The Whole Armor of God - Message 10 - The Sword of the Spirit. In examining the whole armor of God we find that of the 6 pieces that God gives us to use in standing against the schemes of Satan, 5 of those pieces that we have studied are defensive in nature. The sixth piece is defensive but also serves an offensive purpose. A sword may deflect blows from the enemy but it also is mainly used to inflict damage to the enemy and to drive him back in the course of battle. The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. We see that our Sword is inspired, infallible, inerrant, complete, authoratative, sufficient, and effective. We also learn that the Sword is our Source of truth, happiness, growth, power, guidance, comfort, and victory. So how do we take up and use the Word of God? Read it. Listen to it. Memorize it. Pray it. Sing it. Meditate upon it. Know it. Do it (obey it). We see from the example of Christ in the wilderness that we can defend ourselves against temptation by using God's Word precisely and we can even drive the devil back and go on the offensive against the spiritual hosts of wickedness by the effective use of God's Word. No wonder the devil always starts by trying to get us to doubt, deny, and disobey the Word of God. |