2 Cor 5:7 (NIV) We live by faith, not by sight. The Christian shall live by faith or they will live by the dictates of their body, the world, or the devil; we choose. The Christian life lived by the desires of the body, the pleasures of the world, or the temptations of the devil make Christians think that things got worse after salvation. Christians who pick up their shield of faith and start extinguishing the flaming arrows of the devil live a superior life after salvation. The Christian who doesn’t start using the shield of faith is defeated in both worlds. They feel guilty when they do things in the world of sin; and they don’t know how to be victorious in the world of God.

Rom 6:18-21 (NIV) You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. JUST AS you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, SO NOW offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

Salvation brought us into a world where we can be slaves of righteousness (the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23) and free from the control of sin (the works of the body in Galatians 5:19-21). But, because we aren’t properly using our shield of faith, we continue to live in a world where we are controlled by deeds against ourselves and others and free from righteousness (good deeds to ourselves and others).

Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? We now have the right to fight sin (bad deeds) and live righteousness (good deeds); but frequently we don’t. We no longer enjoy sin (hurting ourselves, other people, and God’s plan) but we sin (hurt them) anyway. This brings a certain amount of misery into our Christian life because we still sin and hurt ourselves, others, and God’s plan; and we still fail to do righteous things that would bless us, others, and God’s plan.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. As we make the transition into the wonderful life in Jesus, we start out being very miserable because we can’t go back to enjoying the sins we are committing. But, we don’t YET know how to start enjoying the righteousness we are supposed to be living. As a sinner, we enjoyed sinning; and, we hated doing righteous things that God wanted us doing. Now, we hate sin and want to live a righteous life in our relationships; but, we lack the knowledge of how. This struggle causes many Christians to look back on their life of sin with a certain amount of reminiscence. Then they feel guilty for their moment of indiscretion. This is the kind of life the Bible is talking about in Romans 7:15-24. It is now time to get up and fight!

And, an even bigger question is at stake.

Our shield of faith is made up of what we believe. God’s Word says one thing; and sometimes we believe something else. When that happens, our shield of faith is down. From that moment on, the fiery arrows of Satan are making it through to our breastplate of righteousness. We are experiencing things that are different from what the Bible says. The Word is describing a type of life we are to be living that is different from what we are experiencing. It says we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus and we are experiencing defeat. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO BELIEVE? What we believe decides whether or not we move our shield of faith over that area of our life or not. The shield of faith is mobile and WE decide where to put it.

Rom 8:37 (NIV) No, in all these things WE are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. WE can move it over our life and believe that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus; or WE can drop it by us not believing that WE are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. As we believe God’s Word to ward off a lie of Satan concerning a certain area of truth, we cover that area with the shield of faith. That keeps the fiery arrows of Satan from hitting us in the breastplate of righteousness and causing us to suffer its effects. The shield of faith is able to put out the fiery arrow; the breastplate of righteousness can’t put it out. What we believe decided what our shield of faith is covering and what area of our spiritual being it is exposing.

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The next thing we need to consider is that the shield of faith can be made larger.

• As we learn more about God’s truth,
• as we decide to believe those truths,
• and as we pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to make those truths real,

we then have our shield covering more areas of our life SIMULTANEOUSLY. But, no matter how big our shield of faith is enlarged, through faith in more and more of God’s Word, it still has to be held in place. We have to KEEP believing that God’s Word is true all the time.

James 1:6-8 (NIV) But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

The shield of faith can be used very effectively one minute and then lowered or put down the next. The big issue here is persistence. We must believe God’s truths all the time. We must believe when it looks like the Bible is working for us and when it looks like it isn’t working for us. We must believe on the convenient days and on the difficult days. We must believe those things that are easy to believe and those that are hard. There is never a time when we don’t need our shield of faith up in position.

However, holding the shield of faith in position can be a problem. There are so many Scriptures and Biblical promises. Do we have to know them all? Well, the more we know the better. Even though it isn’t likely that we will ever know them all, we still need as many as we can learn and use. Don’t let the magnitude of all God’s great promises discourage you. Be patient with your spiritual growth. Just know that the more truths you know and learn how to use, the more areas of your life will be covered by the shield of faith. The more areas of your life are covered by the shield of faith, the more victories you will eventually experience.

Now let’s take a look at the materials that make up the shield of faith. The materials that make up the shield of faith give us the clue as to how to position it.