This morning I cut up potatoes to go into a soup I was making. When I reached into the drawer, I chose a knife I knew was sharp and capable of cutting well. I do not keep dull knives because they are useless for their designed purpose and can be dangerous when forced to do a job they simply cannot do. Have you ever tried to force a dull knife to cut anyway? The extreme and often oddly directed force can result in the knife slipping, cutting the user, or even stabbing wildly.
If a dull knife is so useless, how much more sword?
No sane warrior would walk into battle with a dull sword. Neither would a king arm his troops with a blade unfit for battle.
The Bible says the Word of God is a sword (Ephesians 6:17). It is specifically listed as a piece of our armor. In fact, it is the only offensive weapon offered Christians. We are not completely dressed without it. So why, if the King demands we wear it, do we presume He would send us into battle with a faulty...dull...weapon of questionable use?
The Truth is, He wouldn't. He can't. It isn't His nature. And, yet, we walk in to church week after week with a Bible in our hand, and day after day, we walk into a spiritual battle with our hands hanging limp, getting the stuffing beat out of us, watching marriages fall apart, losing loved ones to all kinds of evil schemes, wondering why God isn't doing anything to help us. And God is wondering why we don't pick up our swords and stand our ground.
The sad fact is we don't understand our swords. We do not understand that the Sword we are given is sharper than we can fathom and has victory stamped on the blade. We do not understand our Sword is dripping with the blood of Jesus and power that no one can defeat. We don't understand that our Sword not only kills the enemy's efforts in our lives but has the power to raise up the dead--dead dreams, dead relationships, dead marriages, dead hopes, dead identity.
So why, if we have such a powerful instrument in our hands, are so many of us walking in hopeless defeat, simply trying to survive and endure on this side of the pearly gates? Could it be that we have not settled the primary issue of Truth?
Truth, by definition, is the fact of the state of things. There is only One with the power to define the fact of the state of things, and He cannot lie. "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?"--Numbers 23:19.
Notice, Truth has nothing to do with circumstance, emotion, or human thought. Truth is the fact of the matter. The Word of God is the fact of the state of things. If He says He will deliver you, He will. If He says, the blood of Jesus is enough to cover all your sins, it is. If He says, He can restore and redeem anything, He can. There are no exclusions in established Truth.
Warriors, in our hands we hold mighty weapons given to us by the All Powerful King. Our Sword is not dull or incapable of fulfilling its purpose. On the contrary, it has the power of the blood of Jesus dripping from it, running through it, and calling forth from it. It can tear down strongholds, call forth heart desires, and raise the dead. It is more than a novel concept or something to carry to church on Sunday. It is a weapon of immeasurable power that can bring a universe into being.
And it can change your life if you believe.
That is the Truth.
Copyright Jerri Phillips 2009
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