“Above all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16 TLV)

Beloved, I hope you are not startled or frightened by the theme of this message, Faith Under Attack. Maybe you are wondering how can this possibly be? Faith is one of the fundamental principles of church doctrine, and it is a ‘must have’ to walk with God because without faith no man can please God. For this singular reason, the believer is susceptible to attacks – flaming arrows fired daily by the devil.

Men and women of faith are the most important people in this world and in the world to come, and the most susceptible to the devil’s attacks because of their profession of faith in God.  The United Nations with all her magnificence are not as important to God as the Assembly of God’s people – the people of faith. It is only the people of faith that get the attention of God to make great things happen here on the earth. Only the assembly of faith understands the will and mind of God for this generation, hence the reason for satanic onslaught. Believers are the only ones who can undo the heavy burdens that the devil places upon people and nations.

One thing about you as a believer that is consistently under the watch and surveillance of your enemy is your faith in God. Our enemy the devil is daily plotting, devising/scheming how to destroy our God-kind of faith; plotting by any means to dampen our faith walk with God.

Have you ever questioned why there are so many attacks on your life? Why, despite your confession and belief in Christ Jesus, the attacks continue relentlessly? It is as though you are now Satan’s prime target. Well, the truth is this, your faith is causing lots of havoc in the kingdom of darkness and, as such, the devil fights back in order to discourage you from further exercising your faith!

Abraham, and the rest of the patriarchs, suffered a great many attacks as they doggedly trusted God for victory. They were great models of faith for us to follow. Men and women who suffer many trials and troubles emerge bearing the fruit of maturity in Christ. The beauty of our faith in God is our triumph over Satan and all his tantrums. No man should boast of his faith until he has consistently overcome the onslaught of the devil.

Beloved, trials are what test our strength in God. As all construction materials need to be tested, so too, the strength of our faith in God needs to be tested.  Scripture says in Proverbs 24:10, “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” (NIV). Adversity does not come to break us, it comes to reveal what we are made of – weakness or strength.

While faith is measured by trials, trials are themselves measured by the strength of our confession. If you keep quiet, your faith will not be tried as much as when you boldly profess God’s word. Do we then keep quiet? God forbid! You see, the profession of faith is a believer’s trademark – it is our signature! Faith without a voice is no threat to the devil, because it is muted. So, the devil does not attack a dormant faith.

If God’s word can be tried according to the Scriptures, as silver is tried and purified in the furnace seven times, so is our faith. Faith as we understand it comes from hearing God’s word, so we know assuredly that our faith will be tried as well.

Therefore, our faith is tried in proportion to our confession. The more you confess publicly what you believe God will do for you, the more the devil comes to resist your faith, and conversely, faith does not work outside confession; that is because our confession is very important to build our faith.  We must by all means hold on to the profession of our faith. God is bound to His word to fulfil it. 2 Cor 4:13 says, “But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”

I trust you are blessed with this little insight as we look forward to digging deeper into the same subject next week. Thanks, and many blessings of God be upon you.   Peace: Shalom! Shalom!!

Sam Elijah
August, 2023