Forget the Light Saber...Pick Up Your Sword
Wish you could use a light saber? It won’t work for this-besides it’s a fictional weapon. Add to that this enemy is stronger, the danger much greater. Our soul is the target. We need a real weapon for a real enemy. Think of it this way: we forget that in every day there are two things that happen simultaneously: we live and work; we are in a battle for our soul.
Daily living is easy to understand...we are active in it. The other battle, the one for our soul, is silent. There are no alarm signals to warn us but the spiritual battle goes on while we live and work- while we do our daily things. Most of the time we are totally unaware of the attacks we face...that’s because they are silent. But these silent attacks have real, deadly and eternal consequences.
Our subject in this text is how to withstand these attacks. And where do these spiritual attacks come from? They come from the enemy of our soul - in plain speech-the Devil. The Bible gives him another description-"a roaring Lion."
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8
Have you ever seen a real, live lion? In a zoo, behind a tall fence or in a cage we feel no danger...but take away the cage or fence. Think how that feels. We have an every moment enemy like that. He's loose...and on the prowl...he's after our souls.
How can we fight an unseen enemy with power to crush our souls? To fight a battle you need a weapon. Sorry a ficticious weapon won’t do-not even a light saber. To fight against an unseen enemy requires a weapon not made by humans. The Bible calls this spiritual weapon a sword...let's rephrase that...it's a SWORD!
“...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”
Ephesians 6:17
Now for question and answer:
Question-How do we repel the attacks of the roaring lion enemy?
Answer- Read the Bible. Repeat...read the Bible. Too simple? Just read? Remember, the Bible is not simply another book on the shelf. It is God's Word... it is living. No other book on earth is ALIVE. No other book is a spiritual weapon!
Defeat the lion enemy today...pick up your Bible. Where should you read? Begin by reading about Jesus...Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Turn to the book of Psalms for encouragement.
The Bible has divine power to "demolish" the strongholds of the devil. My counsel to you: pick up your weapon.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5