Shields Up

So how can wood and leather and paint be powered? How can a shield I can't physically hold in my hands be powered? How is an armor of God I can't put on physically be powered? Those are great questions. The power is in your faith of Jesus. Now the enemy of the Roman army knew their shields were made of wood and felt and leather. So you know what they did? They took their arrows and they lit them on fire, and they shot them at the shields, and the shields went up in flames causing mass panic in the Roman army. [00:45:33] (40 seconds)  #FaithPowersArmor

Remember you are protected by the shield, you can press into the battle against the evil one and when your shield is covered in the living water of Jesus Christ and you go shields up, the devil doesn't stand a chance against our Lord and savior. There was a sweet family with a beautiful five year old little girl named Olivia. She was attending church with her family on an Easter Sunday. When she right in the middle of church, she doubled over in a ton of pain. Her parents, very concerned, whisked her away to the hospital. [00:48:02] (36 seconds)  #ProtectedInCrisis

Some of us, we're not losing the battle because we lack faith. You're losing the battle because you're fighting it alone. Don't do that. You need your team. Let's thank these people. I love them so much. They still believe me when I say, don't worry, it'll be easy. Come help me. Alright. So we've talked about how the shield protects and how the shield presses in, and everyone give me a number three. Three. The shield is powered. [00:44:55] (38 seconds)  #FightWithYourTeam

The rest of the armor protects the body to some degree, but the shield, it is the first line of defense against the attack for the soldiers. What happens when fear runs unchecked in your life? What happens when you can't protect yourself? What happens when you don't pick up your shield when you're walking into a battle? Without your shield, you're left vulnerable, you're left exposed, and you are left in danger. [00:36:45] (29 seconds)  #FirstLineDefense

And isn't that just like life? When your car breaks down for the tenth time in two months, you gotta figure that out? When gas prices skyrocket and y'all can't figure out how to get to work? I know that feeling. When life seems overwhelming and the arrows just keep coming, what do you do? Do you just stop? Do you fall into your panic? Maybe you turn to things like alcohol or drugs or maybe even food. [00:46:13] (35 seconds)  #StandAgainstPanic

Okay. Good. I feel better. So how do we fight against the battle that we're in? And that's exactly what we've been talking about in the last four weeks of the series heist. We talked about boots of peace and how they keep us information and unity. The belt of truth and how it reminds us to use the truth that God speaks over us, and not believe the lies that the devil says against our identity. We talked about the breastplate of righteousness, how it protects the heart, and we talked about the power of prayer and how that helps us fight the battle. [00:33:33] (29 seconds)  #ArmorOfGodSeries

And when those thoughts of fear and panic and doubt set in, what happens? We have that moment where our heart rate spikes, deep breaths where we're trying to control our breathing because our our breathing is quick, we're scared, we're overwhelmed, we don't know what to do and in that moment, we hear the spirit when we're listening for his voice where he says, hey, shield's up. [00:41:08] (28 seconds)  #ShieldUpMoment

There was relief, there was gratitude, there was this moment where it felt like, okay, we can finally breathe. Like maybe, just maybe, the arrows had stopped. But if you've ever walked through something like that with your child or your family, you know the fear does not just disappear. Because once you've been through a battle, once you've realized how quickly things can change, you're kind of always on alert, watching, waiting, almost like you're bracing yourself just in case another arrow comes, and for this family, it did. [00:50:59] (36 seconds)  #PostBattleVigilance