When the Holy Spirit wakes you up with a message on your heart, you know, He is going to use it in a mighty way.
As promised we are discussing the parts of the armor today and how to use those pieces of the armor in your spiritual battle that you face every day as a grieving mom.
Learn what each piece of the armor represents and hear examples of how to use the armor when your grieving.
I ask you 4 questions today to determine where you are in understanding what the armor is and and what it means to put on the whole armor of God.
I'm inviting you today to spend one hour with me in a Live Grief Masterclass. The date is August 5th, 2024. It's a free class that will help you:
1. Discover peace in the chaos of your grief, no more feeling lost.
2. I will equip you with tools through your journey, that will help remove the overwhelm.
3. And most of all, help you see hope for your future. And that my friend will help you have the confidence that you are going to make it.
When you're grieving the two most important things you need, is God's word and community. And this class offers you both. Hit the link below to register.
The Grief Masterclass with Teresa Davis
Not sure you can attend live? Go a head and register so you will automatically recieve the replay.
I'm giving away door prizes for those that attend live.
I want to see you there! Use this oppurtunity to get the help you need to process your grief. We will spend one hour in God's word learning what He has to say about surviving the death of your child.
Register For The Grief Masterclass with The Grief Mentor Here
The next Grief Mentor Support Group is July 18th, questions need to be submitted by July 16th. This is a safe place for bereaved parents to come and just be with like minded grieving parents who understand what its like to have your child leave this earth.
How do you attend? Become a Grief Mentor Insider, and follow the directions found in the newsletter.
Become A Grief Mentor Insider : Here
Need some one on one time with The Grief Mentor? Click Here
Order the devotion book: Finding Hope And Healing In the Midst of Grief Here Journal: Here
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Email me at teresa@thegriefmentor.com
Episode referred to in this week's podcast:
Is Heaven Real? If So Where is it? 3 Facts That Lead To Peace
Heaven Unleashed! 3 Facts to Stop The Betrayal!
Find Courage In These 4 Facts! Your Childs Life in Heaven
3 Convincing Truths Your Child is Living In Heaven
5 Things We've Learned in 5 Years of Living Without Our Son Andrew.
The Armor of God
When the Holy Spirit wakes you up with a message on your heart, you know he is going to use it in a mighty way. Thursday morning, I woke with this week's topic swirling in my head. Before I get out of bed, I pray it starts with Thanksgiving and leads into the request for the day. I woke well rested, I believe partly to not waking up to an alarm. I don't know about you friend, but when I know I can sleep until my body wakes me up, I rest better. I had Thursday and Friday off this week, and I knew that when my head hit the pillow Wednesday night. During that morning prayer, I heard voice of the Holy Spirit just a little bit louder. I've noticed that when I'm rested, I can hear him more clear. He basically wrote this episode in my head before my feet ever hit the floor. I love when that happens, even though I could hardly keep up, I was excited because I knew you were in for a blessing. As promised, we are discussing the parts of the armor today and how to use those pieces of the armor in your spiritual battle that you face every day as a grieving mom. Are you lost in the chaos of grief, struggling to find your way in the darkness? Are you asking yourself, will I ever be able to enjoy life again? Are you wondering where God is right now? Welcome to the grief mentor show. This podcast is a safe place for you. It will shine a light into the shadows, helping you discover that joy and pain can coexist that you still have purpose. And there is a path to peace. Hello, friend. I'm Teresa Davis. I too was lost in the chaos of grief the day my son died. Just like you, I longed for peace in this unfamiliar world. I longed for the way, crushing my chest to be lifted so I could breathe. I clung tightly to the anger. And it was there that I discovered the tools I needed to navigate life after loss. And I'm ready to help you do the same. If you're ready, I'm holding my hand out to your friend. Let me show you the way one step at a time. I'm inviting you today to spend one hour with me in a live grief masterclass. The date is August 5th. I created a fancy landing page where you can register to join me. It's a free class that'll help you discover peace in the chaos of your grief. No more feeling lost. I will equip you with tools for your journey that will help remove the overwhelm. And most of all, help you see hope for your future. And that my friend will help you have the confidence that you are going to make it. When you're grieving, the two most important things you need is God's word and community. And this class offers you both go to my show notes and hit the link to register. If you don't know how to access the show notes, when you open my show, whenever you hit my podcast art, you know, where you see my picture and it says the grief mentor on whatever platform you listen on. Once you hit that podcast art, you'll see all the list of episodes will appear. When you click on an episode, it automatically takes you to the show notes. You might see a little button that says show more. Click on that. And it'll give you like a mini description of the show. And that's where you can find important links. Find the one that says the grief master class registration with the grief mentor. An easy way to register is to click the link in your email. I sent you this morning. Now it's important to register for the class for two reasons. Number one, when you register it automatically submit your name for the door process. There'll be three door process for those that attend live on the day of the event. The second reason to register is if you cannot make it live, you will automatically receive the replay. I want to see you there. It's a come and see and be blessed kind of day. I created a workbook just for you so that you can follow along with the topic and take notes on what stands out and speaks to you. Now, if you're not on my email list and you want to be, go to the show notes and hit the link. My monthly emails are there to nurture you in your grief. It's simple. It offers a little bit of behind the scenes about the podcast. There's also a blog where I highlight the newest podcast review. So you may see your name there in that block. I share my podcast reviews right there every week. It's also where I share a mini blog of sorts about real life grief. Now if you haven't met me and you would like to get the chance to know me a little better in person, this is your opportunity. I cannot wait to meet you August 5th. This past Sunday, I was sitting in church. First, let me preface with what I'm getting ready to say with the fact that I am your praise and worship gal. Okay, I was that way before Andrew died. And honestly, it went away for a while. And I don't remember the exact day that it came back because as you will know, managing grief is baby steps. And we crawl before we can walk. I love praise and worship because I picture locking arms with Andrew and praising our father together. Because that is one thing that I'm confident that he's doing right now. How do I know? Because you cannot be in his presence and not praise him. That is what angels do 24 seven holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. If you're a longtime listener, you know how I feel about that. But there are a few songs that I still struggle to sing. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. The songs where the words say things that we are not 100% comfortable saying. Because you and I have walked this road. We understand the cost. Right? It's easy to sing and praise with hands held high. When this life has not torn the sacred from you, the life of your child. This past Sunday, the words were too sharp. And I found my mouth shutting down and unable to say the words. You know what I mean? When that feeling rises up from deep inside, and it makes you feel like your stomach is doing flips and you just might lose your morning coffee. Yeah, that feeling. Here are the lyrics. What a joy it is to follow Jesus. What a gift it is to bear his name. What an honor to choose surrender. And make him my everything. I didn't pause with the first three lines. But that last one, it hurt. And I asked myself, can I really say that? Make him my everything. Do I really believe that? Because in my mind, that meant if everything I hold dear to me is taken away, and I don't mean physical things. Let's just get real here. If everyone I love is taken away, could I choose to surrender and allow him to be enough? It was a moment for me as I hesitated to sing those words. The tears were streaming down my cheeks because friend, no one knows that pain like you and I. So I said, Lord, please help me help my unbelief as I learn to trust you more than I remained in a posture of prayer and praise, submitting my unbelief to him. friend, no one understands our pain better than Jesus, the one that walked this earth and suffered for our sake, even when he asked for the cup of death to be removed. And God said, no, my son. This is my will. Jesus understands the battle we face to survive the death of our child. And he gives us the tools and the mindset in his word to teach us how to fight the battle. Remember one of the points from last week be strong in the Lord in his mighty power. By the way, if you didn't catch last week's episode, go ahead and listen today. But then go back and pick that one up so that you can understand the why behind the armor of God. Last week I left off with the pieces of the armor. I'll leave a link in the show notes for you. It's a document that that I wrote on the pieces of armor. And it might help you have some additional clarity about each piece. Let's review the eight steps that I gave you last week. And then we're going to break him down one by one. Number one, tighten the wide band of truth around your waist. Number two, put on the breastplate of righteousness. Number three, strap to your feet the gospel of peace in preparation to face the enemy with firm footed stability and readiness produced by the good news. Above all, lift up the protective shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Remember, we talked about those arrows. They are launched to cause harm to crushed and to take away your hope and put on the soundment of salvation. And number six, take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And number seven, the last piece for success for the battle is with all prayer and petition, pray with specific request at all times on every occasion and in every season in the spirit. I have a question for you today. What do you think is the most important piece of the armor? If we were sitting across from each other, what would you say? Picture for me, if you will, a Roman soldier. And remember that Paul was imprisoned at the time of this writing and Ephesians, Ephesians chapter six, what I just read to you, those pieces came from the Amplify version. Paul called himself an ambassador and chains. I've read that he was physically chained by the wrist to a Roman soldier, because if he was fast into a Roman soldier, it would be impossible for him to escape. I have no way of fact checking that, but whether he was chained to a soldier or not, he had a vivid picture all around him of the armor that the Roman soldier or guards would wear. So what was the answer to your question? Which piece of the armor is the most important? Did you think about it? Did you go down through the list? Did you mentally choose one over the other? You likely said every piece of the armor is important, which is the right answer. But let's apply that. Question number two for you. How often do you equip yourself with every piece of the armor? For example, maybe you're a Christian and you've accepted Christ, and you've chosen to follow him. Therefore, you have the helmet of salvation, right? You know that you're saved and will spend eternity with him. You wear that piece of armor every day. You know with confidence that nothing can pluck you out of his hand, John 1028. You have the helmet of salvation and it is secure. But maybe you forgot about the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. Oh wait, what about the shield of faith? And where's your weapon? Do you think that you can battle with the enemy without a weapon? Which is the sword of the spirit? So picture with me that Roman soldier again and see him only wearing a helmet. None of the rest of the armor. How long do you think that he will last in the battle? Another example, you wear the helmet of salvation because you know you belong to Jesus and you read the word of God. Doesn't that count? Yes, it counts. But question number four, what do you do with the word of God that you've just read? Luke 8 verse 11 and 12 tells us that the enemy takes the word of God from our hearts so that we won't believe. The enemy stands against your spiritual growth every time you receive a word from the Lord because he will attempt to snatch it away merely reading the word of God and not applying it to your life will not be effective. So let's picture that Roman soldier again. Now he's got the helmet of salvation and he's got a sword in his hand but no other pieces of armor. And on top of that, he doesn't know how to use the sword to protect himself. So he goes out into battle. He's got the helmet and the sword but he has no idea how to use it. How well do you think he's going to do in the battle? His body's exposed and he doesn't even know how to defend himself with the sword that he's holding in his hand. Friend, I've thought this through in so many ways trying to give you the visuals that you need to connect the dots. So you get the idea here. We set ourselves up for defeat and we don't even realize it. Going into battle with an enemy ill-prepared will not go well for the Roman soldier and it won't go well for you either. So let's review. What is our first responsibility according to Paul? Do you remember? Be strong in the Lord in his mighty power. Friend, that means that first we have to realize the power to win the battle is supernatural. It doesn't come from human strength. Not only must we read the word of God but we must put it into practice, right? We can't walk out onto the battlefield with one or two pieces of the armor expecting to win the battle when the rest of our body is exposed. So now you know how important it is to practice using, okay? That word's going to come up again. Practice using all the pieces of the armor. So let's break down each piece and its purposes. By the way, the order in which Paul lists the pieces would have been the order in which the soldier would have applied his armor. Remember the first piece of armor that he talks about in that piece of scripture, Ephesians chapter 6, is "Titan the wide band of truth around your waist." The belt the Roman soldier wore around his waist was the centerpiece of it all. This was the belt on the soldier's tunic where the sword hung and it gave him freedom to move and still have his weapon close. The belt was the foundation of the soldier's army. It held the sword and it also kind of held up the breast plate of righteousness. The belt was incredibly important because one of the things that it did was allow them to take the garments that maybe would hang down and they could tuck them up in that belt and give them the freedom to be able to move quickly when they needed to. Remember, Satan is the father of lies. He disguises himself and manipulates your perspective. He wants to destroy you and your family. He wants to divide your home. He constantly reminds you of your past mistakes and bad choices especially when it comes to the death of your child. But this is a big but friend. Listen closely. He cannot stand against the truth. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14, 6. If you want victory, you need to know the truth and the truth begins by understanding who you are in Christ. Managing your thoughts while grieving, in my opinion, hinges completely on your ability to apply the truth of God's Word. For example, I would love to share some examples of how I have helped other moms reframe thoughts with God's Word that was about to destroy their life. But I haven't asked their permission, so we will use an example from my personal journey. One of the lies I believed from the enemy was that Andrew died alone. And for those that you'd that know my story, Andrew died a very tragic death. We read every word of the CVR report that was published three years after his death. We were told by people smarter than us while we were waiting for those reports that Andrew likely was unconscious due to the rapid descent of the plane from a high altitude. However, due to my unrelenting desire to know exactly what happened to my son, I read every word of every report that was released from the NTSB from the investigation of the plane crash. Inside those reports, information seemed to suggest that Andrew was flying that plane. When you're in the nose dive falling out of the sky with the nose of the plane down, it doesn't randomly come up on its own. I read every detail of the position and the angles of the plane, which suggested that Andrew was very much alive. And he was able to actually right side the plane out of the spiral from an upside down position from a 90 degree angle to a 45 degree angle, not possible to do on its own. He had 30 seconds, two seconds after his made a call. The nose of the plane, under high velocity, crashed into the ground. Friends, all I could see at that point was the backside of God walking away. And I was full of bitterness and anger. The enemy convinced me that Andrew died alone, and he was afraid. If you want to know more of how I moved from that place to where I am now, listen to the episode that we did on the anniversary of his death this past November 2023. I'll link it for you in the show notes. The truth of God's word was revealed to me in Hebrews 1135 Amplified Version. I will never, under any circumstances, desert you or give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake you or let you down or relax my hold on you. Assuredly not. The truth friend set me free from the bondage of the lies that I was believing about Andrew's death. That is the supernatural power of God's word. Number two, put on the breastplate of righteousness. Why do you have to put it on? Because you don't come equipped with it friend. Out of your mother's womb came you and you didn't show up wearing the breastplate of righteousness. You have the privilege of wearing this breastplate because you are covered in the blood of Jesus. If you have said yes to him and follow him, you did not earn it. It was given to you freely when you said yes to Jesus. Spiritually putting the breastplate of righteousness on says to the enemy, I know to whom I belong and there is nothing you can do about it. It says I'm in right standing with my Jesus and nothing can come between me and him. So you can just take those lies devil and put them back into your goodie bag because they're not going to work on me in Jesus name. That's the power of wearing the breastplate of righteousness. Number three, strap to your feet the gospel of peace and preparation to face the enemy with firm footed stability and readiness produced by the good news. You cannot move forward in the battle without the right pair of shoes. Think about it. If you don't have the right shoes for the journey, you're going to get blisters. Your feet might start bleeding and before you know it, you have to stop and wait for your feet to heal. The gospel provides the footing for everything that we do. It is your foundation and without it, you will never experience the peace that surpasses all understanding. It doesn't matter how powerful the rest of your body is. If your feet are wounded, you are easy prey for the enemy. What does that look like in grief? It looks like you searching the word of God to get the answer to the questions that is keeping you from having peace in your grief journey. If you have worked with me in a one-on-one session, you know, this is one of the first places we go because those questions that linger, that cause doubt, that take away our joy, that remove our faith, those are the questions that we have to take to the word of God and get answers to because that is what is keeping you from peace in your grief journey, right? You take those questions to God in a spirit of prayer and then you listen for the answer and that means spending time with him and in his word. That's how it becomes a lifeline because, friend, when God reveals something to you that you have searched for in his word that gives you freedom from the prisons of your thoughts, you'll never forget it. Number four, above all else, lift up the protective shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Picture with me once again the Roman soldier. Enduring word commentary puts it this way and I quote, the shield Paul describes is not the small round one, but the large oblong shield that could protect the whole body. In ancient warfare, these fiery darts were launched in great numbers at the beginning of an attack. The ideal was not only to enter the enemy, but to shoot at him at all sides with a massive number of arrows and he goes on to say that the confusion would throw off the normal defenses of the soldier and the panic would tempt him to remove the shield and run to escape, which would leave him defenseless and drive him straight into the arms of the enemy, which for him meant certain death. I want to point out something to you here because I said in the opening today that there are two things that we need when we are grieving and that is the truth of God's word and community. If you've ever watched a show where the soldiers looked and fought like Roman soldiers, I can't think of anything right now that I've seen except maybe something like Spartacus or something similar. If you've ever seen a show like that, maybe you can picture with me what I'm about to scrap. When the enemy was launching those arrows, the whole fleet of soldiers would huddle in such a way that nothing was unprotected because of those really large shields that I described to you earlier, their whole bodies would be protected. They would been down low with that huge shield forming a barrier and preventing the fire from penetrating. This is important for you today, friend for two reasons. Number one, their bodies were shielded from harm because of their armor and number two, their strength came from each other. Singled out on their own, fear may have overtaken them and they would have become easy targets for the enemy, but together they were able to draw strength from each other. Friend, the importance of community cannot be overemphasized in your grief journey. Just like these soldiers needed each other to be strong for the battle, we need each other in our grief and put on the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation protects us against discouragement, against the desire to give up. It gives us hope that not only will survive the death of our child, but life with them is not over. There's more to come. If you have doubts about where your child is spending eternity, then I suggest you listen to the four part heaven series. It will lift your spirits in a way you cannot experience without the hope of God's word. And the last piece of the armor is to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Using the word of God in battle takes practice. Remember when I said you were to hear that word again? The word of God is alive and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. You know what that means? You know what a double-edged sword is? Both sides of the sword are blades that are sharp, not like a knife that's only sharp on one side. A double-edged sword can cut from both ends. The power of the sword comes from God himself in the form of the Holy Spirit. So how do you use this sword in your grief journey? Exactly how I showed you with my personal journey. When the enemy attempts to lie to you, you speak the word of God right back at him. When he haunted me with my thoughts of Andrew dying alone and scared, I said, "Oh no, not today Satan." And then I would quote scripture. And I did that every single time that he came crouching at my door until the fight lost its flavor for the enemy. He knew I was standing firm because my feet were well prepared by the peace of the gospel. And I was equipped with the whole armor. And each time he threw that fiery dart, I lifted my shield of faith. And I used the truth of God that was holding me firm about my waste, knowing that because I was covered in the blood of Jesus, I had the confidence that when I picked up that double-edged sword and wielded it toward him with my head covered in the security of my salvation, that my God was fighting the battle for me in Jesus name. Friend, that is how the battle is won. And last but not least by any means, the last piece of the armor to be successful against the enemy is prayer. Friend, I would like to suggest to you that starting your day without prayer is like walking into a den of lions. It's like walking into a battle completely defenseless. Paul tells us to pray and petition God with specific request. Okay, I just heard you say, "Why pray?" He's going to do what he wants anyway. Friend, if this is you, we need to spend some time together. The value of having someone speak into your grief journey with the power of the Holy Spirit at work will change your life, not because of my words, but because of his words. Our responsibility as believers is to stand firm and hold your ground, put on the whole armor of God. That means apply each piece and what it means to your life and the rest is God's problem. Friend, I personally put on the whole armor of God every day in a spirit of prayer. I speak each piece out loud and what each piece of that armor means to me and then I pray and I ask him to equip me for my day, staying alert and in a spirit of prayer at all times in Jesus name. Wow, that was a lot. I know you may have to listen to this more than once to grasp it all. I counted a privilege that you hit play today. In my prayer is that as you sit at the feet of Jesus that something that I said would give you a piece of the puzzle of your life of your grief that brings a perspective that you may not have been able to see before. I feel the urge to pray for you. Father, I pray that what they heard today would not be stolen from them. I pray in Jesus name that each person that you have put before me for such a time as this will reap the benefits of using the armor of God daily. I pray that you will remove confusion and replace it with clarity, that you would remove fear and replace it with peace, that you would remove doubt and replace it with faith. And we give you all the praise and the glory in Jesus precious name. I pray. Amen. Friend, don't forget to register for the grief master class. Do it right now so that you don't forget. And that my friend is all I have for you today. So until next time, take care. To today's episode, touch your heart. If it did, would you take a moment and leave a review on Apple podcast? I read every single one. Scroll all the way down past all of the episodes to you come to a place where you can leave five stars. And would you go a step further and write a written review? It would mean the world to me if you did. Would you mind to share today's episode with somebody that you know that needs a ray of light in their grief journey? I would so appreciate it if you did. From my heart to yours. [Music]
