“Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: ‘Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.” (Jeremiah 5:14 ESV)
“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29 ESV)
When we talk about the Word of God, we are talking about two types of the Word. First, the Bible is the written Word of God. Second, Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Recognizing that Jesus is the living Word of God is paramount to our understanding of the Word, and our ever-increasing love for the Word.
Jesus said in John 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” If we are to be the Christian warriors that we are supposed to be, we must keep Christ's Words so that we can have fellowship with Him. We must love the Word, live the Word, sleep the Word, eat the Word. If you want to know how much God means in your life, then examine the place you've given His Word in your life. God means as much to you as His word means to you. It's just that simple.
The Word of God has power and authority. John 6:63 says, “...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” There is a working of the Word of God. There is an energy in the Word. There is a power from God that makes the Word a weapon that you and I are to use. There is life in God's Word. There is spirit. It is active. It is more powerful than a two-edged sword. We need to realize in the day that we live in, that we must learn to use the Word as a sword, as a mighty weapon to cut through the powers of darkness.
God's Word brings victory to the life of the believer. In Ephesians 6:17 the Word of God is called the Sword of the Spirit. In other words, the Word of God is our sword from the Holy Spirit for our fight in spiritual warfare. David declared in Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” There is power in the Word that makes us victorious. There is power in the Word that makes us conquerors!
The enemy of our soul, satan, will do all he can to keep a believer ignorant of the power of God's Word. Satan knows once a believer becomes aware of the power of God's word on their lips, that they will begin to take a stand against evil like never before. Oh, if only the whole Church could understand this. We could march to victory like never before in the history of mankind. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus used the Word against him. Every time the devil would throw something at Jesus, He would just overcome the devil and his temptations with the Word. The Word was His sword in battle.
It is also interesting to note that when Jesus went into the wilderness, Luke 4:1 says He was full of the Holy Spirit. But in Luke 4:14, it says Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. There is a definite difference here that most Christians do not seem to understand. We can be full of the Holy Spirit but not use the power that is available to us. But we can be endued with power when we too can realize the power of God's Word. By learning the power of the Word to overcome the devil and using the Word of God as a great weapon, we move into an area of faith where the power of the Holy Spirit begins to move and operate in our lives. And when this happens, the believer is turned into a lethal walking weapon against the forces of the enemy. This is the reason satan tries to steal the Word from our hearts before it can take root.
John says in 1 John 2:14, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” We can have the same overcoming victory through the Word that John mentions here. It is the weapon of the Word that will make us stand. It is the weapon of the Word that gives us victory. It is the weapon of the Word that makes Satan flee.
From the Word comes faith, healing, new birth, cleansing, and victory over satan. What great power there is in our weapon. But it is very important that we know and understand our weapon. When a soldier is given a weapon in the Army, he is taught everything about it and how to use it. He learns it so well that it becomes his best friend because he knows it could someday save his life. The same is true for us as spiritual warriors. We need to learn the Word of God frontwards and backwards, inside and out. We need to learn of its power and capabilities. We must realize the Word of God can also save our lives. Oh how we need to love the Word. If there ever has been a time that we need the Word, it's now. We must use it as our personal weapon that we carry with us every day for safety.
Just being a hearer of the Word does not make devil's tremble. Just thinking about the Word does not make satan run. No. It's only when we learn to speak the Word of God into existence that we can learn of the power of God over satan. I'll go a step further. The devil doesn’t even flee from us when he sees us reading the Word. He flees only when we get the Word down in our spirits, and then we resist him. How do we resist him? The same way Jesus resisted. He told satan over and over again, “it is written.” Jesus used the Word of God against the devil. There must come a time when we as Christian soldiers make a deliberate choice to use the Word of God against satan. It doesn't just happen. We must choose to resist him ourselves.
Just because there is a motor in my car doesn't mean the car is going to go anywhere. I must activate the power in that motor by turning on the key. We have within us the power of the Almighty God. There is a spiritual motor inside every believer, but we must turn on the key. We must resist. We must speak the Word of God, thus unleashing the power that is within God's Holy Word. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” When we speak God's Word with our lips, the light of God will shine through the midst of darkness. When we take God's Word and turn it on the devil, he cannot stand under the brilliance of that light. He will flee. Resist the devil and he will flee! We must decide in our hearts to make the Word of God one of the most used spiritual weapons in our arsenal. If we do so, we will have power and victory like we've never known.