Your Mouth is a Weapon

And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17b)

A sword is a dangerous weapon. Before you use it to its fullest extent, you must understand whose weapon it truly is. Paul did not call it the “sword of the believer.” He called it the “sword of the Spirit.” The Greek word is Pneuma, meaning the Holy Spirit. The sword of the Spirit is His weapon. If it is His, then where is the Holy Ghost? If you are born again, Scripture says He resides inside you. That means the sword is already inside you. The Holy Ghost uses your mouth to wield it against every class of demon spirit Paul named in this passage.

The word Paul used here is rhema, not logos. That’s a very important distinction. Logos refers to the written Word: the Bible in red, black, and white that you can read with your eyes and hold in your hands. Rhema, on the other hand, is the spoken Word of God. It is an activated Word. It’s when we take the written Word of God and allow it to come out of our mouths with power in a specific, directed way. The sword is not the Bible sitting on your shelf or in your hand once a week on Sundays. The sword is the Word of God coming out of your mouth every day.

A sword in the sheath has great potential, but if it stays there, it does nothing. When you read the Word with your eyes but don’t open your mouth, you allow a powerful Word to die. Paul also used the Greek word stoma for mouth. Stoma also means the front edge of a weapon. The cutting edge of a sword is the part that actually does the work. God designed your mouth to function as the front edge of the Spirit's weapon against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and wicked spirits in heavenly places. That is not a small thing.

Practical Application

Jesus showed you how this works in the wilderness. Every time the enemy came at Him, He answered with the spoken Word. He didn’t do it with a good thought or a supernatural feeling. He declared after every attack, “It is written.” Stop being passive with your mouth in the middle of spiritual battles. Open and declare the Word of God.

Hebrews 4:12; Jeremiah 23:29