The Word of God is compared to a sword in several places in the New Testament. A shield — our faith
— is a defensive weapon; a sword is an offensive weapon. Thank God
that He has given us a shield, and a sword. A little over two years
ago, a force I can only describe as demonic was first sent against our
family. In the 27 years since I have been born again, that was one of
the very rare times we encountered overt demonic activity.
When the lives of my two youngest children were threatened, my husband and I did the only thing we could do, scripturally: we withstood the enemy,
over the course of six months, taking the Word of God as reality and
refusing to believe the deceptions of the enemy. That battle was won by
the Lord, and someday we will be able to tell the story of it. The Lord
is awesome in His power, and the depth of His love for His children is unfathomable!
The
enemy vowed to retaliate against us, and for the past 2+ years we have
been in a battle with overt demonic activity. Demon-possessed and
oppressed people keep entering our lives, who then make us their enemy.
Believe me, we do not go looking for them. The battles are being won by
the Lord daily, and this 2+ year-long battle will be won by the Lord as well. And the Lord has never left us or forsaken us, and is daily training our hands for war: the war which is not against flesh and blood. I do not know why us, only the Lord knows.
But
thank the Lord for the sword of the Spirit! I write scriptures down on
3×5 index cards, and have a box full of them now, 2 years on. They are
my sword, and I pray through them daily. When the enemy rises up,
trying to frighten me by what looks like utter devastation and
destruction, on Christ, the Living Word, the Solid Rock, I stand. His
word is reality and I will not accept anything else which contradicts
it as true, no matter what my eyes see, no matter what my ears hear.
For
a while I had this nagging question in the back of my head: God will do
what God will do, and He doesn't need me beating Him over the head with
my Bible, so to speak, to act. I nearly stopped praying my scriptures
every day, wondering about that. But then I read Ephesians 3:8-10:
To me this grace was given
To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ
And to bring to light for everyone
What is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God
Who created all things
So that through the church
The manifold wisdom of God might now be made known
To the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
It
is not God who is being beaten over the head with the Bible, when we
pray with the sword of the Spirit; it is the enemy! The rulers and
authorities in the heavenly places are being made aware of the TRUTH of
God's Word through us when we pray. Hallelujah!
Thank you for your testimony. I'll pray for you and hope to hear "the rest of the story" someday.