Shield Of Faith Series

SHIELD OF FAITH

London, England is farther north than Saint John's, Newfoundland, yet London has a very mild climate and Newfoundland a very harsh climate. The difference is caused by the Gulf Stream, that ever- flowing current of warm water from the Gulf of Mexico. Likewise in life we see two people going through exactly the same difficulties. One seems to be destroyed by them; the other faces them heroically. The difference may be due to a spiritual current of faith that warms the soul of one but is not present in the other.

Eph 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.

In the days of Paul, the flaming arrow was a formidable weapon. This arrow had a heavy iron tip which was dipped into pitch and set on fire. It was a deadly flaming missile. These arrows would cause panic within the opposing ranks, especially when they embedded themselves into things which would burn like a shield. A frightened soldier would throw down his burning shield leaving himself unprotected from arrows and spears. You can imagine the result.

Such a deadly weapon needed a formidable defense; and thus the Roman shield was invented. It was very large - 4.5 ft. high. It was made of 3 thin layers of wood, with linen sandwiched between each layer. It also had an outer layer of leather or animal hide. To hold it all together a bronze strip was wrapped around the whole edge. They were soaked in water before battle so they would not burn. These shields could be linked together with other shields to form a wall. So how is faith like a shield? What are the flaming arrows we face today?

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free ?" 34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The war we wage against the devil is not a matter of our own strength but of truth. In order to fight the devil we need to hold to the truth through faith. So what is faith? Faith means complete trust or confidence in something or someone.

John Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who had been running hard came into the missionary's house, flopped himself in a large chair and said, "It's good to rest my whole weight on this chair." "That's it," said Paton. "I'll translate faith as 'resting one's whole weight on God.'"

The new Disney film Moana is about the Polynesian culture. For centuries New Zealand was unpopulated. The first settlers were Polynesians from other Pacific islands who had sailed a thousand miles in outrigger canoes. How did they know the land was there? How did they know they would not simply sail across empty seas until food and water ran out and they perished? The Polynesians had known for generations that land was there because their voyagers had seen a long white cloud on the distant horizon. They knew that when a cloud stayed in one place over a very long period of time, there was land beneath it. They called New Zealand the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Faith is like that. It is voyaging to an unseen land, journeying to an unknown future. But it is not mere guesswork, or chance, or superstition. There are facts behind faith, facts that suggest conclusions.

The devil always fights the church when the church is on the move. Charles Spurgeon used to say that the devil never kicks a dead horse. It is only when the devil knows that a church is on the move that he attacks it. Think about it. In Acts 2 we read that the Holy Spirit came and that 3000 people came to Christ. Then what happened? According to Acts 4, the devil came like a lion and had the apostles harassed and threatened. That did not work so in chapter 5, the devil came like a serpent, influencing Ananias and Sapphira to infect the church with their lying and hypocrisy. If he could not stop the church by persecution from the outside, he will try pollution from the inside. Then in Acts 6 the devil came as the accuser. One group of widows accused the other group of widows of getting preferential treatment, over the issue of race. Then im Acts 17 the devil came as a murderer. Stephen is killed and the church is forced to scatter.