GIVER
Wisdom Principle – Stewardship │Piece of God’s Armor – Helmet of Salvation
Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. “Take the helmet of salvation…” Ephesians 6:17a
Protection for the Most Easily Shaken
Long before our present-day medical journals and best safety practices, Scripture spoke to ‘first the natural, then the spiritual’. There has always been a good reason for wearing a helmet. It serves as protection for the most easily shaken part of the body: the head. A processor of the seat of one’s mind, will and emotions.
We wince at news reports detailing ‘no helmet’ on motorcyclists or bicyclists injured or killed. Some sports require the preventive wearing of helmets. Tell pro football players a helmet is unnecessary. Medical patients who have undergone cranial or brain surgery may wear a helmet for protection during critical healing.
And in natural and spiritual applications, neither wars nor battles are the time for dress uniforms or skivvies, but for full armor and weaponry, including one’s issued helmet.* Our conflict is not with mere flesh and blood.
The Helmet of Salvation and A Renewed Mind
When he wrote his Ephesians 6 passage on the Armor of God, Paul could personally vouch for the transformative effect of “taking the helmet of salvation…”, evidenced in his writing of a renewed mind in Romans 12:2. His faith and stewardship was increasingly tested and tried as he refused to become a turncoat.
And for what purpose? First, that He might gain Christ! [1] And, to know and walk in the will of God in increasing measure – for his life, those given into his care, and the many for whom Christ laid down His very life and took it up again. I thank God upon every remembrance of Paul’s written witness of a transformed life.
And do not follow the customs of the present age but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what God’s will is–that will which is good and beautiful and perfect. Romans 12:2 – Weymouth
Faith and the Principle of Stewardship
As Paul witnessed the Roman soldiers with his natural eyes, it was Holy Spirit’s opening his spiritual eyes of understanding [2] that caused Paul to know this: the principle of stewardship should cover our whole life.
Paul’s life journey provides demonstration that where God’s will be set to prevail, there is also at the ready His faithful supply from His riches of mercy – the strength, support, guidance, protection, and provision needed.
What we do with what Giver God has given us is the essence of stewardship. For Paul, to whom was given the revelation to ‘put on Christ’ as the Armor of God, the Father’s love had overwhelmed and captured him. Who was he, this religious persecutor of ones who held to things holy and true, to be arrested by such great Love and enlisted a steward of the same? May those eternal waves and flames of that Love baptize us in Christ’s victory!
The Will of the Spirit of God
There is something about comradeship in the will of the Spirit of God that spans the Ages. It was shown in the lives of Kings Saul and David under the Old Covenant, and the reach hundreds of years later to Saul who became Paul, “an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God”.[3] A tie only the Spirit of God can bind.
In His days of humanity, Jesus stood as the Door between the closing of the Old Covenant of type and shadow (that all pointed to Him) and the entrance into the New Covenant of eternal life found in union with Himself.
In His Deity, the Son of God remains deeply entwined with those gone before and those who will yet witness to Him. He Who lived in the past days of Saul and David was ever living for Paul’s days ahead. As He is for ours.
Saul the Soulish
Stewardship and the Helmet of Salvation are inextricably bound together. Scripture tells us that the first king God granted was at the will of the people who desired to be like the other peoples around them. We’re all familiar with the term strong-willed. It was a dubious, indeed, sinful request to rebel from the outset, for God’s own word made clear to His people that He the Lord was their Protection and Provider like no king in history would ever attain. He had been, was, and would be their ever-present Proof of No Other god Before Him.
Then when they begged for a king God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years. [4]
The people’s entreaty was brought before the Lord by the Prophet Samuel, who had warned them about taking over them a king. God told Samuel to give them what they asked for. Then He singled out Saul as His chosen ‘prince of the people’ and gave Samuel the instructions he was to follow in anointing him as King.
Besides long suffering, the Lord is Faithful and True. He encouraged and honored Saul. While the people’s will temporarily prevailed (for 40 years – a generation), He did not shun Saul but remained alongside him in Spirit, His Father’s heart desiring to see him grow strong and develop in wisdom and skill. He instructed Saul through Samuel’s relationship with him. This same will of the Spirit of God waxed strong in Samuel’s relationship with the Lord, sourcing his care for Saul – coupled with his commitment to stewardship that leads to salvation. And Samuel exhorted Saul and the people to not turn away from the Lord, but to serve Him with their whole heart.
God and Samuel remained faithful. When Saul proved himself unworthy of the throne through his own reasoning and foolish act of disobedience, God re-established His will[5]. Samuel continued – in intercession. [5]
David in the Days of Saul
After he deposed him (Saul) he raised David to the throne, a man of whom God himself bore testimony in the words, ‘I have found David … the son of Jesse … a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ [6]
As debated has been the phrase said of David, “…a man after God’s own heart,” God Himself makes it clear: “who will do all My will.” Both Saul and David were given the word of the Lord about God’s will. It is what they personally did with it – stewardship – that served as the lens by which God looked on their heart. He did not flag in His love but observed their faith. His eyes still search to strengthen those with hearts committed to Him.
It was evident the people looked (and still are prone to do) at the outward appearance of first Saul, and later David. Saul stood head and shoulders above any others, handsome, kingly. David was the runt of eight brothers, ruddy, weathered muscle from hours in the field of sheep. Neither was perfect. They were human.
In the end, pride was Saul’s downfall. [7] He took it upon himself to act as priest rather than wait for Samuel. He deliberately disobeyed a direct command from the Lord. He exercised a religious spirit to justify his disobedience, saying he purposed to sacrifice to the Lord. Although king, he placed his will before the Lord’s. [8]
King Saul and David had a tenuous relationship. Scripture tells their history, which reads as tested, tried, and wearied as does Paul’s life generations later. Not unlike ours, whose days may and often do read like theirs.
“O God the Lord, the Strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.” David’s prayer in Psalm 140:7 (AMPC)
David was surrounded by enemies. Whether beasts after the sheep, the Philistine giant, the scorn of those close to him, Saul determined to hunt him down and take his life, or traps and devious strategies set to snare his natural and spiritual feet, he was beset by adversaries on every side.
Scripture tells us it was about fifteen years from the time David was initially anointed to become king, to the fulfillment of the Lord’s word of being raised to the throne. God’s will is not cultivated in overnight sensations.
Through it all, David grew to know his help and hope was He alone who could cover his head, literally, “in the day of weapons.” It is what set David apart from those seeking to cut him off from the very purpose God gave him to steward. It remains true for all who seek to clothe themselves with the whole Armor of God.
Two Sauls from the Tribe of Benjamin
In study, I was struck by the fact that these two Sauls, generations apart, both came from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the twelve tribes. (David was from the tribe of Judah, the fourth son). Saul hid among the saddlebags fearful of kingship; Paul was making a name for himself, driven by a religious spirit.
Bookends on either side of David, recorded for our example and instruction are two souls whose Giver portion for stewardship was employed by the Lord God. By the will of the people, He gave Saul as king. By His own will, He apprehended Saul, renewing his mind as Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus to all who believe.
These three did not go through their journeys unscathed, never having experienced life’s battles. For our benefit, the record of their lives displays God’s principles – the value of His will in the natural that bear the weight of spiritual outcomes. Each left a legacy in their wake, recorded in Scripture for anyone to read.
Like the early believers to whom Paul ministered, we are living letters of the Anointed One. Not inscribed with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God on tablets of tender hearts, seen and read by everyone. [9]
The Steward of Wisdom’s House
Wisdom has built her house. Giver, you are the fifth of Wisdom’s seven hewn-out pillars. I pray you hold fast to the Lord God, the Strength of your salvation, Who is your glory and the lifter of your head. May you be found a faithful steward of this grace in which you stand: Christ your Life, the full and complete will of God.
~ Nancy
[1] Philippians 1:21; 3:8, I Timothy 3:13 [2] Ephesians 1:17-19a [3] Ephesians 1:1 [4] I Samuel 8-15 and Acts 13:21 [5] I Samuel 13:8-14 and 12:23 [6] I Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:21-23 [7] Proverbs 16:18 [8] I Samuel 10:8; 13:8-14; I Samuel 15 [9] II Corinthians 3:3
*Dream of Christ’s Bride and He, the Head: Vineyard Days – Selah X ~ Christ’s Bride and Part 5; and Beautiful Army of God
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