"POWER of God's TRUTH"

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" 
Ephesians 6:17-18 

     In 2022, I had the opportunity to enter a Christian art competition. The theme was taken from Ephesians 6:10-20 relating to spiritual warfare. We were to create a piece that illustrated that theme. Even though I felt like the competition was out of my comfort zone, I knew that the LORD wanted me to take that step of faith and trust the outcome to Him. Little did I realize the extent of needing to draw strength from Him, as I worked on this piece.
     I thought it would be easy to create, as I love to tell His story through art, and this gave me an opportunity to illustrate from Scripture itself! I found out quickly that it was not going to be easy and that the LORD had a lot to teach me as I worked on this piece.
     The whole world, at that time, was going through a lot of unknowns, especially with a worldwide health pandemic that happened a couple of years before that. Every time I went to work on this piece, I felt doubtful that I could even paint it. I started to listen to the enemy's lie instead of listening to the One who created me to do this painting. I soon learned that by me painting this, I was battling the enemy, and the LORD was having me use this to defeat the enemy. It was at this time I had a group of prayer warriors praying for me as I worked on the piece.
     This painting represents the SWORD of the Spirit and is used as an offensive weapon. The first five pieces of the armor are defensive, allowing the Christian to defend themselves from spiritual attack. Why would a child of God, need a weapon of this source?
     The sword that the Roman soldiers would use was short and in skilled hands, it was a weapon to be feared. It was sharpened on both sides, which made it lethal against any unarmored enemy. This sword was around two pounds and only measured 20-30 inches long. It was designed to be easily wielded with one hand while the other hand was able to hold onto the shield. The fact that it was small made it easy to be drawn in close quarters with enemies that were too close to the soldier. This was the main weapon in the soldier’s arsenal.
     Ephesians 6:17 says, “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”. We see here that Paul is defining the sword of the Spirit as the “word of God”. God’s Word is even sharper than the Roman’s sword. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart.”. In fact, it is capable of piercing into the deepest parts of a person’s attitude and heart. In the hands of a skilled user, it is a tool of discernment. You might ask, how can this weapon be used offensively and against what enemy can it be used?
     God’s Word is valuable in defending against spiritual attack. How can we defend ourselves against these attacks with the sword of the Spirit? As we saw in the previous devotion, “Guard Your Heart”, Jesus demonstrated how important it is to be grounded in God’s Word. We see this in Matthew 4:1-11, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto Him, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ Jesus said unto him, ‘It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’  Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto Him, ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.’ Then saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’ Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.”
     Satan knew that Jesus was the Son of God but wanted to pull Him away from His dependence on the Father and to get Him away from doing the Father’s will. Did you notice that each time Jesus quoted from the Word, He pointed to where the focus needs to be and that is on the Father. Also, when Satan quoted scripture, he did it out of context and only quoted what he wanted to say to tempt Jesus. Jesus saw through that because He knew the Word. We must be careful of anyone who will take scripture out of its context. We can only wield the sword of the Spirit, when we carefully study God’s Word. In this way, we will be able to discern if a person is taking His Word out of context. Studying the Bible gives us more understanding of what the LORD is saying.
     Satan desires for each of us to turn our hearts from God, so Paul uses armor to show how we as Christians are to fight while in spiritual warfare. When we have those thoughts and attitudes that are not aligned with God’s Word, we need to use the sword of the Spirit to help bring everything into captivity. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”. This is how we use the sword of the Spirit as we fight the Christian battle.
     Just as the Roman soldier could not go into battle until he was extensively trained in using his sword (gladius), we as children of God also need to be trained in the use of the sword of the Spirit. We must have our spiritual senses sharpened to be able to use this weapon successfully and that comes by being very familiar and knowledgeable in God’s Word.
     In Psalm 119:101-104, it says, “ I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” When we have the right attitude and approach to God’s Word, it enables us to be the skilled spiritual warriors, we need to be. In this passage we see that as a skilled swordsperson, we need to hate evil, to have a love for God’s Word and to continually desire to understand but also to obey His law, living His way of life. Remember, we cannot fight against Satan’s attacks unless we intimately know God’s Word. When we become more dedicated to studying and living God’s Word, we have a better handle in using the sword of the Spirit on the battlefield. It is through His Word that we are able to see the “Power of God’s Truth” when using the sword of the Spirit