We have Faith in God, His Heart, his Word, His Will, His faithfulness, and His Sovereignty

We need to take up the shield of faith in our daily living, and we do this by having faith in God, in God’s heart, in God’s faithfulness, in God’s ability, in God’s word, in God’s will, and in God’s sovereignty. God’s heart is full of love toward us, and He has no intention to hurt us or cause us harm.

The enemy, however, seeks to damage us, hurt us, and deceive us. Satan doesn’t come to us telling us that he’s Satan, the enemy, and he hates us, so he wants to hurt us.

Rather, he shoots flaming darts into our mind, emotion, and will, and he wants to damage us inwardly.

The soul is the center of the enemy’s attack, so we need to exercise our spirit to have faith in God and in His word, His promises, and His heart.

Whenever we have negative thoughts that we detect as being from the enemy, we should not even repent for them; we should simply reject them and take up the shield of faith.

Hallelujah, the shield of faith is part of the armour of God on the Body of Christ, and we are members of the Body of Christ!

As long as we are properly related to our fellow members of the Body of Christ and live in the Body, we can stand one with the Lord and take up the shield of faith.

We can proclaim Christ’s victory and lordship, and the enemy will flee. When we are offended or someone causes us harm, the enemy will come in to try to amplify that hurt and that offence.

Sometimes we have some really strong feelings concerning a certain situation or person that hurt us, and we can’t identify why do we have such feelings.

May we learn to turn to our spirit and bring all matters to the Lord in prayer.

May we learn to contact the Lord, pray-read His word, and call on the name of the Lord, remaining in fellowship with Him and with the saints so that we may identify the attacks of the enemy and spontaneously take up the shield of faith.

When we remain in the Body, we are protected by the shield of faith; when we remain in the organic union with the Lord, Satan is defeated.

The Lord wants to shine on us and shepherd us to know Him and discern the attacks of the enemy so that we do not identify ourselves with the enemy’s thoughts but rather, say no to the enemy, say yes to the Lord, and be full of faith in God!

We should not fear the flaming darts nor should we try to find out what are these darts; we should focus on the Lord Jesus, the most wonderful One, and enjoy Him both personally and with the saints. Let’s see what does it mean practically for us to take up the shield of faith in our experience according to the Word of God.

We need to have Faith in God, in God’s Heart, and in God’s Faithfulness

To take the shield of faith and quench the fiery darts of the enemy, we need to exercise our spirit to have faith in God, have faith in God’s heart, and have faith in God’s faithfulness.

First of all, we need to have faith in God (Mark 11:22).

Our faith, our trust, is not in ourselves, but in God. He called us, He generates faith in us, He cares for us, and He will complete our faith.

Our God is not a religion or a religious person; He is a real, living, present, and available Person to whom we can come and whom we can contact. We need to have faith in God.

We also need to have faith in God’s heart; His heart toward us is always good (Rom. 8:31-39).

The enemy attacks us many times by lying to us concerning God; he injects the thought that God is after us, He wants to punish us, and He wants us to suffer.

No matter what kind of suffering we may experience and no matter what trial we may go through, we need to always believe in the goodness of God’s heart.

Nothing can separate us from God and from His love, for His love is with us and His heart is always good and full of love toward us.

God has no desire or intention to punish us; rather, it is the enemy who wants to do this.

God has no intention to injure us or harm us; rather, Satan wants to ruin and damage us.

God has no intention to cause us to suffer loss; rather, His heart is always full of love toward us, and He causes all things to work for good for those who love Him.

We need to have faith in God’s faithfulness; though we may fail God and even forsake Him,

God’s faithfulness stands forever. God is faithful – He called us into the fellowship, the participation, the enjoyment of Christ, His Son (1 Cor. 1:9).

Even when we are faithless, He still remains faithful. Though we may change, God never changes.

With God there is no variation or shadow cast by turning (James 1:17). God is faithful.

He is faithful even when we sin; if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

We simply need to come to Him as we are, open to Him, confess our sins and shortcomings under His light, and He will cleanse us, wash us, and bring us back into the fellowship into which He has called us.

Furthermore, God cannot lie; what He said He will do, He will do it (Titus 1:2). We need to have faith in God, have faith in God’s heart, and have faith in His faithfulness.

Though we may change, though we may not contact Him for a while, and though we may even deny Him, He is always faithful. We can come to Him, contact Him, and enjoy His faithfulness.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to have faith in God. We do not look at our circumstances, situations, and sufferings: we look away unto Jesus, for our faith and trust are in God! You are real, living, present and available, and we have faith in You. Amen, Lord, we exercise to have faith in God’s heart. Thank You, dear Lord, Your heart is full of love toward us. Thank You for working out all things for good, for we love You and have faith in You. We believe into You, dear Lord, and we trust in Your faithfulness. Hallelujah, our God is faithful! Though we may be faithless and change, our God never changes, and there’s no variation or shadow cast by turning with Him!

We need to have Faith in God’s Ability and have Faith in God’s Word

Our God is able to do all things; everything that He said He will do, it will be done.

We simply need to exercise our spirit of faith to have faith in God’s ability and also have faith in God’s word.

He is more than able to do all that we ask and even think concerning the church (Eph. 3:20).

We may consider the saints, the church, and the situation in the church life, and we may ask the Lord for the transformation and maturation of the saints, and we may think that it would be so good if the saints would be built up and blended together.

God is able to do it. We need to have faith in God’s ability to do what He said He will do.

God fulfils not only what we ask for the church but even more, He will fulfil what we think concerning the church!

Hallelujah, God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that operates in us!

We trust in God, we trust in His ability to do all things, and we trust in His power.

He is in us and He operates in us, working out all things according to His will.

There’s an inward power operating in us; God as resurrection power is in us to operate all things according to His will.

Eph. 1:19-20 speaks of the fourfold power that operated in Christ in raising Him from the dead, seating Him at the right hand of God, making Him head over all things to the church, and enthroning Him above all.

This power is not God’s creating power but His resurrection power.

His creating power is able to produce material things in our environment (Rom. 8:28), but His resurrection power accomplishes His will, His heart’s desire, within our being, and works out the spiritual things for the church.

We trust in God and have faith in His ability to do all things. We need to exercise our spirit to have faith in God’s word.

Whatever God said that He will do, He will actually do it. In a sense, the more God speaks, the more He binds Himself to do what He said He will do.

The more God speaks, the more responsible He becomes to fulfil all that He has spoken.

We need to read the word of God, have faith in God’s ability, and believe that He will do what He said He will do.

He promises in His word that He works out all things for good to those who love Him; we believe this, and we say Amen to His word.

He promises that He will renew us, transform us, cause us to grow unto maturity, build us, conform us to the image of Christ, and glorify us.

We say Amen to His word, we stand on His promises, and we believe in God’s word. Our words may not mean much, for many times we are not able to do what we promise to do.

We may promise our family members that we will do this or that for them, or we may say that we will go here or there; however, not always can we actually do what we said we will do.

But praise the Lord, God binds Himself by His word, and He will do what He said He will do.

We should praise God for His word, and we should claim His word as our inheritance, our promises, and our portion.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to believe in God’s ability to do all that He promised in His word that He will do! Amen, Lord, we believe that You are able to do all things according to Your word, for Your divine power operates in us. Wow, the resurrection power of Christ operates in our being to work out all things according to God’s will. We open to You, dear Lord, and we stand on Your word. Lord, You have spoken, and Your written word is in our hand. We say Amen to Your word and we believe that You will do what You said You will do in Your word. Do in us according to Your word! We look not to our situation or to the enemy’s attacks: we look to God who is able to do all he said in His word!

We need to have Faith in God’s Will and in God’s Sovereignty

We need to exercise our spirit of faith to have faith in God’s will.

Our God is a God of purpose, and He has a will (Eph. 1:9, 11). His will is eternal and unchangeable.

His will with respect to us is always positive, for because of His will all things are and were created (Rev. 4:11).

We believers in Christ are in the will of God, and His will is good and positive.

We need to have faith in God and have faith in God’s will.

No matter what befalls us, we should not doubt God’s will.

Satan is always trying to deceive us into thinking that God wants us to suffer, He wants us to fail, and He is after us.

Satan is the accuser and the deceiver.

According to God’s word in the Bible, His will is good, pleasant, perfect, and eternal, and we believers in Christ need to have faith in God’s will.

We shouldn’t try to merely care for our happiness in our environment; being happy with our environment should not be the measuring stick for us.

Rather, we need to exercise our will to be one with God’s will, and we need to allow the Lord to attune our will to His will.

Our environment will change, but God’s will never changes.

The situation in our country, in our family, and in our church may change, but God’s will never changes.

Praise the Lord!

We need to have faith in God’s sovereignty (Rom. 9:19-29).

Our God is sovereign, and in His sovereignty, all things work out for good, even though it may seem that we fail and make mistakes.

God is sovereign, and He has chosen us, the believers in Christ, to be part of His perfect will. We need to exercise our spirit of faith to have faith in God’s sovereignty.

Under God’s sovereignty, even our mistakes work for good.

He allows us to make mistakes and He permits us to fail, and then He turns all these to good.

We should not try to fail or make mistakes, but when we do, we simply need to repent, confess, and exercise to believe in God’s sovereignty.

We shouldn’t have regret, though we may fail or make mistakes, for God in His sovereignty can cause all things to work out for good.

After we repent for a mistake we made or a shortcoming we had, we should simply exercise faith in God’s sovereignty.

He is sovereign, and we have faith in Him. He knows what He is doing, and He knows what we are doing. His heart is always good toward us.

May we be those who take up the shield of faith by having full faith in God, in God’s heart, in God’s faithfulness, in God’s ability, in God’s word, in God’s will, and in God’s sovereignty.

When we exercise to have faith in this way, Satan’s flaming darts will not be able to damage us, for the shield of faith quenches his flaming darts.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to believe in You and have faith in God’s will. Hallelujah, our God has a will, and His will with respect to us is always positive! We do not look at the environment and we do not seek to be happy in our situations – we look to Jesus, we believe in God’s will, and we exercise our spirit of faith! Amen, Lord, we believe that You are sovereign. You are our Sovereign God who arranges all things to work for good to those who love You. Keep us coming to You as we are, and save us from having regrets for the mistakes we commit. May we be those who exercise to have faith in God and have faith in God’s sovereignty! Hallelujah, under God’s sovereignty, even our mistakes work for good! Amen, Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 344 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 7, entitled, Taking up the Shield of Faith, Experiencing the Proving of our Faith, and Receiving the End of our Faith – the Salvation of our Souls.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – “Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father, / There is no shadow of turning with Thee; / Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not / As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. / “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” / Morning by morning new mercies I see; / All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— / “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me! (Hymns #19)
  – Oh, healthful teaching, wholesome words: / The truth of godliness! / Oh, good deposit, common faith, / And life of holiness! / Lord, make us now those faithful men / Who pass on what we’ve heard; / Make us examples of the saints / In spirit, faith, and word. (Hymns #1285)
  – We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender; / We go not forth alone against the foe; / Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender. / We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go. / Yea, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation! / In Thy dear Name, all other names above; / Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation, / Our Prince of glory and our King of love. (Hymns #881)