Sword of the Spirit

So we have been talking about our faith in God’s Word and how that faith will shape our prayer life.  And as we are pushed and pulled in our daily lives, the enemy will start to push us into anger and frustration.  So we have to ask ourselves what do we do when we don’t feel like worshiping and praying?  What is told to us to fight against the enemy who wants to put distance between us and God?

So in the next few weeks, we will be looking at how we can include scripture into our prayer life.  The enemy was so bold that he went after Jesus with temptation.  And Jesus’ response in each challenge was straight from scripture.

We have see Paul describe the armor of God, we see a list of defensive items, but we come to the one offensive weapon.  The sword of the Spirit represents the power that God, His Word the Bible, and His Truth.  But he follows up this with the command to pray in the Spirit.  We are to use prayer to use this weapon against darkness.  This darkness can come in many forms.  Anger, sadness, guilt, and other emotions and state of minds that disconnect us.

Here Paul is highlighting the reality that the enemy does not wage war like the world.  That it is a spiritual battle for our souls.  So the weapons available to us are spiritual as well.  These weapons are to bring down the enemy strongholds.  What are these strongholds?

The first is an argument against God.  This is false information about God with the goal to make people believe wrong things about God.  The Bible serves at the authority to test all arguments.  Does the reality of Jesus match what God has said previously?  So anything that people are saying match up with what Jesus would have said, believed, or validate?  The enemy will use your emotions, and anything he can, to tell you lies against God to get you to question the truth.

So as we move forward, we have to think about these two questions:

Where do we struggle?

What scriptures speak to where we struggle?

As we follow through with identifying our struggles and then applying God’s Word to those struggles.  We will ultimately begin to write prayers to reflect that reality and God’s promises.  Sometimes writing down those prayer will help.  The enemy will flee, and God will draw us close to Him.