Sermon Title: S.H.I.E.L.D.
“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:16)
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
The true saint is ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that he or she is moving in the right direction.
The true saint is unstoppable and unwounded in the line of fire.
Be faithful and obedient to God.
He has given you faith to shield you from every scheme and attack of the evil one.
Take it up and do not get wounded.
Stop getting wounded.
We have been given this essential piece of God’s armor; which informs us that if we do get wounded – our wounds were completely avoidable, unnecessary, and an act of disobedience.
It is foolish to enter the fray of battle, or worse, wander into war without this essential safety gear.
As Christians, we cannot afford to wander unknowingly into the war against the forces of darkness.
There is so such thing as a Christian ignorant to the reality of spiritual warfare; but there are countless of so-called ‘christians’ who are apathetic to the reality that the devil is here in the world to “steal, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10a)
Apathy to the reality of spiritual warfare is a blatant disregard for Christ’s Commission over our lives.
Spiritually, you are in the right place if you are constantly feeling the effects of war.
We must always be found fighting “the good fight of the faith”; and to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
All fear is dispelled, the moment you take up and raise your faith shield; for that is when every flaming arrow of the evil one is quenched.
Your faith must be perceptible; and must have a tangible bearing and weight upon your life. The world must actually see your faith; which is an indication and manifestation of God’s gift of grace to you.
Take refuge “in the shelter” of His wings (Psalm 61:4); take up your shield of faith.
Think about a recurring problem or struggle in your life – one that causes you an endless amount of heartache.
Don’t you pray that you could one day transcend the situation? That in spite of the darkness, you would still have enough light to move forward in your life?
That in spite of the darkness and the challenges, you are unstoppable in your faith in Christ?
That is exactly what our faith shield does.
Remember that God does not give us strength and power to lift us out of our troubles; but He gives us strength and power to live through the troubles – to be faithful to His Kingdom Reality and to wait upon Him for the ultimate resolution of all of humanity’s troubles when He returns for us.
That is why:
The saint is ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that he or she is moving in the right direction.
The true saint is unstoppable and unwounded in the line of fire.
In fact, the more intense we experience the evil’s flaming arrows; but yet, remain unwounded, safe and saved behind God’s gift of faith - this reveals that we are living right in the sight of our Lord, and also indicates that we are moving in the right direction with our lives.
If you are travelling in a direction where you are taking on lesser flaming arrows; where you are condemned less, rejected less, anguished less, and persecuted less - you are really heading in the wrong direction.
Our Lord Jesus teaches us in John 15:18, 20b:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
To which, James 4:4 resonates:
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
If your faith is in the right condition; maintained daily – soaked and saturated in the Holy Spirit and Word of God; you would be more than ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that you are living righteously in the sight of God and moving in the right direction.
It is critical that our faith in Christ is in the right condition.
You wouldn’t think about driving your car on a road trip without getting it in the right condition. You would check to make sure that your tires, brakes, engine are in tiptop condition. On the road trip, you would constantly be attentive to any warning lights or signs that your car may not be in the best of conditions.
And of course, due to the sheer distances involved, you wouldn’t think about driving your car without making sure your tank is full.
2011 was a memorable year for our family as we planned a road trip to the Grand Canyon in April for a camping trip after my first term at Regent College.
It was still cold and snowing periodically in Vancouver.
En route, we left Kennewick in Washington with ¾ tank in a 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager and ran out of fuel 600km later - having never passed a single gas station - in the mountains of an obscure national park in Oregon.
Who runs out of fuel with ¾ tank? What kind of place is this?
In Singapore, you could drive with the empty tank light on for a few days and get topped off just as the engine begins to chug.
To make matters worse, the GPS took us off the main highway to a back-country road that led to a disused campground further into the mountainside; and we were left stranded, looking at a locked-up above-ground gas tank at the side of a trading outpost.
The entrance to this campground should have been closed off to prevent exactly such a predicament. A snowfall would have made the roads within the grounds unpassable to cars. However, when we drove into the camp ground, the gates were left wide opened.
We were not concerned though. Before we left, we signed up for roadside assistance and could easily call for a fuel run to our location.
But when we checked our phone, there was no cell signal.
What kind of place is this?
Still, we were not entirely concerned as we were geared up for camping; and we easily had enough equipment and supplies to last us a week or so.
But no matter what kind of place it was, God was always with us.
No matter what we did not have, God would always provide what we needed.
We got our children together and had just started praying over our situation when from some obscured trail in the forest came an elderly couple in a car. After finding out what happened to us, they turned back 30 minutes to bring us fuel to head into the next town.
We found out that they only left their home once every month or so; and this time, it was for a dental appointment planned some months ago.
They got us to follow them into the gas station, instructed the attendant to top us up; and even gave us directions to return to the highway towards the Grand Canyon.
It was when we returned from the trip that we found out that another family was stranded in a back country area near us in 2006. They were in such dire straits that they burned their tires to attract attention; but to no avail. The outcome was tragic as the father (James Kim) perished in the cold after leaving his wife and two young daughters with the car in an attempt to get help. He was an American TV personality. Fortunately, the wife and children were subsequently discovered and rescued.
After that perilous event, we topped off our gas tank at every opportunity and continued to ensure that our car was in peak condition for the rest of the road trip.
By His Grace, we spent the weekend at the Grand Canyon and took in many amazing sights of God’s miraculous Creation over the next three weeks.
Is your faith shield in great condition?
Have you checked? When was the last time you checked?
Do you know what to check for?
Salvation; Holiness; Integrity; Empowered; Love; Devotion.
These are the 6 key components that determine the condition and substance of your faith-shield.
If you are easily wounded by the flaming arrows of condemnation, rejection, anguish, persecution; you must swiftly relook and resolutely strengthen these key components that determine the effectiveness of your shield.
There are a multitude of biblical references that speak to the Christian faith that must be established upon the utter necessity of:
(i) God’s Salvation upon our lives;
(ii) Living our lives in Holiness;
(iii) Living in spiritual Integrity – ensuring that our outer lives are truly congruent with our inner hearts, and thus, become manifestations of our faith in Christ;
(iv) Being Empowered by the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s witness to the world in daily living;
(v) God’s Love in, and through, us; and
(vi) Absolute Devotion to Christ and His Kingdom’s cause.
Hebrews 10 encompasses each of these essential components of our faith that makes our shields effective.
Let us ensure the effectiveness of our faith-shield by allowing the word of God from this passage of Scripture to saturate our hearts.
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered?
For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”
He sets aside the first to establish the second.
10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.
33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
37 For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”
38 And, “But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Every time you falter and get wounded from the flaming arrows - check immediately if you are indeed raising up your faith-shield; and also, check the condition of your faith-shield.
Check on your utter embrace of God’s Salvation – that you truly do “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
Check on your utter willingness to live in Holiness – a holy life that stems from the “confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19-20); having “been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)
Check on your utter diligence in imbuing spiritual Integrity – in nurturing a life in which God has placed His laws upon both your heart and mind. (Ref: Hebrews 10:16)
Check on your utter reception of the Holy Spirit to be Empowered to be Christ’s witness – that in His Power, you would “persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36)
Check on your utter commitment to God’s Love in, and through, you – that you would follow Christ’s example and declare, “Here am I, I have come to do your will, my God.’” (Hebrews 10:7,10:9)
Check on your utter Devotion to God and the Work of inbreaking His Kingdom – holding “unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” and spurring “one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23-25)
If your faith-shield is in prime condition, you will never be wounded by the flaming arrows of the evil one; and even have the confidence to advance into the hail of flaming arrows with our Lord Jesus Christ – fulfilling God’s Will in your life.
“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:38-39)
Live by faith; be God’s righteous one. (Ref: Hebrews 10:38)
Never shrink back and be destroyed; instead, advance behind the safety of God’s S.H.I.E.L.D. of faith and be saved.
May your faith in our Lord make you truly unstoppable!
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, grant me daily:
A deeper embrace of God’s Salvation;
A deeper willingness to living a Holy life;
A deeper desire to nurture a life of spiritual Integrity - where my impulse, words and deeds become congruous and pleasing before God;
More of Your Power and Presence in my life that I may be Empowered to fulfill my duty as Christ’s Witness to the Nations;
More of God’s Love in my life, that I may love as God loves; and
Courage, strength, resolve and wisdom to be more devoted to the Lord and His Kingdom’s cause.
That I would daily live by faith in Christ and be saved!
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Power to daily check and raise my Faith S.H.I.E.L.D.; resolutely advancing through every attack of the evil one.
Even through the hail of flaming arrows, may my faith in You make me unstoppable in fulfilling Your Will and Work of inbreaking the Kingdom, and in bringing all the glory to Your Name!
Yes, Lord.
Make me a true saint – ever-ecstatic and ever-willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that I am moving in the right direction towards Your Call and Will for my life.
Yes, Lord.
Make me a true saint - unstoppable and unwounded in the line of the evil one’s fire.
Yes, Lord!
Here I am! I have come to do Your Will, my God!
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:16)
Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
The true saint is ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that he or she is moving in the right direction.
The true saint is unstoppable and unwounded in the line of fire.
Be faithful and obedient to God.
He has given you faith to shield you from every scheme and attack of the evil one.
Take it up and do not get wounded.
Stop getting wounded.
We have been given this essential piece of God’s armor; which informs us that if we do get wounded – our wounds were completely avoidable, unnecessary, and an act of disobedience.
It is foolish to enter the fray of battle, or worse, wander into war without this essential safety gear.
As Christians, we cannot afford to wander unknowingly into the war against the forces of darkness.
There is so such thing as a Christian ignorant to the reality of spiritual warfare; but there are countless of so-called ‘christians’ who are apathetic to the reality that the devil is here in the world to “steal, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10a)
Apathy to the reality of spiritual warfare is a blatant disregard for Christ’s Commission over our lives.
Spiritually, you are in the right place if you are constantly feeling the effects of war.
We must always be found fighting “the good fight of the faith”; and to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
All fear is dispelled, the moment you take up and raise your faith shield; for that is when every flaming arrow of the evil one is quenched.
Your faith must be perceptible; and must have a tangible bearing and weight upon your life. The world must actually see your faith; which is an indication and manifestation of God’s gift of grace to you.
Take refuge “in the shelter” of His wings (Psalm 61:4); take up your shield of faith.
Think about a recurring problem or struggle in your life – one that causes you an endless amount of heartache.
Don’t you pray that you could one day transcend the situation? That in spite of the darkness, you would still have enough light to move forward in your life?
That in spite of the darkness and the challenges, you are unstoppable in your faith in Christ?
That is exactly what our faith shield does.
Remember that God does not give us strength and power to lift us out of our troubles; but He gives us strength and power to live through the troubles – to be faithful to His Kingdom Reality and to wait upon Him for the ultimate resolution of all of humanity’s troubles when He returns for us.
That is why:
The saint is ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that he or she is moving in the right direction.
The true saint is unstoppable and unwounded in the line of fire.
In fact, the more intense we experience the evil’s flaming arrows; but yet, remain unwounded, safe and saved behind God’s gift of faith - this reveals that we are living right in the sight of our Lord, and also indicates that we are moving in the right direction with our lives.
If you are travelling in a direction where you are taking on lesser flaming arrows; where you are condemned less, rejected less, anguished less, and persecuted less - you are really heading in the wrong direction.
Our Lord Jesus teaches us in John 15:18, 20b:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
To which, James 4:4 resonates:
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
If your faith is in the right condition; maintained daily – soaked and saturated in the Holy Spirit and Word of God; you would be more than ecstatic and willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that you are living righteously in the sight of God and moving in the right direction.
It is critical that our faith in Christ is in the right condition.
You wouldn’t think about driving your car on a road trip without getting it in the right condition. You would check to make sure that your tires, brakes, engine are in tiptop condition. On the road trip, you would constantly be attentive to any warning lights or signs that your car may not be in the best of conditions.
And of course, due to the sheer distances involved, you wouldn’t think about driving your car without making sure your tank is full.
2011 was a memorable year for our family as we planned a road trip to the Grand Canyon in April for a camping trip after my first term at Regent College.
It was still cold and snowing periodically in Vancouver.
En route, we left Kennewick in Washington with ¾ tank in a 1999 Plymouth Grand Voyager and ran out of fuel 600km later - having never passed a single gas station - in the mountains of an obscure national park in Oregon.
Who runs out of fuel with ¾ tank? What kind of place is this?
In Singapore, you could drive with the empty tank light on for a few days and get topped off just as the engine begins to chug.
To make matters worse, the GPS took us off the main highway to a back-country road that led to a disused campground further into the mountainside; and we were left stranded, looking at a locked-up above-ground gas tank at the side of a trading outpost.
The entrance to this campground should have been closed off to prevent exactly such a predicament. A snowfall would have made the roads within the grounds unpassable to cars. However, when we drove into the camp ground, the gates were left wide opened.
We were not concerned though. Before we left, we signed up for roadside assistance and could easily call for a fuel run to our location.
But when we checked our phone, there was no cell signal.
What kind of place is this?
Still, we were not entirely concerned as we were geared up for camping; and we easily had enough equipment and supplies to last us a week or so.
But no matter what kind of place it was, God was always with us.
No matter what we did not have, God would always provide what we needed.
We got our children together and had just started praying over our situation when from some obscured trail in the forest came an elderly couple in a car. After finding out what happened to us, they turned back 30 minutes to bring us fuel to head into the next town.
We found out that they only left their home once every month or so; and this time, it was for a dental appointment planned some months ago.
They got us to follow them into the gas station, instructed the attendant to top us up; and even gave us directions to return to the highway towards the Grand Canyon.
It was when we returned from the trip that we found out that another family was stranded in a back country area near us in 2006. They were in such dire straits that they burned their tires to attract attention; but to no avail. The outcome was tragic as the father (James Kim) perished in the cold after leaving his wife and two young daughters with the car in an attempt to get help. He was an American TV personality. Fortunately, the wife and children were subsequently discovered and rescued.
After that perilous event, we topped off our gas tank at every opportunity and continued to ensure that our car was in peak condition for the rest of the road trip.
By His Grace, we spent the weekend at the Grand Canyon and took in many amazing sights of God’s miraculous Creation over the next three weeks.
Is your faith shield in great condition?
Have you checked? When was the last time you checked?
Do you know what to check for?
Salvation; Holiness; Integrity; Empowered; Love; Devotion.
These are the 6 key components that determine the condition and substance of your faith-shield.
If you are easily wounded by the flaming arrows of condemnation, rejection, anguish, persecution; you must swiftly relook and resolutely strengthen these key components that determine the effectiveness of your shield.
There are a multitude of biblical references that speak to the Christian faith that must be established upon the utter necessity of:
(i) God’s Salvation upon our lives;
(ii) Living our lives in Holiness;
(iii) Living in spiritual Integrity – ensuring that our outer lives are truly congruent with our inner hearts, and thus, become manifestations of our faith in Christ;
(iv) Being Empowered by the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s witness to the world in daily living;
(v) God’s Love in, and through, us; and
(vi) Absolute Devotion to Christ and His Kingdom’s cause.
Hebrews 10 encompasses each of these essential components of our faith that makes our shields effective.
Let us ensure the effectiveness of our faith-shield by allowing the word of God from this passage of Scripture to saturate our hearts.
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered?
For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”
He sets aside the first to establish the second.
10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.
33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.
34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
37 For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”
38 And, “But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Every time you falter and get wounded from the flaming arrows - check immediately if you are indeed raising up your faith-shield; and also, check the condition of your faith-shield.
Check on your utter embrace of God’s Salvation – that you truly do “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
Check on your utter willingness to live in Holiness – a holy life that stems from the “confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19-20); having “been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)
Check on your utter diligence in imbuing spiritual Integrity – in nurturing a life in which God has placed His laws upon both your heart and mind. (Ref: Hebrews 10:16)
Check on your utter reception of the Holy Spirit to be Empowered to be Christ’s witness – that in His Power, you would “persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36)
Check on your utter commitment to God’s Love in, and through, you – that you would follow Christ’s example and declare, “Here am I, I have come to do your will, my God.’” (Hebrews 10:7,10:9)
Check on your utter Devotion to God and the Work of inbreaking His Kingdom – holding “unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” and spurring “one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23-25)
If your faith-shield is in prime condition, you will never be wounded by the flaming arrows of the evil one; and even have the confidence to advance into the hail of flaming arrows with our Lord Jesus Christ – fulfilling God’s Will in your life.
“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” (Hebrews 10:38-39)
Live by faith; be God’s righteous one. (Ref: Hebrews 10:38)
Never shrink back and be destroyed; instead, advance behind the safety of God’s S.H.I.E.L.D. of faith and be saved.
May your faith in our Lord make you truly unstoppable!
Shalom.
Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done; on earth, as it is in heaven.
Holy Spirit, grant me daily:
A deeper embrace of God’s Salvation;
A deeper willingness to living a Holy life;
A deeper desire to nurture a life of spiritual Integrity - where my impulse, words and deeds become congruous and pleasing before God;
More of Your Power and Presence in my life that I may be Empowered to fulfill my duty as Christ’s Witness to the Nations;
More of God’s Love in my life, that I may love as God loves; and
Courage, strength, resolve and wisdom to be more devoted to the Lord and His Kingdom’s cause.
That I would daily live by faith in Christ and be saved!
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your Power to daily check and raise my Faith S.H.I.E.L.D.; resolutely advancing through every attack of the evil one.
Even through the hail of flaming arrows, may my faith in You make me unstoppable in fulfilling Your Will and Work of inbreaking the Kingdom, and in bringing all the glory to Your Name!
Yes, Lord.
Make me a true saint – ever-ecstatic and ever-willing to wade into the hail of flaming arrows because it indicates that I am moving in the right direction towards Your Call and Will for my life.
Yes, Lord.
Make me a true saint - unstoppable and unwounded in the line of the evil one’s fire.
Yes, Lord!
Here I am! I have come to do Your Will, my God!
I thank You and pray all these in the Name of our King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.