How to put on the full armour of God. – Part 2 of a 3 part series.
The shield of Faith and the sword of the Spirit
In the first part of the series we said that we could use the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit to counter the attacks on our Helmet of Salvation. So what are the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit?
Well in Ephesians 6 Paul made it clear that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God or the scriptures. I say that because at the time the Apostle Paul wrote these things to the church there was no such document as the new testament. That came later and I have a full article on how the New Testament came about called – can we trust the bible?
So what about the shield of faith? Well Paul did say that with it we can extinguish all the fiery darts of the enemy – whatever they are.
The two work together well just as in a real battle you raise your shield and use your sword, so it is that our faith is raised and we use the word of God to extinguish all the fiery darts of the enemy. So what are fiery darts and what faith is this?
The fiery dart of fear can be extinguished by faith
A fiery dart can be a fear, a negative thought, darkness or heavyness like depression of the soul, an argument with family or friends or just time wasting destractions from your God given calling.
Lets take the example of fear as its quite a common one. First thing I have to say is that not all fear is unwholesome or inspired by evil. Fear is one of those qualities God gave mankind to protect him or her from harming oneself. You see this very easily in a toddler. They start out not knowing what danger is and could easily crawl into danger if left alone, say put something in their mouth they shouldnt. As they get older and toddle around and even walk they will have falls and realise from the pain that that was not good, better avoid that in future. So fear is there in a healthy form to protect us from danger and harming ourself.
However like most things in life it can be misused and turned against us. One of the ways our enemy uses fear is to get us to worry unreasonably. Psychologists call this catastrophic thinking. When worry is all consuming we are not able to function well. Let me take an example, say you have lost your car keys. You are outside the shops and can’t get home without them so you have a reason to worry but our enemy wants to capitalise on this worry and drops thoughts into your mind that something bad has happened like you have been pick pocketed, then it snowballs and you think someone has made off with your car. It gets worse as the thought ocurrs that you had your house keys on that keyring as well so now you think you have to call home. You get frantic with worry and start unravelling. Alternatively you can quench the fiery dart by exercising faith and thinking I am not going to fear the worst. This fear is a worst case scenario so not realistic. Its possible but so are many other things so you ask God to guide and help you and the thought comes into your head to go to the car park, see if your car is still there and you do that. When you get to the place you thought you left it its still there what a relief but now you take a look inside and there on the passenger seat are the keys for your car. What a relief.
So if fear is beyond the bounds of reasonable thinking you dismiss that thought and say “I am not going to believe that”! Then pray something like “Lord I place this whole situation into your hands and exercice faith in you and I dismiss the lies of the enemy”. God will reward your faith and it will get stronger as your fears melt away. The enemy’s dart has been truly quenched and your faith has been boosted.
The sword of the Spirit, sharper than any two edged sword.
How about the sword of the Spirit then? How does one use that? Well a sword can be an offensive weapon or a defensive weapon. depending on the situation pick up and use God’s word to defend the truth or to help someone overcome trouble or anxiety. Primarily it is used for setting souls free from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God. You could even use it with faith to overcome a fiery dart like a negative thought. Suppose you have a thought that God doesn’t love you because you have let Him down, say by not sharing the truth of the gospel when you should have. If we know the bible well we will turn to Romans 8:38-39 to confront that lie.
Suppose you hear that your job is folding up. You are no longer required and need to leave at the end of the month. You have less than 30 days to find another Job yet your employer wants you to work until then giving you little to no time to search for alternative employment. Then fear could be used against you by the enemy, however you commit yourself to doing a good job for your employer and trust God (by faith) for your next one. God sees what you did and rewards your faith. Your agency you signed up with and sent your CV to has an interview for a new job they would like you to attend. You attend and are oferred the Job to start on the Monday after the Friday you leave your last job. No break in service or income. This is our God and this is a true story as this happened to me. The devil licks his wounds as he realises your faith has been strengthened and his grip of fear is all but washed away. Praise God.
A Jehovahs witness knocks on your door and you are tired but politely answer. You are taken into Matthews gospel to hear that we are to make disciples of all nations. Just then the holy Spirit highlights something in that passage. “…baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. You ask the chap why would that be as they don’t believe Jesus is God. There is no answer. You then are given an analogy by the Holy Spirit. You state if a man had a son would he be less than human? No. His son would not be a baboon, he would be human. The analogy sinks home and the dear fellow leaves with a question ringing in his head. The Sword of the Spirit has been at work.
In our final part 3 of this series I will take a look at the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth.