Taking Our Stand (Part VI)
October/04/2010 09:23 AM
Ephesians 6:10-16 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
No soldier puts on just part of his armor; nor does he put it on in the midst of fighting, or when the battle is over. That's like putting sun block on our skin after you've been in the sun for hours. It's too late by then! A soldier must put his armor on before he goes out to meet his enemy. In the same way we need to put on the "full" armor of God. The first thing that we do every morning should be put on our armor.
Our next piece of armor that we must put on is our shield of faith. In ancient warfare, soldiers often used flaming darts as their weapon of choice. The heads of the darts were wrapped with flax or hemp fiber that was soaked in pitch, and set ablaze before being launched against the enemy. The soldiers’ protective shields were made of wood that could be easily set on fire. To extinguish the fiery darts, their shields were covered with a layer of hide. These shields were large enough to protect the entire body. When the darts sailed towards them, the shield was penetrated but the fire would be quenched.
When you are living a godly life and actually doing something for God, you must be prepared for the enemy to attack. Instead of cowering in fear, or feeling defeated and discouraged, we need to pick up our shield of faith.
Hebrews 11:1 says, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see."
And this is the secret to walking this journey on earth and living sold out and victorious. We have faith in our God the Father, knowing that no matter what the enemy throws at us we are protected and strong in His might!
When we hold up our shield of faith, which covers us completely, the fiery arrows are stopped. They are quenched and hellfire itself cannot burn us! I believe we can walk right through the hellfire without being consumed! We won't even have the smell of smoke remaining on our clothes.
Remember the story of King Nebuchadnezzar? He commanded all in the land to bow down to the golden image he had set up? The decree went out that anyone who didn't bow down when the music was played would be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace.
Nebuchadnezzar, being informed by his royal astrologers, heard that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow as he ordered. Satan and his army of demons are always at work constructing new ways to get us to worship or honor things other than the true God. We may not have a statue in our home that we bow down to, but anything that we give a lot of affection, time, and money to instead of God is an idol. When the attack comes and we give into fear, doubt, worry, anger, lust, etc, we have just bowed down to these things rather than worshipping God.
When Nebuchadnezzar heard that the three Hebrew young men wouldn't bow, the Bible says he became furious with rage. Remember when we are standing for God it makes Satan furious with rage as well! He hates it when he sees us trusting and abiding in God. That's when our enemy picks up his bow and loads it with a fiery dart to cripple and destroy us. He wants to knock us off of our stance and let go of our shield. He really gets bent out of shape, but that's just too bad because "Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world!"
The young Israelites were brought before the King who asked them, in Daniel 3:14,
"Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?" The king then offered them one more chance to bow down so they could escape death. They replied to the king:
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king that we will not serve your gods or worship the image you have set up."
When faced with the fire the three Hebrew children stood their ground by faith! Now King Nebuchadnezzar was really fit to be tied. He ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times hotter than before. The prisoners were bound up and thrown right in the middle of the flames. It was so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were killed! Remember our shield of faith keeps us so protected that the same fire in life that would consume others won't even touch us!
We know the end of this awesome story of faith and God's deliverance. The king looked into the furnace and saw the three unharmed! But that's not all that he saw! In verse 25, the king could hardly believe his eyes:
“He said, ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!’”
The Bible says the fire didn't harm their bodies or burn their clothing. Not even a single hair on their heads was singed. They didn't even have the smell of the fire on them! Nebuchadnezzar brought them out, gave praise to God and promoted them in the province of Babylon.
They walked through the fire with their shield of faith! When we hold up our shield of faith in the midst of the fire, Jesus Himself stands with us! Not only is Satan rendered powerless to bind us, but we also come out whole with no smell of smoke. So, let's take up our shield of faith and we can endure or accomplish anything set before us!
Hebrews 10:35, "Therefore do not cast away your confidence (faith), which has great reward."
John 14:12, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I go to the Father."
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