The Sword of the Spirit: Part 3
In The Sword of the Spirit: Part 2, we learned one of the purposes of the Word of God is to equip you for the good works God has prepared in advance for you to do. How then do you wield the Word of God so you get equipped? This is an important question because you would hate for God to have prepared these good works for you yet you were never equipped enough to do them.
First it is important to understand the process by which the Word of God equips you. It is not always fun but it is always powerful. The writer of Hebrews describes the process in Hebrews 4:12:
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
There are three key ideas here.
1) The word of God is alive and active: Why is the word of God alive? Because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is like a living thing. Because the Word of God is alive it activates in your life when you connect with it regularly. Always? Yes always. But there is more than that. The Word of God is…
2) Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow: This is a reference to a Roman sword. Roman swords were sharp and very pointy. That means they were good for cutting and stabbing. So good in fact they even penetrated deeply to joints and marrow. The sword does not just inflict surface wounds. It penetrates deeply.
3) It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart: The sword, the Word of God, cuts so deeply it reaches your soul and spirit. Practically this means the words of God judge the thoughts and attitudes of your heart. Not an easy thing to do. Something that requires great power. The Words of God contain this power. As you connect with the words of God the attitudes of your heart are judged. As they are judged, you are taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness. As you are trained in righteousness you are equipped for every good work God has prepared in advance for you. Wow..that’s powerful. Does it always work? Yes always. Scripture is God-breathed and contains God’s power–it’s always effective.
So very practically how can you use the Sword of the Spirit in your life? Very simply, connect regularly with the words of God in the Bible. As you do, God changes your life.
Here are the four ways I have found most productive in my life to connect with God’s words:
- Read the Bible
- Study the Bible
- Listen to the Bible
- Memorize Bible verses
Now someone who has been following all the parts of this blog post will say, wait a minute, I thought the sword of the Spirit was an offensive weapon? Yep that’s true. So how does the Sword of the Spirit work as an offensive weapon?
Very simply…
- Because the Words of God are God-breathed they are filled with enormous power.
- Therefore when you connect regularly with God’s words they teach you, rebuke you, correct you, and train you in righteousness.
- As you are taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness, you are equipped to do all the good works God has prepared in advance for you to do.
- As you do the good works God has prepared for you to do, you advance the Kingdom of God, you expand its territory, and his Kingdom grows…
When you wield The Sword of the Spirit, you don’t sit passively behind defensive walls. You leave safety behind, charge forward, and claim more of this world for God’s Kingdom. You shine Light into the darkness. You fight for what is Good. You seek Justice, you live in Love. May you fight the good fight.
