Ephesians 6:17 - "Which is the Word of God"

One of theclearest verses in the Bible that speaks about the Word of God being the swordof God in found in Hebrews 4:12. “For the Word of God is quick and powerfuland sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul andspirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts andintents of the heart.” First,this verse says the Bible is “quick”, which literally means it's aliving book. It's alive. It's not a dead book. It tells us the Word of God ispowerful! When this Bible is used as the sword of the Spirit, my friend, it cando wonderful and awesome things for the glory of God. And it is sharper than aphysical material sword so that it is “a discerner of the thoughts andintents of the heart”. You see, a physical sword can pierce the body, butthe Word of God pierces the heart. It doesn't pierce to destroy. It pierces toreveal. It pierces to convict. It pierces to heal. That'swhy on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached, he preached the Bible from theOld Testament Scriptures. Acts 2:37 tells us what happened at the end of hismessage with the response of those who heard it, "Now when they heardthis, they heard his message based on the word of God, they were pricked intheir hearts." Later, speaking of the religious leaders in Acts 5:33,as Peter again spoke the Word of God, it says, "And when they heardthis, they were cut to the heart." That's the sword of the Spirit atwork. It cuts through pride. It cuts through excuses. It cuts through religiousperformance. It cuts through deception. It gets right down to the truth. Rememberin 2 Corinthians 4:4 where Paul was writing about the people that are withoutChrist. He said that they are blinded by Satan: “Whom the god of this worldhas blinded the minds of those that believe not”. Now how do you deal withthat? How do you overcome that deception of Satan? You do it with the Word ofGod, with the Word and Testimony of Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures! Itopens their eyes to see who Jesus really is and what life is really all about. Weneed to always remember how the Word of God is alive and it's sharper than anytwo-edged sword.  Whatis also interesting about it, when you use the Word, it gets sharper with use,not duller. A physical sword gets duller the more you use it. But the Word ofGod's not like that. The more you use the Word, the sharper it becomes in yourlife. The more you handle the Scriptures, the more Scripture begins to handleyou. The more you yield it in battle, the more confident and skilled that youcan become with it. My friend, you don't become strong in the word by admiringthe Bible on your shelf. You become strong in the Word by opening it daily,reading it, believing it, and memorizing it, and applying it to your life. Weneed to remember that Satan is no match for the Word of God. In Matthew 16:18,Jesus said, “Upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell willnot prevail or can stand against it”. When youtake up the sword of the spirit and you can advance against the gates of hellitself. They cannot stand against you with the sword of Spirit in your heartand hand. Why? You're using God's mighty weapon, the Word of the sword of the Spirit.You're not dealing with anything that you can see in a sense. You're dealingwith the forces and principalities of the air. No powers, no rulers ofdarkness, no wicked spirits, not even Satan himself has a defense against the Wordof God when it's rightly used. Myfriend, that's why the devil, Satan works so hard to keep Christians distractedfrom the Bible, bored with the Bible, confused about the Bible, shallow intheir knowledge of scripture, and dependent on feelings instead of truth. Todayif the devil can keep the sword of the Spirit out of your hand, you will not beable to stand and move forward in the Christian experience as you should.