Fourth Sword - The Sword of the Spirit

There is a fourth sword that we as believers have that takes us to a whole new level. The Bible calls it the sword of the spirit. Ephesians 6:17 says,

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the [rhema] word of God.

That sword is a spoken word; a rhema word. It is releasing God’s power and authority together using your mouth.

Jesus gave us the supreme example of this. And John gave us a beautiful description of this when he saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos. Revelation 1:16 says,

And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his face [was] as the sun shines in its strength.

You as a believer have been given an additional sword to add to the three that are native to all human beings. That gives you the possibility to accomplish far more in this life than any unbeliever can accomplish.

But do you know what we do as believers? We look to the world as our model and our example and we envy them.

Sometimes we also envy those that appear to have risen up, have tapped into the power of God, and have been used by Him to do mighty things.

Not long ago I complained to the Lord. I said,

“Lord it is not fair.”

I gave Him a whole list of names and said,

“You took these people and you lifted them up and made them famous. You gave them your power, and they are doing signs, wonders, and miracles, and they have a huge following all over the world. They are wealthy and they have everything, but Lord why didn’t you do it for me?”

He said to me, “I am not the one who failed. The ball is in your court. What are you going to do with it? I have given you all that you need.

Do you think that it was just handed to these men and women? They paid a price and made an effort. They used what I had given them and they rose up.”

It didn’t happen overnight. What are you doing to rise up and become the thing that you desire? Are you still waiting for God to open the door? Are you still waiting for God to make it happen in your life?

You have the power in your hands. I don’t care what circumstances you grew up in. You have in your hands all that you need to succeed.

Using Your Swords

How do you use your swords? They have latent powers that you must use. Don’t wait for God to do it. But God will take these powers and He will add to them through His Spirit.

He will do it first through His Spirit who comes to live inside of us when we are born again. He will do it by a power that we can tap from deep within and which we call the Internal Anointing.

He will do it by His power that comes upon you which we call the External Anointing. And these are all available to you freely. He didn’t just give them to His favorites.

You might say, “I was just not born with any real talents. That guy there was lucky. It was just handed to him on a platter.”

Stop making excuses. What have you been given? You have been given something. You have latent powers, so what are you doing with them?

If you want the additional power of God’s Spirit, all you need to do is ask for it. It is free. Just ask for it and receive it by faith using the arm of faith which I taught you about. Then start making use of it.

You have been given resources through the Word. You need to read it and learn from it. If you don’t, you won’t know some of the powerful principles that you could use to build a very successful and powerful life, ministry, or career; whatever it is that you desire in this world.

You need to get some of them into your memory if you want to tap into the full power that is in the Word. God said to Joshua in Joshua 1:8,

This book of the law will not cease [to come] out of your mouth, but you will meditate on it daily and at night

Why?

so that you are sure to carry out everything that is being written in it:

That is something for you to do. And if you do that, this will happen.

Then you will cause your journey in life to be prosperous.

So God says, “If you do this I will cause your journey in life to be prosperous.”

Right? No, it doesn’t say that. It says,

“You will cause your journey in life to be prosperous, and then you will succeed wisely.”

You might say, “I don’t feel like spending a long time in the Word. I don’t feel like doing what God told me to do.”

Then do not complain about those who bothered to do that, rose up, and built a life that you are envying right now.

Maximizing Your Sword’s Capabilities

A sword has to be yielded before it can work, so you must identify your swords. You need to sharpen them, develop them, and learn how to use them. Then you need to take that power and do something with it.

You have swords that you were born with. And if you are born again you have additional power in your spirit. If you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, again you have extra power that has been made available to you.

Don’t you think it is time you start using your swords?

How do you do that? Start by making a plan for your life. What kind of life do you hope to live? You might say to me,

“We will just play it by ear and see what comes tomorrow.”

Well, you are living by the seat of your pants. That is the expression they use. You say,

“I am living by the seat of my pants. Some days are good; some are bad.”

There is an expression that says some days are diamonds; some days are gold. No, you choose what will happen.

Get a Core Desire

You need to start with a core desire. You have heard me speaking about this plenty of times, but I have had people asking me,

“How do you get a core desire?”

I covered this in fairly good detail in my book called Building the Dove. If you haven’t read that book it is time you do. It is a very powerful book on the fruit of the Spirit and all that God has given us.

I may even do a complete teaching specifically on a core desire. But here is a simple answer for you.

A core desire is developed by what you see with your eyes in the world round about you which you learn from your body. It is what you see in your mind and your thoughts. And then you ask God for confirmation, direction, and permission.

He confirms it and says,

“Go ahead and do that.”

If you add those three together, every part of your being is actively involved in creating this desire.

For example, you may have seen somebody who is accomplishing something. They have a talent or an ability, or they have succeeded in something in life. You look at them and say,

“Wow, I would like to be able to do that also.”

That is the start of a desire. But it is not enough of a desire, because it will soon fade as you experience and see other things.

But then you start to let it fill your mind and you meditate on it. You think it, visualize and see yourself doing that and it becomes a stronger desire. If you keep doing that over and over again, that desire begins to grow in you.

Then you just bring that desire to the Lord and ask Him about it. If you have never journaled it is time you do. Learn how to journal and ask God, otherwise, look in His Word.

It is better to journal about it. And if you really have to, maybe someone will prophesy over you and confirm to you what you have already been desiring.

That is actually all a prophet is meant to do. It is not meant to give you the news that surprises you, where you think,

“Oh, I didn’t think I was going to do that. It is strange that God chose that for me.”

A lot of the time God didn’t choose it for you. The prophet did. Don’t believe every prophecy from every little flaky prophet who prophesies over you what they think you should do.

You decide what you want to do and then ask God. Say,

“Lord, should I do this?”

The Lord says, “Yes, this is of me. Go for it.”

That is all I need and I have a core desire. I have seen it. I’ve dreamed it, meditated on it, and thought about it. Then God said to do it, so what is stopping me?

Nothing in this world is stopping me. I’m going to go out, and as Paul said,

“I’m going to press for the mark until I get to it.”

You will have to lay out some plans once you have that core desire. How are you going to obtain the thing that you desire?Again you might say,

“We’ll wait and see. God will bring it to pass. He’ll make it just happen for me.”

I am 72 and I’m still waiting for God to make things happen for me. So far with everything that has happened, I got tired of waiting for God and said,

“Okay Lord, I’m going to do this.”

He said, “What have you been waiting for?”

Then I did it. I could have kicked myself for the years that I wasted.

If you are young you should be doing this now. Don’t wait until you are old like me. Do it now.

Take Action

Once you have made your plans, set those plans into action. You might say,

“I am waiting for the right time.”

You could die before then. Do you know when is the right time?

You might say to me,

“I am going to lose weight, so I am going to start dieting from Monday.”

Which Monday are you talking about, because Monday never comes? The Bible says in Isaiah 49:8,

Thus says the LORD [Yahweh], In an acceptable time, have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you:

Make up your mind and start acting now. If you are always acting now, you will always be doing it until it happens.

It is going to take courage and boldness to pull this off. There are a whole lot of people who are going to feel that they are called by God to tell you that you are making a mistake. They will tell you that you are being fleshly and unspiritual or that you are in deception.

You are going to get a lot of opposition. Satan is going to tell you that you imagined it and God is not going to do this for you. He will say that you are being fleshly and worldly and he will throw everything at you to stop you from doing it.

Be Bold

Brush those things aside. Then step out and go for the mark in boldness and in faith.

Step into God’s power. Get into His Word and into His presence daily. Hear from Him daily. As I said if you haven’t learned how to journal, learn and get practicing.

Spend time in prayer listening to Him. You can even get a word from God by speaking in tongues and interpreting your own tongue. You can prophesy over yourself. All of these things are possible to hear God’s Word.

The important thing is to hear from God daily. That is how you get your plans into action.

Build Your Abundant Life

Start building your abundant life because your time is limited. Actually, you don’t even know how much time you have.

I must just qualify that. God hasn’t decided your time. He hasn’t decided that your life will end at a certain time. That again lies in your hands.

If you give Satan the opportunity, he will take your life away and stop you from fulfilling your dreams and your plans. He doesn’t want you to be happy.

So plan as though you are going to live forever. For all we know, Jesus could come or our life could end.

Today may be the last day I am alive. I don’t know that unless God has revealed it to me.

I know that I am not going to die just yet because the Lord has given me a whole lot of future plans for what I will do. And He has promised me that He will make sure that if I trust Him, He will take me through to fulfill those.

So I am not planning to die for a while. Satan keeps trying to sidetrack me and tell me that I have something seriously wrong with me. He tells me that I am sick and that I could die.

I tell him, “Take those lies back to hell where they came from! Because God’s Word is truth, and He promises me health, wealth, and favor wherever I go.”

Take your swords and make the most of what God has given you. Take what you have and develop it. Develop your swords. Develop your physical characteristics, as well as your mental, emotional and volitional characteristics.

Develop your spiritual power until it rises up and you have a flaming sword in your hand. Then take that sword and get out there. Build the life that you desire and that God intends you to have because that is what He wants for you. He wants you to be blessed in all things.

“Father I thank you for your Word. I gave it as you gave it to me. I hope that you have challenged your people. I hope that you have brought conviction to some and inspiration to others.

Lord, I ask you to set a fire in each one to get out and accomplish in this world. Because the only way you will be glorified Lord, is when we take what you have given us and use it with your power, to build your kingdom and to build the kind of life that you designed for us to have.

Thank you, Lord, that it may be a humble task that we are satisfied with, a desire to rise up and conquer and do big things, or a desire to rise up in ministry and to reach many people for you.

Whatever that desire is Lord, I pray that you will inspire your people to get going and to use what you have given them, to accomplish every single desire and to build this abundant life. I ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

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