The Sword of The Spirit
(The Divine Armor Part 6)

“Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:11,12)

ur defense is secure. We know that we are secure, because we know Christ, the source of all safety and comfort. By faith, we need never “take thought,” for any undue concern. We know that even where we have deficiencies yet to learn of and put away, we are covered by the infinite and tender mercy of our Redeemer and Creator. We know we have the true Gospel, for every promise Christ has ever given to us we now see is ours to claim. We have gladly accepted Salvation, believing in the truth of His Word, and we have confidence in what He has said. “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1 John 2:28) And we not only have confidence in our personal experiences, but also in our ability to share the True Gospel with others, for each of us may go about, “Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” (Acts 28:31)

But are we done? We know we have the Gospel, but if we just stand on street corners proclaiming, “Repent, for the end of the world is at hand,” we may not be as effective as we would like. In the previous essay about the shoes of “the preparation of the Gospel of peace,” I quoted this line, from Ezekiel 8:2, “Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire.” The messenger shown to Ezekiel had legs covered with fire, the very part of the body Paul refers to when speaking of the Gospel message. This is fire of the same kind that descended upon the apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:4) which enabled them to preach the Word with power and authority. It is the same baptism of “the Holy Ghost and fire” (Mat 3:11) that all believers must receive in order to do the “good works” unto which we were created. (Eph 2:20)

It is the Spirit, that essence of Yah that moves within us, that is the key to having the right words at the right time. “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” (Luke 12:11,12) It is the Holy Spirit that gives you the Word of God in your mouths, to speak to others. It will be, indeed, it is a powerful weapon for both their good and yours, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph 6:17)

How is it that the sword, which is a weapon, is mentioned in such close conjunction with the helmet of salvation? It is because you yourself were once cut with this very same sword if you now HAVE the helmet. You yourself once had to feel the sting of the Holy Spirit’s convictions, and then repent and accept Christ’s sacrifice, in order to have inherited eternal life. And, in order to have others be saved, in order to get them to grasp hold of their own salvation, in order to share the Gospel, you must also take the sword to them. They are intimately connected, for one leads to the other.

We have seen that Christ displayed two aspects of Himself to us while He was with us on the earth. He was the kind and tender Savior who washed the feet of His wondering followers in John 13:5, but also it was He who cast out the moneychangers from the Temple in Matthew 21:12. It was He who said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,” (John 14:27) and it was also He who said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Mat 10:34) He is the “Man of sorrows” in Isaiah 53, but He is the “Righteous Judge” of Revelation 19. He is the Lamb led to the slaughter, and also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is our shield, our defender, but He is also the living Word of God, our Sword.

Jeremiah, though an Old Testament prophet, has exceedingly relevant things to say concerning these last days. He writes, “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.” (Jer 48:10) A stern way of putting it, perhaps, but we see that if we apply it to the “spiritual warfare” of these last days, it is actually a great message of love and mercy. How can we, who know the Father and Son, keep back our hand from the labor of showing others the Way the Truth and the Life? How can we allow any deceit or personal issues to mar Yah’s perfect blade? Cursed indeed is anyone who lets his brother be wounded unto death by this world, when he had the opportunity to wound him unto life! But it is not Yah who will curse such a person; if he does not share the Gospel, he does not have the true Gospel, and he is cursed already.

The Sword’s purpose is for the “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” It is for the stripping away of illusions, for as we hold up the polished blade of the sword, the shining surface is as a mirror, reflecting our true selves in the Word of God, and leading every willing observer to repentance. Against Israel, Yah declared “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. “ (Eze 6:3)

Echoing this sentiment, Paul explains exactly what these “high places” are in regards to the spiritual nature of individuals: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cr 10:3-5) The spiritual sword we bear is for the cutting down of pride, ignorance, hatred... all those things which Satan uses to separate us from the love of our Creator. The doctrine of the Bible is remedy against all these things, for it teaches the spoken word of Christ.

I saw this demonstration given once: A preacher stood up with a line drawn on his face with a marker. He went on speaking to his congregation as if nothing had happened, and then when someone pointed it out, he acted surprised. Taking out a mirror which he conveniently had on hand, he looked at himself and found the streak. He turned to them and said, “Well, I see that I am not clean. Now what should I do about this?” Some people started to suggest things, and he said, “What? I should break the mirror?” With a laugh, the people said, “No.” He said, “Should I hide the mirror and never look into another mirror again?” Once more, the people answered, “No.” He asked, “But isn’t that what so many people do? They do not like the fact that they can see themselves in error, as pointed out by the Word of God; yet instead of admitting it, they either attack the validity of the Bible, or they seek to ignore the problem by closing the Book and letting it collect dust on their tables.”

As Paul has written, the Law was “added because of transgressions,” (Gal 3:19) and in another place he said, “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Romans 7:9) Paul saw himself convicted as a sinner in the Holy Word of Yah, and knew he was worthy of death. But did he choose to ignore it, or did he therefore despise the law, calling it an evil, outdated concept as some have? No, for he said just after, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom 7:12) It was the sin that the law pointed out which slew him, he explains in verse 13. To put it another way, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal 3:24) In the same way that the law did not cause Paul to “die,” the mirror did not cause the speaker’s face to be dirty, but rather it revealed the dirt, which was there already.

Some have said, “Well, since we are thus already led to Christ, what purpose has the law now? For did not Paul also say, ‘after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,’?” (Gal 3:25) It is true that after Christ comes fully into our hearts we are no longer under the law. But Paul needed the law to show where he had fallen short, and so do we still. The law had passed away to Paul who admitted his guilt under it, and confessed his death-worthy sin, and accepted life anew in Christ. So it is to us, we ALSO need the Law to be our schoolmaster, each and every one of us need to feel the sting of that Sword, so that we CAN accept Christ and be under grace. Then, and then only, are we not under the law, for when Christ enters our hearts, and writes the law ON our hearts, we do keep the law by nature, and not by commandment. We love others by nature, not by commandment, and every point of the Decalogue becomes our delight to fulfill. The sword is for each of us individually. Oh, let us not run from the invitation to confess and repent unto life.

The pastor who gave that example next took a rag which was lying nearby and, holding up the mirror again, wiped off the stain. “See,” he concluded, “the Word of God is only a mirror, but of itself it will not make us clean any more than it made us dirty. It is we who, after seeing the stain, must accept the fact as it is shown, and then confess the sin and be made clean by the Grace freely offered.” I am paraphrasing shamelessly here, but the principle should be plain enough. Though we possess a powerful weapon in the Word of Yah, we can in no way use force of either a physical or emotional nature. We can “cut” them, we can show them their deficiencies from the plain language of the Scriptures, but it is the Spirit Itself, the aspect of the Sword that WE do not control, which must give them the strength to ask for healing.

The Gospel itself is the message: it is the thing which gives us movement, and guides our feet to find the people Yah would have us speak to. It gives us the gift of salvation to share with others, but it is the Sword, the Spirit of Yah, which enables those words to be accepted. The Gospel puts us in the right position, but the Spirit is the Thing that wounds, the Spirit is the One who reveals the truth of the matter to hearers. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

But beware also, for Yahshua is of two aspects, as I said before. Let us not think we ride forth as conquerors only! We are both the cutters and the cut, just as Christ is both Judge and Redeemer. We are not the destroying angels in Ezekiel 9 or Revelation 7. The work of casting down belongs to Yah only, and those He appoints. We are the “man clothed in linen” of Ezekiel, and the angel “having the seal of the living God” from the latter Book. Our weapons are spirit, not carnal, and they are not like the weapons of this earth. If we seek to impose our faith upon others, by force of arms or legal process, we usurp the authority that belongs to Christ the Righteous Judge alone.

We are to go forth and show our wounds, and the Sword will do its own work through us. It is not to drive others to the ground in defeat, but to invite them down unto their knees with us... that is our role as true soldiers. The sword is “two-edged” for it cuts both ways, both the bearer and him unto whom it is borne. We are all equally guilty under the Law, and all equally “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom 8:37) We are MORE, better, than conquerors, for we do not go forth to strike down, but to uplift. Our sword heals, for though it wounds, the wound is not fatal, if he that is cut will repent and be saved.

Look upon it this way: birth is not a pleasant experience, for what baby would be pleased to be cold and wet and hungry all at once? Surely no kind person would desire to cut a newborn infant from a nice, warm and secure womb. But so it is with those who sleep in the dark, inviting cocoon of sin. So it is with those who find comfort in their traditions and their self-satisfied ways of life. But if one is not born, he cannot live. It is also a painful experience for the mother, but of this Christ said, “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.” (John 16:21) Yah is not happy either to allow trials to fall upon us, but He knows it is the way by which we learn to depend upon Him – a vital aspect of our salvation.

Bearing the sword may cause an unpleasant experience to others, for who enjoys being wounded? Which natural man enjoys seeing his faults revealed in the Word of Yah? But afterwards, after all this, when the cleansing is done, and we stand before the throne “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” (Eph 5:27) then there will be rejoicing such as we cannot know in this world. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) Awakening to the truth is like being born. It is a tear-filled, and unpleasant process to confess that we have been asleep. And then we must learn to feed, and then to walk, and then to run. But when we walk uprightly, when we are mature in nature and in faith, then we are free. After birth, there is life!

As we examine the sword more closely:

We find there an image imprinted on the cross guard:

When Adam and Eve first violated their holy nature by allowing in the sin of mistrust, they were sent out of the garden of Eden. This was not some arbitrary punishment meted out by the Father in order to cause them sorrow. This was a visible symbol of the awful tragedy which had already occurred. It was so when Moses broke the first stone tablets after the newly-liberated Israelites had fallen into idolatry. The breaking of the stones was only an earthly reflection, for the true “breaking of the law” had already occurred. In the case of our first parents, they were not only driven out, but they were kept out by Cherubic angels, each bearing a fiery kherev, a flaming sword. Purists will say that the Hebrew actually translates to “a flaming as of a sword which turned every way,” rather than “a flaming sword which turned every way.” (Gen 3:24)

That is, they mean to say that what kept Adam and Eve out was only the “brightness” of the fire, which appeared to be a blaze reminiscent of the glare off of a sword’s blade turning “every way” in the bright sun. Whichever the case, we must keep it in mind that Cherubim, as indeed all angels, are “ministering spirits,” and are not made of the substance of the earth. In the same way, the swords which these bore were not actual, sharpened strips of metal, but the very Glory of Yah manifest into the appearance of a weapon. Translation differences notwithstanding, the purpose of the “flaming” was clear. The brightness was an instrument of destruction against the darkness now present in mankind, and its very existence was a representation of the power of Yah.

But Christ is Judge and Redeemer. Even the light of destruction was a warning, a reminder... and an invitation back. Little is recorded of what Yah said to Adam and Eve after their fall, but in the very next chapter (Gen 4:4) we find their children performing the rites of sacrifice. From the very earliest time after sin, the promise of a substitute was given by our Merciful Lord. There must be blood to form a covenant, and there must be fire to complete the acceptance of it. “And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation... and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.” (Lev 1:5,9)

Were not the Israelites in the wilderness? Could they not have killed the animal in sacrifice and then benefited from the meat of the beast? But there was a reason why the offering must be consumed by flame; there is ALWAYS a reason Yah does things in just the way He does. It was to point forward, even in those most ancient times, to the giving of the Holy Spirit unto mankind as never before. Christ was the sacrifice, slain for all the world in the later chapters of the Gospel Books, and His blood was offered as atonement for our sin, but it was at Pentecost, when the sacrifice was sanctified with fire in the first chapter of Acts... THIS was the visible sign that the offering had been accepted on our behalf before the Heavenly courts. The fire of the Holy Spirit, that is the sign of Yah’s favor. Those who do not recognize the mercy and love of our tender Creator even in those “harsh” Old Testament times do not know Him, nor can they worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let any who shy away from the notion of the B.C. Books as an accurate representation of the Father be confounded by it’s clear repetition in the New.

The Holy Spirit is the Sword which Christ declared He was sending to us in Matthew 10:34. It is our weapon to wield as we bear the Divine Armor. It is the means by which we “converteth the sinner from the error of his way,” “save a soul from death” and “hide a multitude of sins.” (James 5:20) As surely as fire is the symbol of that Holy Spirit, and indeed all of the glory of Heaven, (Ezek 1:4) it is as fitting an icon for the Sword thereof. Fire is the sign of the acceptance of the sacrifice, and that includes the acceptance by an individual of the Gospel for the transformation of their character. The Sword of the Spirit divides asunder the soul and spirit, and invites the wounded to offer up their hearts as a burnt offering, “a sweet savor unto the Lord.” When the sacrifice is accepted, when the fire has consumed the flesh there offered, then there is forgiveness of sins, then we are ready to meet Him and “not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” The two-edged sword must cut both ways, both into our hearts, and into the hearts of those to whom we bring this most precious message.

Upon reading the list of sins that some consider to be the “deadly” ones, (Pride, Envy, Sloth, Wrath, Greed, Lust and Gluttony), we find this of one of them: “And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” (Ex 22:24) There are some things that belong to Yah alone. Jealousy and Wrath are two of these. He can be jealous for our respect, because He knows that only He can save us. He can be Wrathful against a people, because they do more harm than good to His other children, and will not repent. But they are all based upon His central, all-inclusive emotion, that of love.

Now Satan would have us attempt to be like God. This isn’t bad, in it’s right context, for we know Christ is our example. But He would have us be like Him in all ways, meaning independent OF Him, and gods unto ourselves. “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” was included in his very first deception, back in Genesis 3:5. This was Satan’s fall, you see, that he sought to replace the Throne. In Isaiah 14:14, the prophet heard him say, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Satan sought to take on those things which belonged to Yah only, such as worship. This desire, this hungering for that which belonged only to the Most High, this is what poisoned his mind to the extent that there is now no remedy for him.

In the same way, if we try to take on those things that belong ONLY to Yah, such as jealousy, worship... or wrath, we take on the mind of Satan, whereas Scripture says a Christian has “the mind of Christ.” (1 Cr 2:16) Notice that the seven deadly sins are all conditions of the mind and heart; for example, “murder” isn’t there. However, Christ taught that, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” (John 3:15) If a man kills another in wrath, it would be as Moses breaking the stone tablets, just the result of the law already being broken, of the sin already being present.

Wrath belongs only to the Lord. If we take it upon ourselves to be angry without due cause, or to punish offenders (and yes, this is a reference to the Trademark issue, among other things), we take the Sword out of the hand of Christ, the Righteous Judge, and we step into an office we have no business claiming as our own. Our sword is of the Spirit, not of the flesh. If we thus labor, bearing the blade in love and not anger, we will find that there is no place in our hearts for wrath. Who can hold hatred or anger against someone they are trying to help? If our motive is true, and our hearts right, we will hate no man, though all the world hate us. The Sword of the Holy Spirit cuts both ways.

David.