Faith produces the truth of God’s Word in you. Faith is your response to His Grace.
To fight the good fight of faith, you have to choose to put on the armor of God deliberately. The Word of God is your Truth to stand praying and believing for God’s promises against the enemy’s deception. The righteousness Christ has given you guards your heart against the enemy’s lies and gives you the authority to defeat the enemy’s lies and innuendoes. When you allow the gospel of peace to claim your mind and heart, faith shields 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 faith to shield you from lies aimed at your mind and heart, you must be convinced that it is the substance and evidence of things you cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). You believe God’s truths so strongly that nothing can sway you from believing what you not cannot physically see. Each of us has received the same measure of faith God has given us (Romans 12:3). But His Grace has no power in your life until you respond. Exercising your measure of faith in the finished work of Christ is how you grow to be 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 lives within you. And Christ, within you, has overcome everything not born of His truth. He has overcome unbelief and all its destruction. 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).
You are crucified with Christ, and He lives in you. You live your new life by Grace through faith. You have His measure of faith. Don’t give up. When you are in a battle, 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 in your life.
Jesus told the centurion that his faith had healed his servant. He told the woman with a blood issue that her faith had made her well. He told the two blind men they would be healed according to their faith. When Jesus told the father of the demon-oppressed boy that “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? However, your doubt and unbelief will decrease as you determine to believe all things are possible in Christ. You have the faith to believe, and when you choose to believe through faith what the Word says is true, your belief in the promises of God matures and produces fruit. Your faith deflects the unbelief that comes against God’s truth. It protects you from the evil that is determined to destroy you.
“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).
When you believe in God’s Truth over what anyone says—over what the world says—over what the enemy says, you put on the shield of faith and exercise your authority in Christ. 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 promises. 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 resist temptation. Just know that your faith is tested when you are in a battle. 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. When you fight the good fight of faith, you put on the truth of your salvation to protect your mind and heart. God’s truth continually renews your mind. When your mind is renewed by His truth, the incorruptible seed of the Word, which you sow in your heart, takes root, grows, and produces unshakeable faith that God’s promises are yours. You believe that greater is God in you than the mountain in front of you. He is greater than your fear—your need—your sickness. Your faith in Him overcomes because He has overcome. Jesus has already won your victory. You receive it by faith.
May the Lord “give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:17-19).
“We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20).
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