The Weapons of Our Warfare, Part 3

As mentioned in the previous post, many people think the word of God is our only offensive weapon. Also as mentioned, it is not. It is, however, the most effective. To understand why we have to understand what the word of God really is; facts that are not often understood or taught.


The primary Greek word for "word" is logos. Logos means everything that can be known about a given subject. It is used to refer to both Jesus and the Bible. Jesus and the Bible are each full and complete revelations of everything God has revealed about Himself to mankind. We cannot know anything about God aside from His word. Jesus is His living example of the life we are to live on earth. If we were able to do everything Jesus did, we would fulfill God's will for us. Similarly, if we were able to do all that is written in the Bible, we would be perfect before God. He did not leave anything out that we need to know.


Hebrews 4:12 tells us, "The word of God is living and powerful...piercing even to the division of soul and spirit..." The Bible works on us every time we read it. It shows us the difference between what is spirit and what is soul in us. Additionally, we can put it to work by speaking it out loud. In doing so we are imitating the acts of God in creation and the works of Jesus in restoring life and health to mankind as He did throughout His ministry.


When we talk about speaking the word of God out loud, the less frequently used Greek word, rhema, comes into play. Rhema is defined as "the spoken word". It is a part of the logos. It is the word Paul used in telling us to take up the "sword" of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:17) The word spoken from our mouths becomes an offensive weapon. The spoken word carries power to change things in the spiritual realm. It cuts through spiritual darkness and deception bringing light and understanding. Romans 10:17 tells us the spoken word is the thing that produces faith in us.


As we will find in continuing our discussion on the weapons of our warfare, we use all three parts of our being simultaneously when we wield the weapons. God speaks into our spirit what He wants us to do. We process His instructions in our soul according to what we think of them and how we feel about them. We then use our will to decide what to do. If our decision is to fight, we engage our bodies to fight. Of course we can also engage our bodies to flight, but that is not what we are about here.

The word of God has intrinsic power. When simply spoken it changes things. The word of God changed the dark and formless void that was earth into a world teeming with all kinds of plant and animal life as He spoke it. (Genesis 1) Psalm 107:20 says God sent His word and healed them. Although the word in this verse for word is in the Hebrew language, it is equivalent to rhema in Greek. He spoke the word and people were healed. What he said is not even important. The word of God has intrinsic power. (I read that somewhere recently.) The same Hebrew word is used in Isaiah 55:11 where God assures us His word will never return without accomplishing what He sends it forth to do.


Let us jump into something that can be extremely controversial within The Church today. There are segments of The Church that believe we can have anything we desire if we can find it in the Bible. This group teaches that any portion of scripture can be used as seed which, when properly planted and cared for will produce a crop yielding fruit after it's own kind. Pastor Bill Winston from the Chicago, IL area tells a story about a pastor who was visiting his church from Africa. As Pastor Winston relates the story, the pastor stopped practically in mid-sentence and said, "Pastor Winston. Your airplane is in Ecclesiastes chapter ten." He then resumed preaching his sermon. Pastor Winston looked through that chapter and found the phrase, "a bird of the air may carry your voice" in verse 20. In context, this phrase has nothing to do with an airplane, but the word of God has intrinsic power. When Pastor Winston used that phrase as seed and planted it into the spiritual realm with his voice, his airplane was on the way. Believe it or do not. Believing is harder, but so very much worth the effort.

Perhaps, aside from this spiritual battle we are discussing, you have problems that need to be dealt with spiritually. May we encourage you to put the word of God on your lips continually and see what God will do in response. At the very least it is good training for using the word of God in spiritual warfare. That can never be a bad thing.