On August 16th at 8 am we explored some of the thinking behind Paul’s bold statement that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. What is he on about? At our 10 am service we even made swords and inscribed Hebrews 4:12 on one side, exploring in a more hands-on way! You can find it in our sermons tab.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
As we learn to receive God’s word into our lives it cuts both ways. Wonderfully it reveals to us our broken damaged hearts and with the Spirit’s help we can turn away from this and receive the love and mercy of Jesus and the reassurance of our Father’s embrace. ( See Luke 15) We begin to discover who we really are intended to be .
However, we are also invited to a war in which we need to learn how to receive and use the word of God, directed by the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning, the battle has been about what God says. Recognising the lies we counter strike with the truth, first in our own thinking and then in our living and praying. We begin to enter into a life where we are ‘Living Free’. As part of this war, we have been encouraging gatherings of Christians from our immediate area to stand, as it were, in the shield wall in prayer.
On Sunday evening representatives from 7 churches joined with us along with a YWAM team from Perth to worship and pray together in unity. We were implementing this from Ephesians 6: 18-20.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Jesus claimed He was the Way the Truth and the Life. ( John 14:6) He also taught that the truth sets us free. John identifies Jesus as ‘the Word of God made flesh’ (John 1) and in one sense he was the Sword of the Spirit in the Father’s hand as he crushes Satan at the cross.
Here at St Nicholas, we are seeing this happening in our own lives. Other churches in our region are seeing the same thing. Have a look at our testimony tab. Look at our local baptist churches, Bunbury Vineyard, or Church of Christ. or Christ the Vine, church. We are praying for more people to encounter the glorious freedom that comes in knowing Jesus. We are praying for all the Christian churches in our area and in the South West of Australia and beyond.
As I write this today Google is in a battle in Australia about the sharing of stories and freedom of information. In the media establishing truth seems, at times, so elusive. However, if you want to explore the truth claims of Jesus please consider joining us on our next Alpha course running via Zoom from mid-October. It runs for 8 weeks and is designed for you to thoroughly explore the possibilities of a relationship with Jesus, a new life with God. You can decide if it is fake news once for all:) Register your interest via our contacts page. We look forward to welcoming you.