When you are engaged in spiritual warfare, the word of God is essential. It is essential not only for discerning God’s will in a matter, but it is also a weapon to be used directly against the enemy. When confronting the enemy who is harassing, tempting, or afflicting you or someone else, the word of God is powerful. It is powerful because his word carries authority and authority directs power.

When describing the armor of God, Paul tells us that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17). The word translated as sword is a word that means a knife or a dagger rather than a large sword. That word suggests spiritual warfare in two contexts. The first context is hand-to-hand combat when the enemy is close and within reach. Spiritual warfare is often that way when the enemy is standing right in front of us as we minister deliverance to someone or when he is harassing us in our bedroom at three in the morning.   The second context can be understood as a moment when we use a knife or a dagger to dislodge an arrow or some shrapnel that has been fired at us by the enemy and has lodged in us…such as a fiery dart of the enemy.

The first context is battle. In the spiritual realm authority is critical. That’s why we are reminded over and over in the New Testament that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that he has a name that is above every name. In the context of battle, the word of God becomes a weapon because the word of God must be enforced by the army of heaven. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12). In the book of Revelation, John describes a vision of Jesus and says, “In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword” (Rev.1:16). That picture of Jesus establishes him as one with great power and authority. His words leave his lips as a sword with power to destroy.   In the book of Hosea, God told Israel, “Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you” (Hosea 6:5). Words direct the power and judgments of heaven so that when used as a weapon against the enemy, they can inflict harm.

In the wilderness temptation recorded in Matthew 4, Satan came to Jesus to tempt him in face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat. The devil always shows up when our strength (spiritual, emotional, or physical) is somehow depleted. Satan approached Jesus after forty days of solitude and fasting. His energy levels were low and he had been without the encouragement of friends or family for over a month. Satan, believing Jesus to be extremely vulnerable, came to tempt him as he did the First Adam.

Jesus fought back with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Jesus quoted scripture in response to every temptation of the enemy. I don’t believe Satan left Jesus only because he thought it was pointless to continue to tempt him. That was undoubtedly part of it, but I also believe the word of God inflicts pain on the enemy as a knife or dagger thrust. One thrust will typically not dispatch the enemy but several will leave him bloody and wounded and ready to run.

The words of believers carry authority and power. How else could the commands of God’s people bring healing and deliverance or even raise the dead? In the spiritual realm, our words have substance and weight. If our words have substance, how much more do the very words of God spoken from our lips carry weight? God spoke through Isaiah saying, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). Whether God’s word goes out through his lips or through ours, it will still fulfill its purpose.

Again, we are told that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. I believe when we declare that word with faith and conviction it cuts and bruises the enemy. When we are confronting the enemy, declaring appropriate scripture has a powerful affect that afflicts and torments the demonic. We should store up his word in our heart as much as possible and whip it out every time we encounter the enemy.

The second context of using the knife or dagger, which is the word of God, is when our faith, our joy, or our purpose has been wounded by a blow from the enemy. The fiery darts of the enemy (Eph. 6:16) that are extinguished by the shield of faith are undoubtedly lies that slip past our defenses – accusation, discouragement, weakness, etc. The word of God, then, reassures us and re-establishes our faith as we go back to the promises and the character of God. Each promise in the word digs out a piece of shrapnel or cleans out a wound left by the enemy. The word then can be wielded as a weapon against the enemy or as a scalpel useful for healing.

In the heat of battle or in a moment of treating wounds, declaring scripture strengthens our own faith in the moment while it weakens the enemy and torments him. Demons do not always depart with the first command. If a stronghold exists, you may have to “assault the walls of the enemy’s fortress” more than once with numerous commands. Declaring the word of God over that person or over a situation takes big chunks out of the bunkers of the enemy.

I remember one of our Freedom Weekends when a young woman was manifesting severely with a spirit of witchcraft. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, the spirit was growling at us, telling us that he hated us and that she belonged to him. We were commanding and he was resisting. It seemed like a stalemate until one of our team members was prompted by the Spirit to read Psalm 91 over the young woman, personalizing it with her name. As the word of God was read, the demon departed. The sword of the Spirit had its way.

Every believer should have a catalogue of scriptures on hand to wield against the enemy: scriptures that declare who Christ is, who we are in Christ, the defeat of Satan, the victory of the church, God’s willingness to heal and set captives free, and scriptures that defeat fear and temptation of every kind. As believers, our own words carry authority but the very words of God from our lips, carry even more power and authority with which to defeat and torment the enemy. Make a list, memorize them, and keep them handy.   We live in a dangerous world. Don’t leave home without your sword and remember, it’s always open carry.