For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
In this scripture we are told that the bible is not just instructions or words on a page to live by but it is alive and active in our lives. The Word of God can know and therefore address our motives and secret thoughts. When we ingest the word of God through study and hearing the word preached we are getting a powerful life changing agent in our souls. The word of God is a weapon for the believer to do battle with their own flesh and with the deceptions and strategies of the enemy.
In Eden the birth of the enemy’s attack on human kind was accomplished through the circumvention of the word of God. God gave man the Word and that word was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. We have studied in previous lessons the details of this deception and fall but for our purposes today we can note if mankind had obeyed this word the fall would not have taken place. Trusting the word and not leaning on our own understanding gives us the ability to circumvent every strategy of the enemy.
In Luke 4:13 Jesus himself the word incarnate uses the Word in scripture and gives us a perfect example of how to defeat the enemy’s strategies using the Word. We have explained this example in previous lessons but the point today is that Jesus skillfully uses the word as a swordsman uses a sword to defeat the enemy’s attack. Every attack of the enemy is defeated by Jesus quoting the Word to the enemy. Applying the Word to every circumstance gives us protection from every attack of the enemy.
This example in Luke 4:1 also shows us that a Christian who does not study scripture is like a swordsman that is never trained in how to use his sword. The enemy actually quotes the scripture to Jesus out of context to twist its meaning and deceive Jesus. If Jesus did not have a good understanding of what the scripture means and was not full of the spirit the enemy might have deceived him using the Word of God.
In Ephesians 6:17 we are also told that the Word of God is the sword of the spirit. The spirit of God wields the Word of God as a sword. If we do not have an effective prayer life and our spiritual life is weak then we will be inept at wielding the mighty weapon of the spirit which is the Word of God.
It is clear to us from scripture that the Word of God is in action in the life of every believer and that as believers we must actively train with this mighty weapon and strengthen our spiritual arms through prayer to allow the Word to be active in our lives and the lives of the people we come in contact with.
NEXT WEEK: THE PREACHED WORD OF GOD
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