To fight the good fight of faith, you have to deliberately choose to put on the armor of God. The Word of God is your Truth to stand praying and believing for God’s promises against the deception of the enemy. The righteousness that Christ has given you guards your heart against the enemy’s lies and gives you the authority to crush the enemy’s lies and innuendoes. When you allow the gospel of peace to claim your mind and heart, faith rises from within you to shield your mind from the enemy’s attempts to kill, steal, and destroy the abundant life that is yours in Christ (John 10:10).
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:14-16, NKJV).
For the shield of faith to be effective, you must be convinced that it will quench the lies and tricks aimed at your mind and heart by the enemy. Each of us has a measure of faith God has given us (Romans 12:3). Exercising your measure of faith in the finished work of Christ will make you an overcomer.
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1 John 4:4, 5:4, NKJV).
As a born-again believer in Christ, you are born of God. Christ is within you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). And Christ, within you, has His overcome everything. His victory in your life is the faith He has given you. And that faith overcomes the world. It is yours to exercise and use.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).
Live by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and gave His life for you. Christ lives in you. You have His measure of faith. Don’t give up. When you are in a battle with the enemy, your faith is what is tested. The enemy’s purpose is to keep you from exercising the faith God has given you. He wants you to say “believing and praying for God’s promise doesn’t work for me.” But faith does work for you!
Jesus told the centurion that his faith had healed his servant. He told the woman with an issue of blood that her faith had made her well. He told the two blind men that they would be healed according to their faith. When Jesus told the father of the demon-oppressed boy “all things are possible to him who believes,” the father cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Do you realize you can have belief and unbelief at the same time? But when you choose to believe that all things are possible in Christ, your doubt and your unbelief decrease. Your faith flourishes. You have the faith to believe and when you choose to believe with your measure of faith that what the Word says is true, your belief in the promises of God matures and produces fruit. Your shield of faith is strengthened against the lies of the enemy.
“You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you” (Psalm 91:5-7, NKJV).
The shield of faith protects you from all evil that comes against you.
When you activate your faith by choosing to believe in God’s Truth over what anyone says—over what the world says—over what the enemy says, you use your authority in Christ and put on the shield of faith. And with that shield, you extinguish all the evil with which the wicked one targets you.
Faith is more than enough to receive God’s promise. You just have to keep fighting the good fight of faith. If you are confused, God is not the author of your confusion! Never give up trusting Him, and don’t doubt. We are all tempted to doubt but don’t give in. Just know that when you are in a battle, your faith is tested. Fight, and if you get weary, don’t stay that way. Always reengage your shield of faith.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God in your mind and heart (Romans 10:17). When you fight the good fight of faith, you put the Truth of your salvation on like a helmet to protect your thoughts. God’s Truth then continually renews your mind. When your mind is renewed by Truth instead of the enemy’s lies, the incorruptible seed of the Word, which is planted in your heart, grows and produces unshakeable faith that God’s promise is yours. You believe that greater is God in you than the enemy who is in the world. You believe Christ has overcome. And He has already won your victory.
© 2022 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2022/08/put-on-shield-of-faith.html
No comments:
Post a Comment