Pathway to Victory

David J. Mullens: Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a non-profit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God’s word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here’s today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, what in the world does that mean? The spiritual boots that Paul says you need in spiritual warfare is a commitment as well as an ability to share the gospel message with others.

David J. Mullens: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Some people spend their entire lives chasing after money and pleasure, hoping one of these pursuits will give them purpose. But the Bible teaches that true fulfillment comes from something very different. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shows us how discovering our God-given purpose can help us win our spiritual battles. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Today's culture has turned Satan into a laughing stock. At Halloween, he's portrayed as some silly red creature with horns. And on television, he's a tiny devil whispering tempting thoughts into one person's ear. But in reality, Satan is a formidable opponent who's working overtime to ruin our lives.

Christians cannot afford to ignore Satan's insidious ways. And that's why we're devoting this entire month to the topic of spiritual warfare with a series called The Divine Defense. I've also written a book for you. And when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'd be happy to send you my book, *The Divine Defense*.

And then, I want to extend a personal invitation for you to join Amy and me on the upcoming Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska. The dates are June 13th through 20th. Now, you might assume that traveling to the Great Frontier is out of reach for you or perhaps an audacious dream vacation. Well, I can assure you, we've made this once-in-a-lifetime trip attainable for everyone.

And you'll never regret making the decision to come along. Imagine waking up in the morning, stepping out on the deck, and witnessing God's masterful creation with your own eyes. I guarantee it'll fill your heart and soul with joy. So please take a minute to go online and look at the exciting details at ptv.org.

All right, it's time to get started with today's study. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter six, verse 15, for a message I've titled, "Putting On Your Soul Shoes."

Herb Kelleher was the founder of Southwest Airlines. And one day a journalist asked him a question about how he ran this very complex organization. And Herb Kelleher said, "You know, I can teach you how to run Southwest Airlines in 30 seconds, as long as you understand this one statement, you can make any decision you want to. The statement is this: Southwest Airlines is the low-fare airline. We are not a low-fare airline; we are the low-fare airline."

And if you really understand that, you can make the decisions as well as I can. For example, he said, "Suppose Tracy from marketing comes into your office and says, 'Sir, surveys have shown that passengers on our Houston to Las Vegas flight would like something other than peanuts. They would like to have a chicken Caesar salad.' What would you say to Tracy?" The journalist said, "I don't know."

He said, "This is what you would say to Tracy. You'd say, 'Tracy, will serving a chicken Caesar salad help us become the low-fare airline between Houston and Las Vegas? Because if it won't help us become the unchallenged low-fare airline from Houston to Las Vegas, we're not serving any blankety-blank chicken Caesar salad.'"

Now that's pretty direct, pretty clear. But you know, that kind of clearly defined purpose is the key not only to success in business but success in every other area of our life as well. A clearly defined purpose is like a light, a beacon that gives direction in the darkness. And by the way, understanding your clear purpose in life is key to success in spiritual warfare.

In these last weeks, we've been studying Ephesians chapter six that reminds us we are in a full-scale war whether we realize it or not. Not between people, not against adverse circumstances, but against our adversary, the devil. How many of you believe you are in a spiritual war? Do you believe that? How many of you would say, "Pastor, I'd rather be a victor than a victim in that war"?

Well then, that's why we have to take Ephesians six seriously. Paul gives us six weapons, if you will, six strategies that ensure our success in defeating Satan's plan to destroy our life. Look at Ephesians six, beginning with verse 14. "Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth." What is he talking about? The first weapon was the belt, putting on the belt of truth.

That is a strategy that says we need to recognize wrong thoughts and replace them with God-thoughts. Every temptation, every test begins in our mind, the belt of truth. And then he goes on to say, "and having put on the breastplate of righteousness." We've looked at that for the last few weeks. What is the breastplate of righteousness?

Righteousness here means obedience to God. There is something about obeying God that protects you against the enemy's plan for your life. That strategy is simply this: obey what you know to be true. The biggest problem we have with God's will is not the part we don't know. It's the part of God's will we do know, we do understand. That's what the breastplate of righteousness is: doing what you know God wants you to do.

And that brings us to the third weapon in verse 15. "And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." What in the world does that mean? When he uses the word shod, we think of somebody who puts a horseshoe on the hoof of a horse. We know it has something to do with our feet, but what does it mean?

Well, to understand this, you have to understand first of all the importance of footwear in battle. You know, I heard a fashion consultant say one time, "I can judge a person's appearance by looking at his shoes." Good shoes not only make a fashion statement, in Paul's day, they were an essential. They weren't a luxury item; they were essential in a culture in which you had to walk everywhere you went.

And good shoes or boots were absolutely essential for a soldier's success and victory. The thick soles of the Roman boot protected that Roman soldier against jagged rocks or sharp sticks the enemy might place underneath the grass. It would also, those metal cleats that would come out of those thick shoes like an athlete's shoes today, these metal pieces that protruded from the soles, those were necessary for giving the soldier stability, being able to stand in place when he was engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Well, the question is, what are the spiritual boots that we as Christian soldiers need to put on? Well, he tells us in verse 15. It's having your feet shod not with leather boots, but with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now, if you're looking at your Bibles right now, you'll notice that all of these words are in caps or maybe they're italicized or maybe they have quotation marks around them.

What does this mean? You know, I've got about 15 or 20 commentaries on Ephesians in my office. And I looked through them as I was preparing this message. And I was amazed how many commentators just skipped over this verse. They didn't even try to identify it. I didn't know that was an option, skipping over verses. Apparently, it is, but it's not for me.

So that didn't help. But some I read tried to liken this with the assurance of salvation. That's what gives stability to a Christian soldier: the assurance of his salvation. But that doesn't work because Paul's going to talk about that later when he talks about the helmet of salvation. No, the key to understanding this verse is to understand the reason it's in all caps in your Bible is because it is a quotation from the Old Testament.

Specifically, this is a paraphrase of Isaiah 52 verse 7. Now, look at that verse. This was written by Isaiah 700 years before Christ came. But it anticipated the coming of Christ. Isaiah said, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news," the gospel, "who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"

Now you notice Paul, by quoting this verse, is linking feet with the announcement of the coming of Christ. And specifically about the salvation that he offers. That's what feet have to do with. It has to do with somebody who comes to deliver the good news of Christ's salvation. If you think that's a stretch, by the way, to link Paul's words and Isaiah's words with evangelism, listen to how Paul uses this same verse in another New Testament passage.

In Romans 10:13, Paul promises whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe on him in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?

For the scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of good things." There's that same verse, Isaiah 52:7. So faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God. By the way, when Paul says, "How would they hear without a preacher?" he's not talking about a paid professional like I am. Or he's not talking about some guy with a stained glass voice.

No, a preacher is anyone who proclaims the message of salvation. And we're all called to announce the good news of Christ's salvation. If you haven't picked up on it so far, here's what the spiritual boots Paul is referring to means. The boots for a Christian soldier is our readiness and our ability and our commitment to share Christ with other people.

That's what it means to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The spiritual boots that Paul says you need in spiritual warfare is a commitment as well as an ability to share the gospel message with others. Now, I realize for some people that's a stretch. They can't see any relationship between evangelism and spiritual warfare.

And so I'm going to help you with that today and next week. I'm going to make four statements I want you to write down, three today and one next week, that will help you understand the relationship between your purpose in life, evangelism, and spiritual warfare. Now you ready to take these statements down?

Here's number one. I want you to write this down: you were created for a great purpose. God has created you for a great purpose. Now, you might say, "Well, thank you, Captain Obvious, for telling me that." But you need to understand most people don't believe that. Certainly most non-Christians don't believe that. They believe they've been taught all their lives that we are just a biological fluke.

We just happen to be here by chance. But even non-Christians who say they believe that deep down sense there's some purpose in their life and they're searching for what that purpose is. A recent survey of 7,948 college students at 48 different colleges, these students were asked to rank what they considered very important to them.

The study conducted by Johns Hopkins University reported that 16 percent of students said their number one priority was making a lot of money. 16 percent. 75 percent said their first priority was finding a purpose and a meaning to my life. We all want to know what the purpose of our life is. The Bible says we're not here by accident.

We are not the result of some primordial chemical broth emulating from the earth, being struck by lightning, producing the right amino acids that ended up producing you and me. No, we are here because God has created us. And he's created us for a great purpose. Remember God's word to the prophet Jeremiah?

In Jeremiah 1 verse 5, God said, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I've appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Now many times we use this verse to defend the pro-life position. Abortion is the murder of the unborn. And we have no right to kill the baby that God has created because every child has been created, formed, skillfully made by God.

And that's all true. But I want you to notice what God said to Jeremiah. He didn't say, "Your purpose came about after you were born, or while you were in the womb." He says, "Before I even formed you in the womb, Jeremiah, before you were conceived, I knew you." That word "know" in Hebrew means to have an intimate relationship with.

He didn't just know about Jeremiah. He didn't know at some point Jeremiah was going to be conceived. He entered into a relationship with Jeremiah before he was conceived. And before he was born, God said, "I consecrated you. I set you apart for a great purpose to be a prophet to the nations." But Jeremiah's not the only one who's been selected by God.

God has a great purpose for your life as well. Now when we talk about our purpose, we have to understand there's an eternal purpose that all of us were created for. And that is to have fellowship with God, to become more like Jesus Christ every day. For whom God foreknew, he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

God's ultimate plan for us is to enjoy him in heaven forever, to worship him day and night, to enjoy unhindered fellowship with God. And by the way, that time is coming. In Revelation 22 verse 3, after the destruction of the present heaven and the present earth, after John sees the new heaven and the new earth, Revelation 22 verse 3 says, "And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his bondservants will serve him."

We're looking forward, God is looking forward to that day when we serve and worship God without any interference. No longer are we pulled away from God by sin. No longer are we distracted by this world. We'll be able to obey God completely and perfectly. But that's in the new heaven and the new world. If that's God's goal, if that's his eternal plan for us, why doesn't God just rapture us to heaven the moment he saves us?

I mean, if God really wants to have uninterrupted fellowship with you, couldn't he do that better if we were in heaven with him where we don't get distracted, where we don't get tangled up in sin? Why has God left us here on planet Earth? Why is God engaging in delayed gratification on his part? He has a purpose for us here on earth. We were created for a unique purpose.

And that leads to the second statement I want to make: your purpose is to fulfill God's purpose. Your purpose is to fulfill God's purpose. So many times I see Christians walking around in an emotional or mental fog, asking the question, "Who am I? Why am I here? What is life all about?" Now I'm not ridiculing people for wanting to know God's direction in their life.

But the real question, as Erwin McManus says, the real question we ought to be asking is not, "God, what is your will for my life?" That's not the question. The question is, "God, what is your will, and how can I give my life to it?" That's what a true disciple of Christ is asking. "What is God's will?" because my purpose ought to be to fulfill God's purpose.

What is God's will? Let me give you three verses that will give you a hint about what God's purpose is. First Timothy 2 verses 3 to 4: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." Don't let anybody mislead you. God's goal is not to save as few people as possible.

God's goal is to save as many people as possible. Any theology that tells you God wants to save as few as possible is a wrong theology. God wishes to save all men, for all to come to a knowledge of the truth. Our Second Peter 3 verse 9: "The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but all come to repentance."

Luke 19:10: "For the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." God's purpose, God's will is to save as many people as possible. And that means our purpose is to share Christ with as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Now every time I share that, every time I get a little passionate about it, there's always some pseudo-spiritual saint in the church who says, "Now preacher, you need to calm down. You need to calm down. That's God's business, that's God's work, it's not your work, that's God's work."

Anytime I hear that, I remember the story about the old farmer who bought a run-down farm. The paint was peeling from the barn, the fence was broken down, the fields had become overgrown with weeds and underbrush. So he went to work cultivating the soil, rebuilding the fence, repainting the barn. One day he was out in the field working when a friend of his stopped by and said, "My, it is amazing to see what you and God have done with this place."

And the farmer wiping the sweat from his brow said, "You should have seen this place when God had it all to himself." Now the fact is, there's some things God doesn't need our help on and we can offer no help in. God didn't need our help in creating the universe. He did that all by himself. God doesn't need any help in salvation. He's the one who's done it all. It's a gift that we receive.

But most worthwhile things that God does in the world represent a partnership, a partnership between God and his people. It's a joint project. You see that throughout scripture. For example, God said to the first couple, "I am giving you a perfect garden. Your responsibility is to cultivate it and to keep it." He said to Noah, "Noah, I'm about to send a flood. I'm going to destroy everybody, but I'm going to save you and your family. But you have to build a boat."

God said to Nehemiah, "Nehemiah, I'm going to do a miracle. I'm going to change the heart of the king. He's going to allow you to go back to Jerusalem. But your job is to rebuild the wall." And he says to everyone of us, "I've sent my only son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be a savior for you and to everyone who believes. But your job is to go and to announce that to as many people as possible."

Most things we do are a partnership, and that's why it's important for us to be sure that our business is God's business, that our purpose is God's purpose. To make sure nobody missed what the mission was, remember Jesus' parting words to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. In Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, Jesus gave these final marching orders.

He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That's your one assignment. Go into all the world, make disciples. You know, I am just continually flabbergasted at the number of Christians who absolutely give no thought to this command whatsoever.

Now they've got a busy life, they've got a lot of plans. They have a strategy for getting an education. They have a plan, a detailed plan for their retirement to be sure it's properly funded. They have a plan for doing everything they can think of except the one thing God's commanded them to do. Go into all the world and make disciples. That's our one assignment.

And at Pathway to Victory, our passion for this commandment grows hotter every day. We want the world to know that the Lord Jesus Christ was sent to our world to become our savior. In that spirit, I'm inviting you to join this effort as well. Listen, most of us can readily see that our culture has been blinded by Satan's attacks.

Too many in America have bought into the lie that they don't need a savior. And it's our role to speak truth with love and to declare the good news of Jesus Christ with boldness and without apology. Would you join me by supporting the ministry of Pathway to Victory? God will use your gift to send this daily Bible teaching from Maine to California, and Washington state to Florida, and everywhere in between.

To thank you for your gift today, I'm going to send you my best-selling book, *The Divine Defense*. It's the one that parallels our current study in Ephesians six. In my book, *The Divine Defense*, I expose the enemy's clever tactics, ones that have turned far too many believers into spiritual casualties. Without the protection Paul describes in Ephesians six, we're sitting ducks.

We need to put on those garments of spiritual protection or become another statistic, just more spiritual roadkill on Satan's highway. I want to send you *The Divine Defense* when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Here's David with all the details.

David J. Mullens: When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we’ll say thanks by sending you *The Divine Defense*. That’s Dr. Jeffress’s best-selling book on demons and spiritual warfare. You’ll get that along with the Equipped for Battle brochure. Just call 866-999-2965 or online go to ptv.org. To give by text, simply send PTV to 78800.

And when your gift is $100 or more, we’ll also send you this month’s teaching series on audio and video disc, a companion study guide, plus a book especially for children, *Suit Up for Kids*. This engaging book equips children with biblical truth and practical lessons on spiritual victory. One more time call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that’s PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

I’m David J. Mullens. Find out why a clearly defined purpose is essential to defeating Satan’s attacks. That’s Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so grateful you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in his word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Oh, and one last thing before we go. Have you reserved your spot yet for the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska? You’ve been hearing me and Dr. Jeffress mention it, so what are you waiting for? Just picture yourself on the deck of Holland America’s elegant Koningsdam and stepping out on deck to witness nature’s grandeur. It’s beautiful. These moments in God’s creation will deepen your faith in powerful ways, it really will. Experience five-star dining, luxurious staterooms, and visiting iconic ports like Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. We’re also bringing along our own Christian entertainment, you’ll love it. Seats are filling up, so book your spot today at ptv.org.