grace and righteousness have been given to deliver us from sin. So, any teaching and preaching on Righteousness that doesn't checkmate sinful behaviors is UNSCRIPTURAL.

3. RIGHTEOUSNESS EMPOWERS US TO STAND PERFECT AND BLAMELESS BEFORE GOD AND MAN.
Sin consciousness is deadlier than sin itself. It is the very nature of the Devil.
 It cripples your ability to live rightly . It makes you to believe that you can never please God.
It makes you believe that you are unqualified and entitled to God's blessings and promises.
Your spiritual growth is crippled. The best it can produce is a POWERLESS BELIEVER FULL CHARACTER DEFECTS.
Haven't you been to church denominations that ask for FORGIVENESS ALL THE TIME? Someone will say is it wrong to ask for forgiveness of sin? No, it isn't. It is not even the Holy Spirit that condemns you, it is YOUR OWN SPIRIT. 1 John 3:20-21. The Holy Spirit is there to make holy not to talk you down or show how imperfect you are. Many people who ask for forgiveness all the time are suffering from SYS- SIN CONSCIOUSNESS SYNDROME. It is deadlier than HIV. Don't be too conscious of sin. Rather, be conscious of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
I have just halfway in what I want to share about righteousness, I will continue tomorrow.
Direct all objections and questions to 08101025734, phronesisfemi@gmail.com
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 Read and share. God bless you real good.