Cp. 5 Understanding our Armor - Part 2A

Eph 6:16 - “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (KJV)
The charge of Paul to take “Above all” the shield of faith puts faith in a slightly higher category than the graces of truth, righteousness and peace. The bible says in Heb 11:6 - “… without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (NIV) Faith is the basic foundation of our Christian walk. This kind of faith is called “justifying faith.” This type of faith is not just believing that the bible is true. It is not assurance of salvation. It is absolute dependency on Christ for everything. The difference between them can be summed up in this statement from Gurnall: “Assurance says, I believe my sins are forgiven through Christ. Faith says, I believe in Christ for the forgiveness of my sins.” This is a small but very important difference.
Faith’s dwelling place is our soul and the knowing of the Christ who dwells there is also of extreme importance. 2 Tim 1:12 - … “I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (KJV) Paul knows the Savior in whom he believes and he is fully persuaded way down deep in his spirit, he is absolutely convinced that Christ is able to keep our soul and spirit which we, upon salvation, have entrusted to Christ to keep safely rested in Him until the day of our resurrection or rapture. This is the standard of faith that we all must exercise to see our faith in action.
The shield is the only part of the armor that isn’t stationary. We can move it around to protect our whole body. It reinforces the rest of the armor as a second layer of protection to defend the individual parts as needed. Ps 5:12 - “For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.” (NIV) You could compare it to the type of defensive “shields” that the Starship Enterprise uses. They are invisible barriers that surrounds the whole ship and the enemy’s weapons just bounce off. If an area is hit repeatedly it weakens the shield and the same type of thing can happen to us. We get weary and sometimes our shield of faith can sag and we only become aware of it when we sin or grow lax in our watchfulness. That fiery guilty conscience that is the Holy Spirit lets us know that we need to be more alert to the situations around us or that we have failed and need to repent and ask forgiveness.
It’s been said that “Faith stills the storms that our sins have raised”. It is faith that causes Christ to dwell in our hearts: Eph 3:17 - “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,” (KJV). It is also the first thing Christ will look for when He returns. Luke 18:8... “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (NIV)
As Christ is the Captain of our salvation so our faith is the captain of our spiritual warfare. If you read about the “heroes of faith” in Heb. 11 you will see that all their accomplishments are preceded by these words, “By faith”. Our faith is also tested by God on occasion: 1 Peter 1:7 - “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (KJV)
It doesn’t take a mountain of faith for God to accomplish great things through us. Luke 17:6 - “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (KJV)
Mark 11:22-24 - “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (KJV)
A mustard seed is one of the tiniest of seeds and we prove to ourselves that we have at least that much faith when we surrender our hearts to God and trust in Him for our salvation. You already have as much faith as you need; you just need to exercise it a little more and strengthen it through repetitive use in spiritual warfare.
Because we are human however, there are times when our faith fails or is insufficient. It isn’t God’s failure, it is ours, however, He is right there waiting to pick us up when we stumble. These are the times when the unity of the Body of Christ is needed most, our brothers and sisters in Christ can stand in the gap and intercede on our behalf, sharing their faith with us. When that happens, we increase our spiritual strength exponentially. An example of this is given in Exodus 17:8-12. Israel was battling Am-a-lek and as long as Moses kept his hands raised towards heaven, Israel prevailed. Whenever his arms got tired and started to sag Am-a-lek prevailed, so Aaron and Hur stayed by Moses’ side to help him keep his arms raised until Israel was victorious. I think this is a beautiful picture of the responsibility that we as the church have for one another. It is important that we are able to turn towards our brothers and sisters in Christ at our time of need but unless they are also aware of the spiritual warfare that each and everyone of us endures they won’t be able to help us when we need it most. That is one of the reasons that in this new millennium, when the church is about to go through its severest test ever, we need to be informed about these things.
The greatest weapon Satan uses against our faith is unbelief. The strength of our faith determines the strength of the rest of our armor. True faith is obedience resulting in self-denial, and it is prayerful and consistent. Faith is: …“the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,” Eph 1:19. (NKJV). Faith works by love: Gal 5:6 - … “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (NIV). It is important because: …“without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb 11:6 - NIV)
Belief begins in the heart and radiates outward so the outer man starts behaving in the manner the inner man desires. Faith helps us to persevere and expects and watches for the answer to all our prayers. We should expect God to answer our prayers in every single situation that we turn to Him not just some of them. It should be said however, that we don’t always recognize the answer to our prayers when it comes. Prayer is simply communicating with God. The hard part is realizing that it is a two-way conversation. Sometimes we just need to shut up and listen.