Ephesians6:17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
The sword of the Spirit, is the word of God, it is His word in our mouth. It is not His word in His mouth; it is His word in our mouth. We speak the word of the Lord.
For this is the will of God in this hour, that His victory He won will now be made manifest, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. We are executors of His victory. We go everywhere bringing down principalities and casting out devils because He won the victory.
He is the Lord of lords, and the King of kings; it is the hour for His victory to be manifested. It is the hour for the Lord to prevail over all the hosts of darkness and for the kingdoms of this world to become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
We are the Christ; Christ is a many member body. It will not be a sovereign thing independent of any instrumentality. We are the members of His Body, and He is going to move through us. We need to begin to start moving and appropriate His armor. It all depends on whether or not we are willing to partake and appropriate what God sets before us. God orders our circumstances so that He can make us what He wants us to be, a channel that He is going to use.
We are not beggars or dogs we are children of His table, reaching in to become full partakers of it. We need to renounce our own abilities. Renounce any hope in our own resources. Put no confidence in the flesh but dare to believe for His impartation, for what He is becoming within our life.
To enter into the army of the Lord is to be an expression of real discipleship, of a people who have become totally involved and are giving their entire lives. It has to be a willingness to give everything that we are, on and on and on until we are drawing on God’s strength and on His grace continually to be the ministry God wants us to be.
The remnant of the Lord is willing to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, to do anything that the Lord requires of them to do. The leverage that gives our faith its greatest force in appropriation is the fact that we have no reservations about what we give to Him. We do not pray, “Lord, give me something that I can use or that I need.” We pray, “O Lord, I believe to take of Your fullness and to be the perfect instrument in Your hand that You want in this generation.”
Satan has the power to hold in his mind the memory of every human being who has ever lived. In his mind is a vast amount of knowledge of every individual on the face of the earth. He can anticipate their thoughts and plans to a great extent. He can attack them—he can delegate demons, sometimes thousands of them, to possess people.
But positionally we have been translated out from under his dominion into the Kingdom. This means that Satan no longer has a legal hold on us; neither does he have a legal right to hit us. We have been placed in a position of actually belonging to the Lord; in the kingdom we are no longer open to the attacks of Satan. We consciously or unconsciously submit to his attack; we accept it. When every area of our life is submitted to the Lord and we have on His armor the devil runs in terror.
We do not understand the power of acceptance. We need to fully concede, to accept in the innermost part of us, down deeper than our subconscious the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is getting the word in our spirit where it cannot be separated from it, we become the word.
On this level we could enter into the power to reject everything that Satan brings, we could reject it totally, at that moment. But we have not come to that level yet, and that is why the battle is so intense.
But when we come to accept Christ’s victory perfectly and totally, then the Scripture will be fulfilled, where the wicked one toucheth us not.1 John 5:18. The wicked one cannot touch the person, because they are immune. The immunity, the protection that Christ has won has been appropriated.
1 john 5: 18We know (understand, perceive) that whosoever (all, the whole, the total) is born (the state brought about by the finished result of the action or the process, to be born) of (motion out of) God sinneth (occurring now, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong) not (full negation); but he that is begotten (definiteness of the action with permanent results-passive, to be born) of (motion out of) God keepeth (occurring now, to attend to carefully, to guard, keep in fit spiritual condition, keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, to fulfill a duty watchfully-vigilantly) himself (of himself), and that wicked one(evil spirit) toucheth (occurring now, to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to, to touch, exert a modifying influence) him not (full negation).
We are in the process of entering into that place of acceptance. We are not there perfectly, for the enemy still hits us.
With every piece of armor, we are reaching into attributes of God to replace the vulnerable attributes of human nature. We put on the armor of God and are literally encased with His divine nature; this becomes our protection. It is not something apart from God, for He is never separated from His attributes. God’s attributes can be communicated, for God is Spirit, not having limitations or restrictions. The essence of all He is never is diminished; it is never decreased by anything that He imparts of Himself to us.
The Word speaks of His righteousness as a garment—“robed with His righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). We can put on God’s attributes. We can put on love, we can put on faith, we can actually find ourselves encased with an armor of divine attributes.
Rom 6:17 and the sword (a sword for cutting) of the Spirit, which is the word (that which is spoken) of God:
It is the sword of the Spirit; it is not our sword. The Word of God never should be handled carelessly or lightly. There needs to be an anointing to bring it forth. When we hide the word in our heart, The Holy Spirit will bring it to mind. It is at that moment that the Holy Spirit reaches into the deep memory banks and brings forth that sword, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon our lips for that word to come forth, it drives the enemy to his knees in complete surrender, if it is in the Spirit.
But if it is not in the Spirit, it does no good at all. We have to bind the strong man that operates as a darkness over people’s minds (Mark 3:27). We must loose them to receive the word, and the sword becomes the sword of the Spirit, drawn at the Spirit’s initiative, but voiced through our humble lips, bringing forth fantastic results.
We need to have a deep sense of reverence and respect for the Word. We don’t approach it carelessly, as though we could interpret it by our own wisdom. We approach it looking for the revelation of the Lord to open it up to our hearts.
When we teach and preach the word under the anointing of the Spirit we find that the Scriptures take on a revelation beyond what our mind has ever seen before. It is a word that has to come by revelation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot take any credit for it. All we can be is tremendously grateful and deeply inspired just to be a channel, knowing that it was all Him and it was His Word coming forth.
No matter how sound the preacher or teacher seems to be, if the word is not really inspired of the Lord, it will only produce a low level of understanding in the Scriptures.
We need to spend our time only listening to that which is really inspired, filled with worship and with reverence for the Word. As we listen to that, then as we get into the Word, the same thing is produced in us. To hear a living word from God is to become a fountain of it ourselves.
When we talk to people, we need to look to the Lord to give us answers, to give us the words to speak. To speak a living word we have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, the religious person has a certain order he follows as he quotes scriptures. A religious person, who speaks from his soul, tends to turn people away.
When the Lord wanted to convince Isaiah that he needed some help, He let His glory fill the temple. Isaiah saw it and said, “Woe is me”. When people are exposed to the presence of God in us, they will come under conviction. We don’t need to use the old-order evangelism. The revelation of the Lord by the Holy Spirit causes people to feel their need. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, those who heard Peter- cried out “Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?” It is a cry that comes up out of the heart.
The sword of the Spirit has a way of penetrating a person. It is the sword of the Spirit, and it pierces the heart, it shows how great the Lord is, it reveals His love, it produces His fear, it convicts of sin, and it causes the one who hears it to look to the Lord.
In witnessing to people, we do not want to focus on the sin problem. Once God joins Himself to their spirit, there spirit will desire against the flesh. No one can come to the Lord unless the Spirit draws them.
We are to preach the kingdom, which is revealing the Father heart of God, and how great the king is. Once the Spirit is drawing them, the Spirit will convict them of sin. If the Spirit is not convicting them, then the enemy is blinding their mind, and we have to break the power of the Devil over them. When the Spirit convicts them of sin, then they need to become entirely willing to surrender every area of their life to the Lord Ship of Jesus Christ.
Unless we become willing to forsake all to follow Jesus, (The Spirit of God convicting us of sin, which is the fruit of living in independence of God) our spirit will not be reaching out to God where it connects with God.
Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. This is saying yes to the will of God, no matter what it costs- I want to know him. Once we become willing to give our heart to God, He will join Himself to our spirit.
When our spirit becomes alive to God, it will continually desire to serve God and only then are we in a position to surrender our soul to God, where He can save our soul. The salvation of our soul is a process where we learn how to appropriate the power of God. First God works in us to desire, which is the saving of our spirit, and then He works in us to do His, which is the saving of the soul (which is sanctification).
The evangelism of the Kingdom is proclaiming the King. It is the government of God, where His will is done, where heaven comes down to earth. Once a person has their eyes open to see the Kingdom through the new birth of their spirit, then they can enter the kingdom and abide in it, and begin to inherit their birthright.
We see the kingdom, we then enter the kingdom, we then abide in the kingdom, and we then inherit the kingdom.
When people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior they will have to learn to enter into a lifestyle of repentance. We enter into a sanctification process where God reveals Himself to us step by step. Each new step in God begins with repentance. Most repentance in the Scriptures is given to people who are believers. It requires a lot more repentance once we become a believer than to become one.
The word repent in the Greek is metanoeo-it consists of two word 1) meta- it is mostly translated as- with, it means close association. It speaks of motion after a person so as to follow and be with. It indicates a change of condition. It is also is translated as-after.
The second word is noeo -which means to perceive with thought coming into the consciousness. It is translated as- mind, think, understand, consider.
To repent means literally- to perceive afterwards (meta-after, implying change, noeo, to perceive. The word repent speaks of the change that takes place in the mind, when we open our heart to the influence of the Spirit of God. When the Spirit is drawing us, we open our heart to Him and He enlightens us.
The Spirit of God draws us, convicts us, and enlightens us. It is the opening of our spiritual eyes to see.
There are two words which express the idea of repentance. The first word is metanoeo which means repent; it deals with the negative aspect of turning from sin. The second word is epistrepho which means convert, which represents a turning to God.
Repentance is a change from a self-centered lifestyle to a God centered life style.
The living word of God spoken under the anointing is a sword. The Holy Spirit can move us when we are reading the word or a written message.
But when a person is full of the Spirit and speaks Spirit filled words, and our spiritual ears are opened, the word will pierce our darkness so that we are seeing through the illumination of God. Even though the context of the word we are hearing is seemingly unrelated to our thoughts and our personal needs, we feel as though something is cutting us up. It reaches down to the motivation, it penetrates to the deep things in our life and we look to the Lord for cleansing. We cannot even really understand the depth of our need, but the closer we come to the Lord the more we see.
The word of God divides between the spirit and the soul, between the human and the divine. As we disconnect from the soulish, being caught up into the spiritual we are experience the refreshing of the Presence of God, we enter His rest where we are ceasing from human effort and are in the flow of the Spirit. When our spirit is ascending into the heavenly places in Christ, the flesh is not pulling us, it is rendered inactive.
Heb 4:9 there remaineth (occurring now) therefore a rest (Sabbath, used only here in the new testament, a type of heaven, the completion of his word, the fullness of His presence, the secret place) to the people of God. For he that is entered (definiteness of action with permanent results, come into) into his rest, he also hath ceased (specific point past) from his (self) own works, as God did from his. Let us labor (to make every effort-with haste, intense carefulness, determined perseverance) therefore to enter into (motion into) that rest (ceasing from labor, the place of rest, a dwelling, fixed abode), lest (so that not) any man fall (to be made miserable, to perish) after (intimate union, abiding in) the same example of unbelief (disobedience, unwillingness to be persuaded, willful decision against, where the evil spirit is active). For the word of God is quick(living, active) and powerful(energy in the word, capable of doing, effective), and sharper (fine edge-to cut in one stroke, not like a hatchet)than any two edged(cutting on both sides) sword, piercing (to go through, penetrate)even to the dividing asunder(divide into parts) of soul (self)and spirit(movement of God), and of the joints (a place where two things are joined)and marrow(the essential part of something, the soft tissue filling up the cavities in most bones, where many cells of the blood are manufactured, the innermost-core), and a discerner(skilled in judging) of the thoughts(that which gets our attention or consideration, the process of thinking) and intents(two words 1-in,intimate union 2-mind, our purpose) of the heart.(the soul and spirit, our inner being).13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 14Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
This speaks about first entering into that rest and then ceasing from our own labors. The reason is because the word of God is living and powerful and then it talks about the High Priest of our confession. When we first read this it seems unrelated.
We need to learn how to enter into that Sabbath rest, the end of the fleshly -soulish struggle, the end of the religious effort to please God.
In order to enter into the rest we have to come boldly to the throne of mercy and grace. As we approach the Lord, He uses the sword on us or the surgeon’s knife. He circumcises our heart. In the old covenant the high priest would take his sword and cut the animals offered open. When Abraham entered into covenant with God, he divided the animals and then laid them out as a sacrifice to God, he would have to drive away the buzzards as he exposed the animals to God and then the fire of God passed among the pieces. When people offer the sacrifice to God, the fire of God would come down and consume it. It is the fire of God, His holiness that sanctifies the offering.
In order for God to sanctify us, His Spirit has to reach down to discern the thoughts and intents of our heart, to get down to that hidden motivation, that self on the throne. We cannot enter into God’s rest because we have too much going on in our heart. All these soulish desires wanting to be fulfilled, all these cares and concerns, we have to many things going on in our life, but one thing is necessary, that word, that sword, the revelation of the Lord that cuts.
The sword of the Spirit reaches down, it goes deep, dividing asunder even of soul and spirit. It separates between that soulish activity, the self-will and self-activity or that religious thing which is repulsive to God, that legalistic thing of feeling guilt or shame, or that religious thing of condemning others, that feeling of religious pride that thinks it’s better than others. And then it comes to the spiritual side which is the glory of God, His nature all those qualities of perfection that are so attractive.
Beholding His glory changes us because it is transmitted to us. But then we also see how we have fallen short- which is behind us when we are beholding the Lord. When the sword is piercing us we are seeing through- the light that God is shining in our heart. This light is drawing us as it lifts us out of self, so that we are seeing our self in retrospect.
The cutting of the sword is actually freeing us because we become God conscious and not self-conscious. Unless we can get out of self into the presence of God, we will be seeing through self’s-eyes.
When we are seeing through self’s eyes, what we are seeing is either negative or positive self-consciousness. The negative is self-hate, self-depression, self-shame, self-guilt, a heavy weight in which we feel we will never get free, self-condemnation. There are hundreds of negative self-manifestations. The positive is just as bad, self-pride, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and hundreds of manifestations of self on the throne; it is the glorying of self.
And then there is that which is so repulsive to God—that religious thing, that legalistic thing that God abhors. We enter into the sin of Satan himself. Satan is a religious spirit that wants to be worshiped, these spirits are strong because they take over ministries, it is a religious pride, that thinks it is right and everybody else is wrong. This is still all in the realm of the soul, that which is soulish.
The dividing asunder of soul and spirit, God shows us what is soulish and then God shows us what is spiritual, For God is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth .The Lord reveals to us this is soulish and this is spiritual.
“Of joints and marrow” The flow of life comes from where the blood is manufactured, in the marrow of the bone. The sword reveals the source of life, if we are living from our soul, or from our spirit.
there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. This is what the sword does; it reveals to us what God already knows. As the X ray vision of the Spirit searches deep down to the root basis of, the source of life we are living from, we begin to know the truth.
As the Lord reveals the areas of our soul-life that are not in submission to His Lordship we repent of our ignorance or self-will confessing the thoughts and intents of our heart, and our high priest applies His blood, cleansing us and imparting His life.
When we come before the Lord, often we are not really aware of the hidden motivations, the deep-rooted hypocrisy, and the self-rule. We do not want it to be that way, but we are not even aware of it. Then the Lord brings a word and begins to open it up.
Through this process we begin to live in transparency. As our life is revealed to ourselves, we have to be willing to be broken. Because the Lord loves us, we can’t have any secrets; we have to confess our short-comings to the Lord and to one another. We are laid bare before The Lord and to each other. Our needs are exposed to each other, and we begin to believe the Lord for one another.
It is the Lord’s sword and He mostly uses it on us. When He uses that word through us to another person, we are only the instrument through which He moves.
We need a new respect for the Word. We need to Love the Book more than we have ever loved it in our whole life, to cherish it. It is that anointed, living thing that God has given of His self. He has filled it with His very own being: His words are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). The lord communicates to us through His word and if we are open to Him, it goes beyond the penetration of just our understanding. It reaches down in a creative, purging, purifying thing of the heart. The word is the channel to change every wrong thing in our life, and the key by which it will be done.
Psalm 119: 9Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. It creates in us, and becomes a living substance within us.