The Shield of Faith

.

.
This is the second study in a series concerning the armor of God, from Ephesians 6:11ff.  The first study is:  The Helmet of Salvation.

This study will assume that you understand “faith.”  A quick reading of the study How Do We Get Faith? ….. God GIVES It To Us might be helpful.  In short, faith is that revelation of Christ which lives within as a practical reality; not the content of the revelation but our God-given ability to “grasp” it, so to speak.  Faith makes that revelation of Christ usable for us.
______________________________________________

Ephesians 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

In the “list” of the aspects of the armor of God, this shield of faith comes 4th.  4th out of seven (if you include praying always….. as an important aspect of the armor).  So the number 4 is right smack dab in the middle.  Three before it, three after.   As to the importance of its placement at the center of the list, the shield of faith is central to all the others……not spiritually (for all the “pieces” of the armor of God are but expressions of a single spiritual truth) but practically!

“Above all” is translated in half the Greek texts as “In all.”  This indicates that in every thought, feeling or impulse that comes your way, you are to employ the use of this shield of faith.  The use of this shield is to be an ongoing occurrence.  Since you’re in a battle, you need to learn to keep your shield between you and the enemy at all times.  That’s just the way it is.  The choice is between protecting yourself from thoughts that produce strong, destructive feelings within, or succumbing to them, with all the drama, pain and detriment they can produce.   Ignore this truth at your own peril.

The word “shield” is the Greek word thureos, and is used only this one time in the New Testament.  The root word of thureos is thura, and is the Greek word for door.  In its origin, this word thura denoted the entryway, or doorway, rather than the door itself.

Matthew 28:2  And behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door (thura), and sat upon it.

John 10:7-9  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door (thura) of the sheep.  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them.  I am the door (thura); by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

The word “shield” came from this doorway, mainly because of its shape, but I’m inclined to think that maybe its function had something to do with it too.  In order for a weapon to strike a soldier, it had to pass through the shield, as long as he had that shield up.  It’s like faith says to any thought, feeling or influence, “You’ve got to go through me in order to get to the heart.”

Romans 10:10a  For with the heart, man believes…..

In order for a thought to enter your heart, and thus in order for you to believe it, it must pass through the shield of your faith….if you have that shield up.  If you have put on that piece of armor.

The wicked (one) sends darts which sting, causing an instantaneous negative effect.  They are fiery  because if left unchecked, that sting can become a conflagration of negativity which invades other areas of our lives.  The shield of faith is able to quench this fire, not allowing its devilish spread, because it is composed of the living water of God’s loving presence, which literally extinguishes the spreading fire of evil which comes with the dart.

The pukeway of the mind.

When my daughter was young, my wife and I were going out to eat with her.  We went to a restaurant which had 2 sets of double doors, with about 10 feet in between.  In this area, you were neither inside nor outside.  Just after we’d entered that first set of doors, my daughter got sick and vomited all over the floor.  Hence the name “pukeway.”  Our minds have a pukeway, through which all thoughts must enter, before they can enter our hearts,  before we can take ownership of them, before they “become us.”  This pukeway is not the real us, but is rather only the activity taking place in our minds.

We call it the pukeway, because most of the stuff which enters is vomitocious in nature.  Crap.  Shit.  Not worth the effort.  It comes, unbidden, telling us that it has real value, but it’s just the ways of the world, seeking to establish or strengthen a beachhead in our hearts.  This pukeway, or entranceway, of our minds is where the shield of our faith is to do its work.

The shield of faith is like the inner set of doors.  Though you cannot determine which thoughts enter the outer doors,  you can (and you must) determine which thoughts enter the 2nd set of doors, into your heart and life.

If I don’t recognize this pukeway in my mind, and understand the use of the shield of faith, I will think that any strong feeling or impulse or thought which enters my mind is “me,” when it is in reality only a thought or feeling in my mind.  And my mind absolutely does not have the ability to discern truth from error.  Only the spirit of God has that ability.

For example:  During a discussion, my wife becomes “unreasonable” (whether God thinks she is unreasonable or not is beside the point…..my mind gets the strong thought that she is unreasonable, that’s enough).  Without the shield of my faith, I might get indignant, argumentative, angry, depressed.  I might storm out of the room, stop talking to her for hours, or days.  I might say negative things about her to others, close my own heart off to her, punish her in any number of psychological, emotional ways.

(The pukeway of the mind as I describe it is the “Old Man” as described by Paul.  It is not evil of itself, only when it is promoted to the place of God.  Because of this, it is to be “put off”, not destroyed or felt guilty for having….since everyone has it.  What I describe here are ways to put it off, to put it in its proper place).

With the shield of faith, I recognize that thought and its sting for what it is….an attack of the evil one.  I’m willing to see things in a different way, that sheds life and love and tenderness toward my wife.  The anger, arguing, self-righteousness cannot get through the shield of my faith, cannot get through the love of Christ.  That devilish thought which initially produced such strong negative emotion in my being gets thoroughly quenched by the shield of the living waters of God’s love.

The fiery darts are just that.  They come so quickly with a painful zing, producing an initial sting, very sharp and pointed.  They are not philosophical, not open for debate, not logical at all.  Rather, they produce sharp negative reaction, which, if left unquenched, will spread their fire into other areas of our lives.

Recognize you have a pukeway in your mind.  A place which is in your mind, but not in your heart.  Recognize that bad thoughts and feelings will come into that pukeway, and you have little or no control over what comes into that pukeway.  Where your power comes is in employing the shield of your faith in the pukeway of your mind.  Determine that you will take ownership of nothing that has not been thoroughly vetted by the shield of your faith.

Let it bounce around in the pukeway of your mind, but do not let it enter your heart as being worthy of your identity, or your commitment, or your response, unless it has passed through the living water of the shield of the faith of Christ.  Christ in you, the shield of your faith, the protector of your inner being from the onslaught of fiery darts.

Of course, all this instruction, while making known to you a most useful tool in the battle against the evil one, will give you no benefit if you do not pick it up and use it.  The use of the shield will seem unwieldy and ungainly at first, but will with its constant use become second nature.

Today, I have become so aware of the pukeway of my mind, and the use of the shield of faith, that very seldom are the thoughts which are sent by the devil able to gain traction in my soul.  Oh, I get darted by them, I feel their sting, I feel their effect.  But the employment of the shield of my faith quenches their fire, to the end that the effect of their sting, which was only ever a temporary thing, is thus not allowed to spread its evil in my heart.

What has the spirit of God revealed in the innermost part of your being?  What have you experienced of the Christ within?  Grasp that revelation and hold it up as a shield, in the innermost part of your heart, and let it quench all evil which comes your way.  As long as we actually use the shield, it always succeeds in quenching the fiery darts of the wicked one.  Always.  Any failure rate will occur only where and when we do not employ the shield.

___________

Note from Steve:  If you enjoyed how this study challenged your thinking and opened up your understanding of Christ, there are over 100 other studies on this website which can do the same.  There is so much more the Bible can give us than we have been led to believe.  Consider browsing the website when you have the time.
___________________________________________________

..

The book, Give Me Christ … Revelations of the Glorified Christ is now available on Amazon.

You can subscribe at the upper right of this page by supplying your name and e-mail.  You’ll be notified by e-mail whenever a new study is posted, every couple of weeks or so.  Your e-mail is not shared with anyone else.  After you subscribe, add our address to your contact list, so that the notifications are not sent to your junk folder. 

See other studies:
The Manifestation of the SpiritHow Do We Get Faith? ….. God GIVES It To Us
The Faith of Christ has Come!