In previous sermons, warfare in the realm or spirits has been discussed. In the first war, Satan lost. Michael and his angels defeated him and his hosts, and Satan was cast down. But that’s not the end! When he’s cast down, he wages the next war, and the enemy he’s fighting is you.

Paul says to fight the dark forces, you need the armour of God. You can’t do it with your strength, intellect, or even your good looks. The armour of God in Ephesians has 6 pieces. There is the helmet and the shield, the belt and the sword which have been covered in a previous sermon. That leaves the breastplate and the shield. This sermon will discuss the breastplate.

The shield is the shield of faith. What faith does is that it enables to beat all odds, bash through tough rough patches in your life. A classic description of what faith does is found in Habakkuk 3:17-19.

“Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.”

In today’s terms, you may say:
Though my husband leaves me; though I lose my job; though I have cancer, I will yet have joy in the God of my salvation!

Can we say that? How many of us can say that?

Habakkuk seems so surreal/unreal to us. How can we say we have joy and happiness when we have all the bad things happening to us?

A classic example of someone who had a life like that was of course Job. He had so many good things he lost and after that all he had left was bad. He lost ALL his children. He lost ALL his wealth in one day. He lost his health, he was like a leper. He lost his face/reputation. His best friends thought he was a great sinner - that’s why God was doing that to Him. All the grandeur, reputation and goodness he cultivated in his life was gone in a moment.

What he didn’t lose was his wife. But was that a good thing? His wife was bugging him day and night. In fact, the continuance of his wife gave him more pain. She kept telling him, “Curse God!” But he loved God.

We know the story. He endured. And in the end God blessed him many many times over!

To many of us, Job seems to be a fiction. He’s like a superman. How could a normal human being like you and I have a faith like Job? It seems incredible.

Do we see a modern Job? The speaker’s answer is no. But he knows someone very intimate to him who is not like Job but almost like Job. To show you how faith can give you victory in life, how faith can help you go through bad patches in life. And even when all things around you turns bleak, when others would’ve given up, you’re able to stand up and even help others.

The story of one woman will be told to us - the speaker’s mum. When the speaker was young, in the 1960s, more than 50 years ago. In those days, there was no treatment for cancer in Malaysia or even Singapore. Even with the advancement of technology and medical science today, the fatality is still very high. Almost everyone he knows with serious cancer died. His father had nasal pharyngeal cancer between the nose and throat. The only treatment was radio therapy, and the nearest place was in Canton, China. He had to go there. He wrote the speaker a letter: “Take care of your mum in case I don’t make it.”

The short story is: the speaker’s father survived. It would’ve made a lot of difference in his life and his brother’s life if he had not. Because his father was the main breadwinner. His mother was only working part time for an NGO called Family Planning Organisation. Had his father passed away, his mother would’ve had a very hard time bringing him and his brother up, what more give them an education.

Apart from having to take care of his father stricken with cancer, she had to take care of the speaker and his brother who were in primary school.

It was relating to this cancer that the speaker and his brother came to church and became fervent. His father wasn’t a Christian so they weren’t baptised as infants. He asked his father if he could be baptised, he said yes. That was the good part. It brought his family back to Christ. It was a miracle because his father survived until he was 70.

Back to the 1960s. When the cancer was sort of resolved, the next problem came. His father was possessed by demons. His family went through a very scary ordeal. His mother had no choice but to turn to and rely on God. What happened to his father was a long story. The short story is: the church with the power of the Holy Spirit cast out the demon.

They were from Ipoh and they had many deacons. Because the demon was so strong, the ministers in the church of Ipoh wrote to the church in KL to send their ministers to Ipoh. KL church sent a minister who had the gift of casting demons to Ipoh. Details will be redacted for this sermon. Suffice for this sermon, his mother dealt with terrible times.

When the speaker and his brother grew up and left home, his mother’s health deteriorated. She had so many health problems that if there was a medical dictionary and you pointed to it randomly, she probably had it.

She had diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, migraine. Whatever you know of, she probably had it. His mother’s own parents were also getting old. As they got old, they got sick of course. She had to care for them and her husband.

Then more problems came. She had a fall and her upper ribs collapsed. But through it all, problems after problems, her faith never dwindled. She was able to keep on praising God. Later on, the speaker’s father had a stroke and underwent brain surgery. His mum had to care for him. Then, she herself developed heart problems. She went through a triple heart bypass surgery.

In her own voice, how she went through these difficulties are as follows:
On the 3rd day after my operation, I was able to perform my own sanitary functions like like bathing, walking, etc.. Though I was given 3 months’ supply of painkillers, I only had to take them for 2 weeks and whenever I experienced pain, I resorted to prayers and that dissolved the pain or whatever else that ailed me. My thanks to God for sparing the life of my husband who also had a major brain operation in Sept 1998, in spite of the complications of diabetes and hypertension; despite his inability to walk and lapses of memory due to brain damage, he recovered well. Prayers are still needed for him. Within a 3 month period in 1997, I lost both my parents and in 1998, my husband and I had a major operation within 3 months’ time.

Thank God the Great Physician and His healing powers including His mercy and help to enable us to surmount life’s stresses and storms.

God is almighty and merciful. Nature’s storms may buffet us frequently in spite of our best efforts to avoid them. When we encounter these storms, difficulties, problems or sicknesses, we should have no fear, nor be disheartened, discouraged or despaired. I implore you to hold fast to your faith and be staunch and steadfast with our Lord Jesus Christ in patience and persistent prayers, and wait for His Divine Power and plans to unfold. He will guide and see us through thick and thin.
I am grateful and thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ and am just thankful for all your earnest prayers.

God is almighty and merciful.

This is what happened after a major operation for her and her husband. Despite all the bad things that happened, she still encouraged the speaker and his brother to hold on to their faith and not to be in despair.

This is a testimony that she wrote:
In the name of Jesus Christ I bear witness. In the year September 2008, I wanted to replenish my medicine, took a chair, stood up to take the medicine on the top shelf of the cabinet. As I was holding on to a packet of medicine, the chair gave way, I fell backwards and hurt my spinal cord. Luckily, my hair was all rolled up by the curlers. When I fell, my head was knocked against the leg of the table, the curlers were all broken, but thank God my heart was not hurt. The pain in my spinal cord was so bad. No one was at home. My maid went out. I had to crawl to my bed to telephone. They (some church members) took me to see a specialist, then to hospital for X-ray. The doctor gave me pain killers. They told me one of my upper ribs collapsed. I had no confidence in the specialist but committed my prayers to our Great Physician Jesus Christ to cure and I didn’t even take the painkillers. Exactly after one year, the pain of my spinal cord subsided. Brothers and sisters, when we encounter tribulations, persecution, pain and sorrow, be not discouraged but be strong in our Lord Jesus and keep on praying.

This is the true voice of someone who didn’t live in a lot of good times but someone who went through terrible terrible times.

The speaker’s mother had two sons - him and his brother. Then his brother, when he was about 53, had a heart attack and died. There’s no greater tragedy than a mother burying her child. Of course she was grievously hurt by the death of her eldest son. The speaker would be lying if he said she wasn’t sad. But she recovered, by faith. And she recovered to such an extent that she wasn’t just able to bring herself out but also help others stand on their own feet.

This was written by the speaker’s mother to her granddaughter.
Dear Sulynn,
I am getting old, do not know when God will call me home, so for the time being I would like to make a legacy to my 5 dear grandchildren. David led his son Solomon right to the 5th generation. Now in our family, we had our first greatest Godfearing grandmother. Now all of you are the 5th generation. Most important is to hold fast and preserve the Holy Spirit to the fullness to manifest God’s nature such as love, purity, power and wisdom
We also need to have the Holy Spirit to receive Christ Jesus salvation. With the continuing guidance and strengthening of the Holy Spirit we will enter God’s heavenly kingdom. In the last days, many people cannot or find it difficult to receive the Holy Spirit. Do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God trusting Him, full pleasing HIM, obey the 10 Commandments, bear good fruits and in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God. We also have to stand firm in all HIS commands, read the Bible constantly and pray at least 3 times per day Remember through trials, tribulations, persecutions, sickness, pains and sorrows, never give up so easily but to pray to God and hold on to your faith and trust in HIM to help you. Be joyful for you have share with Jesus sufferings who so tremendously die on the cross just to redeem us from etermal death and pave a way of of salvation. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep IT holy for it is a day of blessing and put aside your own work to keep the Sabbath blessed. His spiritual blessings are far more precious than the material possession.God Himself, along with His love, joy, comfort,strength, and His glorious kingdom will be ours. Jesus had said “for what will it profit a man if he gains the world and forfeit his life.” No matter how much you have achieve in reputation and wealth or you may have a lot of ambitions and goals or you may be millionaire but none of these possessions or accomplishments are important to you. Therefore we should contribute what the Lord Jesus has given you time, weath and capabilities to do the Divine work to repay God’s mercy.

Your beloved grandma;
Mrs.B. Yeoh

This was written just a couple of years after the death of her son. Even in her sorrow, she was able to encourage her granddaughter. She had to write this because she knew her granddaughter was going to go overseas to study and would be alone, to make sure her granddaughter remains firm in Christ, despite what has happened in her own life.

By then she as already in her 80s. She knew she didn’t have long to live. After this, she wrote her dying wish.

THIS IS MY DYING WISH TO ALL OF YOU
As you all are advancing in age, let you also advance gracefully and abundantly in the love of GOD, wisdom, strength and patience. May God fill you all with knowledge of His Will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruits in every good work and increasing knowledge of God. May you all be strengthen will all power, according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. May you all never flag in zeal,always be aglow with the spirit,work and serve HIM faithfully through all your generations. ALSO Tony & family and Vincent & family- Remember each other is the hearts own way of holding loved ones close and keeping in constant contact with each other with peace, love, care, concern confide and help each other in times of problems (not to be in cool reception towards each other) are my last WISH to all of you to carry out till we meet in heaven.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL,
LOVE, MUMMY.

The speaker didn’t know that his mother wrote that email to his daughter until after her death when his daughter referenced it in her eulogy.

She wrote her dying wish to them because that was her only legacy. She has no property or money to leave to them, nothing. Not exactly nothing but all the while, the speaker was supporting her. Whatever money she had was given to her by him. To his surprise after her death, his sister-in-law said she saved up quite a bit so they got a few thousand dollars. It wasn’t very much, but that was what she left behind. What she left behind was the legacy of faith. What kept her faith up despite all the problems, sadness and tribulations (as she calls it)? The speaker sees two things that kept her faith up.

Based on the things she’s written, it’s very clear that she truly believed that God is good. In the speaker’s previous sermons, the strategy of the snake was to tell Eve “God is good but maybe…not that good.” But his mother truly believed God is good. Simply good. And that God works everything for our benefit. And that has been pushing her and keeping her up despite the devil trying to put her down. And her experience is biblical!

Rom 8:28
“And we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

If you want rock solid faith, the first thing that you MUST have is to believe that God is good and God works everything in your life to work out for good.

If we were to learn from the speaker’s mother’s long 89 years life of faith, the first thing we have to do is truly believe that God is good and works out all things for good.

The second thing about her life is about the word of God. She completely immersed herself in the word of God. She loved the word of God. In the evening after dinner, she would read the Bible. And when she reads the Bible, she likes to write. She’ll read a verse/passage, and just copy. She’d read and write, read and write. After her death when the speaker had to clear the house, her room and the hall had bits and pieces and diaries all covered with words from the Bible. It is the word of God that preserves and supplies her faith. Again, this is biblical.

Rom 10:17
Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God.

How do we get rock hard faith? You have faith by hearing. Hearing what? Hearing the word of God. So it is the word of God that gives you faith. If you want faith that can lift you up even in times of pain and darkness, you need to keep reading and reading and reading the word of God. Because the word of God gives you faith. And when you have faith, the pain that you have goes away.

We all have pain. Even a Christian will have pain. In fact a Christian MUST have pain. Jesus was made perfect through what? Through suffering. Jesus. So there WILL be pain. But what makes the pain go away, what makes us strong so we can move on and help others, is faith. Faith is the shield that blocks all the fiery darts of the devil.

From when the speaker was young until his mother was old, the devil has been throwing darts one after the other. She took the shield of faith and stood strong right to the end. For people who remain strong in their faith no matter what, God sometimes gives a testimony that their faith is acceptable to Him.

Heb 11:1-2
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.”

For example, God accepted Abel’s offering to show him He accepted his offering.

God was kind to the speaker’s mother. Before she died, God gave her a testimony that her life of faith was accepted by Him. God spoke to her, directly. What did God say?

A text message between Pr Amos Chow and the speaker:
“I was informed by Sis Phoong that your mum began to tell members and those around her since last Saturday that on 5 Mar, she wants to wear white shirt and have nice combed hair. She told the house caretaker to give her a white shirt. This afternoon I visited your mum and she told me the same thing. I asked how she knew it would be 5 March. She said Jesus told her during prayer. She seemed to be serious and confirmed what she said.”

The speaker is a very skeptical person, he didn’t believe this. But he’s also a very courteous person so he replied, “Thank you for caring for my mother.”

The preacher was quite sharp and noticed the speaker was skeptical, so he messaged again that his mother really meant it. The speaker replied, “Thank you for taking the trouble to share.” The speaker wasn’t interested and didn’t believe it. He forgot about this.

In the afternoon on 5 March 2019, she passed away. In the evening, the speaker’s family and his nephew drove to Ipoh and arrived at 4.05am. They freshened up at the hotel and went for breakfast. During breakfast, his wife asked him, “Was there a sign your mother was going to die?”

She died on a Tuesday. The week before, he had a really strong urge to see his mother. He bought a ticket and flew back on Saturday. He was shocked because his sister’s family was there; she also felt a strong urge to return. So they had a mini family gathering. He stayed till Monday and flew back to Singapore.

He had totally forgot about the message from the Preacher. If he had, he wouldn’t have flown back on Monday but stayed on till Tuesday.

But when his wife asked him whether there was a sign, suddenly the text message from Preacher Chow came to his mind. He took out his phone and passed it to his wife to scroll through the chat. She realised she had passed on 5 March! When they reached the speaker’s mother’s house, they met up with Pr Chow who also took out his phone to check. That’s when they realised God spoke to her. The date she passed wasn’t the thing that was important, but the fact that God told her she would be in white.

Some members asked if he had dressed her up in white. He did not because the white garment wasn’t for him to put on her, but for Jesus to do so.

Rev 19:8, 14
The white garment is the righteousness of the saints, not put on by the son (i.e. the speaker) but by Jesus Christ. And she had the testimony her faith was accepted.

The speaker reckons very few of us has gone through what his mother has.
How many of you had your spouse have cancer while your kids were still young? How many of you had your spouse demon possessed? How many of you had triple bypass surgery, lost your parents soon after, and then your spouse and you need to undergo a surgery? How many of you have lost your son?

She went through a lot. But she kept on her faith. She had pain, but it went away because of her faith.

You want a victorious life. You want a life that doesn’t just bring joy and happiness to yourself but joy and happiness that radiates to others. You need faith, the shield of faith to take all the fiery darts of the devil. And win. And God will give you the testimony.