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.
How do we make the choice to be certain?
2 Corinthians 4:18
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
To fix your eyes on something is a choice. We must choose to focus on the unseen, for that is what is eternal, and in doing so we “Take” the shield of Faith.
Faith = a choice to believe, hope, be sure and certain of something that is unseen.
Jesus tells us about faith;
Mark 11:24
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
We believe in things we do not see. As if it already was.
We spoke last week about Romans 10:17 which says;
“Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
We can “Take” our shield of faith by hearing God’s word. Through hearing God’s word our faith will increase.
I was in SKA for a while in High School. They made medieval armor and fought with each other in full contact combat. Sometimes we had enough people to make 2 small armies and fight against each other.
Before 2 armies meet for one on one combat, the first thing that happens is the arrows begin to fly from the archers. They used arrows with beanbags in SKA, and basketballs for rocks in the catapults.
When the army saw that the enemy had launched a volley of arrows, they would hide under their shield to keep from getting hit.
After a few battles, we discovered that it was far more effective to group together placing all of our shields side by side in front of us and over us. Working together, NO arrows could penetrate our defense.
For this reason, we come together as a group of believers to work WITH each other. Filling in the gaps of each others shields so that we may better defend against the devils attacks.
Working in one accord!
If I am in combat, my shield can not protect my front AND my back at the same time. But if I am with my brothers and sisters in Christ, we watch each others backs! We look out for each other. We protect each other. And we look for the weakness in our brother and sisters defense, not so we can criticize, but so we can warn them AND step in to fill the gap and protect our family.
We are ONE body. If someone in this church is being attacked, we are all being attacked. Should the body attack itself? Of course not! Jesus said, “A house divided will fall!”
We protect the others who are of the body of Christ.
Some may be weaker.
Some may be less educated in the word.
Some may be off guard because of difficult times in their lives.
The REASON doesn’t matter as much as the purpose of our body working together for the Glory of God!
We need to pull together, especially in times of hurt and need in the body, and protect each other, and in doing so we better protect the church.
How do we develop and grow our shield of faith?
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God!”
Read the scriptures.
Also, Jesus tells us in
Luke 10:18-20
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
We have authority from Christ to overcome ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY!
And we should rejoice in the fact that our names are written in heaven!!!!
With this authority, we are given the right to speak directly against our enemy, using our authority given to us by Christ. We submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee!
We need to take the shield of faith, and CHOOSE to have hope and certainty in things unseen, and continue to grow our faith by reading God’s word. We will also choose to work together to make our defense even stronger, helping to fill the gaps in our body’s protection, caring for one another as we do ourselves.
For we are a House that is NOT divided, but united in the faith of God’s good work here in us.
