“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicket” (Ephesians 6:16). The Apostle Paul is talking about a shield. It was a shield you used when you were defending yourself from the enemy. That particular shield was not a shield you used when you were going on the attack. They were defending themselves from fiery darts. This was before the enemies came in contact and fought hand to hand. Because this was a positional defense a soldier stood behind that shield. It was to cover the soldier from head to toe.
Faith is a Defensive Position
Faith is a defensive position. What does it mean when you tell someone you have faith? Faith defends. This is a present truth (2 Peter 1:12). There is a truth that is present. In the New Covenant we must understand the mystery of this present truth and quintessential, the core of this mystery is a positional truth. It is important because if you are misaligned, we’re talking about the position a Christian takes in this war, where are you positioned spiritually? If you are positional wrongly, you are in trouble. When a soldier is standing in front of the shield instead of behind it, the arrow will find him. Your positioning is the key. Many Christians today have not understood nor embraced New Covenant truths. A key to understanding positioning is a practical step on how to put on your shield.
The Finished Work of Christ
Understanding the finished work of Christ is key. Understanding means you know the finished work of Christ. You know how to take up the shield of faith. If I say that faith is a defensive position only, what are you defending? What is the shield of faith defending? Do you realize that the shield of faith is a person, and by his power or in union with this person you are defended. You are preserved and being kept. If the shield is positional, what are you defending? What is your defense?
Let us use sickness as an example. Do you know it is wrong doctrine to defend healing? Because you understand what God has done by Christ. Remember that the shield of faith is a defense. 1 Peter 2:24, “who in his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.” What would you call a person who has been healed. Healthy. So, if disease comes, what do you defend? Healing or health? So where do you begin from? Do you begin from healing to health or do you begin from health to the manifestation of healing? If Jesus did everything else that was necessary for your healing, it means you have been translated from those who fall sick to the class of those who are healthy.
The Shield is Jesus Christ
When the devil sends a dart of sickness to you, put up a shield. That shield that you are standing behind is Jesus Christ. He is not interested an addressing your sickness. He is interested in your mind being renewed to understand that even if there is sickness in your body, it is not your natural predisposition as a child of God. Because that which is born of God is born of the word of God and is incorruptible. Adapt a lifestyle of daily communion with the word. Saturate your mind with the word of God before the attack comes. Know who you are in Christ. When you stand behind that shield what are you defending? You are not defending healing, you are defending health. Your body will heal, but because your body was sick, it will now be healed.
It does not mean you were sick. There is a difference between you and your body. You are a spirit with a soul, living in a body. The body can be sick, but the spirit can not be sick. The body can sin. The spirit can not sin. Remember the wages of sin is death and perpetual sickness leads to death. Sin in a man leads to death. And how does a man get to death? By falling sick. When the Bible says you are born of God, he is not talking about your flesh. Your flesh has never been born again. He is talking about the spirit man.
We are Born of God
1 John 3:9 tells us “Whosesoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” He is talking about your spirit man. For God’s nature abides in him. And that nature “born of God” cannot practice sinning because he is born of God. It is talking about your spirit man. Your spirit man cannot sin. That is why when you understand that I have been redeemed by God, you must define which part of you is redeemed. Because your new man never sinned, so he cannot be an object of redemption. That new man is a fruit of redemption. He is the one born or who comes out of the old man who died when you were born again.
Some people think you were an upgrade of the old man. If any man be in Christ, the Bible didn’t say he is an upgrade. He is a new creature. The Bible says all things are passed away. Behold all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). You hear a testimony like ‘God changed me.’ You were not changed, you were born anew. The Bible says we were buried with him in baptism. Do you know what this means? We were buried with him in baptism unto death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of The Father, even so we should also walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:4).
We are a New Creature
What is this newness of life? There is a difference between the man you were before being born again and the man you became the moment you said I receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. That man is a new creature. The Bible says old things are passed away and become new. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the task of reconciling people to him (2 Corinthians 5:18). That new man cannot sin. And because he can not sin, he is not acquainted with sin, he cannot know sickness.
The body can be sick. When the shield of faith is raised, you don’t begin from the testimony of the man of the flesh. The word of God treats man as tripartite – spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). A man is a spirit. He has a soul. He is living in a body. If sickness came and attacked you, you cannot say I am sick. To know sickness is to know sin, which is a breach of the spirit because of ignorance.
Paul tells us not to be like the Gentiles. He said, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you hence forth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:17, 18). If we say I am sick it means we have possessed sickness from the body, taken it into the soul and from the soul he has imparted it into the spirit.
Be Strong in the Spirit
If the spirit of man is weak, he will die (Proverbs 18:14). There is a discipline in how the spirit is strengthened. We must educate our spirit through the word of God. Because without educating your spirit, your creative facilities are neutralized. You cannot create anything in the spirit by claiming and standing on the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). The power to create come from the human spirit that has been educated in the things of God. And in the education of that spirit, the spirit is strengthened. It also says if the man’s spirit is broken, who can raise it up (proverbs 17:22)? No one can help a broken spirit. That is why we say a man with health in the body, but he has a broken spirit, he can die at any time.
When you put up this shield what are you saying? In Isaiah 33:24 we read, “None shall say I am sick.” This passage in Isaiah is talking about the future city of Zion. The inhabitants of the city will not say I am sick. For the people who dwell in that city, which is now a reality and part of our present-day truth. He says the people who dwell in it will be forgiven of their iniquities. When a man understands what Christ has done for them at the cross of Calvary, you receive forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God in Christ, sin is taken away by the sacrifice of Christ. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him (to be) sin for us, who know no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Mortify the deeds of the Body
When we understands the forgiveness of sin and the righteousness imputed, we cannot say I am sick. That is a breach of the spirit. The man who knows not sin cannot know sickness. Romans 8:13, “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.” If you by the spirit man do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. You take that position that Jesus shed his blood for me. The devil has no right to put on me what Jesus has taken away. Sickness might continue manifesting itself in your life, but remember, not to attack your spirit with a false confession. It is the devil who trying to send sickness in your body. You are refusing it because it should not be there. You are defending yourself from the spirit.
Seek first the Kingdom of God
“Seek you the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). There is a wisdom by which a man ascends by the education of the spirit to know how this world should respond to you. Defense begins from refusing sickness, not accepting that you are sick in the first place. We say that because even when our body is sick our spirit is convinced of what Jesus has done and by the spirit we kill the sickness in the body. Take up the shield of faith, that you might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil.
Don’t stake your destiny on your body, The shield is there. Who is the shield? Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. When you say I am putting on the shield of faith, you are saying I am refusing to accept anything contrary to what Christ has already done. If he healed me, I am healthy. That is my position. So, I bring my body to where my spirit is. You shift the burden of the future from yourself to God. From the creature to the creator. Cast all your cares upon him, for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7). There is no arrow you will not quench. No circumstance to hard for you. There is no situation impossible with you. “Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that has overcome the world, (even) our faith” (1 John 5:4).
Those in Christ are like a Magnet
Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Blessings shall come over you and overtake you. God was Israel’s shield in the Old Covenant (Genesis 15:1). Jesus is our shield in the New Covenant.