The Word as a Weapon!! (Repost)

God’s Word as a Weapon!  We have to dig into His word so that we can know it and use it like Jesus did when He was tempted.  

In Hebrews 4:12 it says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Alive.  Active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword! 
This is God’s word!

 

His Word can be used as a weapon!  Jesus used God’s word to refute Satan’s temptations.  How well do I know God’s word?  I’m working on it!  

“When you memorize Scripture, it’s like carrying your own oxygen tanks.”  ~Ann Voskamp

 

This week our memory verse is John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

In this verse Jesus says the word REMAIN four times!  One verse…and He mentions the word REMAIN four times!  I’m thinking this is an important point He is trying to make.   

Remain--- Abide---Not to depart---Don’t Leave!  That is a Daily Choice!!!

Now read this same verse in The Message version:  “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.”

I see it like this:  God tends the vine.  I am that vine and God is like the farmer.  He cuts off every branch of me that isn’t producing fruit.  He prunes the branches that are producing fruit so they can produce even more fruit.  Apart from Jesus I can do nothing.  I’m a dead branch.  But if I remain in Jesus then JOY is found and He is glorified by my fruit bearing!

 
Be a fruit bearer!   

“God doesn’t call us to comfortable.  He calls us to authority and to bear fruit – and that’s not always comfortable.”  ~ Mandisa

   

Jesus is the Word of God living in me.  I need to know His word so that when temptations come…and they will…I’m prepared.  I’ll be able to put on the Armor of God and fight in God’s strength. 

Ephesians 6: 14-17 says: “ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Just this past weekend, my pastor was talking about how to resist the enemy and how to stand firm by using the Word of God. I love how timely this message was.  We need to know the truth because Satan is a liar.  (Always freaks me out to write his name.) We need to make right decisions by guarding our hearts with the breastplate of righteousness.  God’s word brings peace in the middle of our struggle.  We need to have faith in God no matter what.  

Our weapon is the Word of God.  We need to remember that God is on our side, He believes in us, He loves us, and our enemy has no mercy…none.    

Lysa TerKeurst states in chapter 4 of her book, “What Happens When Women Say Yes To God,” that Satan’s very name means “one who separates. He wants to separate you from God’s best by offering what seems “very good” from a worldly perspective.  He wants you to deny Christ’s power in you. He wants to distract you from God’s radical purpose for you.”  I don’t want that.  Jesus was able to stay focused by keeping His eyes on God and quoting God’s Word.

 

So, remain in Jesus so that we can produce more fruit! Know God’s Word by digging into it…because it is our most powerful weapon!  And finally wear the armor of God!  AMAZING!

 

“Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference.  Not a single time.”  ~ Beth Moore