A Tony Stark Attitude Towards Ephesians 6 Spiritual Armour

I've been on a looong journey. God's put big things on my heart. I want to accomplish great things for him. However, I forget that growing in his spiritual competence takes time, and it is a process that can't be rushed. Living in a fast-paced culture with a youthful heart that tends to get impatient, I struggle in the "waiting" times sometimes, where one grows gradually yet steadily in his grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). I desire to be a strong and courageous warrior for Christ (Joshua 1:9). He has put this desire in my heart to fight in this spiritual war for him. I desire to be a mighty warrior for God. A quality warrior, who by God's power can take on multiples of myself. Just like David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. Josheb-Basshebeth (v.8) raised his spear against 800 men and killed 'em all. Abishai (v.18) raised his spear against 300 men and also killed 'em all. Benaiah son of Jehoiada (v.20) went against an Egyptian with only a club in his hand. And even though the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, he snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Although in the New Covenant with the New Testament the people of God are not called to fight physically for him anymore, I want to be a mighty warrior for him in spiritual warfare. "Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle" -Psalm 144:1 However, I forget a lot of the times that this process of becoming a mighty warrior for God takes time. Change of the character does not happen in an instant as opposed to miraculous healings, prophetic words, visions, and miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit. At least it didn't happen to Peter. After he witnessed a ton of miracles with Jesus (including the awesome privilege of being with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration), he still denied him 3 times afterwards. And in his first letter, he writes in 1 Peter 1:7 that "[trials] have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour with Jesus Christ is revealed". This process, as Peter experienced, takes time, effort, learning, time and... just more...time as we can see in 2 Peter 1:5-7. I want this stuff. But I get restless, antsy and forget that it is a process that takes time. As Dallas Willard says in The Divine Conspiracy: "a major element in this training is experience in waiting for God to move, not leaping ahead and taking things into our own hands. Out of this waiting experience there comes a form of character that is priceless before God, a character that can be empowered to do as one chooses. This explains why James says that patience in trials will make us 'fully functional' (teleion), 'perfect' (James 1:4) Sometimes we must wait for God to do as we ask because the answer involves changes in other people, or even ourselves, and that kind of change always takes time. Sometimes, apparently, the changes in question involve conflicts going on in a spiritual realm lying entirely outside human affairs (Daniel 10:13). We always live in a larger context of activities we do not see. But whatever the exact cause, Jesus emphatically taught that we are to stay with our request. That is, quite simply, an aspect of all serious human relationships. We stay with an issue until it is resolved one way or another." But I am resolved to believe that this process of persevering in training is worth it. Not only worth the price, but, one may say, it is even a bargain. What one gets is worth a million times the price and time it costs. I am choosing to believe this by faith. Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, took time, effort, and psychological investment to build his iron man suits. All 3 of them. Was it worth all the cost of time and energy? Initially, he was kidnapped by terrorists, lost his comfort, and lived in really hard, tough conditions in that terrorist cave. He thought his life may have been over. Yet, we see that without this "unfortunate" event, he would have never been forced to build his first iron man suit. It took time, hard work, trial and error, yet after he was done sweating literally in that cave he finally came out of that trial a new man, with a new suit, and began his journey as Iron man. He got the first edition of his suit. That is priceless. I can relate. If I was never strained, perplexed, hard pressed, struck down, pushed as hard as I was in my 2 years in East Asia (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 style [I was never attacked so vividly/directly/manifestly by demons in my life up until then], although metaphorically), I probably would not be on the spiritual formation-style journey of growth, at least to the point where I am right now. The upgrades of my spiritual suit that I have right now would just be as unreal as a dream. I know that. If I stayed in comfortable Canada in typical "North American Christianity", my spiritual armour would still be at an elementary level, although still existent. But because my spirit was so stretched over in the East, I was forced to build up my spiritual armour or die spiritually. And by God's grace, I was built in a way I could not have been over here. I flew out of the East with a new set of spiritual armour (via spiritual formation), and fast forward to today, where I'm in the process of learning about the nature of spiritual armour in Ephesians 6, studying its essence, experimenting with how it actually works in different real-life situations, discovering cause-and-effect relationships with how to use it in the spiritual journey, sharpening its armour, upgrading its material to better quality and becoming a better warrior of God with it. The elements include what Paul talked about in Ephesians 6: -the belt of truth -breastplate of righteousness -feet fitted with the readiness of the Gospel of peace -shield of faith -helmet of salvation -sword of the spirit which is the Word of God -prayer in the Spirit There is a lot of trial and error in this journey of discovery, experimentation, and modifications to make a custom-designed spiritual armour-suit for myself. This is because the armour of God is custom-fit to each uniquely shaped individual differently. While all these elements in spiritual armour are the same substance from God, how they are fit, shaped, and "upgraded" into each life is unique. For example, the spiritual exercises I do to grow my faith in my life stage, idiosyncratic personality, social situation, job environment, daily task rhythms will be different from the next person. The same goes with building up my practical righteousness, peace, faith, etc. Also, I have noticed that these traits - [knowledge of] truth, righteous habits, inner peace, faith in God, perspective of salvation ("God with us wherever we go"), meditation on the Word of God, prayer in the Spirit - can be improved, and grown through grace, training, and experience. And the growth is very interesting and mysterious at the same time, because it is something supernatural (extra-natural that is non-physical) that is growing within us. That is what I mean by "upgrading spiritual armour" It has been quite the journey though, I have to say. Spending a lot of time in the "spiritual formation lab". Just like how Tony Stark used discoveries of science in the physical world to engineer more efficient and cutting-edge technology, I have been on a Christian-wisdom journey, studying wisdom from the Bible, wise people, and my own observations of life in the spiritual world which has basically been my "science of the spiritual world". "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding" -Proverbs 4:7 Throughout the past few years, I have been on a journey of studying the wisdom ("spiritual science" of how the spiritual world works) from different camps/denominations/faith traditions of the Church throughout Church history. It has been astonishing/mind-blowing. I feel like a first-year/freshman studying life-sciences in a university realizing how little he knows about the science of the physical world. Just starting to delve into the spiritual science of all these different camps/denominations/faith traditions throughout the years of Church history has been overwhelmingly glorious and so vast beyond anything I thought of or imagined before! It truly will take more than a lifetime to learn it all (not to mention experimenting, internalizing, sharpening them, and modifying them to fit myself etc.). The attitude I have been having this whole time has been Tony Stark's attitude of research, study, planning, trial and error, then subsequent fixing to improve. Much like this trial and error with the Gospel of Peace: The word "technology" essentially means "tools". A tool is something that simply helps you accomplish your objectives. Therefore, "spiritual technology" is essentially "spiritual tools" that help you accomplish your objectives. And the objective in spiritual formation is none other than to become Christ-like. So by "spiritual technology", I mean any tools accessed through God-enabled-wisdom that helps one to become more Christlike. Studying the spiritual technology of philosophical apologists who intellectually defend the Christian faith such as Ravi Zacharias and C.S. Lewis has definitely tightened and fastened the belt of truth. Reading heroes of the holiness tradition who earnestly and hardcorely discipline themselves to cultivate automatic habits of "gut-reaction righteousness" such as Jeremy Taylor and John Wesley have upgraded my breastplate of righteousness. Reading some quietists/medieval mystics such as Madame Guyon and St. Teresa of Avila who teach one how to "center down one's being" into the inner stillness of Christ dwelling in one's heart have upgraded my battle shoes in the Gospel of peace. Reading how the great modern revivalists who expected great things for God and believed great things for God (e.g. massive societal-scale revivals) like Charles Finney and Leonard Ravenhill has upgraded my shield of faith. Reading from Christians who have practiced praying without ceasing and spending every moment in the presence of God such as Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach has helped me upgrade my helmet of salvation in so that it helps to keep my perspective in every situation as one of perpetual union with God. Reading from medieval Catholics such as St. Ignatius of Loyola and even the modern Jan Johnson has helped me to meditate on the word of God more effectively and creatively with the imagination richly involved, hence making the sword of the Spirit more powerful in my journey. And finally, reading some charismatic stuff from modern day prophets such as Jack Deere and Graham Cooke have helped me to truly "pray [and begin to prophesy [a type of communication with God {which falls under the subset of prayer}] in the Spirit". To add to the spiritual science/spiritual technology, I have also recently got into dream interpretation, which has helped me, I think, understand the "devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:11) more. This has been a spiritual technology that I have only begun to study and apply in the spiritual formation lab recently, but it has proved to be amazingly helpful in my walk, giving me insight about myself, the devil, and God in reference to where I am at in the journey, sort of like a spiritual GPS kind of spiritual technology. After a few years of building "suit #2", I feel like I have begun to achieve "lift-off" with the armour of God now: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." -1 Peter 5:6 Yea baby. So reflecting back, this journey has been well worth it. Although at times I do wish to rush things and I get impatient, I must remember that God values quality over quantity. Although at times every fiber in me just wants to "get out there" and start fighting, I feel that the season that I'm currently in requires me to patiently wait, not to rush things, and gradually yet steadily keep upgrading this armour of God. After all, 1 Iron man could take on 10,000 enemy soldiers. But it took time for Tony Stark to build the suit. And the cost was well worth it. The wait was well worth it too. I hope to do this one day. Hallelujah for the promise of James 1:4! To switch superhero analogies, it's easy to put on weak armour that took no investment of time, effort, failure, and applied-research in advanced technology to try to fight the bad guys. But we see here that there's a big difference between someone who has spent the time to build good quality armour, and someone who just put on some hockey pads.