Good morning everyone. This certainly is a beautiful morning here in sunny Biloela. Spring is now underway and new life is springing up everywhere. Our God is certainly wonderful hey?
Well let's have a look at our next piece of armour that God has given us to wear for our protection, the Shield of Faith. Notice with this shield we are able to quench every one of Satan's fiery darts. That's good news folks! As children of God we are to walk in the spirit realm and we are promised victory in every area of our lives. Our Father God loves us dearly and desires to bless us even more than we desire to be blessed. But according to His good purpose and plan there is only one way to receive anything from the Lord, and that is by faith.
We have been commanded to live by faith (Rom 1:16-17). We cannot even please God other than by walking out this faith walk. It's displeasing to the Father when we live any other way except by this way of faith (Heb 11:6)
A soldier takes a hold of the shield in his hand and holds it out front of him to prevent any arrows getting to him. Our spiritual shield is no different and will if used correctly extinguish Satan's every fiery dart. Darts and flaming arrows come at each and every one of us daily while living in this earth. It's not the purpose of today's teaching to discuss these arrows in depth but let me briefly explain. Words spoken in the natural realm and words spoken in the spiritual realm are powerful. Words contain power. God created the whole universe and everything in it through the power of His spoken words. Words can either contain life or death, they can bless or curse, bring health or sickness, abundance or lack, peace or confusion... the list goes on.
Satan desires to fire his death forming, accusing, lying words right at you with one purpose in mind, to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus came so that we might have life and have it to the full. With this great shield of faith we can stop Satan's every evil plan he has against us and allow Jesus to get involved in our lives and lead us into victory.
All right David how do you live by faith? Glad you asked. Most simply put
it is a two step process that we see all through the bible...
Hearing and Obeying.
1. Hearing - "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom 10:17).
We must hear God's will for our lives, which is His Word each and every day if we are to grow a nice big faith shield. Read your bible out loud every day. Find promises from the Word that pertain to your circumstances and speak them over your life.
Attend regularly a good bible teaching God loving church and sit in on anointed preaching of the Word and watch your faith start growing. Listen to anointed preaching also on tape, CD, TV, internet etc... there is no shortage of opportunities that God has provided to help us in our faith walk.
You have to decide to make these things a daily habit in your life as no one else can do this for you, not even God.
2. Obeying - "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1:22 NIV).
Folks, there is no faith in deception! There are a lot of self deceived people in the Body of Christ and it has come about because of disobedience.
You must align your everyday lifestyle with the truth the Lord has revealed to you. If you don't, deception will be at work in your life and you will not have the spiritual strength to hold this big shield up. You are an open target for the enemy if the shield of faith is not held out there in front of you.
Let me give you an example from the bible that I will call a 'doing' verse. Phil 2:14 (NIV) says to "Do everything without complaining or arguing".
When I first saw this I was shocked to say the least. Complaining about different things was almost a daily occurrence for me and it was a wonder my faith was working at all! Are you given to complaining about anyone or anything? Do you at any time argue with anyone?
Hearing and Obeying the Word of God is fun and it will bring satisfaction to your soul. This walk of faith is the way to go and you will be richly rewarded for doing things God's way. (see Hebrews 11).
To the faithful (those hearers and doers with their faith shield up) God promises:
No weapon formed against you will prosper.
You are more than a conqueror.
Because God is for you who can be against you?
Who can separate you from the love of God in Christ? - nobody or nothing!!
David
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Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
Ephesians 6:16