THE WORD OF GOD AS A WEAPON

THE WORD OF GOD AS A WEAPON

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

"The Spirit-filled man has enemies; he is engaged in warfare. The powers
of hell are all against him. He is always open to attack and momentarily
liable to defeat. He needs both defensive and offensive weapons. He must
be able to stand and withstand in every assault of Satan .

There is but one way this can be done and it is the way the God-man
used. His only weapon in the wilderness was the Sword of the Spirit. 'It
is written,' repeated three times in the threefold attack, repulsed the
enemy.

Let us not that the God-man had His sword burnished and ready. He did
not wait to draw out the scroll of Scripture and read from it to get an
answer for the devil. In the years of seclusion in the Nazareth home he
had stored away the Word of God in His heart, and in the hours of quiet
work in the carpenter's shop He had mediated upon them. It may be that
the Son of Man had gone into the wilderness fresh from the study of
Deuteronomy. His mind was so saturated with its truth that when Satan
attacked, the Spirit instantly brought to remembrance the very words
that utterly routed him. The Son of Man was kept in the moment of
temptation by the Word hid in His heart.

Deuteronomy 11:18 - Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your
heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that
they may be as frontlets between your eyes."

Psalm 119:11 - "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin
against thee."

Colossians 3:16 - "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual psalms, singing with grace in your heart."

Often the reason we yield so quickly to temptation is that our sword is
rusty. This gives Satan the advantage over us. Temptation comes to us on
the street, in the office, when we may not have a Bible with us. It
comes unexpectedly. There is no time to stop and search for an effectual
portion of Scripture. It is only the part of the Word that is hid in
the heart that will become the SWORD IN ACTION at the moment most
needed.

Many Christians are defeated today in the warfare against sin and Satan
because of doubt regarding their weapon, the Word of God. To them the
Word is not the Sword of the Spirit but it is merely a staff of man's
making to assist him on the pathway of life which he feels at liberty to
whittle down to the measure of his own intellect and experience. Belief
in the absolute trustworthiness and final authority of the Word is an
essential to the potent use of it as the Sword." From LIFE ON THE
HIGHEST PLANE

You can start memorizing one verse a day. Your THINK VICTORY! Memory
verse is on the Keswick website homepage. You can memorize God's Word
along with the men of the Colony of Mercy. During their 120-day stay,
they will memorize 120 verses of Scripture. www.americaskeswick.org.

Men's Fellowship Night - tomorrow night with Pastor Tony Cuellar. Call
for reservations. Come and bring a friend. 732-350-1187