Discover the Other Side of Your Sword of the Spirit!

How many times have you thought to yourself: OK, enough is enough! Then you mustered up the courage and resolve to march yourself headlong into a situation and confront something or someone? Maybe it was a roommate or neighbor whose music was too loud. Maybe it was time to get a plumber to fix that leaky faucet, after all your failed do-it-yourself attempts. Or maybe it was a phone call to a family member or friend to make things right that was long overdue.

Confrontation isn’t always easy, but it’s often necessary.

Jesus was a Master at confronting:

• His own mother—(John 2:1-11)
• His earthly family—(Mark 3:20-21, 31-35)
• His closest friends—(Matthew 16:21-23)
• His nagging critics—(Matthew 21:12-16; Matthew 23)
• His No. 1 enemy—(Matthew 4:1-11).

What was the genius behind His approach? God’s Word. The first time Jesus faced off with Satan, the devil threw everything at Him that he possibly could. Satan attempted to shut down God’s rescue plan for mankind by getting Jesus to compromise His relationship with the Father and take matters into His own hands. But Jesus was relentless with the Word of God; He never backed down (Matthew 4):

• “Jesus told [the devil], ‘No! The Scriptures say…’” (verse 4)
• “Jesus responded, ‘The Scriptures also say…’” (verse 7)
• “‘Get out of here, Satan,’ Jesus told him. ‘For the Scriptures say…’” (verse 10).

Jesus stood on God’s Word and He didn’t budge. He believed it and allowed it—and the Holy Spirit—to do the work, to fight the good fight of faith on His behalf (1 Timothy 6:12). That was Jesus’ strategy in defeating the enemy in all kinds of situations.

One day, when Kenneth Copeland was facing his own battle with the enemy, he clearly heard the Lord say: Let The WORD fight its own fight. The Lord’s point to Brother Copeland was: Use The WORD as a sword and let it do the fighting (Ephesians 6:11-17).

As we take up God’s Word and wield it against our enemy, we also need to add to our arsenal a revelation Jesus understood about this “sword of the Spirit.” It’s an insight passed along to us by the apostle Paul: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to [discern] the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, NASB).

Notice, Paul refers to a “two-edged sword,” not a sword with just one edge.

Perhaps you’ve learned that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21, NASB). That’s a powerful truth, and with it has come the teaching that we should only speak “life” words and never “death” words.

In many instances, however, Jesus spoke what we would consider to be death words. And He often said them in the form of a rebuke or curse. An odd example of this happened once when Jesus and His disciples were traveling back and forth between Jerusalem and Bethany. Jesus was hungry one day and saw a fig tree nearby. When He walked over to the tree to pick some of its fruit, He found none and said: “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” (Mark 11:14).

The very next day when they passed that same tree, Peter noticed it and said, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!” (Mark 11:21).

Within 24 hours of Jesus rebuking that tree, it was dead. His words were not positive, edifying or life-giving. They were negative and destructive. Yet, the tree heard and responded accordingly to them—to Jesus’ faith.

That was a demonstration of Jesus using the other edge of His sword. That was Him rebuking—speaking death words—to the works of the enemy, the same as He had spoken God’s Word earlier (Matthew 4).

Jesus went on to tell His disciples, “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen” (Mark 11:23).

Again, not very positive words used to accomplish the will, purpose and Word of God.

Other examples of speaking such death words include:

• Jesus rebuking storms—(Matthew 8:26)
• Jesus rebuking demons—(Matthew 17:18)
• Jesus rebuking fever—(Luke 4:38-39)
• Believers in sin rebuked—(Luke 17:3)
• God’s Word used for rebuke—(2 Timothy 3:16; 4:2)
• An angel’s way of rebuking—(Jude 9)
• Open rebuke being good—(Proverbs 27:5)

In the heat of battle with the enemy, God has given us His Word—and our mouths—as powerful weapons. We’ve known Jesus as the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1, NKJV), and perhaps now we can understand how there’s another side of our confession that we need to allow the Holy Spirit to engage—the other side of the sword—and double our effectiveness in warfare.