The Sword of the Spirit

Call to Prayer 

Title: The Sword of the Spirit

By: Daniel Peter

Date: 27.09.2023

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 NIV

The fight for our souls doesn’t stop at salvation, though we were given the assurance of victory the moment we gave out lives to Christ. In fact, our salvation is an enlistment into God’s army. With this known, every Christian should be battle ready, and there is a weapon we should all have.

When Apostle Paul was giving the dress code for the warfare that we are engaged in as kingdom citizens on earth, he mentioned things like the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation etc (Eph. 6:8-13). Most of what Apostle Paul mentioned were for defence;  the entire war suit was called “The whole armor of God”. An armor is for protection (defence). However, something else was mentioned that wasn’t just for defence but for offence, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17 NIV)”. With this weapon, we are not just resisting the enemy’s attack, we are in the offence and the enemy has no option than to flee.

The best expression of the potent nature of this weapon was when Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1-11). This encounter between Jesus and the devil was a snapshot of the battle scene of the warfare we are engaged in as Christians. We saw Jesus using the word as a weapon when He quoted scriptures in response to the enemy. The encounter ended with the devil leaving him (Matt. 4:11). When the Bible said “resist the enemy and he will flee from you (James 4:7)”, it was inferring that we should use the word of God against the enemy. There’s  no fleeing without the word.

Now, how do we ensure we have the word needed for each attempt of the enemy? As we saw when the devil tempted Jesus Christ, He had a word for each of the devil’s attempt. The way to equip ourselves for each season of testing is, firstly, to meditate upon the word. As we fill ourselves with the word, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance the right word to utter or consider in the time of testing. Secondly, when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is helping us to say the right word needed for our situation. This was why after Paul mentioned “the sword of the spirit”, he went on to encourage the Church to pray always in the spirit (Eph. 6:17-18).

In this warfare, we swing our sword by speaking. To ensure you have the right word in your mouth at all times, always meditate upon the word and speak in tongues always.

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His word today. Let’s ask Him to help us to spend quality time meditating on His word and He should help us to speak in tongues at all times.