Imagery of battle armor includes two more pieces. The helmet protects the head, the control center of the body. The brain orchestrates things on more than one level. Physically the nerves all connect back to it. When the toe suffers injury an electronic signal travels through the nerve pathways back to the brain which interprets the signal as pain.

But also residing in the brain is the will power that determines what the rest of the body will do, where it will go, how it will move. In this latter sense, the head is the field marshal controlling the members of the body. So the head and the brain must be protected in battle by a helmet.

The analogy is that the helmet is security of salvation. If the enemy could destroy the knowledge of salvation, everything else would change—how the Christian deals with temptation, conflicts, and failures are all affected and over-layed with the terror of God. The helmet represents the constant reminder that our salvation is secure. This is different than the shield of faith mentioned earlier. While faith is involved, the helmet of salvation has more to do with the knowledge and certainty of salvation. If this be in doubt then everything else is in doubt. If we aren’t sure of our relationship with God, then we can’t be sure of our faith, our purpose for evangelism or even how to stand firm in the face of Satan’s onslaught. So, crucial to standing firm is being sure of our salvation.

Finally comes “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is the offensive weapon. The feet prepared for the gospel bring us to our objective in the spiritual battle, but the sword is what forges the way through the barriers and oppositions of Satan. In the wilderness temptation (see Matthew 4), this was the instrument of battle Jesus used against Satan’s temptation. Jesus quoted Scripture. The writer of Hebrews put it this way, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart ” (Heb 4:12).

All these implementations of spiritual warfare are needed for success in our Christian walk. Above all, everything should be bathed in prayer, the universal, spiritual overlay. Having armored ourselves, we need spiritual awareness so we can be alert and not drowsy.