This week, we're concluding our Spiritual Warfare And Tactics All-Church Groups Experience by learning how to wield The Sword of The Spirit! Throughout this series, we've been learning how to put on the full Armor of God in Ephesians 6:14-18, and the sword is actually what brings all the pieces together. See, there will be times when you feel like the Enemy is right up in your face and it's one strike after the next... But as Paul wrote the book of Ephesians in the New Testament of the Bible, he knew that just like how a Roman soldier wields a dagger in battle, the Word of God is the Armor we need to push back against the Enemy!

THE WORD OF GOD

The Word of God is the Bible. The Scriptures actually tell us that the Word of God appears to us in 3 ways:

#1) GRAPHE: This is the literal book, the Bible, with God's word on the pages.

#2) LOGOS: This is the message of graphe... Once you have access to the Scriptures, you can study them and begin to understand what the message of the Bible means.

#3) RHEMA: This is the personal, spoken word of God. This occurs when you have access to the Scriptures, you are grounded in the meaning of the word of God, and it sets you up to receive what feels like a specific and particular word for you in your situations or circumstances.

When you have the Word of God, you can UNSHEATHE THE SWORD in the face of the Enemy's temptations.

SATANIC SWORD PLAY

See, God rescues us from the powers of sin, death and darkness. But, the Enemy will still try to disarm you by attacking the credibility of the Scriptures, trying to make you pick and choose which verses you agree with instead of acknowledging God's whole word, and trying to get you to incorrectly use the Word of God to hurt others. This is why we need to pick up The Sword of the Spirit and start practicing it.

Memorizing scripture is a practical way to start picking up the sword to take ground against the Enemy. You can start by making small changes, like spending the first 15 minutes of your day reading God's word instead of scrolling Instagram, news or catching up on email. Or, try memorizing the Armor of God passage we have been studying in Ephesians 6 with your family or Liquid Small Group. Then, as you practice wielding The Sword of the Spirit, you'll want to incorporate PRAYER to fully activate the full Armor of God!

PRAYER ACTIVATES THE ARMOR

In Ephesians 6:18, Paul says to, "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." When we know the Word of God, we can pray Scripture back to God, and this activates our Armor. Now, did you notice that all of the Armor on a Roman soldier is on the front of the soldier? This is because soldiers only did one thing... they advanced, they did not retreat. In the same way, as Christ-followers, we are not called to retreat... but to advance and move forward in the VICTORY that Jesus won for us! Let's take ground in our battles this week, Liquid Church, as we take up The Sword of The Spirit to activate the full Armor of God!