Faith Part 4: The Shield of Faith Part 2
Scripture: Ephesians 6:16; 1 Peter 1:3-5
Introduction
Last week I got half way through this message on the shield of faith. The foundational scripture was found in Ephesians 6:16 which says “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one.” I shared with you that the audience that Paul was primarily talking to were Greeks so they knew exactly what he meant when he talked about the shield of faith. The Romans had two shields, one for parades and ceremonies and one that they actually used on the battlefield. The shield that was used on the battlefield is the one Paul was referencing when he wrote Ephesians 6:16. Last week I talked about the Roman shields and how they were comparable to our faith shields. I also talked about how the shields were made and how the soldiers had to care for them. I only had time last week to briefly touch on the full purpose of the shields and the flaming arrows for our enemy. This morning we will look more closely at the purpose of the shield and those flaming arrows.
I. Purpose of the Shield of Faith
Last week I told you how the shield was used to block the flaming arrows of the enemy. The shield also had another purpose, to help the soldier gain ground on the enemy. I remember watching movies where the soldiers who had shields had advantages over their enemies who sometimes did not. The picture that stands out in my mind is the soldier running forward with his shield up, blocking the arrows of the enemy while he still advance to attack. Although the shield was used to block the arrows and the blows from the swords, it was also used to attacked, to push the enemy backwards. To put our shield up while we are running away is not the picture that Paul is trying to give us. The picture he is painting is one of a soldier holding his shield up for protection while he is steadily advancing and taking over the enemy’s territory. When we have the shield of faith that is anointed by the Holy Spirit and saturated with the Word of God, it positions us to move in power. Not backwards, but forwards as we face off with the enemy. We will stand our ground and having successfully defended it, move forward, not backwards. Our faith is supposed to be out front so that it can cover all. Our faith was never meant to be held next to our side, or behind our backs. It is meant to completely cover and protect us when we are marching forward to take new ground for the Kingdom of God. Consider what the Scripture says in 1 Peter 1:3-5.
1 Peter 1:3-5 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Focus on the line that says “who through faith are shielded by God’s power…” When you start using your shield of faith, through your faith you are shielded by God’s power, not your own. Do you understand the importance of this? Last week I told you how we have all been give the measure of faith by God. God placed within us the ability to have faith in Him. He did not want us to have to go seeking it, He gave it to us. All of you have faith that was given to you by God so that you could believe in Him and His willingness to aid you. Now Peter tells us that through that same faith that God has already given us, we are shielded under God’s power. Not my power, not your power, not your parent’s power, God’s power. And being shielded under God’s power our total victory is guaranteed. We may lose a battle now and then, but we cannot lose the war!
There is an unseen connection between the power of God and the operation of faith in your life. When these two are working hand in hand, they build a wall of defense against the tactics of the enemy that cannot be penetrated. When the power of God and faith get together, they become a shield to the believer. When you have these two elements working together in your life, you become fortified and invulnerable. Power and faith working together will spiritually equip you to hold an ironclad position against the enemy without taking any serious blows to yourself. Think of the power of God and your faith meshing together and forming a tank that protects you as you move forwards taking the enemy’s territory. As you are coming forward, do not think the devil will just lie down and hand over his territory, the devil will be on his job defending his territory. This is why Paul makes the statement “with which you can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one” in Ephesians 6:16. While you are advancing, Satan will be shooting at you with these flaming arrows. Let’s look more closely at these arrows.
II. Flaming Darts of the Wicked
When we look at what Paul says our shields should be able to do, he mentions the flaming arrows of the enemy. According to author Rick Renner, during the New Testament times, there were three types of arrows used by the military. First there were plain arrows that were similar to the arrows that one would shoot from a bow today. Next, there were arrows that were dipped into tar, set on fire, and then shot through the air. Last, there were arrows that contained combustible fluids that burst into flames upon impact. The arrows in Ephesians 6:16 are called flaming arrows or “fiery darts”. Paul was speaking of arrows that carried fire. Specifically he is picturing those arrows that were made from long, slender pieces of cane, and were filled with combustible fluids which exploded upon impact. This is why their shields needed to be so large, to cover their whole body.
These fluid filled arrows were not used in normal combat situations. Regular arrows were sufficient for those kinds of confrontations. These fire-bearing arrows were reserved to inflict damage upon a fortified place, an encampment. If an army had fortified its position so that the enemy could not break in to destroy it, then the enemy would revert to using these deadly arrows of fire. Because these arrows looked harmless, some soldiers made the mistake of ignoring the attacks until the arrows it their targets and exploded. This is the picture that Paul is painting for us when he wrote about the “fiery darts of the wicked.” In our lives, we have to recognize when these arrows are being shot at us.
As I mentioned last week, on the battlefield, our enemy must always change their attack strategies in their attempt to gain a victory. The strategies that worked before must be updated so that they can continue to surprise us as they try to gain our ground. As we learn to utilize our faith through the trials and tribulations we encounter, Satan will change his tactics. The things that used to cause us problems before can no longer get beyond our defenses. When that happens, Satan must resort to other ways to get around our defenses. This is when he resorts to those fiery darts, those that do not seem dangerous until they actually hit their targets and explode. When the enemy has no easy access into our life, he will try another more covert route to come against us. One of his prime targets is our mind through our thought process and emotions. Remember when Paul said in Romans 12:2 that we needed to “renew our minds” in our transformation process? That is because it is a prime target for an attack from our enemy. When we renew our minds, our emotions are changed. We do not respond to things and/or situations as we did before we began our transformation.
Although we walk in faith, our emotions are often still affected by the everyday things that happen around us. When one of the enemies’s flaming arrows hits our emotions it can throw our emotions into rage, anger, anxiety, unbelief, worry, etc. All of these emotions, if used inappropriately, can act against our faith. All the enemy needs is a small crack and he can get beyond our defenses. Although those arrows may seem small and harmless while they are in the air, they cannot be ignored. If they hit their target while you are not on guard, they can enrage you like a fire that is hopelessly burning out of control. We must maintain control over our emotions by making sure that our emotions are likewise covered by our shield of faith. Our emotions can get us into trouble and cause us to act in ways that contradicts our confession of faith. Let me give you an example. I shared this during bible study on Wednesday evening. I received an email from my brother titled “Patience”. It told this story.
“An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman hit the roof and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ’Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ’What Would Jesus Do?’ bumper sticker, the ’Follow Me to Sunday-School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."
This story may seem funny, yet these situations happen every day, situations where our emotions cause us to act contrary to what we profess. This is why the enemy targets our emotions. It is not enough to hold the shield up against a seen enemy with arrows that are normal, we must also be prepared for that enemy and the arrows that might look normal, yet are very deadly. Our shield of faith must be out front so it can completely cover our “life” just as the Roman soldier shield covered his whole body. Only then can we ensure that no fiery dart or flaming arrow can penetrate our defenses.
The enemy also desires to lodge an arrow of unbelief into your mind that will eventually destroy you. These can come in the form of self doubts, unbelief in God or His Word, condemnation and guilt. For example, if an arrow of unbelief lodges in your mind and tells you that your good marriage is failing, and you accept it, your marriage may really begin to deteriorate as your false faith empowers that demonic accusation to become reality. The “shield of faith” enables us to quench, extinguish and ricochet these lying accusations. This is why the Word of God commands us, “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” 2 Cor. 10:5.
If these fiery darts come your way and you quench them with your shield of faith, they can do you no harm. When you are struggling in your marriage, instead of seeing defeat and allowing the fires from the arrows to burn, allow your shield of faith to quench it because it has been anointed by the Holy Spirit and soaked in the water of the Word of God. We can walk in faith for our marriage and every other relationship that we are involved in. We can walk in faith for our jobs, our finances, our homes, our kids, our friends, everything. Our life is a faith walk; line it up with God and His Word. When we are walking by faith, we can see the arrows for what they are, another attack from the enemy. When we have this knowledge, we know what our responses should be. Instead of responding after the arrow has hit its target, when we see them coming, immediately raise our shields of faith so that it cannot hit their targets and just fall to the ground.
Before I close out this section, I want to address one other thing that our enemy uses as a flaming arrow against us – our failures. All of us at some time in our lives have failed God. Our enemy uses our failures to tell us that we are no good and can never become what God has called us to be. He shoots those arrows that tell us we should stop trying because we continue to fail. Those arrows of doubts are designed to target our minds and our emotions so that frustration will set in and we will walk away throwing our hands up in defeat. I want us to change how we think of our failures from our pasts. I want us to think of our failures as times when we were on the battlefield and got knocked down. Although we were temporarily stunned, we got back up and continued to fight. Once the battle was over and everyone was celebrating, we were able to celebrate with them. When we fail God, get back up and keep marching. Do not stay on the ground in defeat while the enemy walks on top of you. Stand up, shake it off and start fighting again.
III. Corporate Faith
The last topic I want to address in this message on the shield of faith is corporate faith. Again I point back to the Roman soldiers. While a Roman soldier could carry a shield to fight one enemy by himself, he and his shield were not big enough to take on an entire army. Therefore, when Roman soldiers were threatened by a mass of opposition, they would walk very close to one another in one long line, side by side. On the sides of their massive shields were small hinges. One at a time, these soldiers would begin fastening their shield to the next soldier’s shield, and then to the next soldier’s shield and then the next, and so on. After all their shields were securely fastened to one another, they would begin marching in unison toward the opposing forces. Because their shields were connected, it looked like a huge wall of armor was moving across the field towards the enemy. When soldiers marched together like this, it positioned them to march right up against the enemy while rarely losing one of their own.
Similarly, when the Church of Jesus Christ learns to march in unison and walk with each other, it will position us to make advances and inroads into the enemy’s territory that have never been made before. Our faith, when combined with the faith of others, can make significantly gains against our enemy. This is why our enemy attacks the Church with vigor. He only needs one or two to have their shields fail for him to penetrate our defenses and cause some damage. I do not want to be the one on the line with a shield that is not properly conditioned and ends up failing.
You need your shield of faith. It is designed to protect your whole life, not just some parts. You must learn to use it and to take care of it. Only then will it be to protect you against the fiery darts of our enemy.
Note: As I did in part one, I want to give credit to author Rick Renner and his book “Dressed to Kill” for which all of the historical information on the Roman armor was taken. Again, if you want a book that will enlighten your life, this would be the book to get. Thank you Barry (my brother) for sending it to me. God Bless.
