Our Faith Extinguishes All The Devil's Fiery Arrows And Worships God — Sandeep Poonen

The Shield of Faith Extinguishes Every Flaming Arrow

I want to speak today on faith. You can turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Paul is talking about the full armor of God. And he says this in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 16.

In addition to all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. This is part of the armor of God. You've got the breastplate of righteousness.

You've got the helmet of salvation. You've got the loins of truth. And right there he says, but I want to give you one piece of armor that will help you against all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

What did you think it was? Did you think it was going to be the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God? That would extinguish all the flaming arrows? It isn't. Is it the breastplate of righteousness?

It isn't. It's the shield of faith. I want to just read that verse slowly. The shield of faith with which you will be able to, that word over there, extinguish. That's a word that we want to remember.

Extinguish. And not extinguish some. Extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. We have fires in California. What happens when fires in California grow big? Here's what happens. The fire people come and first they try to do is they try to put it out, but a lot of times they can't put out the fire.

They try to contain the fire. And that's the question that I want to have is, do you think that in the fight against the devil, are you containing the fire or are you extinguishing the fire? Am I containing the fire of the fiery arrows of the evil one or am I extinguishing it?

Because God tells me in his word here that the shield of faith, shield, it's not an offensive weapon. It's a defensive weapon. It's a defensive part of the armor. The defensive part of the armor called the shield extinguishes.

Now we don't, we're not used to seeing armies today with shields. But what about a fire extinguisher? I don't spend much time in the kitchen. But even I, even I, even though I've not spent much time in the kitchen, have experienced times where the fire is going more than I expected it to go.

I'll tell you what doesn't cross my mind when I see that going a little bit out of control. I'm not thinking containment. I'm thinking I need to extinguish it. And I have two options. I can beat it with a towel or I can throw water on it.

Don't have a fire extinguisher in my home. Maybe I should. But those are my two options. But what I'm thinking is I'm not thinking containment. And remember, I'm not thinking containment when it comes to a small little fire.

I like that word extinguish. Dear brothers and sisters, our faith, my faith needs to be a faith that extinguishes the fiery darts of the evil one. Not contains. It must eliminate. It must extinguish, not contain.

It's a very simple word that I'm underlining here. But it's a point I'm trying to make to myself. Lord Jesus, when the devil is coming at me, when the evil one, the evil one could be my flesh, the evil one could be the devil.

But in this case, let's think it's the evil one. It's the devil. The question is, is my faith something that extinguishes or does it contain? And I found that I sell myself short or my faith is not strong enough.

And what is the faith not strong enough mean? It's the shield is not strong enough to extinguish it. All the flaming arrows of the evil one flaming. So, you know, it's got to have fire in it, but I need to extinguish it.

When a fire happens, I need to have a mindset of extinguishing, not containing. I'm not going to put up with this fight. I'm going to extinguish it. And we've heard a few of the lies of the devil, but the flaming arrows that the devil sends our way, we want to be a group of people who extinguishes, not contains.

Extinguishing Discouragement, Self-Pity, and Condemnation

What are some of the flaming arrows of the evil one? Discouragement. What is our attitude towards discouragement? Containment or extinguish? We've heard about the no entry roads, self-pity, condemnation.

What's our attitude towards it? Containment or extinguisher? And again, I'm trying to draw the analogy to the fire, right? What happens when you see the fire in the home? Let's say you invited an honored guest.

Let's say you invited the president of the United States. Let's say you invited the Apostle Paul. What will you do if you turn around and you see a fire on the stove and the fire going out of control?

What do you do? I don't care who the extinguished, the esteemed guest is sitting in the room. You'll say, hold on that thought. You may not even say that you jump out and you put on, put out the fire.

There's nothing that should be more important than putting out extinguishing a fire. That's the attitude I need to have towards the flaming arrows of the evil one. I need to jump up, drop everything I'm doing and extinguish the fire using my faith.

That is the shield of faith that I must have. When a fire is starting to get out of control and if it's a flaming arrows of condemnation, self-pity, discouragement, I hold nothing back. Grab a hold of the fire extinguisher and go after it and don't contain it.

We extinguish it. That's the mark and that's the attitude of every Christian. And we're not talking about even offensive. We're just talking about extinguishing it as a defensive idea. So don't think you've got to be some great saint of God to go against the devil.

No, the flaming arrows are coming at you. Another thing I like about this is that the flaming arrows, not a flaming arrow once in a while. And if I look at the life of Jesus, you know, one passage of the temptations of Jesus in one of the gospels makes me think that the devil was tempting Jesus for 40 days.

It wasn't just three temptations. Only three are recorded, but it seems that the devil was tempting Jesus for 40 days. What do you think was happening for 40 days? Flaming arrow after flaming arrow. So we don't need to be surprised if we're also facing flaming after arrow after flaming arrow for 40 days or more.

Flaming arrow of what? Discouragement. Self pity. Condemnation. God is not good. God doesn't have everything under control. God is not aware of this co-worker, this neighbor, this family member that's sending this email.

Is God in control? Flaming arrow. Take matters into your own hands. Don't think about what God has in mind. Deal directly with flesh and blood. The devil is trying to assault us with arrow after arrow after arrow.

So what am I saying? Don't be surprised if it's non-stop. But don't settle for containment. Settle for extinguishing every single flaming arrow. And what you need is faith. And you don't need offensive faith.

You just need shield of faith. But that faith ought to be strong enough to withstand every single flaming arrow of the evil one. And that's been the message of the Lord to me. Saying, are you belligerent?

Are you violent in that way against every flaming arrow? Knowing it's going to be non-stop. Extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Jesus is our example of how non-stop it is. I also want to just appeal to the story of Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve and the Craftiness of the Serpent

How did the devil attack Adam and Eve? Put yourself in their shoes. What happened? On the sixth day, God creates all the mammals. On the afternoon of the sixth day, God creates Adam and Eve. Then what does God do?

God says, I'm clearing my whole calendar. God didn't need to rest. It wasn't tiresome work for God to create the whole world. We know that. God didn't get tired out. But why does it say God rested? Because God was telling Adam and Eve, I have nothing to do.

Except to be with you. So that's what happened on the seventh day. God cleared his calendar for Adam and Eve. To make a statement to Adam and Eve. God could have handled a billion things on his calendar plus Adam and Eve.

But he said, I'm going to rest. Because I want you, Adam and Eve, to know, I have nothing to do except you. Except the two of you. And God spent 24 hours with Adam and Eve. Brothers and sisters, how would we feel if Jesus appeared in a vision for just five seconds?

It will sustain us for the rest of our lives. We won't stop talking about it for the rest of our lives. Jesus appeared in a dream for five seconds. We will have an international tour out of that. Jesus appeared in my dream for five seconds.

Adam and Eve spent 24 hours with God. Face-to-face. The Trinity hanging out. What's my point? What happened after that? After that God says, now go to the garden. What happened to Adam and Eve? The serpent deceived Adam and Eve.

After Adam and Eve had never sinned. They didn't even know how to spell sin. And you know what sin was? They were innocent. Their whole perspective was God. They spent 24 hours with God. And guess what happens?

The devil comes in and deceives them. What that made me realize is, that is how crafty the devil is. You could spend 24 hours where God is fully focused on you. Nothing else to do. Just hanging out with God Almighty, the Trinity.

It doesn't get better than that. One minute with God in a vision will last us an eternal lifetime of that memory. 24 hours with God. The serpent is so crafty. He came and deceived Adam and Eve after that.

The flaming arrows of the evil one. Let's not take it for granted. Let's not take it lightly. But God has given us an armor. A fire extinguisher. By which we say, God I want to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

That's what I need to have faith. So brothers and sisters, faith is not optional. And containing faith is unbiblical. It's cheapening faith. When we settle for containing faith. I just got through the attack of the evil one.

It caused the damage to one of my rooms. But the whole house didn't burn down. That's not God's will. God's will is that we have in our armor. A shield of faith. A fire extinguisher. To extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

That's the quality of our faith that we must have. I also want to share one other thought as it relates to our church meetings. 1 Corinthians 14. We've talked a lot about this. We keep repeating ourselves.

Prophecy and Faith in the Church Meeting

The one thing that should characterize our weekly meetings is prophecy. And Romans 12 makes it very clear that each one prophesies according to the level of their faith. Which means that a person with no faith has no chance to prophesy.

The only chance I have to prophesy is if I have faith. And so the more faith I have, the better my ability to prophesy. But see 1 Corinthians 14 verse 24 and 25. This is what our weekly meetings ought to be like.

If all prophesy. That's the beginning of that verse. Which means all must come with some level of faith. Faith that has the power to extinguish. Not contain flaming arrows. Extinguish. That's the faith that I must have.

And if all prophesy. An unbeliever, an ungifted man enters. Here's what happens. Here's what I want to underline. He is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed.

But here's what happens. That's not it. We've not come to the end of what prophecy does. We're convicted by all. We're convicted by all. The secrets of my heart are exposed. And here's what happens though.

We fall on our face and we worship. I fear that a lot of what we can do in our meetings. And what we can do by listening to a lot of God's word. And what we think is prophecy. Is we're convicted of sin.

And we're called into account. But then we stop there. And the secrets of our hearts are exposed. But we stop there. And we never in the meeting or afterwards. Fall on our face and worship God. Because that's the conclusion.

That's the conclusion of every meeting. Is that I fall on my face and worship God. So it is no use. It is no use of me to come to the meeting and be convicted. And stop there. And to be convicted and to call into account and stop there.

Or to fall into my... And to be convicted and to call into account. And the secrets of my heart are exposed. I went to the Wednesday meeting. I went to the Tuesday meeting. I went to the Thursday meeting.

Friday meeting. And wow! They all acted as if they were living in my house. They spoke directly to my need. But did it get me to fall on my face and worship God? Then that's not prophecy. Because that is conviction without faith.

Conviction Must Lead to Saving Faith and Worship

It's faith that saves me. Not conviction. Conviction alone will not save me. Alcoholics are convicted. Every Sunday night. After spending Friday and Saturday night in the bars. They are all sitting there convicted.

There are so many of us are sitting convicted in our sins. And are wondering why don't we have salvation? Because we are not having saving faith. And there is much to it that we can talk about by faith.

It's part of it. Our faith is being able to get up and say thank you. That's what the one leopard did which the other nine didn't do. That came back and they had saving faith. There is a lot to faith that we can meditate on.

But my point is, dear brothers and sisters. We cannot comfort ourselves when we are convicted in the church meeting. Imagine if the two men who are on their way to Emmaus. Walked with Jesus all the way to Emmaus.

And then when Jesus said bye they left. They would have still talked about their hearts burning within them. But they never saw Jesus. They would have stayed in Emmaus rejoicing on how their hearts burned with them.

Convicted of their sins. What good was it? They needed Jesus to come and break the bread. Then their eyes were opened. And they saw Jesus and the impact of that was they got up. And went and told the other disciples, I saw Jesus.

They would never have done that. Even with the burning heart. If I had not seen the resurrected Jesus. That's what faith is. And I can be convicted of my sin, convicted of my sin. Who is convicting of my sin?

The Holy Spirit is. It says in John 16 that the Holy Spirit convicts me of my sin. But that's not all he does. He also glorifies Jesus. Just a few verses later in John 16. Read that 7, 8 and 9. He convicts us of our sins.

Of righteousness. But then John 16, 13 he will guide me into all truth. And he will glorify me. Because he will take of what is mine and disclose them to you. So it's no point being convicted of sin if I don't also see the resurrected Jesus.

And see him glorified. That's what makes me fall on my face and worship God. So we should treat with suspicion. The conviction of God that does not lead to a worship of God. Do I have conviction? Or do I have worship?

Otherwise what we have are a bunch of convicts. Sitting in a meeting. I was really convicted by what I heard. God really spoke to me and showed me. How sins in a way I've never seen before. And one after the other we go.

And all we're showing is we're a bunch of convicts. And the people who are from outside say. What do we do with a bunch of convicts? We put them in jail. That's what we do. There's no hope there. I don't want to sit in a meeting with a bunch of convicts.

Convicts need to go to jail. And our meetings can be a bunch of convicts talking. That's not the end of the meeting dear brothers and sisters. The end of the meeting for me is when I'm convicted of my sin.

And I see the captain of my salvation riding through. The author and the finisher of my faith. And I fix my eyes on him. The author and finisher of my faith. So I don't fix my eyes on my conviction. I don't fix my eyes on my guilt.

I fix my eyes on my captain of my faith. The story of Peter. When did Peter find salvation? When he was out on the boat. And the boat was stormy rages. And he told Jesus if it's you tell me to walk. And he came out and walked.

But then what happened? He took his eyes off of Jesus. He looked at the waves. And he was convicted of how inadequate he was. To walk on the stormy waves. And so what happened to him? He began to sink.

And Jesus said why did you take your eyes off of me? He was convicted of his own frailty and his own inadequacy. And he saw the circumstances around him. And he said I have no business walking on water.

And he began to fail. And we listen to convicting words of scripture. And we say we have no business of the eternal life. Yes we have no business. We're the least of sinners. Let me end with the story of the publican and the Pharisee.

Justification by Faith in the Story of the Tax Collector

You know that Luke chapter 18, 9 through 14. Pharisee and the publican sitting there and the tax collector. The Pharisee and the tax collector sitting there. What's the end of the story? We've talked about this before.

What's the end of the story? The tax collector saying Lord have mercy on me. Lord I'm convicted of my great need. Have mercy on me. That's not the end of the story. The end of the story is and he went home justified.

This tax collector went home saying God looks at me as if I've never sinned. As if I've been totally righteous all my life. That's the end of the story. That's the end of our Tuesday meetings. That's the end of our Thursday meetings.

Our Friday meetings. We're all falling on our faces. Worshipping God. Because of the faith. That we've received. Then. We've got the shield. To put away all the flaming. Arrows of the evil one. Dear brothers and sisters I pray.

That we may have prophetic meetings. In our mid-week groups. Where we are not. Convicted of sin and stopping there. Where we're not taking into account and stopping there. But we are. Have opportunities to see the living Christ.

The resurrected Christ in our daily walk. And conclude all of our convictions of sin. With saying but I saw Jesus. I have a burning heart but I haven't seen Jesus. Stay with him. Stay with him. Tell him not to leave.

If you've got a burning heart but you haven't seen Jesus. Stay with him. And say Lord don't leave me. But when you see him. You'll get up and go and tell all the other disciples. I saw Jesus. That's what we want to hear on our mid-week groups.

That's what we want to hear. Is not just conviction. But faith. It's faith what saves. And children let me end with you. You want to be born again. Children listen to me. You want to be born again. You know this.

We don't just be convicted of our sins. You just don't say that you're a sinner. You know you're a sinner. You know you've done bad things. All of you children. If you're six or seven. You know you've done bad things.

You've probably gotten punished for them. That's not going to save you. That you've done bad things. What you need is for God to tell you. You're a child of his. Your daddy and mommy can't tell you that.

God has to tell you that. And if God has told you that. You're born again. Confess it. Tell your daddy and mommy. God has spoken to me through his word. I'm a child of his. And we'll try to support you in that.

We'll try to put more oil in that. So that fire can grow stronger. But we can't tell you that you're born again. We can't tell you that you're a child of God. We can show it to you in God's word. But God has to speak to you.

That's faith. That's more than just admitting that you're a sinner. We have to also be a model. From the youngest to the oldest. That we are people of faith. Not people of just convicted of our sins. A lot more sins than we realize.

But I want to be a person of faith. A model to my children. If they ever come and sit and listen to me on the Tuesday group. Or the Thursday or Friday group on Sundays. They'll not just see a man who's convicted of his sins.

But a man who also has faith. Because he's fixed his eyes on the captain of his salvation. May God help us. May it be true, dear brothers. That we can be an army with great shields. Fire extinguisher shields.