And Though This World with Devils Filled . . .

Summary

---

Episode Overview

Title: And Though This World with Devils Filled . . .
Podcast: The Wake-Up Call
Host: John David Walt (with guest David Walt)
Date: May 17, 2026

In this Sunday edition of The Wake-Up Call, host John David Walt explores the theme of spiritual battle and protection through the lens of Ephesians 6:14–17, focusing on the “full armor of God.” Using the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” by Martin Luther as a central motif, the episode delves into what it means to "put on the armor of God," how this relates to Jesus Christ, and the importance of standing firm in faith rather than striving in our own strength.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rethinking Sunday & The Practice of Church

• John David opens with reflections on the rhythms of church attendance and spiritual formation, suggesting that "church" isn't just a once-a-week event but a daily identity:
  • "We're church every day though. Have you thought about that? Church isn't just the day of the week that we go somewhere. We are church." (01:00)
  • He likens Sundays to “practice” and the rest of the week as “game day”:
    • "Sunday's practice, you know that Monday's game day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...we're going to church today to get ourselves back in the shape of Jesus." (01:25)
• John muses about possibly taking Sundays off from the podcast to create space for worship and Sabbath, referencing Chick-fil-A’s practice of closing on Sundays as a kind of witness. (02:25)

2. The Armor of God: Foundation and Imagery

• The episode's main scripture is Ephesians 6:14–17, detailing the “full armor of God”: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. (04:25)
• John emphasizes these as unseen spiritual realities that "can protect us"—but underlines that believers have a role to play:
  • "We bear some responsibility in this matter." (05:45)
• The previous verses in Ephesians highlight the reality of spiritual opposition—“the devil's schemes, rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, day of evil, flaming arrows of the evil one.” (06:20)
• Cites 1 Peter 5:8, 1 John 3:8, and Jesus' own words in Matthew 6:13 to establish the biblical reality and threat of evil.

3. The Human Role: Response-Ability

• A reflective section ponders: Why doesn’t God just armor us up automatically?
  • "Human beings have response ability...We are not robots. We have the freedom of will to act or not act." (07:49)
  • "Paul is explicit in his instructions. Put on the full armor of God." (08:24)
• John creatively unpacks "response-ability," emphasizing that our freedom is paired with responsibility—drawing an analogy to a doctor’s prescription needing to be taken by the patient.

4. What the Armor Means & The Call to Stand

• The armor is explained through relatable metaphors:
  • "Truth is like a belt holding everything together. Righteousness covers us like a breastplate protecting the core of our being. Peace enables us to move with ease. Faith is like a shield and the word of God like an invisible sword." (08:50)
• Notably, the “standing” posture is stressed—not offensive, not defensive, but standing firm:
  • "We are not responsible to defeat Satan. Satan has already lost. Our calling is to put on the full armor of God and then to stand firm." (09:46)
  • John ties this to Exodus 14:13, where Moses tells the Israelites, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” (10:44)

5. The Armor = The Image of Christ

• Jesus is seen as the fulfillment and embodiment of each piece of armor:
  • "Jesus is the truth. He is our righteousness. He is our peace. He is our shield and our salvation. Indeed, he is the sword of the Spirit, the very word of God in human flesh." (11:30)
  • "To put on the full armor of God can be nothing less than clothing ourselves in Jesus Christ, bearing witness to his life within us. After all, the battle is not ours, but his." (11:54)

6. Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” and Spiritual Warfare

• The famed hymn is introduced as both a comfort and a declaration of spiritual triumph:
  • "And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us...Christ Jesus, it is he, Lord Sabaoth, his name...and he must win the battle." (Martin Luther, quoted at 12:40)
• John shares the personal resonance this hymn has in his family and church, especially when sung at significant moments like funerals:
  • "It was as though the song were becoming the fortress around us as we sang it." (20:19, recollection at a family funeral)

7. Moving from Self-Protection to Divine Protection

• John challenges listeners to consider where they use their own strength instead of God’s and describes the futility and fatigue of “self-protection”:
  • "To the extent that we're not putting on the full armor of God, you know what we're actually doing? Self protection. Man, aren't you tired of that? I get tired of self protection." (16:30)
  • He urges intimacy with Jesus as the true means of “fighting your battles.”
• Encouragement to make “putting on the armor” a daily spiritual practice, just like getting dressed:
  • "I put on, you know, my pants and my shirt and my socks...What would it look like to put on the armor of God in this way that we're talking about?" (17:00)

8. Closing: Community, Worship, and Invitation

• The episode closes with singing all four verses of “A Mighty Fortress” (19:03–23:47), a rich musical meditation on the themes discussed.
• John and David invite listeners to join in worship, physically or virtually, and to dwell in the identity and security offered through Christ.

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On church as identity, not event:
  “We’re church every day though. Have you thought about that? Church isn’t just the day of the week that we go somewhere. We are church.” — John David Walt (01:00)
• On wearing the armor of God:
  “To put on the full armor of God can be nothing less than clothing ourselves in Jesus Christ, bearing witness to his life within us. After all, the battle is not ours, but his.” — John David Walt (11:54)
• On self-protection vs. God’s protection:
  “To the extent that we’re not putting on the full armor of God…what we’re actually doing? Self-protection. Man, aren’t you tired of that?” — John David Walt (16:30)
• On spiritual battle being Christ's victory:
  “We are not responsible to defeat Satan. Satan has already lost. Our calling is to put on the full armor of God and then to stand firm.” — John David Walt (09:46)
• From Martin Luther’s hymn:
  “And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us…the prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him…one little word shall fell him.” (21:50, sung by David and John David Walt)

---

Important Timestamps

• 01:00 – Church as identity and daily life; Sunday as “practice”
• 02:25 – Questioning whether to pause podcast on Sundays (“Going Chick-fil-A”)
• 04:25 – Introduction and reading of Ephesians 6:14–17 (“full armor of God”)
• 08:24 – Reflection on response-ability vs. passivity
• 09:46 – “Stand firm”—our calling in spiritual battles
• 11:30 – Armor as attributes of Jesus
• 12:40 – Martin Luther quoted; “A Mighty Fortress” introduced
• 16:30 – Honest talk about self-protection vs. divine reliance
• 17:00 – Making “putting on the armor” a daily routine
• 19:03–23:47 – Full singing and interpretation of all four verses of “A Mighty Fortress”
• 23:50–25:18 – Closing encouragement and church invitation

---

Journal Prompts (For Listeners, as Shared by Host)

1. How have you understood the concept of the full armor of God in the past?
2. In what dimension of the armor do you feel as though you have substituted your own strength for the Lord’s?
3. What might it look like for you to actively and intentionally put on the armor, even in a daily way?

---

Tone & Style

Warm, pastoral, gently challenging, and filled with practical encouragement—a blend of teaching, honest reflection, and communal worship.

---

Takeaways

• The “armor of God” is not mere metaphor; it is about living daily clothed in Christ, relying on his completed victory.
• “Standing firm” is at the heart of spiritual battle—it’s not about striving, but about remaining in what Christ has already done.
• Worship, community, and remembrance (including hymns like “A Mighty Fortress”) are means by which believers take hold of spiritual armor.
• The invitation is to move daily from self-protection to divine protection through an ever-deepening trust in Jesus.

---

For more daily encouragement and to join the ongoing conversation, visit seedbed.com/wakeupcall.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Sunday morning people. Resurrection day, people. It is Sunday, May 17th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. I know we got church ahead of us today and you know, we're church every day though. Have you thought about that? Church isn't just the day of the week that we go somewhere. We are church. I look at Sunday's practice, you know that Monday's game day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And we're going to church today to get ourselves back in the shape of Jesus. That's why we practice, to get in shape, to get ready. The shape of Jesus, the shape of the cross. We sing the songs, we pray the prayers. We read the word, we hear the message. We encourage one another and build each other up. We encourage one another daily as long as it's called today. And I'm happy to be with you today. Which, speaking of which, I just want to test something by you. I've been thinking, maybe we should take Sundays off on the wake up call. Maybe I should take Sundays off on a wake up call. You know, I'm preaching at a church on Sunday too and I. I want to get some community input on that. I may try to work out a little survey. We'll see if we can pull it off. It'll be in the notes Today, in the P.S. if I'm able to do it. But I'm just thinking about the whole thing going quiet. We've done other things on Sundays before. I call it going Chick Fil a. Right. Closed on Sunday. I kind of like that. I kind of like the message it sends. I want chicken sandwich. I want nuggets. I want waffle fries on Sunday. But you know what? I have to accept the fact that Chick Fil A's got a different priority. Not going to get them there that day. It's a witness anyway. Let's think about that. Let's begin this morning in consecration. I've already taken too much of your time talking about other things. So wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, we're in. We're meeting with Jesus here together. Friends, across all the miles that separate us. There is no distance between us and the kingdom of heaven. So pull up close. Today's entry is entitled and Though. Maybe I should sing it. And though this world with devils filled. That's Martin Luther's great hymn. Should threaten to undo us. I think we might even be singing that today. Yep. Me and dad think that's on tap for today. I think that's a plan. And though this world with devils filled. Our text is coming out of the text. Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 14 through 17. Hear now the word of the Lord. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The word of the Lord. Now consider this. The armor of God is the image of of God. Can we call this the foundation for doing battle in the power of the spirit? Today's text helps us build on that foundation first by revealing the nature of the full armor of God. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation. The word of God. Do you get that? The belt, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the sword, the helmet. These unseen supernatural realities can protect us. Note, I did not say they will protect us, but they can protect us. We bear some responsibility in this matter. More on that in a minute. First, we need to be reminded of why we need protection. The previous text laid it clearly before us with one addition from our present the devil's schemes, the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, the day of evil, the flaming arrows of the evil one. Who knew we had so much working against us? Though many do not believe in a personal evil being, Scripture seems clear. If Paul is not convincing, hear the apostle Peter. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That's 1 Peter 5:8. Now hear the apostle John. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. That's 1 John 3:8. Okay, then we call Jesus himself to the witness stand, who taught us to pray and deliver us from the evil one. It's Matthew 6:13. One question I have is, given all these threats, why doesn't God just put the full armor on us himself? Wouldn't that be easier? I suppose the same question could be posed concerning salvation. Why doesn't God just save everyone. Irrespective of any response on our part, human beings have response ability. If you're not able to see the text I've written, it's the word response ability. A B I L I T Y. Not the normal spelling I B I L I T Y response ability. We are not robots. We have the freedom of will to act or not act. The doctor can prescribe life saving medication, but the patient must put it in their mouth and swallow it. Paul is explicit in his instructions. Put on the full armor of God. Ephesians 6:11. What does that mean? Truth is like a belt holding everything together. Righteousness covers us like a breastplate protecting the core of our being. Peace enables us to move with ease. Faith is like a shield and the word of God like an invisible sword. Note the way the text calls us neither to an offensive posture nor a defensive one. Three times in the previous text and one time in this one, we see the same word repeated. Stand. We are not responsible to defeat Satan. Satan has already lost. Our calling is to put on the full armor of God and then to stand firm. It reminds me of the great Exodus when Pharaoh's army pursued the Israelites to what appeared to be a certain death with their backs to the Red Sea. Listen carefully to Moses words to the people. Moses answered the people, do not be afraid. Stand firm.

[B]

Firm.

[A]

And you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. That's Exodus 14:13. One more observation. The armor of God and the image of God have in common. The Son of God. Jesus is the truth. He is our righteousness. He is our peace. He is our shield and our salvation. Indeed, he is the sword of the Spirit, the very word of God in human flesh. To to put on the full armor of God can be nothing less than clothing ourselves in Jesus Christ, bearing witness to his life within us. After all, the battle is not ours, but his. In that spirit, let's give the great Martin Luther the last word today from the second stanza of his immortal hymn. A mighty fortress is our God. Did we in our own strength confide Our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our side. The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus. It is he, Lord Sabbath, his name from age to age the same. And he must win the battle. That's beautiful. Let's pray. Abba Father, we thank you for your son Jesus who must win the battle. Thank you that he is Our sword and shield, our righteousness and peace, our truth and salvation. It's him. Fill us with your spirit that we might be clothed inside and out with Christ Jesus and teach us what it means to stand firm and behold the deliverance of the Lord. Praying in Jesus name. Amen. Journal prompts today. You've got some time this morning, maybe even a little extra time. Journal, I want you to get in the workbook and engage like this. How have you understood the concept of the full armor of God in the past? Number two, in what dimension of the armor do you feel as though you have substituted your own strength for the Lord's? And number three, what might it look like for you to actively and intentionally put on the armor, even in a daily way? You know, I just, I just had the thought, even as I was asking you those questions, I thought, you know, to the extent that we're not putting on the full armor of God, you know, what we're actually doing? Self protection. Self protection. And I, we do that. We. We natively and naturally do that. We just protect ourselves with some other kind of barrier or either defensive hiding or offensive fighting. And it just. Man, aren't you tired of that? I get tired of self protection. I just want to be. This is how, this is what he's showing us. He's like, this is how you fight your battles. Maybe it's. This is how you fight my battle by being protected by my armor. That's Jesus himself, the image of God putting on Christ. And I love how the, the text just breaks it down. Righteousness like a breastplate, you just put it on. Salvation like a helmet, the mind of Christ, the belt, truth like a belt that just holds it all in place, firm and secure. Like you could run with it. The word of God like a sword. And then the shield, faith. Faith is like a shield. That's just brilliant. It's brilliant. I encourage you to live with that, to walk with that, work with it, meditate on it. Today I'm going. And, you know, I'll have to be honest, it's kind of fallen out of my awareness. Ephesians is bringing it back and I'm gonna find a way to put it on every day. I put on, you know, my pants and my shirt and my socks, and I put that on every day. What would it look like to put on the, the armor of God in this way that we're talking about? I'm going to go for it. You do it too. Let's compare notes sometime along the way. All right. It's time to sing. It's going to be good today. All right, Wake up call. Guess who's with us again today.

[B]

David Waltz here.

[A]

And we're here Sunday morning and we're getting the pregame warm up for. For our practice at church. Church, Sunday, church. Guys, you know where I stand on this. Sunday's not the big game. Sunday's practice. Big games, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and all the other days at end in Y. And so we're getting ready here in Gillette to meet together in the house of God and become the house of prayer and see what the Lord has for us today. I tell you, we're in the midst of. We're finishing Ephesians. We're getting close now and we're going to sing. This is one of my favorite hymns. This is a Lutheran hymn. You know why? You know why it's a Lutheran hymn? Look who wrote it?

[B]

Martin Luther.

[A]

Martin Luther and Martin Luther. My gosh. He was a devil slayer in Jesus name and power. And he shows us what it looks like to do battle against the devil. And he wrote this hymn. I mean, everybody was after him. And he wrote this famous hymn in the year 1529.

[B]

Long time ago.

[A]

Long time ago. Called A mighty Fortress is our God. What's our page number on that?

[B]

35.

[A]

35 in our Great Redeemer's Praise. Our hymnal. And you got to sing all four verses of this because this hymn tells a story. It's. Every verse is like a cliffhanger. And you just got to keep going to see what's going to happen. I want you to notice something. We're going to come around to verse three. And the last line in verse three is one. Talking about the devil, one little word shall fail him. And of course we know that word, don't we? Jesus. Starts with a J, ends with an S. Jesus. So let's see, dad, let's this. And you know what else I just love about this hymn? Do you remember at Pepaw's funeral we sang this as the Introit?

[B]

Is that right?

[A]

As we were, as the family was walking down the aisle, the congregation, it was a packed house. Singing this hymn at the top of their lungs. And it was as though the song were becoming the fortress around us as we sang it.

[B]

That gives me goosebumps.

[A]

And it was such a comfort and a declaration of faith. So you ready?

[B]

I'm ready. A mighty fortresses are gone A bell worth ever failing our shelter he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing for still our ancient foe does seek to work as woe his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal. Didn't we in our own strange confide Our standing would be losing we're not the right man on our side the men of Gazelle losing. Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus is he virgin? His name from A to H the same and he must win the B3 and O his world will devils filled shall tread unto undo us we will not fear the God has willed his truce to triumph through us the prince of darkness grim we tremble not for him his rage we can endure for lo, his doom is sure One little word shall tell you last verse that word above all earthly power no thanks to them abideth the spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sighted let gods and kindred go this mortal life Also the body they may kill God's truth abide it still all you got. His kingdom is forever.

[A]

That's a great hymn, isn't it?

[B]

Amen.

[A]

I mean, that's. Just put your stake in the ground.

[B]

That'll take your air out.

[A]

Here I stand, a great hymn. And it's one to sing on Sunday, the resurrection day of Jesus. So we're going to let you go now. We're not going to see you on the field today. We're going to see you at the house of the Lord. If. If you. If you have a church, I want you to go. If you can get out and go to church. Just. If you don't have a church, just say, jesus, take the wheel and lead you to a church. There's a bunch of them out there. Just take a risk. And if you can't get out and you don't have a church, you know where we want you to come today?

[B]

Our church.

[A]

Which is. Where are we, dad?

[B]

We're in Dumas, Gillette. Come on.

[A]

We moved from doom. We love Dumas.

[B]

We're at the Methodist church in Gillette, Arkansas.

[A]

Arkansas. You don't graduate from Dumas, but you can move.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And we did. And I'm the pastor over here. We're on YouTube and Facebook. G I L L E T T no E on the end. Gillette, just look us up. Gillette Methodist Church. Pray and preach and all those things. Anyway, that's where we'll see you today for The Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.

[B]

And I'm David Walt.