| THE HELMET OF SALVATION Derek Prince HIS GLORY REIGNS B. Childress Oct 17 2008 08:00AM The fifth item of equipment is the helmet of salvation. I (Derek Prince) will share some precious truths concerning this that I learned from my own conflicts. When I look back on these conflicts, I am reminded of the words of Paul in Romans 8:37:
What does it mean to be "more than conquerors"? It means we not only win the battle but actually come out of it with more than we had when we went into it. I have proved this many times in my own experience. In dealing with the breastplate, we saw that the breastplate protects the heart. Now that we are looking at the helmet, we can see that it protects the head and that the head represents the mind. In effect, we are talking about a helmet that protects our minds. We saw previously that the battlefield on which this entire spiritual war is being fought is the mind of humanity. Because the mind is the battlefield, it is obvious that we need to be particularly careful to protect our own minds. As a hospital attendant in World War II, I (Derek Prince) became aware of this from experience. In the natural realm, a person wounded in the head can no longer make effective use of the rest of his equipment. He may be a very brave and efficient soldier and have excellent equipment, but when he is wounded in the head, it becomes very difficult for him to make effective use of his ability and his equipment. In the spiritual realm, this is true of many Christian workers. I have been privileged to be associated in ministry at different times and in different places with many wonderful servants of God, both men and women. I think particularly of missionaries, who are usually under extreme spiritual pressure. Some missionaries with whom I worked were dedicated, qualified men and women of God, with great ability and a real calling. Many times, however, they allowed themselves to be wounded in the head. By this I mean that they allowed themselves to become prey to depression or to mistrust other Christian workers. This problem in their minds prevented them from being the kind of effective missionaries and servants of God that they could have been. Being wounded in the head, they could not use the rest of their equipment. In my own experience, I had a tremendous personal struggle with depression for many years. It was like a dark, gray cloud or mist that settled down over me, shut me in, shut me off, and made it difficult for me to communicate with others. It gave me a sense of hopelessness and, although in many ways I am a gifted and qualified servant of the Lord, I got the impression, "Others can, but you can't. You'll never make it. You're going to have to give up." I struggled with this depression for a good many years. I did everything I could. I prayed, I fasted, I sought God, I read the Bible. then one day God gave me a revelation that solved my problem. I was reading the following words from Isaiah 61:3:
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." When I read that phrase, "the spirit of heaviness," something leaped within me. I said, "That's my problem! That's what I need to be delivered from." I read other passages of Scripture on deliverance, I prayed a simple prayer of faith, and God supernaturally delivered me from the spirit of heaviness. I then saw that I needed some special protection for my mind. I was familiar with the passage in Ephesians 6. I said to myself, "That must be the helmet of salvation." Then I said, "Does that mean I have the helmet because I'm saved? Is it automatic?" I saw that could not be so because Paul was writing to people who were Christians when he said, "Put on the helmet of salvation." I was directed to a parallel passage in I Thessalonians 5:8:
helmet, the hope of salvation." And when I read the phrase, "the hope of salvation," I had an instantaneous revelation from the Holy Spirit. I saw that the protection for the mind is hope, but the protection for the heart is faith. We often get these mixed up. Biblical faith is in the heart: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Roman 10:10). Biblical faith is the breastplate that protects the heart. But the protection of the mind is hope. We need to see the connection between faith and hope. It is stated clearly in Hebrews 11:1:
Faith is the underlying basic reality on which hope is built. When we have valid faith, then we have valid hope. When we do not have valid faith, we may not have valid hope, either. Hope may be mere wishful thinking. But when we have a real foundation of faith, we can build a valid hope, which is the protection of our minds. I (Derek Prince) would like to define hope, very simply, according to Scripture. Hope is a quiet, steady expectation of good based on the promises of God's word. In a sense, it is continuing optimism. That is the protection of the mind. Hope is an optimistic attitude that always chooses to see the best and will not give way to depression, doubt, and self- pity. There is one sufficient basis for hope in the Word of God in Romans 8:28:
according to his purpose." If we really know that everything that happens in our lives is being worked together by God for our good, then there never is a reason for pessimism. Every situation is always a reason for optimism. Optimism is the helmet. While we keep it on, our minds are protected against all Satan's subtle attacks of doubt, discouragement, self-pity, mistrust, and so on. When the Holy Spirit showed me that the helmet to protect our minds is hope, He preached a kind of sermon to me. I suddenly brought together a number of passages in the New Testament, all dealing with hope. Let me share just a few of them. The first one I want to share is this;
hope for?" Romans 8:24 What does that mean? No hope means no salvation. Hope is an essential part of our salvation experience. Contrast the condition of the unsaved in Ephesians 2:12:
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and with God in the world:" Being without Christ, without hope, and without God is the condition of the lost. It should never be the condition of the Christian. If we have Christ, then we have hope and we have God. Colossians 1:27 states the following:
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" The real mystery, the secret of the Gospel, is "Christ in you." If Christ is in you, you have hope. If you do not have hope, it is just as if Christ is not in you. You are not a lost soul, but I (Derek Prince) mean that you are not living in the experience of salvation. Hope in your mind is an essential part of your salvation experience. In Hebrews 6:17-20, there are two beautiful pictures of hope:
counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." The first picture of hope is an altar. Under the old covenant, the altar was a place of protection from the avengers of blood. When you fled to the altar, you were safe. The writer of Hebrews said that when all the pressures are against us, we should flee to the altar, catch hold of the horns of the altar, and let nothing pull us away. The altar is hope. Second, hope is like an anchor that reaches out of time into eternity, into the very presence of God. In this world, we are like a little vessel on the sea; everything around us is temporary, impermanent, unreliable, changeable. There is nothing to give us security and stability. If we are to have security and stability, we need an anchor that reaches out of time into eternity and fastens in the Rock of Ages. When we have hope, we are anchored. Finally, in Hebrews 10:23, we read the following:
Keep on hoping. Do not give up hope; be an optimist. It is the protection of your mind. Source: Spiritual Warfare, by Derek Prince, Copyright 1987, Whitaker House. |
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