In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is God’s word. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer request and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Ephesians 6:16-18 HCSB
When we think of a shield, we think of something large enough to shield our entire body. When S. W. A. T. teams enter the building you often see the first person carrying this large shield in front of them. In spiritual battle, our faith is our shield. It protects us from all the flaming arrows the devil may shoot our way. Flaming arrows are those things that invoke fear in our hearts and try to take our focus off of God. A flaming arrow the devil loves to use to distract me is the “what ifs”. I begin to think about what if the worst possible thing would happen. What if this destroys a family member? What if this ruins me? What if something happens so bad, we can’t recover from it?
If the devil can strike us with a flaming arrow and distract us he can destroy us. This is our shield of faith is so important. This is why Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Our faith is what shields us in times of spiritual attack. We must keep our faith strong. And remember, if you find you are lacking in faith, pray. Ask God to strengthen your faith. Faith is necessary to protect us.
The next gear mentioned is the helmet of salvation. Sin tends to start in the mind. We have thoughts we should not have. Now the eyes may see something and have the mind thinking it looks good even though we know it is bad. But above all, the mind must be protected. Just as a helmet protects our head, our salvation protects our minds. When we surrender our lives to Christ, we strive to be obedient to Him. We are told in 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, “Since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. This is why our salvation is so important. It acts as a helmet to help us to strive for obedience and to even take wrong thoughts captive and bring them into obedience. When you find yourself thinking sinful thoughts, stop. Take that thought captive and change it to make it obedient to God.
And then we are told to take the sword of the Spirit. This is God’s word. This is our only offensive weapon. When evil comes against us, we must rely on God’s word to protect us. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.”
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus always responded with God’s word. Remember this battle is spiritual and God’s word is the sword we must swing against the enemy. We must know God’s word through continuous Bible study if we want to use it.
And then Paul instructs us to pray. Praying should be the first thing we do when we face a spiritual battle. It should be something we do all during the battle. It should be something we do continually. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to pray without ceasing. In Ephesians Paul tells us to pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
God equips us with all we need for spiritual battle. And what we really need is Jesus Christ. When we surrender our lives to Him, we are issued the right gear to assure victory in battle.
Have a great day!