Part 7 - The Shield Of Faith Series

Spiritual Warfare and the Whole Armor of God Series

Part 7 – The Shield of Faith

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 6:16

“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

PRAYER

“In Addition to All This,”

Paul is reminding us that the shield of faith is used WITH the Belt of the truth of Christ, The Breastplate of Righteousness and the Shoes of being prepared to give Good News.

Any part of the Whole Armor without the previous part of the armor is useless! We are instructed to “Put on the Whole Armor of God”. Not just whatever piece of armor we my need at that moment.

We must ready ourselves BEFORE the day begins. You don’t go onto a battle field, wait until you find your enemy, THEN put your armor on to protect yourself. You always put your armor on BEFORE you go out, knowing that somewhere along the way you WILL encounter the enemy!

Now, there were 2 types of shields that the Roman soldiers were using at the time Paul wrote Ephesians. One was a small 2-3 foot round shield for dress parades. The other was the one they actually used for battle and it was a large 30” X 60” rectangular shield. In Greek it was named “a door”, because it looked like the soldier was actually carrying a door into battle.

They were covered in leather which was soaked in water before battle so if they were hit with a flaming arrow the fire couldn’t spread.

Each shield was made of 6 or so layers of thick animal hide that was tanned and woven together.

Something we should note about Ephesians 6, Paul makes these statements;

10 Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power

11 Put on the Whole Armor of God

13 Put on the Whole Armor of God

14 Stand Firm with the Belt of truth, with the Breastplate of Righteousness

15 with your feet fitted (or shod)

But then the wording changes in verse 16. With turns into “above all, take” (KJV)

We receive our Belt of Truth by accepting Christ.

We receive our Breastplate of Righteousness not because it’s our righteousness, but because it is God’s righteousness from the Holy Spirit within us.

We are ready to share the Good News of what Christ has done in our lives because it is a result of God’s working in our lives!

This is the easy part. These are the natural results of God working within our lives.

But the rest of God’s armor is our responsibility to “TAKE”

16 “Above all, taking the shield of faith”

17 “And take the helmet of salvation AND the sword of the spirit.”

The shield, the helmet and the sword are our responsibility to pick up.

So many Christians today have the belt of truth because they have accepted Christ, as a result of accepting Christ; many of them have the breastplate of righteousness from the Holy Spirits indwelling within them. And those that do are ready to give account with their feet shod to share what God has done for them.

But how many of these Christians do you know that are being attacked by the devil, and because they did not “TAKE” the shield of faith, they are not extinguishing the flaming darts? And the fire spreads destroying churches, friendships, families, lives.

“Above all, Taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (KJV)

The first part of Ephesians 6 is a result of salvation; the second is a Christian’s responsibility if they want to have God’s protection and peace.

How do we “Take” the shield of Faith, as opposed to having it? You can have something, but that doesn’t mean you are using it.

First we ask, what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Being sure and certain are CHOICES! We must choose to be sure and certain.

This is how we “Take” the shield of faith, by making the choice to be sure of what we hope for and making the choice to be certain of what we cannot see.

How do we make the choice to be sure?

Hebrews 3:6

“But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house, and we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

We are his house. This house is made of God’s people. And the scriptures tell us that the evidence of us being part of God’s house is our ability to “hold no to our courage and hope”.

We persevere.