Armor of God | Girls Gone Bible
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All right, you guys, we have, before we start, a really beautiful, important, exhilarating, insane announcement to make. We're going on tour. Officially, we have already done a few dates, as you guys know, but we have the next six months of tour fleshed out. We have no words except we are so grateful to Jesus, to you. We can't believe that you guys have given us this opportunity to see you in person, in theaters.

Lift up the name of Jesus and let us love on his people. You guys truly are our family. And to be with you guys in person is one of the greatest gifts we could ever receive. And we are so excited to be with you and just lift up the name of Jesus and glorify him and praise with you guys and cry and laugh. We just love you guys. And to get this opportunity to be with you guys in person is...

Thank you, Jesus. We love you so much. We're going to put the cities and the dates on the screen. And then you guys can also go to girlsgonebible.com slash tour. We'll put in the description as well. We're so grateful and we love you so much. Thank you, Dad. Isn't it cool that he can be in this chair and that chair at the same time? Hey, buddy. He's so cute. How funny that is. Three weeks later.

And we still have this lingering cough. That is insane. Yeah. It's not COVID. It's not. It was definitely COVID, but we're way past that. Anyways. Hi, guys. I'm Ange. And I'm Ari. And this is Girls Gone Bible. We are a faith-based podcast where we talk about Jesus, the Bible, mental health, life, everything. Everything that you may be going through, we probably talk about it.

We always say, come as you are, just don't stay that way. God loves you so much. Jesus is very real, and we hope that you know him better by the end of this episode today. Yeah, that was a good intro. Thanks, Ma. What's up, bud? What's up, bud? What are you doing? How's my dog doing? How's my dog? Well, where... What's God teaching you these days? What's God teaching me these days? Or maybe this week? I...

Can I tell you the funniest thing? Actually, I don't know if I told you. I actually don't think I told you. Tell me. So as I've told you guys recently, I started reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I'm trying to get through from beginning to end. And I was doing really well. I love Genesis so much. And then I hit Leviticus, which is only the second book of the Bible. And it's taking me a little longer to get through it because now I'm like bouncing around. I'm going back to the New Testament and like...

I just, if you've ever read Leviticus, you know it can feel a little bit uninspiring sometimes. It is all about...

sacrifices and altars and peace offering and guilt offering and sin offering and purification. And if you have a skin disease, this is how you get purified. If you have like bodily issues, this is how you get it. Like it's just so much information in the Old Testament about the law before Jesus came and what you had to do to atone for your sins. And it's beautiful and very difficult to get through. It feels really uninspiring.

And I'm just like, where's Jesus? I want to read Hebrews. I want to read about the cross.

most people feel this way where they're like, if it's not talking about Jesus, I'm not really that interested. And so I have to admit, so I'm in Leviticus and I'm trying to get through it. And I'm just, I'm in my room and I'm reading and I just stopped because I'm like, I'm just going through it. I'm like, not really, I'm not receiving anything. I'm not taking anything in. And I just stop and I'm like, God, what do you want from me in this? Like what, what,

where are you, Jesus? Like, Jesus, where are you? What am I supposed to receive? I don't understand. And I start reading and I'm not reading anything inspiring, nothing that points to Jesus in my mind, nothing that would like usher in the presence of God. No emotion is evoked or anything. And then all of a sudden I'm reading about like peace offerings and

And all of a sudden, the presence of God just, like, fills my room. Glory just, like, all over my body. The manifest presence of God just, like, ushers in, fills my chest, fills my heart. And I just start laughing. And I'm like, what are you doing here? I'm like, what are you doing here? I didn't even ask you to come. Like, I'm not even, like, reading about you. Why are you? Why did you just come? And I just hear God be like, I'm in all of this. Mmm.

I'm in it. I'm here. I'm with you. Keep going. Keep reading. And it was like the most beautiful, the sweetest encouragement that I needed to just be like, he's in all of it. Even when you don't think, even when it doesn't look like Jesus or it's not pointing to Jesus, like Jesus is in it. And it was just the sweetest encouragement.

little moment. When you get those revelations with reading his word, it literally brings you to your knees. And that's a great point that you pointed that out because so many people even... You probably... When you read Leviticus, I think you told me it's hard to read. It's not easy to read. And God will bring the words to life and he'll give you revelation if you keep sticking through it. It's so true. That's great for people to hear that because so many people...

have a hard time with that. Totally. And I even realized too in reading Leviticus, because I kept asking, so what's the point? I'd read things that I'm like, what does this have to do with me? It was so crazy what they had to do back then. I mean, it's like 26 chapters of instructions on how to purify yourself through blood sacrifice. And I'm like, why do I need to read this? This has nothing to do with me. And then I felt God press in and be like, first of all, I'm showing you

That before Jesus, what you would have had to do would have never, you would have never accomplished it. It would have never been sustainable. And it's also like, be grateful for the free gift of salvation, the free justification that we receive through our faith in Jesus, that he came as the ultimate lamb of God. That's right. The atonement for our sins. Once and for all, the ultimate high priest. We don't have to do anything. Yeah. And except believe in him.

I'm sorry, I'm just picturing us going out, finding some lambs. No, imagine me and Ari having dinner. We wanted to wish someone who we met at our very first show in Atlanta. She marked our life forever. She was so special.

And it's her birthday today, so we want to say... Grayson, happy birthday! Our sweet Grayson. Let me post a video right here. Yes. What's your name? Grayson. Grayson? I'm 22 and I'm in a normal home. Uh-huh. The doctor said I'm going to make it. Did you make it? Yeah, you did, Grayson!

Not to remember. This is a night for us. Not to remember. What do you become? Awesome.

So this week, Grayson, we met her at our first show in Atlanta. She came with her mom and she was wearing like a makeshift. She made her own Girls Gone Bible shirt. So Grayson, we love you so much. We're so grateful you're a part of GGB gang. Happy birthday, sweet girl. We love you and we love your mom too. So what are we talking about today, R? The armor of God. Oh, do you want to talk about something? You're weak. No, no. Okay, I'm good.

Go ahead. Why don't you kick it off and say what we're going to talk about today? Can I ask you and you tell us? Huh? I'm going to ask you. So what are we talking about today? Just say what we're talking about. Okay, okay. All right. To gay guys. To gay? I said it by accident.

Okay, today, you guys, we are talking about the armor of God in Ephesians chapter six. I hope that you guys have read it because it's incredibly important to know how to put on the armor of God. But if you haven't, we'll get into it today.

The armor of God, I love. So the armor of God is like it's a biblical metaphor that the Apostle Paul uses to basically describe the spiritual tools and defenses that we as Christians need to withstand temptation and attack and spiritual warfare. Like this whole thing.

the context of Ephesians 6 is a spiritual battle, it's spiritual warfare. And Paul is just emphasizing to us and encouraging us that we cannot enter into any sort of battle unarmed. And when it's a spiritual battle against not flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, evil rulers of the dark world, it is only by spiritual tools and defenses that we can withstand these attacks. - That's right.

Tell me I'm so pretty. Did you see us go into war? A hundred percent. I could see us. I could see me on that horse. Can you tell them the prophetic...

word that we got that one time about, yeah. We actually got two prophetic words. We should actually put the picture on. Look at this picture. He said, I see you, Angela, as like the demon slayer and you have your sword and the demons are coming. You're just slaying them. And then I see you, Ariel, you're the nurse. You're at the bottom rescuing everyone from the demons.

healing them and bringing them back to life like the doctor. And I was like, that is so true. That is so us. That's why we work together so well, you know? Oh, gosh, that's so cute. Yeah. What do you think about the armor of God? I think we need it to get through this really hard life.

that we're living in. And I remember living in this really hard life and not having the armor of God. And boy, was I in hell. And so I really feel so bad for people that don't have the armor of God because it's just, it's not sustainable. It's too hard this life and we need it to get through it. Yeah.

Let's read from NIV, actually. Let's read from this version because I prefer it. We're going to be reading from Ephesians 6, starting at verse 10. It'll be the New International NIV version, and it starts with the armor of God. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Sorry, I lost.

And after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

What? What the heck?

Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me. It says words may be given me. Does it say that to you? Yeah, yeah. Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Amen. I just want to point out that the main points, we'll go through everything, but the main points in this whole passage

passage is, be strong in the Lord, put on the armor, take your stand, stay alert, and keep praying. We'll go through each of the pieces of armor, but I just want to start out with saying, and we all know this, but there is a powerful army that wants nothing more than to take down Jesus's church. And

And that can be discouraging. That can be disheartening. That can be scary. And it can be exhausting sometimes. But I just want to point out the fact that while we speak today, always just meditate on the fact that the victory is already ours because of Jesus and what Jesus did on the cross. I've said it before that we don't fight for victory. We fight from a

place of victory. And if at any point in your life you're feeling discouraged or you feel like the powers of the enemy and of hell are too big and they're too grand and they're taking you out, I want you to remember

what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16. He said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail." That's a promise. The word of God is truth and it stands true today like it did 2,000 years ago that the gates of hell cannot, will not prevail in your life, in your family's life, in anybody's life around you. Jesus has the ultimate victory.

So good, Ange. So the first piece of armor that they mention in Ephesians 6 is the belt of truth, which Ari and I came on here from the very first day over a year ago to talk about truth, to tell the truth about who Jesus is.

And I love that truth is the first one in the armor that they mentioned because everything starts with truth. The truth of God, the truth of God's word, the truth of who Jesus is, the deity of Jesus, the truth of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected, Christ, the lamb that was slain, but is standing and seated on the throne in heaven. This is the truth that our whole life, that our whole faith is contingent on and hangs on. And I love the fact that

a belt, the belt of truth. Usually a belt is like kind of what secures the armor. And also it's like on a tool belt, all the tools hang off of the belt. So if the belt is the truth, every other spiritual discipline and tool and defense hangs on the truth of God. So we cannot fight without knowing the truth, not just knowing the truth, believing the truth with your entire heart. You receive the

the truth, you have to come to God in a place of humility. And once you do that, that's how you will receive the word of God. Without that, if we come with pride or ego, we'll be second guessing everything and we won't be able to live it.

And when I really let myself die and I said, okay, I'm done going by my own strength. Yeah. I have to come to a place of humility. And that's when I received it. And that's when I started living it. Yeah. Because if we ever come from a place of ego or pride, we will never receive the truth. Okay.

So that's why every single day you have to check yourself. I have to check myself. Wait, am I? That's not how I should be acting. And also, how do we know the truth is to study it. The best thing that I ever did for myself is study those scriptures. Study it. It says in Timothy 3 verse 15, and that from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures, which you are able to make.

Timothy was able to make right decisions because as a little kid, his grandmother and his mother taught him the scriptures. Another thing to know the truth is intimacy. Intimacy with God is your weapon. Faithfulness.

intimate time with him. That's when you receive the truth, when you really sit there in that quiet time, not just for five, 10 minutes, sit there like we always talk about for an hour, two hours. If you have work, I know some of you have children. It's really hard to receive and learn the truth. But when you

And like Stephanie E.K. said, she said, I have kids, but I still, I'll have the baby on my arm and still reading the Bible. Make sure you carve out that time. Anytime that I go a day without reading my Bible, without getting up in the morning and hitting down on my hands and knees and reading the truth, my day isn't right. So really spending that intimate time and being faithful and obedient to receive the truth. Amen. So good.

At the end of the day, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Yes, yes. You need the truth of God's word and who Jesus is. It's the only truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody gets to the Father except through him. You can't be protected in this life, in the spirit realm, without having Jesus on your side. It's only through the power of Jesus.

Next is the breastplate of righteousness. For literally for days now, Arnie and I have been like, put on the belt of truth, the last word of righteousness, the sword of the spirit. Every single person that I've been talking to, I'm like, hey, what's up? You know about the belt of truth? We've been really annoying.

The breastplate, so just in terms of just the military terminology, a breastplate is what protects, obviously, your breast, your chest, your heart. And God's righteousness protects our heart. I think about righteousness in this verse in two different ways.

I think about, first of all, pursuing righteousness is what protects us. Pursuing righteousness means to pursue the things of God, to pursue holiness, to pursue purity, to pursue being sinless and blameless in the sight of the Lord. I know for me and for everybody, sin is incredibly harmful. Sin is so dangerous. Sin hurts you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And pursuing righteousness...

protects you. It protects your emotions. It protects your will and your mind and everything about you. And the second part of it, and I love this part so much, is that

There is a righteousness that we receive through our faith in Jesus. We become the righteousness of God because of what Jesus did on the cross. It's only by what Jesus did. It's only because of the words that Jesus said when he said, it is finished. In those moments, he gave us the ability to be justified in the sight of God. Otherwise, it's not something that we can earn by work.

It says in Isaiah that he who had no sin became sin so that we, we could become the righteousness of God. And so through our faith in Jesus becoming righteous, that protects our heart. Yeah, so good.

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I believe that sin is truly like laying my sin down is truly what set me free of the depression, the chaos in my life. And when I think about sin, I think when I think about the flesh, it's not feeding into the flesh. It's not easy. It's difficult. And it's a battle every single day.

And I actually was just talking about this with a girlfriend of mine. She's like, you battle this when you're so close to Jesus? Yes, I actually battle it more. I battle things more now that I'm close to Jesus because the enemy is on my back even more because I'm doing something right. And so to love Jesus...

Is to have reverence for him and say, there's things that I might want to do. But God, I'm not going to do it because I respect you so much. I know what your word says. And I don't want to disobey that. I want to live how you lived. I want to have your thoughts. I want to live my life.

That makes you proud. And so the things that I might want to do sometimes, I'm not going to do because I love you so much. And what you've done for me in my life, I never want to be separated from you.

I never want to be disobedient. So I'm going to have self-control because that's more important than my flesh. And I'm going to live in the spirit because that's obedience. That's faithfulness to him. And that's closeness to him. And that is the most rewarding thing we could ever have. That's protection. It's protection. I love that you say that so much. Because living by the flesh...

It's depression. It's chaos. And it's destruction. But when we are living with the Spirit, that's life. Amen. And when I realize that, no temptation is going to overtake me because I know what it's like to be separated from God. And I don't ever want to go back to that life. Please, for the love of all things holy, don't let me go back to that life. Yeah. So good, R. Really?

Two different versions say this in two different ways. So let's just... So the NIV version says, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And in another version it says, with the shoes... Shoes? Shoes with meaning the peace that comes from the good news. Peace is something that I always talk about on GGB because it is truly...

something that I value so much in my life because I truly had never had peace. And there is truly a peace that comes when walking in obedience with God. And so just like the scripture says, I will keep you in perfect peace.

Amen.

Things that would have kept me bound in depression for months, that come my way sometimes, I now am like, wait a minute, I have peace in this moment, which I wouldn't have before because I have God within me. Because I have Jesus. I have the word of God. I stand firm in it.

I'm sorry. I stand firm in it even when things get hard. So I have peace. Yeah. And to live a life of peace is life. That's what life is. Right. We are not meant to...

Jesus doesn't want us to live with knots in our stomach, constantly in chaos, constantly in depression, constantly with a racing mind. That's not the way he intended us for life. He wants us to be in peace. The problem is, is we are all living of, we're living of the world. We're supposed to be just living in it, but keeping our eyes focused on Jesus. Yeah.

But most people don't do that. But when we follow his word, we obey it. We keep our eyes fixed on him. He keeps us in perfect peace, even in the darkest storms. Well, that's why it's called the gospel of peace, the gospel of hope, the gospel. I mean, when it talks about in Ephesians 6, the shoes, the shoes...

that keep you ready. It's basically our steady, sure-footedness that keeps us prepared because of the gospel of peace. So having the gospel in our life gives us the ability to run the race, gives us the ability, like shoes, if you think about it in military terms, like shoes are incredibly important. They have to be durable. And these, they kind of describe it as like these durable shoes that communicate a readiness to carry the gospel. And the

the gospel is what has transformed Ari and I's life. And I just want to also say, I think it's in 1 Thessalonians 5 maybe, where the writer talks about how these shoes that carry the good news, how beautiful are the feet that carry the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so for us being...

evangelists and ministers of the gospel and just like wanting to get the word out as much as we can. Like how beautiful are the feet that carry the gospel of good news, of peace. Yeah. Love it so much. One more thing I want to say that Ange and I always do is

We, it's the gospel, these scriptures that literally will carry you through your darkest days. Hold on to them, study them, learn them, speak them, speak them out loud when you're in these moments of despair and they heal you and they bring you that automatic peace because that's the gospel. I love that so much. I love it. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is the gospel. You know what? I just love the fact that like,

Sometimes I think it can get lost on people a little bit, what the point of all this is. Sometimes I think it can even get lost in the church. Jesus is not just a part of what we do. He is not like an aspect or a theme. He's not like a part of the gospel. Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is Lord. That is the gospel that we believe in. And so be

Because Jesus is Lord, the gospel should all be about Jesus. And I just want to just say that because I feel like so often we kind of get things confused where we think Jesus can be a part of what we do rather than being the entirety of what we do and who we are. He's the living water. Amen. The shield of faith.

Faith is such a massive part of my life. This one means a lot to me personally. In this specific context, it's basically saying that faith acts as a shield to protect us believers from, it says, the fiery darts of the devil, of the enemy, of the things that he throws at us all day long, which are insults, distractions, violence.

attacks, discouragement, like everything. That's what he does all day long in our faith in Jesus is what shields that. And the second you let that shield come down, you've left yourself open and vulnerable. And a lot of people who maybe struggle with faith a little bit, it's really hard to see because

The moment that you let your shield down, you've left yourself open. The moment that you let doubt creep in, you've left yourself open. And all the devil needs is just one little bit, one little opening to get in. We said it last time. All he needs is the tiniest thing and he can infiltrate your whole camp. And so faith for me is,

Faith is my life. Faith is my world. My faith in Jesus is everything to me. I make sure 24 hours a day that I am steadfast in my faith, that if I for any moment have any unbelief or doubt in my heart, I get to it at the very root of the issue right away, just like we talked about last week. We're so serious about the thoughts in our mind. We're so serious about getting to them right away and not letting them

Yeah.

Like you can believe and still have unbelief. And if you have unbelief, it's okay. It's normal. But it's not something that you should settle for. And it's something that you can bring to Jesus and say, Lord, help my unbelief. Help the doubt. Whatever is in me that doesn't believe you, that is compromising and hindering my faith in you. Because again, you let down the shield, open yourself up. My girl, I would like to just take a moment. I have chill bumps on my body because...

My girl taught me faith. You are the epitome of someone that has faith. And if there is one thing that I thank God for every day, it's that I had you to teach me faith.

It was so hard for me to grow up, always fall short and to always be in fear and timidity. And I never, I just, that was the one thing that I lacked so much was faith, even in our friendship, even still. And you remind me all the time, hey, what did God just get you through?

Don't you dare. You have faith. You remember what he got you through before. And so faith is so important to me. And it's been such a journey in my life. You have truly just been such an example of faith for me because I've watched you over and over again in such destructional situations. And I'll look at you and you'll be like, God's got this. It'll be good.

And it's made me so strong. And it's made me in situations where I feel hopeless or is this going to happen? Be like, wait, wait, no, no, no. I know who my God is. And so I honestly, I...

I want you guys to know that this girl really, that's why I see you with that sword because your faith is so inspirational and beautiful. And I just, it's, I thank God that he gave me you to watch from. I love you so much. Thank you. I was telling Angela this the other day, for anyone who hasn't read the story of David and

It is such a beautiful story and I would encourage everyone to read it. So here's a young boy and he stands up against this nine-foot Philistine who is suited up in gold-plated armor, who's never lost a fight before. And David's brother is in his ear and he's saying, who do you think you are? You have no shot. You're conceited. Your heart is wicked.

And David does not waver. He stands firm. And he says, oh, yeah, actually, I'm a servant. And I tend to my father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear comes to kill my sheep, I strike it and I rescue the sheep from its mouth. And when the lion tries to kill me, guess who rescues me? My God.

He's so confident in God. He doesn't even wear armor. He holds a little slingshot. And when he goes to fight the Philistine, he says, you come at me with your spear and swords. I come at you with my almighty God. And that is so inspiring to me because how many of us get thrown lies of deception and

to make us second guess ourselves, to keep us from our purpose and future. And David's story is such a perfect example to have courage, stand firm in the word of God, believe it, obey it.

And remember all of the battles God has gotten us through before and whatever you're facing now in this moment, not only will he get you through it, he will bring you to victory like he did with David. Amen. And that's true faith. Yeah. So good. I love what you mentioned about how he came through.

not even suited up in armor and stuff. And it just paints a perfect picture of like, when you have your spiritual armor of having faith in Jesus and you have God on your side, whatever the world thinks that you need to protect yourself. I feel like the world pushes all these things. Like you have to be successful. You have to be this, you have to have these things. You have to do that.

And you show up to like battles every single day with all these worldly things. And God's like, you could actually show up with nothing except me and you've won. That's right. Oh, you guys know I am always trying to find ways to eat healthier. But my problem is, is I don't know where to start. I want to find meals that are good for you, taste great and are not insanely expensive. My life has been so busy lately, you guys. When I get home,

All I want to do is eat and go to bed. Who has the time to whip up a complicated dinner in the kitchen? It's also so expensive and unhealthy to order takeout all the time. I need something quick, easy, and most important, nutritious. And the price for everything is going up. I want affordable meals that I can quickly make after a long day.

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Once again, that's dinnerly.com backslash offer backslash GGB for up to 25 free meals. And make sure you use my promo code GGB so they know I sent you. And another thing, too, because I've been we've been getting a lot of questions on this. Like, how do I how do I bring up the how do I talk about it? Should I talk about Jesus? Is it the place to talk about it? And yes, you should.

The Bible says we should suffer for Jesus in Jesus' name. And so don't ever feel ashamed of your faith or speaking the word of God in your workplace to your friends. Be bold in it because you will be greatly rewarded for that. Be bold. And if I could give a word of advice, use wisdom, use discernment and be heart-centered. I feel like

What is impactful and effective with Ari and I, I'm just going to be honest, when we preach, when we teach, when we talk to people, when we have Ari and I are in the most absurd places time and time again where Jesus is not there.

really accepted and people are receptive to the gospel from us. And I think it's truly because we show up so authentically ourselves and we're like, hey, this is where I was. This is what God has done. And when you come from a place of understanding the person, you've got to be somewhat relatable.

Because if someone can't relate to you, why would they trust you? And they can only trust you if you are their main point of contact between you're the middleman between them and Jesus at that point. To trust Jesus, they have to trust you first. So come just like heart-centered, open, honest, nonjudgmental, and be bold in your faith. And people love it. You actually think, you know, I was in Erewhon yesterday. Okay, so God's been...

God's been on this journey with me where I keep asking him, I'm like, God, I want to do more. I want to do more. I want to do more. And he's like, okay, I have more for you, but it's smaller. Yeah. Is that okay? I'm like, absolutely. Me and a friend, we've been talking and I felt very challenged to start doing

going in public and talking to God and being like, do you have a word for anybody here? Can you highlight anyone from me? And it happens so much that be careful what you ask for, because there's this resistance of like, I was in Erewhon yesterday and I'm with Carolina and we're sitting and I like pray over the food and I prayed for Carolina. And there's this guy who's sitting next to, he's like at the other table and

He's like so, he's from New York. Like he's from, he's really, he's like about it. He's starting to go. He's like, yo, that was effing beautiful, dude. That was effing, effing, effing beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. And I start dying laughing. I'm like, thank you so much. He's like, no, you don't know. That was beautiful. Anyways, me and Carolina are eating. This guy is sticking out to me like a sore thumb. I'm like, oh.

oh God, please Jesus, don't make me do this right now. There's so many people around. And a friend of mine told me the most beautiful thing. He said, when you ever have, like your heart starts fluttering and you have that resistance, it's because the space between like heaven and earth is so thin in that moment that you're entering into a situation like where you're divinely, like entering into a spiritual situation. And that's why you get that. And so you need to press in even harder when you get super nervous.

So I'm like so nervous. And I'm like, please, God, don't like this is a grown man. I don't even know if it's appropriate. I pray for him like whatever. He's starting to leave. I go, Carolina, I'm so sorry. I just I have. Hi, I'm so sorry. What's your name? He says his name. I'm like, I'm Angela. I'm a Christian. I just God has really highlighted you to me. Do you mind if I pray for you? He's like, yo, are you kidding me?

me. I would love it if you pray for me. I'm Jewish, but I don't care. I would love it. And I get up, I put a hand on him and I just pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal. I took advantage of the situation. I'm like, Holy Spirit, would you reveal Jesus to him? Would you show him? Would you encounter him? Would you? And I said, would you? I'm like, do you want me to pray for anything specifically for you? He goes, well, you know,

I'm not really that nice to people. Do you think you could pray that I'd be nicer? Of course he's not. Is he close? I said, I was like, are you from New York? I was like, well, you kind of are at a little bit of a disadvantage with the, you know, like we come off a little bit, whatever. Yeah, exactly. I was like, but you're good. You seem like a good guy. Yeah.

And whatever, I pray for him. And he's like, you know what? I'll consider going to church. And then he walks away. And I literally looked at Carolina and I said, had I let that man go, I would have thought about him forever if I didn't pray for him. So that's just a little word of encouragement. I'm waiting for Eli to one day message me and say that he now believes in Jesus. I'm believing for it. I really am. Listen, you bringing that up is so important because...

Sometimes we are not always going to have faith. Yeah. Even probably you. I'm sure you have doubts in your mind. That is why we need to be surrounded with people and love. We need to have accountability partners. We need people to remind us when our faith is weak. All in the Bible, everything Jesus did, pray. He told Peter, why aren't you praying for me? Go pray for me. Yeah. Pray.

praying for each other actually heals one another. So that's such a good reminder and it helps us remind us who we are when we lose faith, when we have the thoughts. Can you pray for me? Why are we so scared to ask for prayer? That's the first thing we need to be doing when we start getting the thoughts and feeling down upon ourselves and we have that lack of faith. It's so good.

What is the scripture? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the assurance of things unseen. I'm paraphrasing, but it's like faith allows us to see past our current circumstance and like ultimately see the victory that's on the other side. So in a situation where you're in the wilderness and things look really bad, it allows you to just move past that. It gives you like you can like.

widen your scope and see beyond what is in the natural, what's right in front of you. Faith is everything. And faith is really hard. I was just having a conversation with someone where like, faith is a gift. It's one of the gifts of the spirit. And God says that whatever gift you desire, ask me for it. And I want nothing more than to give it to you. So if you desire faith, which you should, you should ask Jesus for it. And he would love to give it to you. And there's something beautiful about faith though, where

I have situations in my life that I don't talk about. Everyone has a cross to bear. Everyone has a life wound. And mine are things that I can't speak about on a podcast. It's things that have to do with other people and it's just not something that I can publicly share.

So it's hard to get into it, but there are situations in my life that you would think would hinder my faith so drastically where daily I have a cloud of tragedy that hangs over and it's as if

In moments of joy, Ari has experienced this too, where we can be in moments of pure joy and then just doom will set in our whole body as a reminder of how can I be happy when people I love are suffering so deeply. And so there are situations in my life that are so hopeless and I try so hard to be mad at God and I can't be mad at Him. And no matter how hopeless I feel, I am also full of faith.

And I don't know what the theology is behind that other than a gift of faith. But it's something that I think about all the time. And I almost am like, no, I want to be mad. I want to be mad that this situation, there's no movement. There's no change. I've been praying for 10 years. This has to change. And I want to be mad. And it is so scary. And it doesn't seem like there's anything good that will come out of it. And yet my heart is full of faith. Yeah.

And I know why. It's because regardless of my circumstance, Jesus is Lord. My faith is in the truth and truth is

just is. It is what it is. Jesus is who he is and that's Lord. And so I just want you guys to know that even in the most hopeless, terrifying, brutal situations, faith is still possible. I know firsthand and I know it from my mom too. I'm not going to take credit for my faith because I say to Ari all the time, Ari,

is so impressive because she never watched anyone have faith. And so for her to develop faith in this time in her life is really impressive. I had the advantage where I got to watch my mom scream out to Jesus in the midst of the most painful situations, and that's where I get my faith from. Yeah, that's so beautiful. I'm so proud of you, Ange. I love you. I had a moment the other day where I was...

I've been going through something that I am just like, really, it's made me question things. Like, I'm just, it's truly, God truly will test your faith. Like, it's like there's...

There's things that you have to go through and it's a test. Everything's a test. And I truly believe he's like testing my faith. And I just had this moment the day before yesterday, it was in the morning and I've just, every day I just keep going and going regardless of the way I'm feeling. And I just hit my knees and I just started asking why. And I was like, I just, I'm really, get me out of this, get me out of this feeling I'm feeling. And then

I noticed myself remembering just these little things, even the littlest things that he's gotten me through. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I love you so much, Jesus. You've gotten me through all of this. Thank you. I have faith. I have faith. And I literally just started saying that over and over again on my hands and knees. I was like, I have faith in you. I have faith in you. And something lifted. It was this burden that I had been carrying in my chest and

And just saying that out loud and letting God hear that, that going to his ears is so pleasing to him. That no matter how dark of a storm you're in or whatever battle you're facing right now, to just keep saying, no, Jesus, I know it's dark right now, but I have faith. I know you are going to get me through this. There's something so pleasing to God's ears when he hears that.

And you know what? I also, something came to my mind. I wanted to speak to anybody who may be experiencing spiritual dryness or numbness or like you're in worship and you're not feeling anything or you're praying and you're speaking, but you're not really connected and you feel far from God. I just want to say that, you know, Ari and I have...

dealt with a lot of different types of spiritual attacks and hindrances and distractions. Something that if you guys watch like the past episodes from like earlier this year or just even just the past like few months, it's

I've been good for like two months, but the six months before that, every single time that I would go to minister or to preach or to speak or to talk about Jesus in any capacity, specifically the podcast, I would get this wave of fatigue come over me. And you can see in previous episodes, my eyes are low. I'm exhausted. Like there's just nothing there. And every single time, like I'd be fine. Every single time I would just get this wave of anxiety.

exhaustion and like not being able to even open my eyes or like think properly. And if I communicated well at all, it is genuinely, truly without a doubt, the spirit of God that spoke because in Angela's brain, like I was not putting sentences together.

So, and specifically recently, it's almost as if every time I go to worship, my whole body gets heavy and I become exhausted. And my arms, I can barely lift them. And I realized what was happening and I felt like God pressed in and said to me,

It might not feel like you're worshiping with all your heart, but I want you to know how much I appreciate and how much your praise blesses me when it's hard to. And so to worship and even say to him, God, I don't have the energy to worship you right now. And it might not feel like the best worship ever, but here it is anyway. And I promise you he's pleased with that.

Praise and worship even when you don't feel like it because it's doing something in you and it's blessing God. Yeah, that's so true. That's so true that you said that because that's exactly how I've been feeling. But to even just push yourself and sit on the floor in your living room and keep listening, even if you have to lay down, just to keep going, that's a test in itself. And sometimes when you feel spiritually dry as well,

You'll feel nothing and then boom. And be alert because be alert to his voice because he could speak through other people. There may be so many people that you need to help. That's why we need to be alert to the voice of God. Beautiful. Yeah. There are 365 days in a year, which means there are 365 days when you might need to buy someone a birthday present and finding the perfect gift for everyone that can take weeks.

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So we have the fifth piece of armor and it's the helmet of salvation. The helmet obviously protects our head and the helmet of salvation is symbolizing the protection of our mind and our thoughts through our salvation in Jesus. It says in Romans 8 that the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace, but the mind governed by the flesh is death. Ari spoke to that earlier. So

helmet of salvation, just the fact that you believe in Jesus, the fact that you believe in the salvation given to you, the gift of salvation given to you by Jesus, the sacrifice that Jesus made allows you so much protection in your mind and over your thought life and the hope of salvation. I think it says in Galatians or Thessalonians, I don't know. It says somewhere in scripture. I'm so sorry. I know the scripture. I just don't know what it is. It says that

I think Paul says something about how the helmet of salvation of hope, the salvation is our hope. And so that's what protects death comes from a lack of hope. And so our mind anxiety comes from a lack of hope. Hope is medicine to your brain, to your thoughts, to your body. And so having hope in the salvation of Jesus is what protects our thought life.

The sword of the spirit. I just love that this is the only offensive weapon in Ephesians 6. And that is why we're called Girls Gone Bible. The sword of the spirit, the word of God. The word of God. The word of God.

I mean the word of God. The word of God. The word of God. It's used to combat lies, deception, temptation. Scripture is what we speak over ourselves. Scripture is truth. We spoke about it. You spoke so much to it earlier in this episode. But Hebrews 4 says that the word of God is alive and active. It's sharper than a double-edged sword. It's literally a sword. It is what I...

I had a friend tell me, I've never heard anyone talk about scripture the way that you do. He's like, I never heard anyone like love it the way that you do. And I'm like, because it's changed my life. It's how I fight. It heals my mental health. The Bible saved my life. If you want to know what is going to truly get you out of the battles, the depression, the chaos, the anxiety, the mental health issues, the heartbreak,

It's this, it's this, it's standing firm in this. And it's not just skimming over pages. Guys, every single word in the Bible means something. Don't skim over the words. Read it. God just doesn't say things to say things. Everything he says has such divine meaning behind it. So when you read that, read it, study it, get it in your veins.

memorize it, memorize it. So then when we have these weird thoughts of Satan trying to masquerade himself in us, we said, oh, wait a

wait a minute. Oh no. Because this is what God says. This is living. It's alive and it's real and it saves lives. It will save your life. And not just one or two things is real in it. The whole thing is real. Front to back. Front to back. This is Jesus. This is power. This is power.

I'm obsessed. I love the word of God. Thank you, Jesus. I think something overall in this whole passage, in all of Ephesians 6, a message from Paul is stay alert.

And I want to advise you guys against passive faith. First of all, how could we be passive in our relationship with Jesus? Every hour, every second of every day should be us in awe and adoration of Jesus. He is the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most holy. So we shouldn't, our hearts should be so on fire for Jesus. There's no room for passivity. There's no room for nonchalant faith.

But especially when you think about the fact that we're in a spiritual battle, I'm sorry to be so dramatic about it, but you can't be passive. Because like we said earlier, try it. Try it. I'm sure you have. Be passive and see how easy it is for him to get in. And you need all...

all of these, every single piece of this armor between the truth, the word of God, the faith, the salvation, and the righteousness. Pursue righteousness. Pursue Jesus with your whole heart. Pursue holiness. Yeah. I know it can be deceiving sometimes seeing people living in the world. I know it can seem like it's fun and why can't I do that? And you girls are just being too much. No. No.

We are not to live of the world, but to live in it. And unfortunately, life is a battle. Every day it's a battle. And when you see things on social media and just how people are living their life, it's deception, you guys. It's not real. And we need this. We need Jesus because without this, we have no shot in life. Yeah.

I love that you just said that about the compromises and looking at people in the world and being like, it's not that big of a deal. I can talk like this. I can act like this. We don't have to be that intense. We don't have to be weird Christians. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Because that's what the word says.

I just, I can't say it enough. It's like, yeah, I hear people, they're like, yeah, I read the Bible, I go to church. And then I'm seeing them, you know, listening to whatever they want, doing whatever they want, living in sin. And they're wondering why they're so separated from God and they're living in destruction. Because you can read the Bible all you want and you can go to church whenever you want. But

But if you're not actually living it, living what God says, you can't live a life of fullness with Jesus. And you can't have a reactive faith. You have to have a proactive faith. You can't be reactive and wait for bad things to happen to you and say, oh, I should probably pray. Oh, maybe I should go to church. No, be proactive. Get ahead of it. Don't even let it near you. Don't let it near your camp or inside your camp. Can I say one more thing? I just want to say one more thing before we leave.

Guys, I know how hard the Christian walk can be. I do. Angela and I, we struggle a lot. We do. It's not easy picking up your cross and carrying it. It's not, but it's worth it. And

It's fruitful. And don't think that he's not with you because some days are really hard and some days you're not feeling it and you're feeling dry or you have feelings of depression. That's okay. I want you guys to know that it's okay to have a bad day. It's okay to not feel good. It's okay. Like I said, that's why we need community and people to remind us who we are. But I just want to let you know that it's okay to not be okay sometimes.

Sometimes we think that walking this walk, that it's all beautiful and butterflies, and it's not. It's actually can be harder sometimes. So understand that and just know that you're not alone. Amen. This specific tool of the helmet of salvation, salvation through Jesus. And if you don't know what that means, that means that God sent his son, his only son, Jesus, down to the world to become human, to become just like us.

Like we said in Isaiah, like it says in Isaiah, he who had no sin became sin. Jesus took on the penalty of our sin, became sin himself, so that we could have reconciliation and justification back to God, so that we could have eternity in heaven and we could have peace and a relationship with Jesus here on earth. And so that gift of salvation is available for you today. And all you have to do is pray.

confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. And he is. And these are two girls who didn't grow up in church. We have no reason to say this. Our dad's not a pastor who put us up to this. This is the truth. And so we're going to invite you guys to pray with us today. Yeah, repentance. People think that it's this weird thing, but it's turning in the right direction and coming from your heart and saying, God, I don't want to do this anymore.

cleanse me of my sins. Heavenly Father, I believe the scripture that says that Jesus Christ is your eternal son. I believe he went to the cross and died for my sins. I confess to you that I'm a sinner. Lord, I need your forgiveness. I'm asking you to save me. I'm trusting you to do it right now. I accept the forgiveness of my sins. I accept your gift of salvation. I accept you as my personal savior.

Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit and be the Lord of my life. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

If you just accepted Jesus for the first time, welcome to the family. I pray, I pray for you guys. I pray that God would encounter you. I pray that Jesus would encounter you, that he would wrap his arms around you, that he would send an army of angels to encamp around you, that he would form a hedge of protection around you, and that he would protect your mind, he would protect your body, he would protect your spirit from the attacks that might come. We cancel every attack, but we cancel every attack.

from the devil on you and your life in Jesus' name. And I pray that he would surround you with godly community, that he would get you discipled, that you would become a great, mighty man or woman of God, and that you would go out and create more disciples, and you would be a world changer, and that you would not just heal from mental health, yes, that, but then you would go out and change the world and heal mental health and heal other people. I don't know who I'm talking to, but gosh, do I have faith that I'm talking to someone. That's right, baby.

Thank you, Jesus. We love you guys so much. God, thank you. We love you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he turn his face towards you and give you peace. We love you so much. We love you, GGB family. God bless you.

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