The Sword of the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

Now that we have all the armor in place and we are ready to take our stand against the devil's schemes, and we can stand our ground when the day of evil comes, and we can stand firm, God also hands us the best weapon in both this world and in the heavenly realms, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. There is not a single evil spirit that can overcome the word of God. We have the best example in Jesus when he spent those forty days in the wilderness when the best of the best when it comes to evil Spirits used his schemes in an effort to get Jesus to fall, but Jesus used the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, to defeat the devils attempts. However, just like all the armor, we must put it on. We have to take up the sword of the Spirit, having the word of God in our hearts and minds. We are reminded of the words of the prophet and king, David when he said in the first psalm that our delight is in the law of the Lord, and on it we meditate day and night, the result being our leaves with not wither, or our lives will not shrivel, that is we will stand tall, standing our ground, standing firm, and bearing much fruit and whatever we do we will advance, make progress, succeed, or prosper, which in this case is against the schemes of the evil one, and all the forces of this dark world that are against us. But we must have the word of God not just hidden in our hearts, but on our lips. The sword of the Roman soldier is useless if he kept it in its sheathe tucked in his belt. It is the same for us, we must have that sword on our lips, speaking it into the evil forces of this dark world, and against every temptation that we face from the evil one. Just as Jesus said, our mouths speak that which is in our hearts. So we take up that sword and in some sense become a sword swallower, eating, or consuming the word of God so it becomes the desire of our heart.