© 15 Colin Melbourne
Is it the Bible?
Q: Is Eph. 6 talking of the Bible as our weapon of offence when it mentions the sword of the Spirit?
A: That’s a very good question. You often hear that preached in “Spiritual Warfare” seminars. And it is almost correct, but not quite.
Here’s why, Eph. 6:17 KJV;
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
It is true that the Christian’s only weapon of attack is the word of God.
The figures of armour described are for our defence whilst walking in victory; loins girt with truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the Gospel of peace, helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith.
Guns, bullets and bombs are useless in this battle. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but against evil spirits blinding and ruling sinners in this world, and the only offensive weapon victorious against them is the Spirit anointed word of God.
That is why Jesus said, in Jn. 6:63 KJV;
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
The flesh profiteth nothing in spiritual warfare, only the anointed word of God enforces Christ’s victory.
Demons Enjoy the Bible
Now here’s a tip when dealing with demons; they often quote the Bible.
That should not surprise us, because the Serpent quoted God, actually misquoted Him, when tempting Adam and Eve to sin.
Demons frequently try to argue doctrine with you.
Not only the demonic cults such as RC’s, JW’s, and Mormons etc., demons in manifestation enjoy misquoting and bending scriptures to get their way.
God does not want you discussing Bible verses with demons: He wants you to drive the evil things out.
But, you respond, aren’t we supposed to use the Bible as a weapon, the sword of the Spirit, to drive them out?
Quoting Genesis to Revelation to a demon won’t drive it out of the person.
That is not using the sword of the Spirit correctly, that’s merely feeding the Bible to them.
They will take all of that and more: No, that’s not how to deal with demons.
Here’s the answer
Be aware of the subtle difference between the written word as logos, and the word as rhema in the New Testament Greek.
You don’t need to learn Bible Greek to comprehend this. Simply look up the Strong’s number for “word” when you come across it in the KJV NT, and see if it is rhema or logos in the Greek Textus Receptus.
Rhema, pronounced “ray-mah”, refers to the specific word spoken by the Spirit of God for that particular situation, whereas logos refers to Christ, the Personified Word of God, or to the Gospel message, or the more general word of God.
The word used in the scripture you cite, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God is not logos, but rhema.
That means the sword of the Spirit refers to the particular word the Spirit of God speaks for that situation.
It may be a scripture, or it could be some kind of instruction.
So, no, the sword of the Spirit is not the whole Bible as such, but rather the specific word the Spirit speaks at that time for a given task.
That is why quoting the whole Bible at demons merely entertains them, as well as distracting you from attending to the rhema word.
Biblical Spiritual Warfare
What wise Christians do is; ignore the antics and riddles of manifesting devils, and focus instead on what the Spirit of God is leading the Christian to do or say.
Obey that, and you will find that living faith in the rhema’d word always get the job done: The demons have to go.
Here’s a real life example;
A fellow missionary couple invited me to accompany them to visit a hill-tribe family whose young son was possessed by a demon. It dominated their lives, and kept the child out of school.
The Christian parents could not work their fields, because they had to stay at home to watch over their son, who was continually shouting, spitting, and doing wildly abnormal things. The world would treat him as an obvious mental case. These former Animists were wiser than that: They knew their son was demonised.
We sat in their hut, around an open fire, seeking the Lord for wisdom to deliver the family from this tormenting demon.
The home was typical of Christian hill-tribes, the spirit-shelf and talismans had long since been burned by the godly parents.
As we prayed, the Lord led me to rise and go and look at a photograph hanging from the bamboo wall.
My missionary friend chuckled, “I hope you’re not going to ask them to burn that Colin, it’s a picture of his departed father!”
I stood in front of it asking the Lord what to do, and He whispered to my heart, “Look behind it.” So I lifted the framed picture off the wall. And there was a dusty old fetish which the boy’s father had neglected to destroy. He’d left it to honour his deceased ancestor.
Without a word from us; he sprang to his feet in embarrassment, wrenched the fetish from the wall, and threw it into the fire.
We resumed prayer, with the father spontaneously asking for forgiveness, and as we lifted the boy up before the Lord, and cast the demon out in Jesus’ Name, he was delivered and resumed normal behaviour.
We returned a fortnight later to check on his progress; he was in school, perfectly normal again. Praise God!
The point:
The missionaries and parents had already tried quoting Bible scriptures, without success: Whereas, seeking God, attending to the rhema’d word for that situation, and obeying it, brought rapid total deliverance.
The sword of the Spirit: The rhema word of God
Now, with that revelation, read Proverbs 4:20-23 in the KJV and it will spring to new life!
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Tongues: All You Need to Know: The best of Kenneth Hagin’s teaching on tongues. Scriptural answers to questions on this topic.
© 15 Colin Melbourne
