PEACEFUL WARFARE

Spiritual Warfare, with weapons that are never carnal and in a battle already won, is oft difficult to apprehend by those who grasp the hilt of a natural sword.

I hand carved a huge sword once from wood. Even though it was artificial I felt the desire in the blade to hew and hack at human limbs. Strange, I thought, to feel such a violent reaction with a sculpture of wood in the image of a carnal weapon.

It soon dawned upon me that scripture did not say that the Word of God is a sword. It says it is sharper than any sword and names God's Word, "Sword of the Spirit". The picture of its use is most often proceeding from the mouth, not grasped by a hand.

Recently I was given another wooden sword. In a spiritual ceremony birthed by the Spirit through a dear friend, it was clearly not the symbol of carnal weaponry. In the same time frame, I heard a message where the speaker mentioned something like, "it's not a god of war that subdues the enemy, but the God of Peace." (re: Rom. 16:20)

May the God of Hope and of Peace be the One that trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle. Lay down arrogant ideas of our own abilities to do battle. May we take our posts in believing and trusting. He is not finished with us.