What Does Bible Mean When It Says Sword of the Spirit?

Hebrews 4:12 says, “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.” And Ephesians 6:17 says, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” How often I have been taught that the Bible we carry around with us is the sword of the Christian, the sword of the Spirit. But I have news for you. The enemy, Satan, is not afraid of the biggest family Bible you got if all you are going to do is carry it around. The Bible is not the ‘sword of the Spirit’. The sword of the Spirit is when what is written becomes alive and revelation to us as individuals. It is the sword of the Spirit when it is hidden in our hearts and we believe what it says and we live what it says. This is often known as ‘Rhema’, the God breathed, God revealed Word of God. The written and revealed Word of God becomes the sword of the Spirit when it is no longer just words on a page but it leaps off the page and becomes life-giving. This is the

sword of the Spirit that the enemy is defeated by. That Bible you carry and read is more like a storehouse for the sword. The sword is in there but you have to walk in there and draw the sword out. Then the enemy must flee. He cannot withstand the Word when it is written on our heart. David said, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalms 119:11). It wasn’t until he hid the Word in his heart though that it had effect and power in his life. John knew this when He wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. ⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not….¹⁴ And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 14). Here is the connection and truth that so many Christians miss. The Word is a living thing, better put, the Word is a living person and that person’s name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the embodiment and manifestation of the Godhead three-in-one. The Holy Spirit is the embodiment of Jesus in our day and age (John 14:9). The Word is not just something you read, it is something you encounter. You don’t just read it, it reads you ! You can scrutinize the scriptures all you want but the Bible is the only book that scrutinizes you. What is it about the Bible that gives it such authority? Because God is the author in author-ity ! The Bible can be trusted because it comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45 make it very clear that is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So, if the mouth that is speaking is God and it is from the heart of God, it can be trusted. Not only that, God makes this promise: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11). There is power in His Word.

When Jesus, the Word, as John calls Him in John chapter 1, became flesh and dwelt among us He came into our world, into our reality. He expressed Himself in a form we could identify with. He has always been very real but when He became flesh He became reality to us in a way only He could. This is part of the disconnect with most believers, the Word never becomes flesh to them, in other words, it never becomes reality, it never enters into their life in a relevant way. Many have the tendency to classify the Bible and their life as a believer to be separate from who they really are. It is like we have a bunch of bi-polar Christians out there. There is the worldly Christian and then there is the spiritual Christian. Some seem to be able to switch at will and others just have some days they are spiritual and some days when they are worldly. This should not be! A true born-again believer is supposed to be spiritual all the time. God is supposed to be there every moment of every day whether we are loving our spouse and children or landing that business deal, when we are in church and when we are in the break room. Does that mean all you should do is float around on a cloud all the time, smiling and singing hymns? Not at all. It means you do real life like everyone has to but with one big difference, God is in it. When we live this way we show the world that God is still relevant to the day we live in.

So, how do we get there? I think Hebrews 4:12 gives us the key. Let’s look at that verse again and see what most people miss: “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.” The Word of God is the key. It is the door whereby we enter into understanding. It is like opening a door and walking into another room. The writer of Hebrews says like a two-edged sword “dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” In other words, God wants you to be able to discern the difference between soul and spirit, joints and marrow. He wants it to be as distinguishable to you as night and day, like walking through a door from one room into a completely different room. Standing in the doorway you should be able to look back at the room you are leaving and turn and see a different room in front of you. You should know the difference.

So, what does this mean? Why is it important to know what is of the soul and what is of the Spirit? First, I will need to explain something. Every person consists of body, soul and spirit. Body, or our flesh as the Bible calls it sometimes, is that part of us that interacts with the physical world we live in. We discern the physical world with our five senses: taste, touch, sight, smell and hearing. It is where we fulfill the desires of our flesh. It is where we experience physical pleasure. There is also a Greek word for the flesh called ‘sarx’. It denotes our ungodly, sinful, fallen nature that wants to draw us into unhealthy choices for our selfish gratification. It is a realm we are all familiar with, a pleasurable place to be but if not kept in check can rule us and cause us to live a life apart from who God really wants us to be. Sin is indeed pleasurable for a season (Hebrews 11:25). If it wasn’t it would not be a temptation to us. So how do we make the right choices? That is where the soul comes in. The soul consists of our mind, our will and our emotions. It is the part of us where choices good or bad are made. God never takes away our power of choice. The soul is also the bridge between our spirit and our flesh. The problem is our mind, our will and our emotions do not always agree with one another. In fact, sometimes they are in stark contrast to one another. Our intellect or mind may be logically thinking things out. Our emotions though are usually screaming louder for attention. Now a person who is not born again has only to contend with the intellect and the emotions, usually, and conscience on some level. Conscience is a function of the spirit (more on that later). The conscience of the person who is not born again though is usually drowned out by the voice of the flesh and the intellect.  So, the flesh and the intellect then weigh things out between the two and usually make a choice that is self-serving, self-gratifying or at best what they would decide has least impact on everyone involved yet still serves them in the long run. However, when we are born again our spirit awakens within us (John 3:6). That is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus we must be born again, that we must be born of water (natural physical birth) and of the spirit (John 3:5-6) (For whole encounter with Nicodemus, read John 3:1-21). You have a spirit! Many confuse the soul and spirit to be the same thing. Hebrews 4:12 as well as many other scriptures distinguishes them to be two totally separate things. This is an important distinction. Before we are born again our spirit is basically dead. It isn’t actually dead but it is weak and disconnected from a relationship with God due to our fallen state. It basically holds no place or influence over our whole decision making process. The spirit is where our conscience and intuition dwell. It is also the only part of us that can communicate with God. Yes, we speak to God with our lips but unless it is from our spirit, very often referred to as ‘heart’ in the scriptures, we are not communicating with God (1 Samuel 16:7). Remember the story Jesus told of a Pharisee and a publican praying in the temple (Luke 18:10-14)? The Pharisee was all eloquent and loud, very religious and bragging to God about his perceived righteousness but the poor old disrespected publican just said, ‘Lord, have mercy on me a sinner’. Jesus said the publican went away justified rather than the Pharisee. Why? Because the publican prayed from his heart. He wasn’t just trying to put on a show. He humbled himself before God. What was it I said earlier? Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45 make it very clear that it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So, say whatever you want but God is listening to what is really in the heart. You can’t fool God with your self-righteousness and eloquence.

Jesus said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Ultimately this is speaking of going to heaven when we die but I believe if we broaden its meaning a little I believe it also speaks of us being able to discern spiritually, to see God’s hand at work in this world and in our lives. I believe it speaks that we cannot truly believe and trust God to work in our lives until our eyes are spiritually open which happens when our spirit is quickened to life, put back in relationship with God. For when we are born again His Spirit dwells with us and connects to our spirit. As Ezekiel 36:27 puts it: “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” This is where the term comes from that ‘He lives in our heart’. Only God can do this. Only God can be everywhere at all times and also dwell in the hearts of every believer connecting them together as one and yet be so individual in us as to care for, guide us and direct our individual paths.

 MY NEXT ARTICLE WILL GO INTO EVEN MORE DETAIL OF WHAT IT MEANS TO DIVIDE THE SOUL AND SPIRIT AND WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT.