The Shield of Faith

The Shield of Faith

(Ephesians 6:16)

To be victorious, we must have faith in the only One who is stronger than Satan…the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

The Purpose of the Shield of Faith

Ephesians 6:16 tells us why we need the shield: “With it, you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.” When the Scripture refers to fiery darts, it is a clear literary allusion to the practice of warfare at that time.  Archers would soak the tips of their darts and arrows in poison so that if the initial trauma of the arrow didn’t kill its victim, the poison would get into the wound and do its job that way.  On other occasions, Roman soldiers would wrap their arrowheads in cloth, soak them in pitch, and then set them on fire before raining arrows down on the enemy. Those flaming arrows splattered burning pitch wherever they landed, often was setting afire the camp of the enemy.  This proved particularly effective when fighting legions of soldiers with wooden shields, for those shields, while effectively stopping the arrow’s thrust, would begin to burn. The smoke would make the shields difficult to use, and got in the eyes of the one wielding the shield.

  

The Dart of Doubt

What kind of darts does Satan through at you?  In his first encounter with man, the devil used the dart of doubt.  Genesis 3 records that he began to trap Eve by asking,  “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”  In other words, did God really say that? Did God really mean it?  He begins by creating doubt in the mind of his victim.  Satan shoots a dart into Eve’s heart to question the integrity of God.
 

The Dart of Denial

When Eve replies, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God as said, ‘you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’  Satan simply denies the truth.  “You will not surely die,” he says, though this is clearly a contradiction of God’s Word.  Notice that Satan didn’t come right out at the beginning and deny God.   That would have been too obvious and would have scared Eve off.  He started by sowing seeds of doubt, then he brought it to a denial of God’s Word.

 

The Dart of Deceit

Satan sends his most poisonous dart into the heart of Eve when he says, “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” There is some truth in that statement, but it is full of wicked poison.  It is a deceitful declaration, and Eve, without her shield of faith, was ruined by Satan’s attack.

Satan still uses these darts to attack God’s people. He loves to bring up doubt in the lives of believers.  That’s why you need the shield of faith, because it is the antithesis of doubt. 

Hebrews chapter 11 is called the “hall of faith” because it chronicles the people in the Old Testament who distinguished themselves by expressions of faith. Each one accomplished great things by taking a step of faith, and it was that faith that protected them from the darts of the evil one.  Some of many who showed great examples of faith were Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, Joshua, and Moses.  Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  By faith, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3).

The Bible is full of examples of men and women who held to their faith in God in the face of attacks from Satan. Sometimes people were called by God to do things that might have seemed ridiculous, but they stepped out in faith because they were sure God was directing them.  These people felt many of the same pressures we feel, had the same doubts cast at them by Satan, and decided to lift up the shield of faith and say, “I am going to believe God and take Him at His Word. I don’t care what the circumstance look like and I don’t care what doubts Satan throws at me, this is God’s Word and I will trust in it.”  Faith has the potential to accomplish great things for God.  
 

The Possession of the Shield of Faith

God isn’t going to drop this kind of faith into your lap. You have to take it up. You have to appropriate the truth.  Faith is not faith unless it is at work.  True faith is active, and the only way to appropriate it is to become familiar with the Word of God so that you know the truth and fight off Satan’s doubt and deceit with God’s truth.

There are two things to keep in mind if you are going to pick up the shield of faith.  First, get straight about the object of your faith…Jesus Christ.  He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith.  Make certain you faith is in Christ Jesus, not your pastor or teacher.  As you get to know Jesus you will begin to feel more and more secure.  Get to know Jesus and your faith will grow.  Second, get serious about the strengthening of your faith.  You develop physical strength by exercise, and you develop spiritual  strength  by exercising your faith. You don’t grow by what you know, but by taking what you know and applying that truth to your life.  If you don’t exercise your faith by applying truth to your life, you won’t grow.  Do you want to build a strong shield of faith so that you can defeat Satan in the spiritual battle? Find something God has told you to do, and do it. Then you’ll start to win some of those battles.

Taken from David Jeremiah's study guide, Spiritual Warfare

~Annie~