The Sword of the Spirit

It’s amazing to me how people visibly respond when you pull out a Bible. You can be in close quarters with someone and decide you’re going to read your Bible. So you pull it out, and people visibly react. They don’t even want the Bible near them. It’s almost as though they’re afraid it will attack them.

When Paul wrote about the armor of God, the only item he listed in the believer’s spiritual arsenal that is both offensive and defensive is the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God. A first-century solider could have had all the greatest armor—a breastplate, a helmet, a shield, and everything else. But if he didn’t have a sword, that would be the end of his story.

As believers, we need to have the sword of the Spirit in use, and we need to learn how to use it. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. Needless to say, He was hungry. Very hungry. So the devil came to him and said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3 NKJV).

Jesus never did a miracle for His own benefit. All His miracles were for others. So how did Jesus respond to that temptation? He said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (verse 4 NKJV). Jesus used the Word of God to fight back. It is written. . . That’s how you use the sword.

Jesus occupied ground that we, too, can occupy. He shows us what to do when we come under spiritual attack. We use the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit.