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Spiritual warfare, by its nature, is a war of faith, with the enemy coming after what we believe to be true of God. It is him trying to deceive us into believing a counterfeit lie that there is something better than God. Since the only way to defeat a lie is with truth, the word of God is our ultimate weapon. In Ephesians 6:17, Paul instructs us to take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, our only offensive weapon in spiritual battle.
Just as handling a sword requires skill, so does using the sword of the Spirit. Who else should we learn those skills from better than Jesus, who was tempted in many ways yet is without fault? Recorded in Matthew 4, we see Jesus responding to all the temptations from Satan with “It is written,” which He had written in His heart. When the word of God was applied with knowledge of the power it holds, the Spirit of the Lord brought it to life and slayed the lie and the deceitful intention behind the temptations. The key lies in ensuring that what is written in the Bible is also written in our hearts.
This brings the spiritual discipline of reading the word of God daily into frame. The enemy usually comes when we are at our weakest, just as he tempted Jesus after 40 days of fasting. He preys on our vulnerabilities, studying our weak points. That’s why it is important that we read, study, and engrave the word of God in our hearts so that, even in our weakest moments, we have a pile of “It is writtens” to take out and slay the lies of the enemy.