By comparing Ephesians 6:10 -18 Romans 12: 1-3 we can get some light on the threefold nature of man - spirit, soul and body. How we deal with these areas can either cause us to experience victory in our lives or relinquish the win to the enemy.

Firstly, ’God’s armour’ refers to spiritual realities. They are spiritual realities that He has given us: won for us. They are more real than any natural armour and powerful against all the wiles of the devil. Truths, such as the power of God’s Word spoken over our lives, are just as real and powerful whether we apply them or not.

We have within us the spiritual DNA of Christ.

Second is our mind. This is our soulish arena and includes our emotions and our thought life. Romans 12:2 say the ‘renewing of your mind’ is the critical factor in being able to know and put into practise the perfect will of God.

The third is our actual physical bodies. Presenting our body as a ‘living and holy sacrifice’ is, in the physical realm, putting into effect the lordship of Jesus Christ - in the flesh. Our natural man is what we say and do. Our natural man operates in the natural world. Our natural man takes it’s cue directly from our thought life.

Understanding spiritual warfare is mastering how to appropriate the ‘full armour’ of God in our minds and our bodies. Ephesians 6 says that we aren’t battling against flesh and blood, but we are fighting spiritual forces in the arena of our mind. What we believe about what God has done for us and how we think about these things, will determine who claims the victory.

Satan wants us to keep thinking naturally, or to think wrong spiritually. Satan wants to keep us thinking like ‘mere men’ ‘For you are still fleshly … are you not mere men?’ 1 Cor 3:3 Either way, thinking naturally or wrong spiritually- he will have his way with us.

The natural world gives us an excellent illustration of how this works.

We all have a unique DNA which is the very foundation code for each of our billions of cells. Our unique DNA is called our ‘genotype’. If were to examine identical twins DNA we would find it the same.

Flamingos all have in their DNA a gene that allows them to turn pink. Still, not all Flamingos are pink. Some Flamingos are white — but people‘ ooh and aah’ over pink flamingos. A white flamingo instead is more like an ugly swan! What is the difference between pink and white flamingos? The difference is the environment and circumstances in which they live.

Not all identical twins look identical.

How they look is their ‘phenotype’.

Over the years one of the twins may have trained regularly. They have looked after their skin and cleaned their teeth! The other may have had a bit too much stress, a bit too much sun, and most days they didn't have time to clean their teeth. You can imagine, one twin is going to look very different from the other twin.

We all have the spiritual DNA (genotype) of Christ. ‘If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation.’ (2 Cor 5:17). Christ’s core spiritual DNA is our DNA. We have some minor difference; we each don’t have access to all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some are gifted in one area; others are gifted in other areas. But the core DNA, as listed in Ephesians 6, righteousness, peace, the Word of God and so on, is common to all born again Christians. We all have the DNA of the Champion of all champions.

However, we don’t all have the same expression of greatness (phenotype). The appearance of God’s greatness in us is filtered through our beliefs, our thinking and our willingness to walk out the Kingdom of God in our lives.

Some Christians experience victory in one area of their lives, but not in others. This is because we have not allowed our minds to be renewed with the Word of God in all areas of our life. We haven’t ‘girded our loins with the truth’ (Ephesians 6:14) in the particular field in which we are under attack.

This is one reason why people say; “I don’t understand why that happened to so-and-so; they are such a good Christian.” In reality, Satan’s attacks on us may have very little to do with being an ethical Christian. If he can get you thinking your morals will protect you from his attacks he’s halfway to having you whipped.

We weren’t given the armour of God because we are ‘good Christians’. We’re given it because we are born again!

People can put on the armour of God when it comes to relationships, but be thinking naturally (not in line with the Word of God) when it comes to healing. Likewise, people can be experts in believing God for money but have not had their mind renewed in the area of relationships.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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— Romans 12:1-3 ESV

We are to put on the whole armour of God across the full spectrum of God’s Word regarding his provision for us. By allowing our minds to be fully renewed by His Word, we can learn to prove His perfect will in our life.