Skip to main content

 As promised, here is part 5 on the Armor of God: The shield of faith.

Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

I have a question for you. When Jesus came to live His Life within you and through you by the Presence, Person and Power of the Holy Spirit, did He somehow leave out any part of Who He is? No!

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 reads: “30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

Our righteousness is Jesus; He is our wisdom’ He is our holiness; He is our salvation.

Now, read carefully.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

I copied this passage from the King James Version, because it is the one translation that accurately translates this passage. Written, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God…” may seem stilted or strange, but the original Greek is in the genitive tense, the tense of possession, to show you WHOSE faith the Apostle says we live by.

When Jesus came to live in you, He came to live out in you, His faith; His confidence in the Father in all things. Jesus lives His life in you. He IS your life and is your shield, Himself. He alone has defeated sin, death, hell and the grave. He, Himself is able to put out the fiery arrows the forces of spiritual darkness will fire at us.

People talk about having thoughts of suicide. I suspect that everyone, at one time or another, have had the feeling that life is overwhelming and ending it could be a viable answer to stopping what feels like madness. What I have come to believe is that the “thought” of suicide is not really a thought, but is “a flaming, fiery arrow”. Those arrows try and convince us that God is not faithful and that our feelings, our present sense of misery is what defines us and that we have no hope.

Those arrows, those thoughts, are demonically arrogant, trying to exalt themselves above the knowledge of God. God tells us that, having begun a good work in us, He will bring it to completion. Our shield is Jesus’ faithfulness. He is infinitely more trustworthy than how we feel or even what we think we see.

Jesus is, Himself, your shield of faith. His faithfulness is your shield!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  OUT IN THE OPEN God has not hidden what He has done to redeem humanity. He offers us the only way of true repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin and a new life that is unending. Truth is, though, He never forces repentance, faith, forgiveness and a new life on anyone. He desires a relationship, not the programmed responses of humanoid AI. His love for us has exposed the utter ruin of humanity because of our rebellion and sin. He doesn’t want us to be deceived into thinking that at the end of our lives here on earth we will all get a “participation trophy”. We have all personalized and internalized our rebellion against God. Humanity’s rebellion against God can be shocking horror or the civilized folly or relying on our broken moral compass to bring ourselves back into a state of wholeness. We want to be the ground of truth. We want our emotions enshrined and worshipped by all. The root problem is that humanity is spiritually dead and separated from Life, Himself. Both pride and ho...
Post a Comment
Read more
  PSALM 119:132 “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your Name.” Here is the cry of an understanding heart. The Psalmist is acknowledging that life in all its fullness, the life God intends for us to live out here on earth is only found by God’s pursuit of us, His turning to us that we might turn to Him. The Psalmist knows that “Salvation is of the Lord.” He cries out for the Lord’s mercy to cover Him. He acknowledges that those who know the Lord, those who are known by Him and who love His Name, always find God’s mercy and grace to live out the life that God commands. God provides the wherewithal to do what He has commanded. He gives us the indwelling Power and Person of the Holy Spirit to BE Life within us. It is the Holy Spirit who conforms us to the Image of Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects in us the obedience of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He enables us to cooperate w...
Post a Comment
Read more
 UNDERSTANDING GOD'S MERCY Matthew 13:58 “ And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” I have heard it said that somehow the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ was somehow limited by the unbelief of the folks in His hometown of Nazareth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing limits the power of God nor His grace give to sinners to redeem, heal, and restore them to God. What we see is the mercy of God towards broken people. He will not reinforce unbelief. If someone refuses to believe who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the Lord in His mercy will not reinforce that unbelief by manifesting His healing and delivering power upon the one who does not believe. Otherwise, we broken humans might come to think that we can get from God what we want because we want it, not because we have surrendered our lives to Him in faith. Christianity is not refined paganism where we get God to do what we want because we h...
Post a Comment
Read more