2 Pet 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Jesus is willing to wait on us to start learning how to handle the shield of faith. However, while we are delaying this training, we are suffering from attack after attack of Satan. All during this time we can wonder why He isn’t doing something about all these things Satan is doing to us.

Heb 2:14 (NIV) Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity SO THAT by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil. Since Jesus has already provided everything we need, He waits for us to start taking advantage of His provisions. He sends us various mature Christians who try to help us get started in the things of God. Some of us respond right away; others wait for quite a while. They suffer and are defeated by a foe who has been defeated by Jesus. They lose battles that they could have won, had they taken advantage of all Jesus’ provisions.

2 Cor 10:4 (NIV) The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Satan can’t kill the weak Christian because they are protected by the grace (benefits we don’t deserve) and mercy (deliverance from the punishments we deserve) of God. But, he can make them miserable. He is doing everything he can to destroy all God will allow him to devour.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Pet 5:8-9). Be self-controlled and alert: We have an assignment from Jesus before we are attacked by the devil. Prior to being attacked, we are to allow Jesus to bring us under His control. Self-control sounds like self controlling self; but, it is actually Jesus bringing our self under HIS control. Then, the next part of the assignment is to stay alert. KNOW when you are being attacked by Satan.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith: Our next assignment is that we must not just stand there and be mauled. It is true that great persecution comes from proclaiming the gospel. There are people who are going to do everything they can to keep you from helping hurting people. But, it is not true that we must yield to Satan’s temptations and messages of emotional doom. It is not true that we have to be taken down spiritually, financially, relationally, or health wise.

James 4:7 (NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Satan knows we can’t do the ministry of helping desperate people, if we are spiritually or physically too sick or don’t have resources to help them. The sufferings that 1 Peter 5:8-9 above is talking about are persecutions and satanic resistance. It isn’t talking about spiritual defeat through disease and temptations.

When we suffer because we aren’t using the full armor of God, we are allowing Satan to steal from us our Christian example and ministry (serving people). We are allowing him to keep us from living a Christian life that represents Jesus to a lost and dying world. Jesus suffered persecution from people; but, He didn’t suffer spiritual, financial, relational, emotional, or physical defeat. He was victorious over these issues to such a degree that He was able to complete every bit of the assignment the Father gave Him.

John 10:17-18 (NIV) The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father. It wasn’t until the cross that Jesus was stripped of His relational, emotional, financial, and physical things; but, that only happened because He allowed it to happen. Premature suffering and destruction of our Christian living and ministry of helping people is caused by a major neglect of using the shield of faith provided by Jesus through salvation.

Rom 1:17 (NIV) For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Righteousness is a life that starts and continues to treat people good. It helps and blesses people with the good things of God.

Through salvation and justification, God has credited righteousness to your record; through them it is as if you are already only doing good things to yourself, to those around you, and to God’s plan. The way you got that righteousness was by putting your faith in Jesus’ provisions of salvation and justification. Your temporary Christian life on earth started by faith and your eternal life in eternity is fulfilled in God’s eternal Kingdom by faith. Every day of our lives is lived by faith. The first exercise of faith is at salvation. And, now you are being asked to use it to start living the VICTORIOUS Christian life.

Eph 2:8-9 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. We couldn’t save ourselves and we are not going to be able to live the life of salvation power by ourselves. The shield of faith is going to have to be used every step of the way.

Eph 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Human effort is our major problem; it can keep us from taking advantage of this powerful shield of faith. It is either going to be a faith, dependency, reliance, and trust in Jesus or a faith, dependency, reliance, and trust in ourselves. The Christian life moves right into a way of constant defeat if we drop the shield of faith because of human effort.

Phil 1:6 (NIV) Being CONFIDENT of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Where do we go after we become a Christian? That is going to decide what kind of Christian life we are going to be living. Are we willing to live a life of faith or a life of self-dependency? Those who live by faith, experience one victory after another. Those who live the Christian life in self-dependency experience one defeat after another. If our life after salvation can be lived the same whether we are a Christian or not, we are using human techniques, power, systems, and procedures. What happened was, we came to God for salvation and then looked to our self or the world systems for how to live the Christian life.