V a l o r L e a d e r B l o g

Spiritual Training-Spiritual Weapons

One char­ac­ter qual­ity of a dis­ci­ple is a reg­u­lar study of God’s Word. John 8:31. We know that both a dis­ci­ple and a sol­dier must abide in train­ing. The mil­i­tary spends lots of time and money train­ing a sol­dier to act with instincts in the most dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions. The word of God trains a dis­ci­ple to be able to dis­cern good and evil and be equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17).

Think about the hours of train­ing you are endur­ing to equip you to fully per­form your mil­i­tary duty. Think of the equip­ment and weapons you are being trained to oper­ate and exe­cute. What kind of mil­i­tary man or woman would you be with­out your equip­ment or your training?

God trains us and equips us to fully fol­low Jesus as His dis­ci­ple.. He equips us for bat­tle. The fol­low­ing pas­sage is cast in mil­i­tary terms.

Eph. 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our strug­gle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the pow­ers, against the world forces of this dark­ness, against the spir­i­tual forces of wicked­ness in the heav­enly places. 13 There­fore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and hav­ing done every­thing, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm there­fore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15 and hav­ing shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16 in addi­tion to all, tak­ing up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extin­guish all the flam­ing arrows of the evil one. 17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (NASB95)

There are many com­par­isons we can make with this pas­sage; how­ever, I would like to focus on one aspect. We know we should abide in the word because God uses it to train us. But notice that it is also our weapon. It is the “sword of the Spirit.

The word of God not only trains us, but it is the weapon we use when we are in the mid­dle of the bat­tle. This is an impor­tant con­cept to think about. It trains us, and it is our weapon.

When­ever I attend mil­i­tary brief­ings made to civil­ians, there is always one thing that the mil­i­tary attrib­utes our dom­i­nant world power to. It is not our supe­rior weapons, tech­nol­ogy, or num­bers of troops. It is the qual­ity of our mil­i­tary men and women. It is the fact that the U.S. mil­i­tary puts more time and money into train­ing than any other coun­try. Our pilots have more train­ing flight hours, our sailors have more time at sea, and our sol­diers have more time with their weapons. Not only are they trained to use their equip­ment, but also they are trained to make deci­sions that are right and just. Marines are con­sid­ered Teach­ers and Schol­ars. Always learn­ing, always teach­ing. Our U.S. mil­i­tary puts much time and money into the devel­op­ment of the indi­vid­ual mil­i­tary per­son so that they can be the best that they can be.

The great­est weapon against ter­ror­ism is a highly trained mil­i­tary per­son. So the train­ing becomes the great­est weapon. The abil­ity of a mil­i­tary per­son to be strong, to stand firm, and to apply the sword in bat­tle is a result of their training.

As a dis­ci­ple of Jesus, the Word of God not only trains us, but it makes us into the great­est weapon against the schemes of the devil. As you are bat­tling for the hearts and souls of those around you, and even your­self, what are the weapons that are unbeat­able? Love, humil­ity, for­give­ness, peace, trust, faith, hope, etc… God uses the Word to train us to have such unbeat­able weapons. We become the weapons. We become love, for­give­ness, peace, trust, faith, hope, etc…

The great­est weapon against the schemes of the devil is a fully devoted fol­lower of Jesus. So our spir­i­tual matu­rity becomes the great­est weapon. The abil­ity of a dis­ci­ple of Jesus to be strong, to stand firm, and to apply the Word of God in bat­tle is a result of their training.

“If you abide in My word, then you are truly dis­ci­ples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32)