February 2024

Dear Church,

Let us hold the shield of faith. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Eph. 6:16 During the days of Apostle Paul, the enemy would shoot arrows tipped with fire in battle, and the Roman soldiers would use shields to protect themselves from these fiery darts. Fire blazing from a speeding arrow would have been a spine-chilling sight for the Roman soldiers, so it is not difficult to imagine them dropping their shields and running in fear. Eventually, the Romans used a shield that was made of a combination of wood, leather, and twigs. The shield was made of wood, the side facing the enemy was padded with leather, and the inner side was padded with twigs. When the enemy’s arrow was shot, it would first pierce the leather before penetrating through the wood and in the process the flame at the tip of the arrow would be extinguished to protect the soldier’s life.
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Fear is the greatest and the primary weapon used by satan, and faith alone can conquer fear. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. During times of spiritual attack, faith is the only virtue that can quench the flaming darts shot by the evil one. In the midst of a raging battle, the Christian 3 soldiers expected to use the shield, (exercise their faith) against the intimidation of the enemy.

Faith that is ignored nearly always breaks and falls apart during a conflict with the enemy. The biggest mistake we make as believers is, thinking they count on our past experiences with God to carry us through. The problem with that is that we cannot rest on our past. We have to push forward! Each morning a soldier would pour oil onto a rag and the soldier would rub it onto the leather shield to make it soft and pliable. If the soldier didn’t do this daily, then his shield would become brittle and not give the protection that he needed when the enemy’s arrows hit his shield causing death to the unfortunate one behind the shield. If that soldier wanted to live a long life, it was very important for him to pick up that oil on a daily basis and apply it thoroughly to his shield. Play it safe and assume that your faith needs a daily application of the anointing oil in your life. Another thing the soldier did was to soak his shield in water until it was completely saturated. The water-soaked shield put out the fiery arrows coming from the enemy. So, their shields had daily applications of both water and oil. We MUST make certain that we are allowing the Holy Spirit to freshly anoint our lives on a daily basis as we regularly saturate our faith with the water of the Word. Word saturated faith will always extinguish the devils’ attacks!!!!
God Bless,
​Amutha