Band of Brothers

Faith is a major element to the Christians life, so important that the Bible tells us that without it we can’t even please God. Even Jesus was consistently looking for a person’s faith in how they responded to events in their lives. Today is no different and if you and I want to put a smile on God’s face we need to use our faith. Faith is a shield, which allows us to put an immediate end to many of Satan’s attacks. But it’s not just a defensive weapon, it’s also an offensive weapon. The shield of faith is potent!

A little history:
For the Romans the shield was the same. The Roman shield was actually designed and curved to allow the force of the sword or arrow to be deflected to the sides; that is good defense. Additionally the metal boss in the center, designed to hit the enemy at impact, allowed the legionnaire to follow up with his sword, to subdue the opponent. This proved excellent offense.

Let me tell you that every person operates on faith! Yep, even the atheist uses faith. For example if an atheist was to met you for lunch, he does not know for certain that you will show up until he actually sees you waiting for him. So he uses reason and logic based on experience and history to determine the probability you will show up. Our atheist has reasoned faith.

But as a Christian, faith is not based in reason as much as it is based in God Himself. Sure there is logical and reasoned evidence to have faith in God (He provides excellent references), but your faith in Him is based in who He is. Your faith attaches to the truth of God (Belt of truth) and works in conjunction with the word of God (the sword of the Spirit). In other words, your faith and its strength is directly tied to your knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. If we fail to give God’s Word a place of priority our lives it is only a matter of time before our faith will begin to fail. The presence of or absence of faith is determined by the presence of or absence of God’s Word in our lives.

This is why Paul said in Romans 10:17 that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” God’s Word and faith are so tied together that where there is no Word, there is no faith. And where there is no faith it is because the Word of God is absent. This gives us power and ability to stand against Satan’s attacks (Paul uses the word duvnamai Dunamai, meaning having power or strength, being capable).

As I mentioned on Sunday the fiery dart was more than silly flash paper, but in Roman times it was an iron tipped arrow, dipped in oil then lit on fire and shot at opposing forces. This flaming arrow was also often filled with pitch that would explode on impact and if it found it’s mark it would burn the solider from inside his armor. The shield of faith protects against such nasty wounds.

How does this work in the real world? Let’s say “Joe Christian” and co-worker “Jane Unbeliever” are at lunch break. Jane says, “Why do you believe in Jesus?” “How can you believe in such a religion that is so fake?” Now Jane might be asking a sincere question, or she could be a flaming arrow shot straight at faith’s heart. If Joe does not know how to use his shield of faith, he might come away asking “Yeah, why do I believe, there are so many hypocrites in Christianity.” Instead Joe has been reading the word of God and his response is to explain his faith from the word of God to Jane. His faith is strengthen and Jane experiences God in real life!

Now God allows us to experience warfare, because through it our faith can grow. And let me tell you satan has literally hundreds of fiery darts he can fire at us, in each case; we should learn how to take his attacks and train to respond. Ask yourself, what fiery darts give you the most problems? And choose to raise your level of faith, by learning scripture and the evidences contained within it. The more we engage in spiritual combat training, the more effective we can be with our spiritual weapons.