On The Offensive
By Misty J. Grimes
Day One: The Sword of the Spirit
Focal Scripture: “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Introduction:
The gladius, the common Roman sword, was often used in hand-to-hand combat and used to cut and thrust. Measuring a little more than two feet long, and was crafted from iron with a handle usually made of iron, ivory, bone or wood. The gladius has become known as “the sword the conquered the world.” Adapted from a Spanish design, the prowess of the gladius in close range combat made it a fearsome tool in the hand of a skilled Roman warrior. When sharpened, its dual edge wreaked havoc on unarmored foes, while its tapered point could pierce through even heavy metal armor. The sword is the only item listed by Paul that serves in an offensive capacity. Even if we have all the rest of the armor equipped fully about us, without our sword, we amount to little more than heavily armored moving targets.
Lesson:
While all the pieces of the armor come from God, the sword is God himself, the Holy Spirit. It is Logos, the same word used to describe God in John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. So when we equip ourselves with the sword we are arming ourselves with the best weapon we can have – God himself!
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us more about what the Word of God is and what it does: “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work”. While God’s Word is profitable for so much we will focus here on the four Paul mentions here.
- Teaching: God’s Word tells us the right way to go to get to our destination of abiding in and with God. “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). God’s Word illuminates the dark areas of our lives revealing to us the good and the bad, the wise and the unwise. It is the ultimate tool in learning how to live the best possible life free from the restraints of stumbling in darkness.
- For Rebuking: When we make a wrong turn, God’s Word alerts us and warns us. “You, therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17-18).
- For Correcting: When we make a wrong turn, God’s word not only makes us aware of this but also tells us the right way to get back on the correct road. “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Word of God has the ability to penetrate even the hardest of human hearts, to open their eyes to the truth of God, and to give them the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation. When we listen to God’s Word and follow it, it will pierce every area of our soul, convicting us and then guiding us so that we are able to continue on our journey with courage because we know we have the best weapon we can have to stand against whatever Satan throws at us. Whenever you face a battle that causes you to doubt this remember the all-powerful sword of the living God is able to cut through every defense our enemy can raise and nothing can withstand its ability to cut straight to the core of a matter and uncover the truth. Our responsibility and is to use His Word to discern the truth and then follow it!
- For Training in Righteousness: As we continue to study God’s Word, as we get to know it and Him better, He will continue telling us the correct way to go, and He will continue to teach us. It is important to remember the words of Matthew 4:4: “But he answered, ‘it is written, one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’”. God’s Word gives us life and is as important a part of daily living as breathing is because while by breathing we survive physically, by breathing in the Word of God daily, we are able to survive and grow spiritually.
The sword shows us that Satan doesn’t just shoot at us from a distance, he also moves in close to kill. The Word helps us when Satan launches attacks on us. He may ask us difficult questions or cause us to have doubts but if we regularly engage with the Word, we can remind ourselves of whom God really is. To survive and conquer, we must take and be able to use the sword. We cannot adequately fight the good fight if we don’t have a sword to fight with. Below are six promises we need to remember about what God’s Word will do for us when we wield it! Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still!”
- Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known”.
- Zephaniah 3:17 – “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing”.
- Romans 8:31 – “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 – “Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ”.
- Colossians 3:16 – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God”.
Conclusion:
When we read God’s Word it can show us our true nature and whether we are going the right way with God or the wrong way – away from God because God’s Word is truth, plain and simple. We can have perfect confidence in the fact that His words are accurate, true and unerring. When followed, they guide us without fail in the paths that we need to walk. We can be destroyed by lack of the knowledge of God (“My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, – Hosea 4:6), but we will be blessed if we hear and keep the Word of God (“But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” – Luke 11:28). While it is the sword and only the sword that allows us to attack – to directly do the work that needs to be done, it is God who gives the victory! His sword is what will deliver us! There is no enemy the Word of God, coupled with His Spirit, cannot defeat so do not worry, God is in you! He has overcome the world! Believe it! Speak it! Receive it! “Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it” (Isaiah 46:11).
Application:
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan (see Matthew 4:1-11), he responded with a specific, appropriate scripture which he knew verbatim from memory. Jesus didn’t pull out his phone and ask Google for a verse to fit the situation he knew the Word and used it to ward off Satan’s temptations. We need to be able to do the same. We do this by saturating our minds with his word. Make a list of scriptures you know by heart already and ask yourself this question: how long is your sword; how ready are you to defend against the attacks of Satan with the truth of God’s Word? No matter how long our sword is we always need to be adding to it so I challenge you to set a goal to memorize more scriptures that will help you to be stronger as you face the battles of life. Make the goal obtainable, start with one a month and then go to one every two weeks and then one a week, whatever works best for you to be able to equip yourself appropriately.
Day Two: Holding It All Together
Focal Scripture: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
Introduction:
“To be a Christian is to be a warrior. The good soldier of Jesus Christ must not expect to find ease in this world: it is a battlefield. Neither must he reckon upon the friendship of the world; for that would be enmity against God. His occupation is war. As he puts on piece by piece of the panoply provided for him he may wisely say to himself, ‘This warns me of danger; this prepares me for warfare; this prophesies opposition” (C.H. Spurgeon: The Sword of the Spirit; April 19, 1891).
Although Ephesians 6:18 is not listed as one of the pieces of the Armor of God, praying in the Spirit puts every piece of the armor together! Praying has power for us, for others, and against the enemy. Oswald Chambers said it best when he said, “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”
Lesson:
To put it simply prayer is talking with God. It is coming before Him humbly, seeking Him in all areas of our lives. It is asking forgiveness. It is interceding for others in need of Him and all He gives (i.e., healing, peace, comfort, guidance, etc). It is praising Him and thanking Him for all He has done for us and those we have prayed for (i.e., answered prayer). Prayer is not meant to be a complicated, fear-inducing, formal format, rather it is humbly coming before God and talking to Him as openly and honestly as we would a dear friend. I Thessalonians 5:16-19 sums it up well, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit”.
To pray in the Spirit is to do as these verses say but mainly to “pray without ceasing”. The command to pray always is not to say that we must be in a continuous, unceasing dialogue with God every second of every day. Rather, we must develop a connection to God – one that is maintained through regular prayer, Bible study and a godly lifestyle that allows us to instantly come before our God in prayer in times of distress and need. He is not to be our last resort, he is to be our first, last and only resort! Let’s look at five other verses that will break it down even further.
- Romans 8:26-27: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”. Even when we don’t know how to pray, or what to pray, we still pray. We all have had times in our lives when we are in the midst of something so difficult, so painful, so scary or unknown that we know we need to pray but there just aren’t any words. It is at this time that we need to pray the most yet it is at these times that we often say, “I can’t. I don’t know how. I don’t know what to say.” The good news is, that’s okay. We don’t have to always know what to say because we have a God that lives within us (John 17:23) and knows our hearts and no matter how jumbled or confusing our thoughts may be or we just don’t have any words, God will always know what we are trying to say because through His Spirit working in us, He has intimate knowledge of our hearts and minds. He understands us and will always work things out for the best in the long run (Romans 8:28).
- Jude 20-21: “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life”. When we come to Him in prayer, we come not only in faith but also to build our faith and increase our love for God. When we come to Him in prayer, we come expecting the mercy of God to pour over us in all areas we bring before Him, the mercy that not only answers our prayers, but also gives us the mercy of His forgiveness that leads to eternal life. Our lives are filled with reminders that we can’t make it on our own. It would be inconceivable to refrain from asking God for the help we so desperately require. Our God stands ready to provide us with the strength, wisdom and courage we need to stand against our enemy, but He wants us first to come before Him and ask for it.
- John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. When we come to Him in prayer, sincerely seeking Him and His will, we are abiding in him and thus we ask with right motives and God sees the intent of our heart and thus answers our prayers. We must remember though that while He does ALWAYS answer our prayers it may not always be in the way we want him to or expect Him to and that is what it means to abide with Him, to be willing to lay our requests at his feet and accept whatever answer it is that He gives us: yes, no, not now, this is a better solution, etc. We are able to do this confidently when we recall to mind that when we accepted Christ we became a new creation and when we pray we continue to allow Christ to not only transform our minds but to renew our minds as he reminds us of his power and his faithfulness because the mind of Christ takes over when we focus fully on him. In prayer we are joined with Christ and become one with Him. We can then know Him, understand His righteous will, abide in His will and pray effective prayers.
- I Corinthians 14:15: “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also”. When we come before God in prayer we need to not only come with requests but with praise for what He has already done and what we know He will do – the expectancy of answered prayer because we know He always answers our prayers (John 15:7 above). When we spend time in prayer giving praise to God it renews our spirit because we are reminded of just how powerful and faithful the God we serve is and always will be.
- Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. It is easy to turn to God in prayer when we need something or are struggling. Yet here we are told we are to come to God with EVERYTHING!!! That is what it means to pray without ceasing, regardless of our circumstances or our station in life at the moment, we are to continually come before God so that we can have the peace we may need at the time but also so that we can have it in the future because we know that no matter what our circumstances, no matter what Satan throws at us, all we have to do is call out to God and we are at peace.
Conclusion:
The one word answer to every circumstance, to every question, to every wilderness experience is this: prayer! It can’t get any easier than that. We should be praying on a regular basis for, among other things, God’s will to be done, our needs to be taken care of, the forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from Satan. No matter how complete the armor, no matter how skilled we may be in the art of war, no matter how courageous we may be, we can be certain that without prayer we will be defeated. God alone gives the victory and when we go forth armed completely, if we look to God in prayer, we are sure of the triumph. If we equip ourselves with God’s armor, we must also be determined to keep a steady line of connection with Him. He is the commander and He alone knows how to lead us to victory.
“You are to put on the heavenly armor in order that you may stand; and you will need it to maintain the position in which your Captain has placed you….We are not merely to defend, but also to assail. It is not enough that you are not conquered; you have to conquer…Ours, therefore, is a stern conflict, standing and withstanding; and we shall want all the armor from the divine magazine, all the strength from the mighty God of Jacob” (C.H. Spurgeon: The Sword of the Spirit; April 19, 1891).
Application:
If you don’t already, set aside time each day to talk to God, and don’t take it lightly. Don’t put it off or delay it; make the time to talk to God. If we fail to establish a steady, well-founded relationship with God, we will not be in the proper mind-set to be praying always – nor will we be in the proper mind-set to win our spiritual war.
The Warriors Prayer: Heavenly Father, I am Your warrior – prepare me for battle. Today I claim victory over Satan by putting on the whole armor of God! I put on the Belt of Truth! May I stand firm in the Truth of Your Word so I will not be a victim of Satan’s lies. I put on the breastplate of righteousness! May it guard my heart from evil so that I will remain pure and holy, protected under the blood of Jesus Christ. I put on the shoes of peace! May I stand firm in the Good News of the Gospel so your peace will shine through me and be a light to all I encounter. I take the shield of faith! May I be ready for Satan’s fiery darts of doubt, denial and deceit so I will not be vulnerable to spiritual defeat. I put on the helmet of salvation. May I keep my mind focused on You so Satan will not have a stronghold on my thoughts. I take the Sword of the Spirit! May the two-edged sword of Your Word be ready in my hands so I can expose the tempting words of Satan. By faith, Your warrior has put on the whole armor of God. I am prepared to live this day in spiritual victory, In Jesus name. Amen!