What Do You See When You Look at the Shield of Faith?

Ephesians 6:16 (NKJV)
¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith
with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

 One well-known minister of the gospel often reminds his congregation that the Bible is a picture book. The imagery is rich from beginning to end. When the imagery becomes alive to us personally, revelation takes place. It is the revelation of God’s Word that changes us.

Ephesians 6:16 is a major promise wrapped up in this type of imagery. It says that the shield of faith will quench “all the fiery darts” of the devil. Yet, many Christians still walk around with wounds from attacks of the enemy; meaning, the revelation of that scripture has not fully impacted their lives. A deeper dive into this passage will hopefully help get us there.

We can begin by answering the question, “Whose faith is it?”  Ours, right? Not really.  According to Romans 12:3b, it’s God’s faith, because He is the one who gave it to us. Galatians 2:20 (KJV) confirms this: “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.” Many times, we are too focused on “our” faith or lack thereof, and, as a result, we end up believing we don’t have enough of it to get our prayers answered. When we shift our focus to the faith that has been given to us by God and realize it is not about what we do, but rather about what Jesus has already done on our behalf, our faith begins to grow.

Understanding the uniqueness of the shield adds another important element to help us grow in our understanding of this weapon.  According to Strong’s Concordance, the Greek word for shield in Ephesians 6 means, “door.” We know that a door is a point of entry or a point of non-entry.

The shield of faith is large enough to cover us head to toe and keep out anything we don’t want to come in. Just knowing that can encourage us when we are overwhelmed with negative circumstances.

Using scripture to interpret scripture we find that John 10 puts the finishing touches on our new expanded understanding of the shield of faith. In verses 7 and 9, Jesus refers to Himself as the “door.” In context, He is referring to the fact that only those who come through Him, enter the Kingdom of God. There is no other path, no other way to the Kingdom. Yet when tied to Ephesians 6:16, we can safely say that our shield of faith (door) is Jesus Himself. No wonder the scripture says our shield makes us able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the devil!! It’s not about us, but about the Lord standing before us with His faith protecting us in every adverse situation.

What should our response be to this expanded view of the shield of faith be? We simply have to believe it, and that comes by meditating on it and declaring it repeatedly:  “I declare that Jesus Himself is my shield of faith and He has given me His faith for this situation I am facing.” As we do that, the promise of Ephesians 6:16 becomes ours. We find ourselves entering the rest of God.  And, that is where good things begin to happen!

11/23