A few years ago, I heard a prominent minister share how God had revealed to him during a life-threatening illness that he was both invincible and invulnerable until God was through with him on earth and ready to take him to Heaven. Likewise, I remember a popular evangelist who traveled around the country for years in spite of the fact that he was afflicted with several terminal illnesses. His spiritual speciality was the subject of faith, which he credited for keeping him alive against all medical explanation.
It’s really not great faith, however, that shields us from all “evil.” Instead, it is a great God. True faith claims no merit of its own; yet, it is rewarded whenever God sees it. Contrary to popular opinion, the strength of faith is not found in its amount, but in its object. With just a little faith in the right object—the Lord Jesus Christ—you can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). On the other hand, misplaced faith, regardless of its quantity, is completely powerless and impotent. It won’t move a thing!
It makes no difference if we live in a lean-to or a fortress, it is only by “making the Most High our habitation” that we can protect ourselves from life’s perils and plagues. It is only those who trust God to tabernacle them in this life that are immune from “evil.” A misplaced faith in any other “refuge” will prove to be wholly inadequate in preventing evil from befalling us.
In Acts 27:21-32, the Apostle Paul declares God's promise to save all the sailors on his storm-tossed ship from drowning in an impending shipwreck. However, Paul also instructed the sailors that their salvation was contingent upon them cutting loose their own lifeboats. Truly, God’s protection of us is often contingent upon us emptying our hands of the weapons of self-protection. We must lay down the shields forged by ourselves and pick up the shield of faith in their place. For God to be our refuge, we must take God at His Word."