Live by the Sword
The sword is the word of God. I’ve had a couple of dreams and received a word or two about it in the last couple of months. God usually speaks to me through dreams, and I had a dream recently where God handed me a sword of fire. Not long before that someone gave me a word that was, “You’ve been given a double edged sword, so use it.” I had to research a bit about the importance of a double edged sword. A sword that is doubled edged can cut just as strong both ways. It’s also used as an idiom that means it has double consequences. How can the word of God have two sides to it? Here’s the scripture I came up with that explains it a bit: In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” To me, this is where the double-edged comes to play. God’s word is used both for what we view as positive - teaching and training, but also what we perceive as negative - rebuking and correcting. All of this is so we can be equipped for every good work. The Bible is both empowering and convicting. It might make you uncomfortable as you read it because it will unearth things in you that God wants to deliver you from. He wants to refine you the same way an ironsmith refines and sharpens a sword. Let the Word of God be your refining fire.
I think we need to be careful though as to recognize why we have been given a sword. A sword is a weapon. A sword makes things personal. However, our sword is to be used in the stance of defense and not the attack of another person. I’ve never been more turned off by a speaker, a pastor or a priest than when they use the word of God to pass an agenda or to cut someone down. The word is to be “a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.” I’ve spent the majority of my life in the church. My mom was non-denominational, my dad Roman Catholic. My entire schooling was in a Catholic school. However, I learned all the scripture I knew at my mom’s church at kids church. We were rewarded for memorizing scripture and everything we learned was built off of it. I remember feeling pride when we would read a line or two from the bible in regular school and I wouldn’t have to look at the page. This pride built up my ego though, and I started to use this as a way to come against and challenge my Catholic teachers, particularly the nuns and priests, and my dad. I remember one time in highschool, the priest asked us if we had any questions about anything in the Catholic faith. When he said that, he might as well put a target right on his chest for me. “Tell me,” I said, “where I can find anything about praying to Mary or anything about purgatory in the Bible. Because if it isn’t in the Bible, then it isn’t true. It’s doctrine.” The smirk on my face must’ve sent him over the edge. He left the class and never came back for open questions.
Throughout my life, I’ve been in a constant battle with my dad over doctrine versus scripture. It wasn’t until last year that I finally let it go. My dad had begged me to pray to Mary because I was hurting Jesus by not talking to His mom. I had my Bible app open, ready to strike, and then I felt like I heard God say, “Do not use my word AT people.” There’s a difference between sharing scripture to talk about truth and difference in beliefs, and using scripture to cause someone to bleed. But, ever since I realized the difference between religion and relationship, this “realization” became a hill I wanted to die on - to show people the difference. Until you can do that out of love, don’t use God’s Word to further your mission. It’s like taking the purity of his word and slapping it with icky goo.
You need to know the Word because temptation will come. False prophets will come. Your emotions and needing to believe in something will come. The Word of God is a sword that will cut down false doctrine, will slice away at temptation and will put your emotions in check. I want you to read the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. It’s in Matthew 4:1-11.
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
What was Jesus’ first response to the accuser? It. Is. Written. It wasn’t “not today Satan,” although that looks great on a t-shirt. But keep in mind, Satan also tried to twist the scriptures to tempt Jesus further. Jesus had a solid rebuttal. It’s so important that we don’t just pull from scriptures that suit our needs. We should read before our favorite verse and after so we understand context. We can not make the Word of God secular to meet seeker needs. The Word of God is living. It is steadfast. It gives you something to stand on! To grow in truth and revelation, we have to read it because these words are directly from the mouth of the King we worship.
I recently listened to a message from Michael Koulianous about the importance of being in the word. He points out that we as a church are in a Bible reading crisis - that people are not picking up their Bibles. He says that a church service or a conference cannot replace the word of God. I think we, in our own church, are starting to adopt language like, “Oh, I’m a worshipper, or I’m about presence, or I’m the prophetic.” All of these things are great and important but the overflow that they are fueled from should be from learning about the Lord through His written word.
What keeps you from spending time in the Bible? I know we wear so many hats that it’s easy to get sucked into what we “SHOULD” be doing. But, we won't do anything to its full potential if we aren’t fed by truth first.