Fireside Chat Ministries

By: Mandie Nelson

This world is hurting. You don’t need to watch the news (we don’t in our home!) to hear that our lands are burning, people are being displaced from their homes at unprecedented levels, more and more young, healthy adults are dying in record numbers, and global fear is on the rise. 

We recently watched a highly charged movie in theatres about the staggering numbers of children who’ve gone missing in the dark underworlds of slavery. Not from unknown cultures in far off lands long ago. Today. In our backyard. Children from our very neighborhoods. 

So, what in the world is going on? 

How do we even have the courage to put our shoes on in the morning and go out into such a scary, volatile world (sometimes covered in strange new “smoke from wildfires” that don’t smell like anything you’ve ever seen or smelled before)? 

You put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6) and you go into battle. 

Battle!!! 

We are warring against flesh and blood (what we can see with our own eyes), Ephesians 6:12 says. That means the battle we are fighting is in the unseen.  

Whether we know it or not, and like it or not, there is an unseen realm that is constantly fighting in the heavenlies. And not “just” in the third or second heavens. Here on earth, sometimes called the first heavenlies.  

Think about it this way. If, for two seconds, you had spiritual eyes to see what’s really happening all around you, you’d be too paralyzed to move. Yet it’s true. There are angels and demons all around us, fighting over us – our souls! 

So what we need to do is connect with Holy Spirit (the winning side in the heavenlies!) and ask Him for spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear (Matt. 13:16). Not to scare you, but to prepare and equip you for the battle you’re already in, every day of your life. 

Jimmy (my husband) and I were talking about this yesterday; about the full armor of God that we know so well from Ephesians 6. Whose armor are we putting on? Ours? I certainly hope not, because believe me, I don’t know much about war, even in the natural. 

Here’s the secret: it’s His armor!  

Jesus’s.  

And even better than that…it’s Him. Jesus Himself! 

That’s right! We put on Jesus in the morning, before we even leave the house (Romans 13:14 and Galatians 3:27)!! He is our armor! He fights our battles for us (Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25, and I Tim. 2:4) and makes intercession in heaven for us at the right hand of the Father. 

And if Christ be for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)??? 

The Scripture is clear about not fearing what “man” can do to you (anything you can see) but fearing only the Lord (Matt. 10:28), whom you can’t see with natural eyes. 

Christ is IN us…the hope of glory! Why does it matter what is going on around me?? 

I get it. We live in these mortal bodies with finite brains that like to work overtime and worry like it’s my job, but that’s not my job at all. My job is to trust in Him. The only One who can deliver me from death, hell, and the grave.  

Even if this crazy world were to take out my body, that is all they would get. 

And I am not my body. 

I am a spirit (as are you). I live in a body and I have a soul (mind, will, and emotions). But this body won’t live forever. Well, not the one you can see, anyway.  

But my spirit will! And so will yours!  

So, once I put on these heavenly eyes, the fear of all the world circumstances around me starts to fade away. My life goal is to get to the place where I can say, “even though he slay me, yet still will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). 

And that should be our battle plan We put on Christ. He fights for us.  

And He never loses. 

Love, 

Mandie