Words of Warfare: A Tool For Every Christian

(From the archives…an article I needed to read again myself.)

It has taken me thirty-two years to really grasp the literal meaning of God’s Word being “powerful as a two-edged sword, piercing to the inmost parts of men”.

The Bible is full of wisdom about the power of the Word. In 2 Corinthians Paul says “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” And the picture of the armor of God in Ephesians shows us that the Bible is our “sword of the Spirit”, the only weapon mentioned in that analogy.

But I have not always understood how real that power is and therefore have not used it like I should in my daily life. Now that I am raising children, how wonderful to know that we have this kind of power at our disposal and that we can also equip our children to fight their spiritual battles and win!

So exactly how do we use this power of God’s Word that He has so graciously given? We speak it. Simple as that and nothing else. When we speak God’s Word verbally, we literally wield the only weapon that will cause Satan to turn from us.

Jesus lived this example for us when He walked the earth. When Satan came to tempt Him, he immediately retorted “As it is written…” And responded the same way after Satan’s second attempt to trap him. Satan hates the spoken Word of God! Regardless of the temptation to sin, Satan is always the culprit. God tempts no one. So at the first indication of temptation, we need only to quote Scripture until Satan retreats.

This has been a marvelous tool to teach my children. For a long time, I honestly did not know how to handle some of the disputes that would come up among my children during the day. The disputes may have been seemingly mild, but at the heart of bickering, or whining, or strife is always a more serious issue that needs to be addressed. It is usually not very hard to search out the source of the conflict; once it is found, I can simply give the child a Bible verse related to the vice, and instruct him to “flee” from Satan by fighting him with Scripture.

The Scripture empowers them to handle attitudes and feelings that they could not otherwise resist in their own flesh. Of course this brings a whole new meaning to the importance of memorizing Scripture. Of all the things we could teach our children, I believe Scripture memory is one of the most vital.

I am still learning this powerful exercise myself. We can also remember that the same spoken word is just as powerful when talking to others. His Word will NOT return void, but will accomplish the purpose He pleases. Stop fighting in the flesh and start wielding the Word!

Our Scripture Songs CD was written and recorded for this purpose, to make memorizing the Word of God easy and enjoyable for the family.