SUNESIS MINISTRIES

 

Written by Stuart Pattico

 

© 2006 Stuart Pattico.  All rights reserved.  No part of this document may be produced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author.

 

 

In this article, we will explore the manifold ways in which we can utilise the Word of God in spiritual warfare.  Our primary text will be Ephesians 6:10–18, which is shown below:

 

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,^[c] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints

 

 

In this passage of Scripture, we are exhorted to put on the whole armour of God.  Three reasons are given:

 

The first reason given is so that we will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (v11).  The word ‘wiles’ refers to the strategies and tricks of the devil.  It should be noted that the devil has a strategic and crafty plan of attack against believers.  Paul expands on this is verse 12 by revealing that our warfare in not against human beings, per se, but rather against the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and wicked spirits behind the deeds of evil men.  The Greek word for ‘principalities’ is ‘arche’, from which we get our word ‘architect’.  Again the Holy Spirit is reminding us that the devil has a carefully planned strategy against us. This strategy is also comprehensive.  Four spiritual forces are distinguished: principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and wicked spirits.  The number ‘four’ corresponds to the four winds of heaven, emphasising that the devil will seek to attack us from every direction. The only way we can stand against this strategy is by putting on the whole armour of God.  The Greek for ‘stand against’ can also mean to stand having the advantage.  In other words, when we employ the whole armour of God, we have the advantage over the devil.

 

The second reason given is so that we will be able to withstand in the evil day (v13).  The word ‘evil’ here is not used in a moral or ethical sense, but rather denotes anguish, pain, or hurt.  The ‘evil day’ is a period of time in which hardship and turmoil are coming against us, a season in which all things seem contrary to us.   By employing the whole armour of God, we are able to ‘withstand’ the evil day.  The word ‘withstand’ in the Greek means to set one’s self against, resist, or to oppose.  In other words, through the whole armour of God, we are prepared for, and also able to resist seasons of calamity.

 

The third reason given is so that after the evil day, we are still standing (v13)!  The New Living Translation translates it in this way:

 

“…after the battle you will still be standing firm” (v13)

 

This is why the Bible says that through Christ, we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).  After we have finished conquering, we are not weary and tired, but we are still standing strong.  All this is achieved by putting on the whole armour of God.  As it is written,

 

“31 But those who wait on the LORD
      Shall renew their strength;
      They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
      They shall run and not be weary,
      They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

 

 

 

What is the Sword of the Spirit?

 

From verse 14 of our main text, the Holy Spirit begins to list for us the items of armour that we are to put on.  It should be noted, that the armour is called the armour of God.  This is because it is God’s very own armour.  I would like to concentrate on how God’s Word is to be used in spiritual warfare.  Therefore, the weapon I would like to focus on is the sword of the Spirit.

 

“17 And take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”

 

 The original Greek for this verse can be more literally translated as follows:

 

“…the sword of the Spirit, which [Spirit] is the word of God”.

 

In the original Greek, the word ‘which’ does not refer to ‘sword’ but to ‘Spirit’.  This is because the word ‘which’ is neuter, which corresponds to the neuter word ‘Spirit’ as opposed to the feminine word ‘sword’.  Even without knowledge of the Greek, this should be fairly evident.  For when Paul speaks of the breastplate of righteousness, it is clear that righteousness is the breastplate.  When Paul speaks of the shield of faith, it is clear that faith is the shield.  Even so, when Paul speaks of the sword of the Spirit, it is clear that the Spirit is the sword!  Therefore, one translation says:

 

“For your sword, take God’s Spirit, which is His Word” (Laubach).

 

Therefore, in our spiritual warfare, our sword is the Holy Spirit Himself, who in turn is the word of God.  In order for us to make sense of this, let us consider the words of the Psalmist:

 

“6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
         And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6)

 

 

 

Now, when I speak words, breath also proceeds from my mouth.  This verse declares that God made the heaven by speaking, and that the breath that came out of His mouth made the stars.  The word for ‘breath’ in the Hebrew is ‘ruach’ which is elsewhere translated as ‘Spirit’.  God’s breath is His Spirit.  So, when we speak, breath comes out of our mouths, but when God speaks, His Spirit proceeds from His mouth.  This is why Jesus said,

 

“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)

 

In this sense we cannot really separate God’s words from His Spirit, for they proceed together.

 

Now, the sword of the Spirit being used in our warfare was prophesied in the book of Isaiah:

 

21 “As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.” (Isaiah 59:21)

 

This verse informs us that both the word and the Spirit will be in our mouths.  This is a perfect description of what the sword of the Spirit really is.  It is this: when we speak forth the word of God in battle, not only do words proceed from our mouths; the power of the Holy Spirit proceeds from our mouths also.

 

 

Why Do We Need the Sword of the Spirit?

 

When the Israelites came out of Egypt they still had to possess the land God had promised them.  In order to do this, they not only had to be obedient to God, they also had to take out their swords!  As it is written on a certain occasion,

 

“24 Then Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land…” (Numbers 21:24)

 

Furthermore, God exhorted Israel that even when they have possessed their land, they would still have to use the sword.  As it is written,

 

“ 7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.” (Leviticus 26:7)

 

 

The sword of the Spirit is therefore necessary both obtain and to maintain our possession of the promises of God.  We need the sword of the Spirit to move forward in our walk with God and to fight off the enemy.  Too many times, we run to God expecting Him to do something about our situation, when God expects us to speak forth the word that He has put in our mouths.  The Bible declares:

 

       17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
      And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
      You shall condemn.
      This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
      And their righteousness is from Me,”
      Says the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

 

This verse does not say that God will condemn the tongues that rise against you in judgement; it says that you will condemn them.  We are to use the sword of the Spirit to condemn the lies of the devil.  As it is written:

 

“11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11)

 

We also will overcome when we speak forth the word of God.

 

 

How Do We Use the Sword of the Spirit?

 

A perfect illustration of how we are to use the sword of the Spirit is given in the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus.  In the fourth chapter of Matthew, we read of the temptations our Lord overcame in the wilderness:

 

 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”^[a]
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:


      ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’

   and,


      ‘ In their hands they shall bear you up,
      Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”^[b]

7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”^[c]
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,^[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”^[e]
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Every time that Jesus was tempted, He responded by saying ‘it is written’.  That is how we must use the sword of the Spirit.  When the devil comes against us, we must boldly open our mouths and declare what is written in the Bible.  There is no temptation that cannot be overcome by the sword of the Spirit.  The problem for some of us is that we cannot boldly say ‘it is written’ because we don’t know what is written!  This highlights the absolute importance of being well acquainted with the Bible.  We must read it diligently and hide it in our hearts so that we are ever- ready to use it against the devil.

 

In addition to speaking the word to overcome temptation, we must also use it to lay hold of what the Bible promises us.  Many of us are not experiencing all the things that the Bible says we should be experiencing.  We can lay hold of these things and experience them in our lives by audibly speaking the word of God.

 

“3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)”

 

This verse reveals that God framed the worlds by speaking forth His Word.  By doing this, He made that which was invisible become visible!  There are many truths in the Bible that need to become visible in our lives.  I believe that one of the reasons we are not experiencing the fullness of what God has promised us is because of our failure to open our mouth, and to speak forth His Word on a consistent basis.

 

• When struggling with sin, we can declare:

 

“6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)

 

• For health and healing, we can declare:

 

“ He Himself took our infirmities
      And bore our sicknesses.” (Matthew 8:17)

 

 

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
         And forget not all His benefits:
 3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
         Who heals all your diseases (Psalm 103:2-3)

 

 

• For prosperity, or sufficiency in all things we can declare:

 

 The LORD is my shepherd;
         I shall not want (Psalm 23:1)

 

 

• To overcome all fear in our lives, we can declare:

 

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

 

 

• When there is a curse hovering our lives, we can declare:

 

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”^[h]), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14)

 

 

• When it seems impossible, we can declare:

 

“I can do all things through Christ^[a] who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

 

 

• When the body is showing signs of ageing, we can declare:

 

“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16)

 

 

• If we feel defeated, we can declare:

 

“Now thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ…” (2 Corinthians 2:14)

 

 

 

You see, Jesus is called the High Priest of our confession.

 

“…consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1)

 

In other words, when we confess with our mouths what the word of God says, we release the ministry of Jesus to help us and to act on our behalf.   We must continue in our confession until we partake of its fruit.

 

“…let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:16)

 

We must not give up on our confession; we must persist until it is manifested in our lives.

 

 

The Sword of the Spirit - Prophecy

 

So far we have seen that we can use the sword of the Spirit by speaking forth the written word of God.  This however, is only part of the way in which we can use the sword of the Spirit.  Jesus said,

 

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)

 

Notice that it does not say that we should live by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.  It says that we should live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  In other words, God is still speaking to us today, and we must use the words He speaks to us in our warfare.  For example, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, saying:

 

“18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18)

 

Here, Paul exhorts Timothy to use the prophecies he had received to wage a good warfare.  Often, God may have spoken to us in the privacy of our prayer closet, or through the mouth of another believer, and promised us something.  The devil may often try his best to attack or prevent these promises from coming to pass, and so we must speak them forth as we do the written word to keep our faith up and to encourage us in the battle.

 

 

The Sword of the Spirit - Tongues

 

Yet another way of wielding the sword of the Spirit is through praying in other tongues.  You see, when we speak in other tongues, it is as the Spirit gives utterance.

 

“4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)

 

Seeing as it is the Spirit that gives the utterance, it is in fact the Spirit’s own words that we are speaking when we speak in tongues.  These words are a sword to the devil enabling us to strengthen ourselves in God.

“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” (1 Corinthians 14:4)

 

Like Paul, it is good for us to spend much time in private speaking in tongues.

 

“18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all” (1 Corinthians 14:18)

 

When we pray in the tongues of angels, we also solicit the aid of the angelic hosts in the battle.  Paul said,

 

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…”  (1 Corinthians 13:1)

 

The Holy Spirit, through us, is able to give commands to the angels when we pray in tongues:

 

“Bless the LORD, you His angels,
Who excel in strength, who do His word,
Heeding the voice of His word.” (Psalm 103:20)

 

 

When we use the sword of the Spirit, we become a voice of His Word, and thereby release angelic ministry.

 

 

Using the Sword of the Spirit with the Weapon of Praise

 

The sword of the Spirit is used wonderfully in conjunction with the weapon of praise.  When we declare what God’s Word says, we would do well to also praise God for what we have declared.  This is illustrated in the following Psalm:

 

“6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,

         And a two-edged sword in their hand,

 7 To execute vengeance on the nations,

         And punishments on the peoples;

 8 To bind their kings with chains,

         And their nobles with fetters of iron;

 9 To execute on them the written judgment—

         This honor have all His saints.

        

         Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 149:6-9)

 

The result of praise in addition to declaration is total victory over the principalities, powers, rulers and spirits we read of earlier.  When we declare what the Word says about our salvation, health, prosperity etc. we should also thank God for it!

 

So, we have seen three ways in which we can use the sword of the Spirit.  We can use it by speaking the written word, speaking the prophetic word, and through speaking in tongues.  Let us begin to implement these things in our lives and see what the Lord will do for us!  Let us also remember to give God praise!