For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12 ESV

It is said that the best offense is a good defense. This is often used in military strategy. It is the belief that a proactive attitude, rather than a passive attitude, will keep the opposition preoccupied and hinder its ability to mount an attack. The Bible describes God’s word as the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). It is the only defensive weapon mentioned when Paul describes the armor that God provides us in Ephesians chapter 6.

A while back a friend of mine said something that I really liked. She said that she had several verses of scripture memorized. She went on to say that she carries the Sword of the Spirit with her and she’s not afraid to come out swinging. Now I take this to heart because I have experienced something similar in the past few years.

You see, I have had situations where the enemy has attacked me. By this, I mean the devil working through people. And in the midst of this attack there were many harsh words I could have used to respond. I had lots of ammo because these people had done so much wrong and hurt so many people. But I knew this was not what God wanted. You see if I had lashed out at them in anger about their past sins, I would have been judging them. This is not my job, this is God’s job. Far be it from me to try to take on God’s job. So before I responded, I prayed. God gave me scripture. I have found that something interesting happens when I use scripture when someone is attacking. First of all, it stops the enemy in its tracks. It totally diffuses the situation. God’s word shields me from further attack (Proverbs 30:5).

When we use our words, we are elevating ourselves. We are trying to prove to the enemy that we are smarter than they are. When we use God’s words, we humble ourselves. We show that we trust God and surrender to Him. We allow Him to handle the enemy. We give the battle to the Lord and after all, it belongs to Him anyway, right (2 Chronicles 20:15)? Sadly, this is where the problem comes in. So many of us are holding in so much anger that we are just itching for a good fight. So we sit and we wait for someone to mess up and we are ready to throw our words of anger and hatred right back at them. We are ready to show them who is boss.

But, this is bad for us. While we may think that we have superior intelligence which gives us the upper hand, we are actually just being prideful. And we know that God hates pride (Proverbs 6:16-17). God gives us wisdom which trumps intelligence. God given wisdom is what protects us and keeps us safe. It’s nothing that we do on our own. Our mouths actually get us into trouble. We need God given wisdom to know when to keep them closed.

When we use God’s words instead of our own, we are letting God know that we trust Him to handle this situation. We let him know that we are not so prideful that we can’t give it over to Him.

I will close with this story. Several years ago, I asked the enemy for a simple favor not for myself but for a loved one. I got a scathing email explaining why they would not do this. I had lots of ammo and I prepared myself to fire off an email listing all that they had done wrong and how horrible I thought they were. But God stopped me and I prayed. God gave me three passages of scripture. So instead, I typed out these three passages of scripture and with each I put a short paragraph applying it to our situation. A couple days later, the enemy humbled themselves and granted my request. See how easy that was.

My boss used to tell me to never argue with an idiot because they will bring you down to their level and beat you to death with experience. Stop the arguing and counter attacks, just come out swinging your Sword of the Spirit. Study God’s word so that you can be prepared in any situation to defend yourself with the Sword of the Spirit. Jesus used scripture when he was tempted by the devil after his 40 days in the wilderness. Let His example be a guide for you. Trust in Him. Pray before you speak.

The Bible tells us that we will give an account for every idle word that we speak (Matthew 12:36-37). If we use God’s words we will have no worries. When the enemy attacks, come out swinging!

Have a great day!