Spiritual Conflict 8 Faith

Spiritual Conflict 8
Shield of Faith

The Enemy Targets Faith Ephesians 6:16 / 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5

What is it that the enemy targets if he targets faith?
- Faith is not a mental assimilation of information
- 278 references, and all point to some action and not the assimilation of information
- Faith is: Hebrews 11:1
- Assurance of our hope
- Who gives us hope?
- What is our hope?
- How is it assured?

- Undertaking of action based on unseen realities
- Why do I hope in something I do not see?
- Why am I acting on this unseen thing?

This is not logical. It is supernatural. This is the essence of what it means to be converted by the Gospel.
- We are given hope
- We are assured in our hope
- We act on our assured hope

1. The enemy targets our assurance in Christ
- Feelings of guilt
- Feelings of doubt
- Feelings of accusation
- Feelings of worthlessness
- Feelings of uncertainty in God’s promises and his faithfulness
- Feelings of uselessness
- Feelings of despair
- Feelings of suspicion
- Feelings of misplaced and unholy anger
2. The enemy targets our action based on our assurance
- Busy / Tasks
- Fear (failure, injury, death)
- Apathy
- Distraction with inferior pursuits
- The self as an end and not a means

How do we defend with faith?

1. Seek the Lord like your life depended on it
- Jeremiah 29:1-14
- Jesus in the Gospels stopped short of explaining what he meant so that
only those who sought would find
- Matthew 6:33
- Seeking people get to discover that it is Father who pursues us because he loves
us and want us to enjoy him (illustration of “Horse and his boy”)
How do I seek?
1. Read
2. Pray
3. Think deeply
4. Write
5. Fast
6. Get quiet
7. Spend time alone
2. When you get a glimpse of glory, drink deeply and enjoy it
1. Often those days come with many dry days between them
2. Store up the experience for the fight to remember God’s faithfulness
3. Enjoy forgiveness and freedom without reservation
Illustration: the depth and sufficiency of cave spring is not attested to by rationing it’s content. It’s depth and sufficiency is attested to by tapping it, using and continuing to do so. That kind of activity puts cave spring on the map. Kids take field trips there to see it. People go to swim in its bounty. I’ll shower in it. Animals drink from it. People fish in it.

If we approach God’s forgiveness of us with reservation and rationing, we do not glorify it’s depth and sufficiency. We glorify God when we drink deeply of his forgiveness without guilt or the least thought that it could run out. We continue to come to the Father in confession knowing that the well will never run dry. There is no limit to his grace in kindness for his people.

Faith enjoys God’s grace with out any sort of guilt.