The Sword of the Spirit part 2 Trailer
Welcome to “Called to Glory,” the cutting-edge weekly podcast dedicated to helping you know Christ, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
In this series, we’re going to look at what the apostle Paul described in his epistle to the Ephesians as the sword of the Spirit. If you’ve been a believer for any length of time you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Almost everyone seems to assume that because Paul said the sword of the Spirit is the word of God he was referring to the Bible. And since the Bible is almost universally taught and understood to be the word of God, according to this reasoning it's also believed to be the sword of the Spirit. In other words, the sum total of what Paul meant in Ephesians 6:17 by taking up or wielding the sword of the Spirit is to read or quote Scripture, or perhaps stand on some biblical promise.
And virtually no one questions it.
But is that really what Paul meant when he wrote about the sword of the Spirit? Your first reaction may very well be of course it is! And given how this is generally taught and understood in Christian and Messianic circles, that would be perfectly understandable. As we’ll see, however, there are some major problems with this view.
Not the least of which is that it's a gross oversimplification of what he said and meant
Fortunately, God has not left us without clear guidance on this. And that’s exactly what we’re going to be looking at in this 3-part series.
Using the original biblical text, I will show beyond any reasonable doubt that Paul was in fact NOT referring to the Bible – at least not directly - when he exhorted the saints to “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
And by the time we’re done, I believe you’ll be quite blown away. Not just at the shallowness of the modern understanding of the sword of the Spirit but also at the richness, power and importance of what Paul actually said and meant!
Soundtrack music:
"Awakening" by LNDÖ
"Mind Heart" by Tristan Barton
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible makes a clear distinction between the living voice of God, what God Himself describes in those scriptures as the Word of God, and the inerrant, inspired written scriptures, what man calls the Word of God. All of the New Testament writers, every one of them, clearly and unmistakably distinguished between what was written in the scriptures and the word of God or of the Lord that was spoken or otherwise directly communicated. Not only by God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, but also by men and women speaking in his name, such as the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, the apostles, and disciples such as Stephen. The same living voice of God by which the worlds were framed and spoken into existence. The same living voice of God that came and personally spoke to Abraham, Moses, David, the Hebrew prophets, John the Baptist, the apostles, and faithful saints all throughout the ages. And it is the same living voice of God that speaks today to those with an honest heart and with ears to hear.