Zadok Discipleship Course - Armed for War
46
The Shield of Faith
Above All - The Shield and the Mind
Ephesians 6:16 • The Angel of Purity • The Vision of 1999
Above all - lift upward and raise this shield. Among all the pieces of armor, this one carries an especially critical weight. The promise is total: not some fiery darts, not most, but all of them. But its power depends entirely on understanding what faith is. Most people think faith is a spiritual feeling worked up in prayer or worship. It is none of those things.
During a worship rehearsal, the Lord directed each person to stand in the center while others prayed over them. As Dr. Foss stood in the center, two angels appeared - one named Wisdom, one named Understanding.
Wisdom led him to a corner. There stood a very large angel with a banner reading "Purity." In one hand: a shield - the most extraordinary silver, outlined with what appeared to be flaming gold, blazing with light. Indented into its face: one word. Faith.
In the other hand: a sword of the same silver and gold. Indented: Word of God.
Wisdom spoke: "He has come to bring holiness back to the church. And the shield has been given to protect My people's minds from the vile thoughts of the enemy. The sword has been given to pierce My people's hearts with the deepest of conviction."
Every fiery dart the enemy launches targets the mind. Every accusation, every fear, every temptation, every lie about identity and worth - all directed at the mind. The shield of faith is given specifically for this battle.
Fill in the Blanks
Precepts 1 & 2: Fidelity and Doubt
Pistis • The Roman Centurion • Matthew 8:25-27
When you submit to authority, you release and empower that authority to protect you. When we operate in faith as fidelity, we release God to fight for us. But when we break His Word, we tie His hands from shielding us in that area. The shield rises or falls on the basis of fidelity.
When Jesus rebuked the disciples for having "little faith," the word "little" means short-lasting. Fear was the symptom. Doubt was the root. They had allowed the storm to speak louder than the Word. Anxiety is doubt in practice - the mind rehearsing a future in which God's Word cannot be trusted. As you believe, let it be done unto you. The shield is up or down based on which authority governs the thought life.
Fill in the Blanks
Precepts 3 & 4: Confidence and the Moment the Shield Drops
Hebrews 11 • Gideon • Peter Walking on Water
Gideon was hiding on a threshing floor from the weakest clan of the weakest tribe. God sent an angel and said: "Oh, mighty man of valor." Gideon looked around. He did not feel it. He did not look it. He was not doing it. But God spoke life into him, establishing in him the revelation of the value God was placing on him. Through that process, a hiding coward subdued a kingdom. The shield went up when the identity God declared began to govern the mind more than the circumstances.
"You were that joy." Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. That joy was you. That is your worth. When that worth is settled in the mind, the devil's fiery darts of shame, inferiority, and condemnation are quenched before they land.
The moment he shifted his gaze to the wind and the waves - giving another thought authority over his mind - he was afraid and began to sink. Jesus asked precisely: "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Not "why were you afraid?" - but "why did you have short-lasting loyalty to the authority of My word, and instead give authority to another thought?"
Fear was the symptom. Doubt was the cause. The shield dropped. And without the shield, even a man standing on the surface of the water begins to go under.
Fill in the Blanks
Precepts 5 & 6: Faith Works by Love, Love Is the Root of Fidelity
Galatians 5:6 (AMPC) • John 14:15,21 • Agape Defined
Now bring this alongside the definition of faith: fidelity - absolute loyalty to the authority of God's Word. And agape: the deliberate choice to lay down self-will in submission to another. These are not two different things. They are the same reality from two angles. When you love God with agape love, you keep His commandments - not from duty or fear, but because love chooses the will of the Beloved above its own. That choice is faith. That loyalty is love. They are inseparable.
Fill in the Blanks
Faith Working Through Love: Three Marks - The Shield Assembled
Luke 9:23 • Hebrews 12:1-2 • The Shield, Complete
Three marks of faith working through love, laid out precisely by Jesus in Luke 9:23:
Taking up the cross = the deliberate choice to set aside self-will and align with the Father's will. That alignment is faith. It is loyalty to authority. It is love in action. This is the posture that keeps the shield raised.
Faith through love does not calculate personal risk first. It calculates the will of the One loved and moves toward it. Paul walked back through the gates of Lystra after being stoned and left for dead. Love for God and people overrode self-preservation.
Faith does not lead based on personal vision or ambition. It follows the one loved. "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith - following wherever He leads, trusting that the One who purchased you at so great a price can be trusted with everything that concerns you.
The shield of faith is a way of living in which the mind is governed entirely by the Word of God - by the authority of the One who loves you and whom you love in return. Accusation finds no landing place. Fear finds no foothold. Temptation loses its power. Doubt cannot sustain itself.
The angel of Purity bore this shield. Holiness and faith are not in tension - they are the same thing seen from different angles. Holiness is the life that has chosen love over self. Faith is the loyal confidence that makes that choice sustainable. Love is the fuel that keeps faith burning when the wind is boisterous and every natural instinct is screaming to look away from Jesus and save yourself.
Fill in the Blanks