Heart Meditations 16 – The Helmet of Salvation - David Mitts

And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph 6:17 NASB)




To listen to the audio-only version click below 

We have been pressing in for the power of an untroubled heart’

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (Joh 14:27 NIV)

There is a dual warning here. The first part is allowing our hearts to be troubled. The second part is statement of being called being afraid. The first is a choice, allowing our hearts to become troubled. The second is more of a consequence, being afraid. When our heart is troubled, it leads to us being out of His peace. Being out of His peace is the place of fear.

A troubled heart is an agitated heart. The Greek word translated as troubled in this verse is the word “tarasso”. It means to stir something. In Hebrew the word is Hamoor, which is the picture of a darkness that is in the deepest parts that becomes visible when the liquid is agitated through stirring or boiling.

The idea in both cases is that there exists in our heart a darkness which can be brought to the surface by becoming agitated or heated up in our emotions. This is background level anxiety that arises to the surface when we begin to think a particular way. The Hebrew word root is also used for a donkey because of the dark color. Again, the idea is of a darkness that can overtake us. We might this of this as a dark mood or a brooding that steals our joy and ease of being.

Most of us have had this experience often of being troubled by some thought or piece of information. Maybe someone has made a choice that we care about, and we foresee trouble out of the choice. This troubles us. At the root of this is our fears and projections of worry.

I have seen a lot of this troubled heart thinking in the past couple of years. Be it the political climate or the health issues or financial pressures many have troubled hearts.

Turn with me to the beginning of John, chapter 14:

"Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (Joh 14:1-3 NAS77)

The first word gives us a clue about the secret to an untroubled heart, “let”. This implies a choice a giving of permission. We have authority to make choices that affect our heart and especially the thoughts or meditations of the heart. These choices are what we attach ourselves to or conversely get free from.

In the most gross levels these are habits of thought that lead to habitual behaviors or addictions of thought and deed. Yeshua calls this thought or meditation attachment process binding ourselves to a reality that because of our authority as a Believer becomes our reality.

"“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." Mat 18:18-19 (NASB)

This verse teaches us that we have a choice as Believers about what heaven is to us. What do I mean by that? Heaven follows our authority. Does that mean we command angels and other heavenly beings? No. I think it means that heaven exists in our hearts. Our hearts are an access portal to the kingdom of heaven. God so honors our power to choose whom we serve that He has told us that the reality we believe in, He will honor. And He is telling us that we reinforce our reality by agreement with others. He honors our covenants, our places of agreement.

In this way, we bind ourselves to realities we believe in our hearts. Likewise, we can come out of agreement with realities that conflict with the truth of God’s love. This is called loosening. It has very little to do with the spiritual warfare teaching, I believe, but more to do with the reality our heart is trusting in and the people we have gathered to our point of view.

As an example, think of the great polarization that has come about by the fear of a virus. People have taken extreme measure from lockdowns to masks to genetic mutating injections. Then they have gathered with others of the same beliefs and bound themselves into that reality. You get the picture.

The net effect of all of this is our heart can be troubled and we can enter great fear.

The solution is to surrender our trust, our belief to God and to Yeshua. We can either allow ourselves to be troubled in our hearts by our own devices of heart and mind or we can surrender to the Lord.

Then Yeshua describes a process we have spoken of in previous discussions, the preparation of a place for us. Many have taught this as a reference to heaven and heavenly places. They feel that Yeshua is speaking of receiving us at His second coming into heaven. I am certainly not disagreeing with that revelation. Rather, I would like to consider another application that might connect with our hearts and the strength we need not to be troubled.

I want us to consider the location of the Father’s house. No, I’m not speaking about a particular church. No, I am speaking about where Yeshua is speaking of preparing a place for us. I think it is important to let scripture explain itself.

Regarding the dwelling place of the Father and the Son, Yeshua said:

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (Joh 14:18-20 NKJV)

This is just a little further down the page in John 14. You still could argue that this is all about the second coming. Let’s read on just a little bit more:

Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (Joh 14:23 NKJV)

Notice the direction of the action. If this were about dying and going to heaven, then it might say “we will come and take him to our home”. The locus of the action however is with the person. Yeshua is saying that the believer is the home location, the dwelling place of God, His temple in the earth.

The Apostle Paul continues this truth:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1Co 3:16-17 NKJV)

All of this is to say that Yeshua left the earth to prepare our hearts as His dwelling place as the Father’s house in the earth. This gives us primary responsibility to care for the thoughts of our heart.

This brings us to the next piece of the armor, the helmet of salvation. A helmet is different than a hat. It is designed as a protective design for the brain. Football player wear helmets, motorcyclists, batters in baseball. The helmet acknowledges the danger of the activity. At a construction sight the workers are required to wear a protective helmet. The requirement is because of the danger and risk to the brain.

It is in this context we are told to put on the helmet of salvation. This is no ordinary helmet with no ordinary purpose. It is designed by God for the divine protection of our brain from the dangers of this world.

Salvation is more than a team designation like the decorations on a football helmet. No, salvation is the power of the helmet. Salvation is more than an event or even an eternal destination. Salvation is a protection. A protection from the thoughts and evil of this present darkness.

Salvation opens our thinking to an eternal realm. Paul calls this transformed thinking spiritual discernment.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1Co 2:12-16 NKJV)

The mind of Christ is the mind of the anointing or the mind of salvation. The helmet of salvation opens to us the thoughts of God. This is spiritual discernment.

1 Corinthians 12:10 Paul speaks of this discernment:

to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (1Co 12:10 NKJV)

Notice that discerning of spirits follows the gift of prophecy in the listing of the gifts. I think this is because discernment is key to receiving a prophetic word. Look with me at 1 Cor 14

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. (1Co 14:29 NKJV)

When we think we are hearing from the Lord, we need others to bear witness to that leading. Look at 1John 4

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1Jn 4:1 NKJV)

When we meditate on the helmet of salvation, we are looking for the discerning of spirits that reveals what spirits are speaking.

In this hour of great confusion and deep delusions, we need this gift operating more than ever.

And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. (1Co 14:32 NKJV)

Activation: The protection of our mind through salvation. What has the Lord changed your thinking about? Ask the Lord for His thoughts on where you are now. Journal with Him.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Glory: Kavod - David Mitts

Dam, the Blood - David Mitts