enjoying Christ

We need to receive the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints; we apply all the items of God’s armour by prayer. Amen!

This week we have been prayerfully considering how Christ is the Giver of gifts to the Body and how Christ is the constituents of God’s armour, as seen in Ephesians chapters 4 and 6.

On the one hand, Christ is the One who gives gifts to the Body for the building up of the Body; this is for Him to have a corporate expression on the earth.

On the other hand, Christ is the reality of the constituents of God’s armour so that the church may be the corporate warrior fighting the spiritual warfare; this is for the exercise of God’s dominion.

This fulfils God’s original intention in creating man; as seen in Genesis 1:26, God created man in His image and according to His likeness so that He may have a corporate man to express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion.

The first man, Adam, failed God, but Christ came and produced the church, the Body of Christ.

Now the church as the Body of Christ and the corporate warrior fulfil God’s eternal purpose in creating man, for the Body of Christ expresses God and the corporate warrior fights the spiritual warfare to deal with God’s enemy. Hallelujah!

Christ came and fought the battle, defeated the enemy, took Satan’s captives and made them His captives. We who were captives of Satan were released from his captivity, and we were made captives of Christ.

Christ took us in a train of vanquished foes and brought us to the Father to give us to the Father as gifts, and the Father gave us back to Christ; then, Christ gave us, each one of us, as gifts to His Body.

On the one hand, there are some who have a larger measure according to the grace given to them by God, and they are the gifted persons. On the other hand, each and every believer in Christ is a gift to the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is built up through the function of every member of the Body who is being perfected to build up the Body of Christ.

The Body builds itself up in love, as all the perfected members of the Body function for the building up of the Body.

May we be those who allow the Lord to perfect us today, and may we also enjoy and experience Christ as the constituents of God’s armour to be perfected and built up as the church, the spiritual warrior, to fight the spiritual warfare and deal with God’s enemy!

Receive the Sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God, to Defeat and Slay the Enemy

Ephesians 6:17 tells us that we need to receive the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.

In this portion of the Word we see six items of God’s armour; among all of them, only the sword of the Spirit is for attacking the enemy.

The sword of the Spirit is to cut the enemy into pieces. Before we can receive the sword of the Spirit, however, we need to take up many other items which are for our defense and for our standing in spiritual battle.

First, we need to put on the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, and then take up the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.

All these protect us and cover us, enabling us to be fully covered and to stand in spiritual warfare. When we’re protected in such a way by all the defensive items of the spiritual armour, we may receive the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.

Christ as the Spirit and the Word furnishes us with a sword as an offensive weapon for us to defeat and slay the enemy.

This doesn’t mean that we merely have to memorise the verses and chapters in the Bible and then speak them to the enemy.

Rather, the logos – the constant word of the Bible – needs to become rhema – the present, instant, living speaking of the Spirit to us.

The word of God needs to become the living word, the Spirit who gives life. This is what we see in John 6:63: the flesh profits nothing, but the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit and are life.

When the constant word in the Bible becomes the living, present, instant speaking of the Spirit, this living word is the sword that cuts the enemy to pieces. Amen!

We all can testify that, as we read the Bible day by day, many times we just read it to get more knowledge and to be renewed in our mind.

But we also need to pray over the word of God, exercising our spirit and opening to the Lord, so that the word of God will become the sword of the Spirit, the living word that will defeat and slay the enemy.

We may read a verse again and again, and we may even memorise it and be able to recite it; however, this may be just logos to us. Such a word cannot defeat the enemy.

However, when the Lord speaks this word to us one day, it becomes rhema to us, and this present, instant, living speaking of the Spirit becomes the sword of the Spirit to slay and defeat Satan.

Satan is not only the enemy without but also the adversary within. When we speak of having the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy, we need to realise that first the adversary within needs to be slain by the living word of God!

The more we read and pray the Word of God, the more we take in the Word of God by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:18), the more the Word has killing power, becoming the sword of the Spirit to slay the adversary within and kill the enemy without.

We do not use the Word of God to attack other people or to subdue others; we exercise our spirit over the word of God so that the word becomes living and operative (Heb. 4:12) to slay the adversary within and kill the enemy without.

May we daily practice to come to God’s word not only to receive more spiritual knowledge or nourishment, but even more, to have the word of God become the sword of the Spirit for spiritual warfare.

Both the Spirit and the Word are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13); when we exercise our spirit over the word of God, the constant word becomes the living word of God, slaying the adversary within and killing the enemy without.

Thank the Lord that Christ as the Spirit and the Word furnishes us with a sword as an offensive weapon for us to defeat and slay the enemy.

May we allow the Lord to speak to us in a living way so that we may have the adversary within us slain!

May we corporately read and pray God’s word to be filled with the living word of God for us to have the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy in spiritual warfare!

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to receive the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition! Amen, Lord, we come to Your word with the exercise of our spirit to not only receive nourishment and knowledge but even more, to have the sword of the Spirit! Speak to us in Your word. May the constant word in the Bible become the present, instant, living speaking of the Spirit to us! Oh Lord, shine on us through Your word! Enlighten us and expose us! May the living word of God operate in us to divide the soul from the spirit. May Your living, instant, spoken word slay the adversary within and kill the enemy without! Oh Lord Jesus, save us from merely having just Bible knowledge in our head without coming to You to receive Your speaking! May we exercise our spirit as we come to Your word so that You may speak to us a living word that will slay the adversary within and kill the enemy without! Amen, Lord, we say Amen to Your word!

Apply the Armour of God by Prayer – by Means of All Prayer and Petition, Praying at every time in Spirit and Watching unto this

Ephesians 6:18 says, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.

How do we receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (verse 17)? It is by means of all prayer and petition. We need to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition day by day.

This means that we need to not only read God’s word but pray it, using prayer and petition, even all prayer and petition, as the means for receiving the word of God so that we may have the sword of the Spirit.

Actually, we may consider prayer as the seventh item of the armour of God, because prayer is the means by which we apply all the other items.

The unique way for us to apply the armour of God is prayer. The unique way to enjoy and experience Christ as the constituents of God’s armour is prayer. It is through prayer that the armour of God becomes available and practical to us in our experience today.

We can’t apply the armour of God unless we pray. Merely understanding and agreeing with all the constituents of God’s armour means nothing; the spiritual battle is not in our mind but in our spirit.

We need to be in our spirit, we need to exercise our spirit, and we need to use our spirit when we come to God’s word so that we may pray and apply all the items of God’s armour. Amen!

The armour of God that covers us is Christ realised by us as our truth (the girdle), righteousness (the breastplate), peace (the firm foundation), faith (the shield), and salvation (the helmet).

Truth is the girdle that strengthens us to stand in spiritual warfare; we apply the truth and have the truth by means of prayer through the exercise of our spirit (Eph. 6:14).

Righteousness is the breastplate to cover us from the attacks of the enemy in spiritual warfare; we apply Christ as our righteousness by exercising our spirit and praying to experience Christ as our righteousness both objectively and subjectively (Eph. 6:14).

The gospel of peace is our firm foundation in spiritual warfare; we apply the gospel of peace by exercising our spirit and praying, taking in God’s word and speaking the gospel of peace (v. 15; Col. 3:15).

Faith is our shield to protect us from the enemy’s fiery darts in spiritual warfare; we apply the shield of faith by exercising our spirit of faith to stand against the enemy and believe into the Lord and in His word (Eph. 6:16; Heb. 12:2).

Salvation is our helmet covering our mind and our thinking from the enemy’s attacks; we apply and take salvation as our helmet by exercising our spirit to believe that Christ is daily saving us in His life and all things turn out to salvation for us (Eph. 6:17; Phil. 1:19).

The word of God is the sword of the Spirit to slay the adversary within and kill the enemy without; we take the word of God by means of all prayer with the exercise of our spirit so that the word becomes living and operative, even to be the sword for killing the enemy (Eph. 6:18; John 5:39; 6:63). Amen!

May we be those who daily experience Christ as our girdle of truth, our righteousness covering our conscience, the gospel of peace strengthening us to stand to fight the spiritual warfare, our faith to shield our entire being from the attacks of the enemy, and as our salvation to cover our minds against Satan’s thoughts.

May we experience Christ day by day as the word of God becoming the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy.

Both as individual believers and as the Body of Christ, we need to learn to apply Christ as the constituents of God’s armour by exercising our spirit to pray.

As the church, we are the corporate warrior fighting the battle in the Lord; we need to be inwardly empowered with Christ as the heavenly dynamo and outwardly clothed with Christ as the constituents of God’s armour!

This means that we need to be mingled more with Christ, for He is the reality of the constituents of God’s armour, through the exercise of our spirit to pray.

May we learn to pray at all times in spirit, even petition the Lord both concerning us and concerning all the saints, so that we may apply the armour of God to us as the Body and fight the battle in the Lord!

It is prayer that makes the armour available to us in a practical way. May we not only understand this or agree with this, but pray this to the Lord!

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray all kinds of prayers and petitions so that we may apply Christ as the constituents of God’s armour in our experience! Hallelujah, prayer is the unique way for us to apply the armour of God and to have this armour applied to us in our experience! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to experience Christ as our girdle of truth, our righteousness covering our conscience, and the gospel of peace to strengthen our stand to fight the spiritual warfare! We exercise our spirit to pray and apply Christ as our faith to shield our entire being from the attacks of the enemy. Oh Lord, we exercise our spirit to pray and apply Christ as our salvation to cover our mind against the negative thoughts Satan seeks to inject into our mind. We exercise our spirit to pray all prayer and even petition the Lord concerning ourselves and all the saints so that we may take the word of God in a living way to have the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy! Amen, Lord Jesus, empower us inwardly with Christ as the heavenly dynamo and clothe us outwardly with Christ as the constituents of God’s armour for us to be able to fight the spiritual warfare as the Body and in the Body!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3467-3470, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 24 (msg. 12), The Giver of Gifts and the Constituents of God’s Armor.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Slaying religion with the sword of the Spirit, a portion from, The Revelation of the Mystery, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee.
  – Ephesians (Program #57) – The Whole Armor of God (2), via, Bible study radio.
  – Setting our mind on the spirit, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Prayer—Our Spiritual Breathing, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Pray-reading the Word, a portion from, The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – Prepare by Praying the Word in Spirit, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Practicing to pray-read the Word of God, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – Why Read the Bible? To Slay God’s Adversary! More via, Holding to Truth in love.
  – What is Pray-reading the Word? More via, The hearing of Faith.
  – Pray-reading, via, The meetings and spiritual exercise of the local church.
  – Pray-reading the Bible, via, Conversant Faith.
  – What is it to Exercise Our Spirit? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
  – Does the Ministry Replace the Bible? More via, Shepherding words.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, / Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, / Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, / Standing on the promises of God. / Standing on the promises I shall not fall, / List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s call. / Resting in my Savior as my All in all, / Standing on the promises of God. (Hymns #340 stanzas 4-5)
  – The name of Jesus is our stand, / It is our victory; / Not on ourselves do we rely, / But, mighty Lord, on Thee. / Our weapons are not arms of flesh, / But ours the Spirit’s sword, / And God’s whole armor putting on, / We battle in the Lord. (Hymns #887 stanza 1)
  – Each time, Lord, when reading in Thy holy Word, / I pray that Thy glory may shine on each line, / That clearly I’ll see what a Savior I have / And how great salvation that Thou hast made mine. / When helpless I come, Lord, to kneel at Thy throne, / I pray Thee to hear me and grant me Thy grace; / If thru my shortcomings Thou hear not my prayer, / Withdraw not Thy presence, O hide not Thy face. (Hymns #389 stanza 3)