The Power of the Bible

Some of you may have already heard about Pastor Greg Laurie’s problem with his poster being placed in an Orange County mall. Basically: He sent 2 posters (pictured bellow) to this mall to advertise the event. But on the poster it had a photo of him holding a Bible. A couple days went by and people saw it as “offensive”. Then, due to the pressure of complaints, they took the posters down. Why is the Bible so offensive, it’s because of the power that’s in it; let’s discuss.

Ephesians 6:17 says "Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Paul calls the Word of God a sword of the Spirit. This sword is used to fight and for defense. But let’s take a closer look at what Paul is meaning. In the Roman Empire times, 4 types of swords were used. In this verse when it mentions “sword” it is the machaira sword type (pictured below). This type of sword was a new invention due to it being the first sword that has two sharpened edges to it. Now knowing our Bibles, where do we hear about a double edged sword? It’s in Hebrews 4.

Now, the first part of Hebrews 4: 12 says "For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword..." Notice that the sword, like in Ephesians, is double edged. In the Greek it would read “two-mouthed” (distomos) meaning that God spoke it first, but then to release it and swing it, we must speak it and believe it as well. But there's more, there is a word used in the Bible for a type of word. this word is "rhema" which is a word or scripture that the Holy Spirit quickens in you coming with faith to believe God’s promises. The rhema word becomes like a sword you would use in a real battle against the words of the enemy (the lies).

This is why a culture and a generation that has become infected by the devil’s lies, when it encounters the truth, it does not want to look at it because of the power in and behind it. This is why we must, as a the Body of Christ, know what our weapons are. If you go to war and do not know what or how to use your weapons, you will get injured. But it’s time to sing our sword inn faith and fight!