And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…. Word here is the Greek word “rhema” which means an actual spoken message from God. Therefore the sword of the Spirit is the word (or message) that God speaks to us. It is a quickened word which God provides to counter a wrong situation, or to encourage someone when they need it, to give direction or reassurance etc. You can picture God sitting up there in Heaven and He sees something that needs His attention. He says to Himself “Hmmm, I think I’ll send Moses with a message for those people. Holy Spirit, go to Moses and tell him to go to Pharaoh and say ‘If you don’t let my people go I will bring a plague of locust upon your land’”. The end result was that Pharaoh could not stand against the Lord, and had to let His people go. It is the same today. God uses us to take a message from Him to different people at different times according to His purposes.
We can all hear from God like this, and His message can be one of reassurance, rebuke, direction, or any one of a number of different things. For that sword to be all sharpened up and ready for use requires an active relationship with the Lord. Take time out at the start of each day, and then periods throughout the day, to just give Him your fellowship. It is amazing how He speaks to people who have the ears to hear! This is another piece of the armour of God that is automatically intact and properly fitted when we have a right relationship with God.
When David faced Goliath, Saul had David fitted out in his armour, but David found that it was heavy and uncomfortable, and so he chose to go without it. In the same way we cannot wear anyone else’s armour. It is not good enough to know about God through someone else. We are each responsible for our own personal relationship with the Lord to keep our armour intact. The plus is that when we have a right relationship with Him, our lives are complete and nothing can match the beauty that we find there even in adversity.
There are many different aspects to having a meaningful relationship with God. Some of these are regular Bible reading, prayer, thanksgiving and praise, but along with these is the need for time out to “be still and know that I am God”. A time of fellowship where we stop and let Him enjoy our company, while we enjoy His. A time without noise, or the need to do or say anything. A time of just being still before Him and available to Him.
Persecution Live 