Michael,
GFM One Life Radio Philippines
Good morning Mindanao this is Pastor Michael & Pastora Tammy
And we are … “THE MESSENGERS"
You can hear us on 103.9 GFM Gensan, One Life Radio Phillipines, Saturday and Sunday morning from 7:30 AM to 8 AM and here around the world on facebook.
Thank you for being with us.
”The Christian Warrior: Shield of Faith
A shiled is a very cool item to have, you can use it to protect you from the rain, wind, sand, the sun rays, from the heat, from people seeing you, like blocking out the view.
It can be different shapes, size, color, material, wood, metal, plastic, cardboard, bamboo, you get the idea right.
You can carrier it, you can attached it to a fixed object, put on your car, truck, or motorcycle.
But we are talking about God's SHIELD OF FAITH.
The one He gives you to protect you from the darts of evil.
In Ephesians 6:16 it says
"And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One."
In addition to all this (Talking about the other weapons God gives you) take up the shield of faith, with which you can extiguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Amen
THE ROMAN SHIELD was different size for different battles or times. They carried the large shield that could cover the whole body of the solider, and protect them from the arrows, and when the solders would draw close together they would create a strong wall to protect many, they work as a team for protection.
The shield was painted different colors at times to mark what group you were with. or army, or division.
A Christian takes up the shield of faith and it shows that we are a foot soldier that serves the commander of the Lord's Army.
They also used metal ones, and ones that where made with wood and animal hide. It didn’t matter which on you had the enemy would shoot the flaming arrows in the air and you would see the arrows sticking out of the shield with flames.
The solders would either throw water on the shield or just hit the ground with the shield and use the dirt to put out the flames.
The shield was also used for close hand to hand combat, like protection from a sword of club, anything that got in you space.
That is what happens alot with use when we are in the hand to hand combat with the demons of Satan.
He gets in our space and tries to bring us down.
If the arrow is coming you can sense it, but when you know you are having problems in every part in your daily walk it's hand to hand combat.
The Devil will shoot many arrows at once to attack you but he has a sniper shot ready for you. The sniper will set there looking and watching not to give away his position and just wait for the right time. In battle everything is happening, bullets fly, people screaming, running, pure craziness, and then at that right moment - boom the sniper fires hitting the target.
Well when we take up the shield of faith it does 2 things for us:
1 STOPS THE DARTS
2 EXTINGUISH THE FLAMING DARTS
Have you tried to stop a base ball? - Gloves catch & stops it, not your hand.
Stop a car, you use your brakes.
Have you ever tried to put out a fire? - Grease fires you put salt on it, or use a fire extinguisher.
Wood or grass fire you can use water.
Electrical use a dry chemical extinguisher
Using the correct tool you have will do the job, but when you have faith that is the tool that will work.
You notice I said faith thats the tool will work
Don’t put your faith in the tool put your faith in God.
Too many people now days put their faith in worldly things, money, jobs, the government will take care of you, these are just earthly things, your faith needs to be in Jesus Christ because like I said the battle is NOT flesh and blood but Spiritual.
The Devil wants us to question our faith in God.
God will outdo the enemy.
For every attack He will provide deliverance, every blow God will provide healing, for every loss God will provide redemption.
The enemy wants us to focus on what we can do without God. He wants us to focus on ourself what we can do.
2 Timothy 1:7
"For God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and discipline."
Fear is the main weapon of satan he says :
1 fear can’t believe in God
2 fear sees how small we are
3 fear is when the doctor say you have cancer
4 fear is saying "I am not going to make it"
That is the devil keeping you down.
PROVERBS 30:5
"Every word of God is flawless He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him"
God is our shield.
You can’t have faith in faith that’s what people are thinking.
Faith is only good what you have faith in.
Genesis 15:1
"After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: don't be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward."
GOD is our shield
The shield of faith God is on the scene we trust God Lean on him and trust in him GOD IS HERE WITH YOU
Psalm 18:2
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my delieverer; My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of Salvation my stronghold."
Don’t suffer from fear. Don’t be chicken little.
Faith and fear are close, Faith is fighting fear all the time.
God can do EVERYTHING
With God all things are possible, the shield of faith will put out fear and the fiery darts that are shooting at you.
You must know that the darts are coming, you can feel it coming so stand that shield up.
Tammy,
Thanks hunny,
What great info he gave about the Shield of faith and how it is used to extinguish the arrows of the evil one.
You know the devil does try to overwhelm us with attacks that frustrate and discourage us in hopes to make us lose our faith and make us weak.
Weakness and feeling sorry for yourself does no-good in a spiritual warfare.
The way, of the child of God, is the way of faith.
So when you turn your eyes to Jesus, just like a child looks at his father, everything else becomes small.
Because without faith it is impossible to please God.
So here is what the devil tries to do:
He tries to distract us from seeing the truth of God and God’s promises.
He tries to keep us focused on our circumstances in life.
You hear people say “He’s attacking my…….Marriage - Family - Job - Finances"
Don't be focused on all your problems because that can make us lose focus on God.
Also don't be so focused on yourself, and all you own, getting a big head, and take your eyes off God, and lose faith, because Jesus is not impressed by fame or money.
He is only impressed in your faith in Him.
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.
”It's faith in God that strengthens us."
Without faith we are not good enough.
So we need to focus on God and not problems
“Me and my big mouth (Book by Joyce Meyer)”
Teaches us to tame our tongue because everything we say both God and the devil hear, all the good and the bad, and the devil uses the bad.
So learn to have faith and speak things into existence like saying, God is healing me, God is supplying all my needs.
Because if we focus on bad and speak about all the bad we actually make small things bigger than they really are.
Or when we say things like:
"Oh I'm gonna fail this test" Or even joking saying
"I can't ever do anything rite" Or
"Why do bad things always happen to me" or all the "I cant's" and there is a lot of those.
The devil takes this and runs with it
Faith gives us the ability to look beyond our circumstance.
Any attack on our faith is for the purpose of disarming us so he can hit us when we are down.
Every Christian is at war because we have the devil as our enemy, because at the time of our salvation we made him mad at us.
But Ephesians 6:10 says
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His great power.”
He also tries to keep us so busy that we don't have time for God and he tries to make us busier and busier.
We get our eyes off what is important, like standing strong in our faith and we become weak.
We have people pull us away from God by asking us to go out on the boat on Sunday = miss church Come over for dinner on bible study night.
He uses all types of “fun” things to pull us away from God so we lose our faith.
Faith is not something we wear like the other armour we have been talking about.
Faith is something we hold on to like a shield.
It is there for us in times of trouble
Hebrews 10:23
“Let us hold tightly around the profession of our faith without wavering (falling back), knowing that God is faithful and can be trusted to keep his promise."
We all have a personal enemy fighting to destroy us.
But we all also have our very personal God that is here to defend us.
1st John 4:4
“My dear children, you belong to God and have defeated them; because God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.”
Faith is believing in something we can’t see.
Hebrews 11:1
“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it”
Faith is not just believing in anything, it’s believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior, like Michael said, He brings strife among us no matter what we did or who we are with.
He looks for any place he can hurt us and most of the time he will try to hurt us by using the people we love the most.
One other thing the devil uses to take our mind off God and lose faith is fear like Michael talked about.
1 Peter 5:7-9
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.”Do not be fooled by the lion (or scared of him) because no matter how things look God is greater."
So when it comes down to you going to church, or listening to a pastor preach, or us preach on the radio, or even a Christian that gives you advice, it is not up to the person you're getting the message from, or the advice from to change you.
When it comes down to it, it is all between you and God, and you making the decision to make a difference in your own life, giving it to God and having faith.
Women with blood disease came up behind Jesus and touched his garment and was healed
Luke 8:48
“Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Something that we do is we pray that you make the choice to choose God and faith
Thank you listeners of GFM ONE LIFE RADIO and facebook.
Remember Grab hold of Jesus, He is your friend
And REMEMBER GOD LOVES YOU
