Title: Dressed For Battle
Speaker: Pastor Ben Smith
Date: 10th May 2026
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Summary: “The strength that we find in the Lord by the Spirit comes from the softness of the attributes of the Spirit, not the hardness.” This episode takes a close look at the armour of God in Ephesians 6, and why God’s approach to spiritual warfare looks nothing like what we might expect.
Drawing from Ephesians 6, Isaiah, the Psalms, and the story of David and Goliath, the episode works through each piece of the armour and explains what it actually is and where it comes from. The girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the rest are not things we manufacture or maintain on our own. They are given to us, and their power comes not from human force or strategy, but from the character of God Himself.
The episode also follows the people of Judah, who were offered the quiet waters of Shiloah but chose military alliance instead, and paid for it. That contrast between trusting God’s provision and reaching for worldly strength runs through the whole message. When Hezekiah led Israel to rest in God rather than fight in their own strength, they won without lifting a finger. The same principle holds today.
Key Points:
- Spiritual battles cannot be won with carnal methods. Trying to fight them that way means defeat before you start.
- The armour of God is not your armour. Every piece of it, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, comes from God and is received, not earned.
- Strength in spiritual warfare comes through softness, prayer, trust, and the Spirit, not through force, arguments, or self-reliance.
Reference Scriptures:
- Ephesians 6:10-18
- Isaiah 11:1-5
- Isaiah 59:16-17
- Isaiah 8:5-8
- Isaiah 30:7, 15
- Psalm 18:30-35
- 1 Samuel 17:38-40
- 2 Chronicles 32:8
- John 9 (Pool of Siloam)
- Hebrews 13:7