Sit, Walk and Stand based on Grace and His Finished Work (13)

Put on the Full Armor of God (6) – The Shield of Faith

In Ephesians 6:16, Paul says “ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” The next piece of the armor is the shield of faith. “The large curved shield which Paul refers to was about four feet tall and two feet wide. It was made of layers of laminated wood covered by linen and leather. A brass or bronze rim covered every edge as protection against sword attack. The only protection against the flaming arrows that rained down from the sky in ancient warfare was the shield.” (Source :http://www.realarmorofgod.com/armor-of-god.html

Paul says we are to take up our faith which is pictured as a shield here to protect ourselves from the fiery darts of the enemy. In fact it can even quench all the flaming darts that the devil throws at us! Why is faith pictured as a shield? Charles Spurgeon says it very well :

As the shield enveloped the entire man, so faith envelops the entire man, protecting him from all missiles wherever they may be aimed against him. Faith protects the whole man. Let the assault of Satan be against the head, let Satan try to deceive us with unsettled notions in theology, let him tempt us to doubt those things that we have truly received. Unsettledness in our thoughts generally springs from a weakness of faith. A man who has strong faith in Christ has a hand that gets such a grip of the doctrines of grace that you could not unclasp it, do what you would. He knows what he has believed. He understands what he has received. He could not and would not give up what he knows to be the truth of God, though all the schemes that men devise should assail him with their most treacherous art.
Source : http://members.cox.net/spw1942/spiritual_warfare3.html

I like what Spurgeon says which is that a man who has strong faith in Christ has such a strong grip of the doctrines of grace that he knows what he has believed ( the finished work of Jesus on the cross) and he understands what he has received (everything that Christ’s death and resurrection have given us). As New Covenant believers, we walk by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and not by sight on the natural things and circumstances of this world. The enemy may throw darts at us in the form of adverse situations that make us doubt what Christ has achieved for us through His finished work on the cross. Very often, he will try to make us focus on the “mountains” in our lives and rob us of our faith. Doubts can cause us to respond to situations like the way the 10 spies did in Numbers 13. God had promised the land to the people of Israel but the 10 spies saw the giants and said “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:33 NKJ). The other 2 spies, Joshua and Caleb had a different spirit, they had the spirit of faith. They saw the land with the same giants that the other 10 spies saw but notice the great difference in their response: “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”(Numbers 13:30 NKJ). Eventually, only Joshua and Caleb entered the promised land because they believed that the land was given by God and they spoke words of faith that corresponded with what they believed “Let us go up at once and take possession…”

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:13 : “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”^[a]we also believe and therefore speak,” Faith is believing and speaking! It is believing in what Jesus has achieved for us on the cross and speaking and confessing this truth. When the devil throws the fiery darts of lying symptoms in our bodies, we believe in Jesus’ finished work on the cross and we speak and confess that by His Stripes we are healed! When we do that, we are taking the shield of faith and quenching the fiery darts of the evil one.

1 John 5:4 boldly declares : “For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.”

-------------------------to be continued----------------------------