written by Daniel Piper
There is someone who dwells on the inside of my heart. He tells me to keep going, keep fighting and never give up. This person hands me a two-edged sword that is not made of metal. His sword speaks and is alive; being formed from the Word of God.
The sword cuts to the deepest of depths; piercing through all wisdom to expose and separate what is good from evil, truth from lie and life from death. His Word peels away the human heart from the soul forcing someone to believe or not believe, follow or not follow, obey or disobey, be born again in the Spirit or remain trapped in sin and bondage.
His Word truly is the two-edged sword.
I love His Word because it has saved my life. His Word gives life and sustains life. His Word defines and disciplines. His Word shapes and saves. His Word destroys and rescues. His Word wrecks and breaks hardened hearts and then raises them up into an eternal child of God. His Word is God and God is His Word. The Word of God lives and breathes through me. I must keep going. I must keep fighting. I must never quit.
His Word is all I have. I was created by His Word. I was saved by His Word. I was rescued by His Word. I was trapped in prison, in chains and darkness and His Word found me, unlocked the prison doors, and broke the chains and set me free!
My old self was left to die in that dark prison, but a new man was born alive through the narrow gate of His Word. The sword of His Word separates the old man from the new man. The old man cannot enter through the narrow gate of His Word.
The Sword requires death – for He himself tasted death being required of the Father. The Living Sword requires resurrection – for He himself rose from the grave three days later.
The Living Sword freely offers His death to be my death and His resurrection to be my resurrection. This is the free gift of salvation!
As I walk through the narrow gate, I am now free indeed! The Sword broke the chains of death upon me forever! The prison walls have no claim on me! His resurrection is my resurrection! His eternal life is my eternal life!
How can I ever go back to the prison walls of my death?
The Spirit of His Living Word helps me and comforts me when I may stumble or fall. The Spirit of truth continually reminds me – I was once dead in sin and now I am resurrected by the straight and narrow Word. His Word leads to the wellsprings of eternal life. I am hemmed in on all sides by His Living Word. I escape temptation through His Word. I am safe and secure dwelling in the rock of His Word.
His Word is the very source of my being. I would not be alive if He did not speak me into existence. I would not be saved into His eternal life, if he did not search, find and rescue me from the prison walls of death.
My life is indebted to His actions.
I find life and purpose in His Word. His Word makes me into a flower to blossom and spread His gospel of salvation for a short time. But there will be a day when I am no longer here. I feel the physical fade. I feel the flower’s weakness and frailty. This blossom is short, like a vapor in the wind.
So who am I to choke the Word of God from producing fruit for others to receive? Who am I to stop God’s Word from flourishing through me?
If I don’t let His Word flow through me than I am an enemy of my Creator.
If I refuse to live out my only purpose, this makes me a rebel to the Savior who set me free.
How dare I do such a terrible thing of rejecting the Creator and Savior of my life? I am indebted to His Word. I am enslaved to His Word. Without His Word, I would be going back to the prison of darkness and death. His Word is life and freedom. And now He is using me to spread His free salvation to others. He is using me to shine His light of truth on the prison doors. So how dare I stop the flow of the two-edged sword.
Oh praise God that he has chosen me to carry His Word into the prison walls.
Oh praise God that he has rescued me from the bondage of sin and set me free as His eternal child.
Oh praise God that he destroyed my old man and resurrected me into a holy, eternal temple of His Living Word.
Oh praise God that he drowned away my castle of sinking sand and rebuilt my life upon the immovable, unshakable, solid rock of His Word.
So what can man do to me?
I have already been carved to pieces by the Word of God, the two-edged sword. There is nothing left for man to destroy.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John1: 1, 14 ESV
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” – John 6:63 ESV
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” – Isaiah 61:1 ESV