“The sword is the word of God”

“The sword is the word of God”

I am back in the suburbs of Randburg and it was good to get a night’s sleep in a familiar bed. It is at times like these that I just want to find a rock in some distant land and be like John alone and away from the world. But this is clearly not God’s intention for many of our lives, we must face our trial and the trial of our faith will in its season bring forth fruit. It is in periods like these when decisions need to be made that we must always turn to our Saviour and remember the battle and our armour. We must attend to its detail and dress consciously always reminding ourselves that the battle is the Lord’s and all we need do is stand. But on what must we stand? Well obviously we should understand by default that at salvation we had been given the gift of God’s spirit, who now lives within us and that we stand on our foundation, which is Jesus Christ. We must have a basic foundational understanding of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Which simply means; we can do nothing to earn our salvation and we will trust our God no matter what may come. We must embrace those two introductory truths and make them our own. (Hebrews 6:1) “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”

However when we consider the “Armour of God” we see that our sword in times of battle must be wielded. We must find direction from the Word of God. Council must be based on God’s Word. We must not look outside of God’s word for direction, absolutely out of the question if we are to stand against the wiles of the devil. Whatever it is we need to face and address it must be done with the bible open and all concerned gleaning from its instruction. I say this when believers need to address an issue amongst each other. When unbelievers are involved reference can and possibly should be made to the word, but with caution, and this is why I make this statement; (Proverbs 9:7) “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.”

The sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, has power. “The word of God is very necessary, and of great use to the Christian, in order to his maintaining the spiritual warfare and succeeding in it. It is called the sword of the Spirit, because it is of the Spirit's influence that He renders it efficacious and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword.” In fact it is so powerful that the writer of Hebrews has this to say, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” How comforting is that? All we as believers now need to do is take the word of God seriously and to start living by it and if that is already your testimony then we need dive deeper into its depths for great treasures have been stored there. Even when my thoughts and intents carry the wrong motivation, I am persuaded that by looking to God’s word with an earnest expectation I know that God will reveal the error of my way if need be and He will also vindicate when that is required. My eyes are upon you my great God, the only true God of the heavens and the earth. There is victory for me in the blood of Christ my Saviour, o yes there is victory for me! The world and our enemies may conjure great plans to destroy they may even call on Goliath’s sword with great swelling words. Intimidating to the natural eye, but when we look at it with spiritual understanding then we like David can say; “and David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!" What I now find very interesting is how the world will try and get us to respond. Their advice is to fight fire with fire, but we are to fight fire with the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit. Watch how Saul displays his mindset; “Then Saul clothed David with his armour. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.” I love David’s response to all the manmade intuition; “and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field." Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” I love the reasoning David gives Goliath before he kills him; “and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand." David then takes the sword of his enemy and cut his enemies head off with his own sword. How great is our God, trust and abide only in His council as we know that He is righteous and will act in righteousness, all we need to do in trust and abide in Him.

May God the Holy Spirit mercifully reveal Christ in all His glory to us in and through this precious Word, the bible! May He continue to correct, admonish and teach us all thing pertaining to godliness.

Signing off

Tyrone