Shield of Faith – Armor of God part 4 – God is faithful, so we can have faith in God, and be fully assured, and have a positive expectation or hope that God is in you, and has given you what you need.

Continuing our conversation on the armor of God, we get to talk about the shield of faith.  To see the armor of God series on YouTube praise and worship sessions HERE is the playlist.  And for the previous blogs on the armor of God, see the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of peace.

It says in scripture, that in addition to the belt of truth, and breastplate of righteousness, and shoes of the gospel of peace, we are to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Ephesians 6:16 BSB.  So, let’s start our conversation talking about faith.  We will also look at God being faithful, and the fiery darts of the enemy, and the Roman armor.

“Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see” Hebrews 11:1 BSB.  The Kenneth S. Wuest translation calls faith “the title deed of things hoped for”.   The definition of faith, or pistis in Greek is faith, and faithfulness, but to be more specific, faith is to be fully persuaded.  Faith is a gift from God, not produced by the flesh. And it’s God’s guarantee or warranty. In order to be fully persuaded of anything, or to receive God’s guarantee or warranty of something, we need to know God, and His character, and to know that He is faithful, trustworthy, and good.  Also, since faith is produced from the recreated spirit in us, rather than our flesh, we have to abide with God, dwell with God, keep our eyes stayed on Him, in order to produce the fruit of faith or faithfulness.

This is a theme throughout scripture, and specifically the armor of God.  That we need to know God, and that He is good, and what His will is, and then die to self, and let Christ live through us.  Since we know that Jesus is the exact representation of the nature and character of God (Hebrews 1:3), we can look to Jesus, and His life on the earth to see God, and of course all the bible, and just see it through a new covenant mindset.  We are not doing sacrifices, or being punished, Jesus paid for all the punishment of sin, and became the curse so we could be co-heir with Him, so we do have to take that into consideration when we read God’s word, and read it through this new covenant mindset that Jesus paid for us to have.   Let’s renew our mind to God’s word so that we are transformed and we prove out His awesome will (from Romans 12:2).

God is faithful.  He is our solid rock, on which we stand.  “Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal” Isaiah 26:4 BSB.  It says in scripture that “God as to His nature is light, and darkness in Him does not exist, not even one particle” 1 John 1:5b Kenneth S. Wuest.   And we are told that Every gift is from God, and that he doesn’t change, or shift, that there isn’t even a shadow from Him (from James 1:17).  We see that we can hold onto hope, because “He who promised is faithful” Hebrews 10:23b BSB.  And Abraham’s wife Sara, conceived a child in her old age after being barren, “because she considered Him faithful who had promised” Hebrews 11:11b BSB. 

Going back to Hebrews 11:1, where faith is the “assurance of what we hope for”, and the “certainty of what we do not see”, we realize that we need to hope for something to have faith.  And hope is that confident expectation of good things to come.  So again, we need to know that God is good. And that He has already “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” Ephesians 1:3b BSB.  And He has already “given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him" 2 Peter 1:3 BSB. There is so much we can hope for, but we tend to limit God. Let’s open our eyes, and realize that we have had God in a box, and we want to delight ourselves in Him, and He gives us the desires of our heart (from Psalm 37:4). And it says in Ephesians 3 that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us”, so let’s take God out of the box, and have positive imagination, which is hope!  Let’s have positive expectation. And when we have renewed our mind to His word, and delighted in Him, and spent time with Him, and die to self, our desires to align with His, we know His will, we prove it out.  So “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him” 1 John 5:14-15 BSB.  So again, let’s take God out of a box, and realize He can do more than we ask or imagine, so let’s get our positive expectation up, which is hope, and confidently expect good things to come, and speak it, and be fully persuaded, and fully assured that we have what we have hoped for. The title deed means that we have it even if we don’t see it in the natural yet. When you have the title deed of a car, it’s yours even if the car isn’t in front of you at this moment.  God says it’s finished, so we receive, or aggressively take hold of what He has already given. 

One of the things He has given us is His spirit of course, that’s the key thing of course, and it’s what everything comes through. And faithfulness is one of the fruits of the spirit, so the more we focus on Him, learn about Him, and keep our minds or imaginations focused on Him, the more those fruits grow (we know not how).  Therefore, faith comes as we know God, and spend time with Him. 

What’s also so amazing about faith, is how God made it so we can have faith for others.  Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead on His faith, as Lazarus couldn’t have any, and his family didn’t.  And the guy on the pallet whose friends lowered him through the roof, I would say that his friends were full of faith, or fully persuaded that Jesus would and could heal him.  The Roman armor helps us with this visual.  As these shields were 4 feet high, and 2 ½ feet high, they were very large, and typically they would interlock their shields to create protection from the front. Then people in the next rows would raise their shields up above to create protection from the top. So, let’s interlock our shields of faith with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and support each other through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

The shield was also potentially soaked in water, to quench the fiery darts that were used at the time. It is possible this isn’t true as it would have made them too heavy, but there were darts or spears lit on fire used, and we know the word extinguish and quench is used in scripture, so we know Paul was trying to point this piece out.  We want our shield washed in the water of the word, and flowing with the Holy Spirit, like a river out of our inner most being, because that is definitely what quenches or extinguishes the enemy’s darts (truth and power!). And that’s how we get to know God.  Let’s soak in God’s word, and realize you are constantly in His presence!   We have the power of the Holy Spirit in us because it says we “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” Acts 1:8a BSB. 

Let’s stand together, realizing we have a faithful God. Keeping our eyes stayed on Him, getting to know Him more every day, and dying to our flesh so that He can live through us more.  As we do that, our faith, or our full assurance of the goodness of God, and what we have hoped in grows as a fruit of that time with God.  And the enemy cannot win in a battle against the Holy Spirit and the word of God.  Be confident in who you are, and who is in you.  Have full assurance, and be fully persuaded of the power of the Holy Spirit in you, and your position as child of God, beloved. 

If you want to lock your shields with others, and be washed in the water of the word, and talk about stirring up that spirit that is within you to submit to God more, and know Him more so the enemy’s darts will be quenched… join us for live sessions throughout the week, its free.  To receive the weekly schedule and zoom links, just subscribe HERE and scroll down to the bottom of my website, to access free live mind renewal sessions. 

References

Scriptures marked BSB were taken from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB Copyright 2022 by Bible Hub Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Scriptures marked Kenneth S. Wuest translation were taken from The New Testament: An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1961