The last couple of days we took a nettlesome journey down one of my
notorious rabbit trails. We discussed how we are to be led by the Spirit of
God and how we are listen to the Rhema of God; all of which
represents one side of that Double-Edged sword.
I will also be honest and tell you that I won't be able to give you
every aspect of this comparison. But if you simply allow the Holy
Spirit to have His way in your life, it will open up volumes of revelation. Paul
told us that the Word of God has the power to change our hearts, and as
the Holy Spirit continues His work; we will see how it changes the
environment around us. We will no longer find delight in the things of
the world; our friendships may be replaced with others who are also seeking a
deeper walk; things we once viewed in a relativistic way, will become absolute.
There will no longer be any "gray areas."
So yes, I believe we could see one side of that double-edged sword as
having the power over the hearts of men. However, the other side of
that sword has the power over the spiritual realms. You may have never
thought of it that way, but the Word of God will allow the Church to re-capture
some of the territory Satan has taken away. Paul told the church in Ephesus:
”Through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known
to the angelic rulers and powers in the heavenly sphere” (Ephesians 3:10).
That's right, through the Church, God's wisdom will be made known
and proclaimed. I bring that up because far too many believers possess the
misguided notion that they can hold all the Treasures and Wisdom that
was given to The Church. They take the gifts that He gave to the
church, and declare that they are the gift! Hey, Evangelist Do-Dad, why
don't you just say that you are Do-Dad, who was given (even if it is
temporary) the gift of Evangelism? You are not your gift! The
same goes for those of you who have the gift of prophesy, or starting churches.
You may very well be gifted in the area of doing the work of an Apostle, but
that doesn't mean that you are that gift.
Friends, the heavens are waiting for The Church to stand up and grasp this
Wisdom. Even the angels are waiting for the Church to mature and grow into those
gifts. This was declared from the beginning of time.
Does that confuse you? Look at Psalm 149:5-9:
"Let godly people
triumph in glory.
Let them sing for
joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of El be in their
throats
and two-edged swords in their
hands
to take vengeance on the
nations,
to punish the
people of the world,
to put their kings in
chains
and their
leaders in iron shackles,
to carry out the judgment that is written
against them.
This is an
honor that belongs to all his godly ones.Hallelujah!
All of the disciples of the Christ are called to do such work. It is our
calling to fight for Him! Our voices are to be the voices declaring the heart of
God to the World! Psalm 103:19-22 goes on to shout:
Yahweh has set his throne in heaven;
he rules over us all. He is the
King!
So bless Yahweh, you angels,
ready and able to fly at his
bidding,
quick to
hear and do what he says.
Bless Yahweh, all you
armies of angels,
alert to
respond to whatever he wills.
Bless Yahweh,
all creatures, wherever you are—
everything and everyone made by Yahweh.And you, O my soul, bless
Yahweh
I said it before, and I will say it again, it is not just the
written word that we are to take as a "double-edged sword." We
also need to take the RHEMA WORD, the Word as revealed by the Spirit of
God. That is what is "Living and Active, Sharper than any double-edged
sword"! We continually take the Scriptures out of context, then go with the
sword of God in our hands and simply proclaim them, believing that they
have the power to move mountains. But my friends, have you noticed that the
"mountains" in your life look at you and say, ”I know Yeshua, and I
know Paul, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15b).
Why don't they recognize you? It is because we only speak the Word as
we choose. We don't wait for the prompting of the Spirit of God. We
have not allowed His Word to change us; we do not wait for the Spirit to guide
us in using that Word. We haven't waited because it takes time; dedication;
sacrifice. It requires a willingness to die to ourselves. This is where many
have fallen short of using the sword correctly.
It takes a dedication of your time to wait on the Spirit of our God,
allowing the power of that double-edged sword, the Word of God, to have
its way in your life. Just because you believe you know the Scriptures better
than the rest of humanity doesn’t mean that you know it very well, at all.
We are satisfied with the little snippets we hear from the TV preachers,
instead of, as one writer said, "Using them as springboards to dive deeply into
the Scriptures." As Kemper Crabb wrote:
We Christians rightly disparage the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. As Jesus
taught of them in Matthew 15:8: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” We Evangelicals
profess love for Jesus, sing about Him, get emotional about Him, and so forth.
Yet when it comes to actually doing His Will outside our worship services, even
to doing the simple things like spending time studying His Word, we don’t do so
well. We come more and more to resemble the Pharisees. Then we wonder why our
culture is growing so pagan.
We must ask ourselves if our hearts are where our words say they are. We do
the things that are most important to us. If we are not obediently studying and
learning the Bible, we must ask ourselves why that is. What do you
value most?
Friends, we need to continually test the priorities in our lives; test our
hearts; Examine ourselves to see if we are living in the faith (II Corinthians
13:5). Has your heart must be changed? Have you allowed the Lord to search you?
To change you? To take you into His heavenly realm to talk?
Yes, authority comes from the Word, but the Word must be revealed by the
Spirit. You need the Word for each moment, for each battle. We are fighting a
spiritual battle, fought on the grounds of Spirit and Truth together. As Isaiah
explains: “The strength of those who wait with hope in Yahweh will be renewed.
They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and won’t become weary. They
will walk and won’t grow tired” (Isaiah 40:31) This is where your strength needs
to come from: waiting on the Spirit of the Lord to guide you in using the Word,
where the double edged sword can come and be used as your weapon of
warfare.
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