By James Holland, Sr.

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There will always be a battle after every breakthrough in our walk and growth in God. That battle will focus upon one front. The Word of God in our lives.

 

The Weapon of the Word

 

Where is your Bible? Is it laying on the dash of your car? Is it just lying on a table somewhere in your house? Or do you just leave it on your favorite pew at church for convenience?

While it is honorable to own a Bible and everyone should, I must remind you that merely owning one will not guarantee your victory over your enemy. We must open the Bible and get the Word in our mind and spirit, so like a seed, it can be planted in our spirit and it will begin to grow. The most used terms in scripture is “The Word of God,” “The Word of the Lord,” “The Lord said,” and “The Lord spoke.” This Word has a “life force” that is released in us when we read it, study it and meditate upon it. There is no other Book to date like the Bible. It is God in ink. It is God’s thoughts, God’s feelings about us and about life and eternity.

 

Yet, it’s like any other book if you just own one and never read it! In fact, you may have a Bible or any other book for that matter and say you own it, it’s yours. The truth, however, is you don’t really own it until you read it and allow it to become a part of your life, your decisions, and your thinking process. We must use the awesome power of the Word to do war against the enemy.

I Peter 1:23 says, “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

 

Did you catch that? The word lives and abides in us. Jesus said, “he that abideth in me and I in him shall bring forth much fruit.” Our fruit is maturity and victory over our own flesh. We must allow the Word of God to become a controlling factor in our lives. That is, our decisions and our responses to the things needed to be influenced by the Word of God at work in our lives. If we are going to be effective in this war, then we must stand and believe the Word of God even during times of testing. There will be many times of testing. In Numbers 21:8, we see the Lord instructing Moses to raise a brass serpent up in the midst of the people so that they would be healed from the bites of the fiery serpents.

 

The key word in the verse is looketh. It means to be occupied and influenced with what we are looking at. This is the equivalent of Abraham’s refusing to consider his own body and waxing strong in faith by looking unto the promises of God. Does this mean that Abraham was ignoring his physical condition and simply saying I am not actually getting older? No, certainly not. There is floating around in the Christian community a so called faith that I call “voodoo” faith. That is those who embrace this mindset simply say, “Ignore the real situation, and don’t acknowledge them in any way and they will just go away!”

 

Real faith, however, acknowledges reality, yet does not limit the outcome to the reality of the situation but allows a higher principle to begin to intervene. It’s called faith in God’s word. Daniel never denied he was in a lion’s den. The Hebrew brethren never denied they were put into a furnace. So what, then is the proper understanding of the above scripture about Abraham not considering his body and waxing strong in faith? Simply that Abraham did not merely allow his physical limits or the limits of the laws of nature to be the final determining factor. He didn’t deny those things, he, simply acknowledged them, and looked to the power of God’s promise in His Word that had been made to him!

 

The released Word produced life force in him as it does in us! We must use the Word properly in our lives for it to produce the proper results! Satan is always afraid of God’s word when it is released properly into our lives and most certainly when it is used properly against him. He must come under subjection to God’s word as must everything else. Jesus shows us how to use the Word in the wilderness temptation.

 

Notice, when Jesus was faced with the temptation (Matthew 4:11), how Satan tried to tempt his flesh, his emotions, and his carnal reason. Jesus relied not on carnal reason or emotion to fight back. He released the power of the Word. Jesus knew the authority of the Word. Do we? In order for Satan to convince Adam and Eve to sin he had to plant doubt in their minds about the Word of God. We all know the results of that. So, get the Word in your spirit.

 

What gives the Word of God authority? Because, it’s God’s word. The Word is God’s check to us. You can have a box full of checks, yet if no name is attached to the checks and if the account isn’t in good standing, the checks are useless. God’s promises are checks that can be cashed by heavens’ bank. It has His name on them. The world was formed and framed by the Word of God. That’s real creative power. God wants to release that same power into our lives through His Word. What a weapon God’s word is! So use it!! Don’t go out without it!! “Words are containers for power!”

 

Weapon of Faith

 

Faith isn’t a jump in the dark; it’s a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing. We are made to operate in faith after God’s design. We may not be able to see what God is bringing forth in our lives, but He wants us to believe it is there.

 

In a day when people are putting their faith in all kinds of things and all kinds of gods, we must know that real faith must be directed to God and His Word. For someone to merely say, “as long as I have faith in something, it will be alright,” is not good enough! Faith in God is what God is going to honor. The fruit that is in our lives is the evidence of what and who we are in contact with. Therefore, it is imperative that we remain in touch with the source of power. We must know and obey God’s Word. In Mark 11:22-23, we are told that we must have faith in God. Jesus is saying here that we need to have the God kind of faith! Some people put their faith in the faith of other people, yet we are instructed to put our faith in God!

 

We must use our weapon of faith. God’s Word is very clear in the fact that God has given to everyone a measure of faith. God honors faith! In Luke 18:8, Jesus asked the question “when the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?” In the climate of our world, where our faith is challenged daily, we must have a persevering faith to win this war. Persevering faith will drive back the enemy time and time again. Persevering faith will believe God is at work even when you are experiencing nothing but delay God is looking for this kind of faith today. There are times in our lives when we seek deliverance and miracles. Yet God wants us to just have persevering faith in Him to hold on. Our faith is what will move God to help us. Our faith is also what will drive the enemy out of our lives. Not our mood swings, not our emotional outbursts, not our threats but our faith that is settled in God.

 

Everyone understands that for a seed to produce, it must be planted in the soil. Of course, once it’s in the soil you must leave it there. You can’t try to dig it up every few days to see how it’s doing. So it is with our faith. We must place our faith in God and His Word. We are made complete in Him (Colossians 1:15-16). As we obey God’s Word, His power is released in us! This is why the Word of God is so powerful. So use faith as a weapon; become rooted in God and His Word. He is our strength because He is in us and us in Him. God is our true source of faith.

 

Don’t let Satan talk you out of your faith! Many people say. “I have lost faith.” This is a deception proposed by Satan. You can’t lose faith; faith is God’s gift to us. God has given everyone a measure of faith! So what do I mean? We may become discouraged and not use our faith. We may choose not to believe anything, yet, the fact is faith is still in us. We are just not releasing it! Many use this terminology when they have given in to the enemy, simply given up or become weary in the battle. You don’t lose your faith; you make a decision not to use it. Of course, the results are the same. The reason Satan wants people to believe they have lost their faith is so the spirit of hopelessness and despair can come upon the person.

 

So take God’s gift and go to war against the Father of all liars. He wants to deceive you and your family to destroy all that God has for you. If you choose to surrender or not use your faith, then this could happen! The scripture tells us to whom so ever we yield ourselves, to him we become the servant thereof! God has created us to serve Him not sin and Satan. Take the word of faith and drive Satan out of your world! God said we could and He said He will help us to do it! Scriptures on faith:

 

• Genesis 18:14
• Matthew 8:13
• Numbers 14:8
• Matthew 9:22
• Deuteronomy 31:8
• Matthew 9:29
• I Samuel 17:37
• Matthew 17:20
• I Samuel 17:46
• Romans 10:17
• I Chronicles 28:9
• Ephesians 6:16
• James 1:6
• Hebrews 11:6
• 2 Corinthians 6:10
• Hebrews 10:23

 

The Weapon of Prayer

 

When we pray, we open a door in the spiritual realm. In fact, we set in motion all kinds of things. Prayer begins to release and bind things. Through prayer, we discern what to release and what to bind. Satan cannot operate freely where prayer is being engaged. While prayer goes against the grain of our flesh, if we are to be victorious we will have to pray. We see from scriptures that when men and women engaged in prayer, great things happened and miracles transpired.

 

Our blessings and power are released to us through the avenue of prayer. Elijah prayed and God shut up the heavens. Paul and Silas sang and prayed and God shook the Philippian jail. Look at Moses. No mission was more majestic in purpose and results than that of Moses. None was more responsible, diligent or difficult. His mission teaches us the power of prayer. In fact, Moses himself, and what he did were the answer to prayer (I Samuel 12:8). In fact, four times, even Pharaoh solicited the prayers of Moses for relief from the blows of God’s wrath. Prayer deals directly with God. The prophet Jeremiah is told by the Lord to “call unto me and I will answer thee” (Jeremiah 33:3).

 

Do you need an answer today? Do you need God to shake something for you? Then you must pray. God said to Ephraim, “curse you, you came out to battle, you had the war face, the training, yet when it came time for the battle you ran!” When we don’t pray, we are running! Satan will do anything in his power to prevent us from engaging in prayer. Prayer drives Satan back. Prayer brings the power of God to us! In I Thessalonians 5:17, we are instructed to pray always. It means to remain in an attitude of communion with God.

 

You must know that Satan will try to send enemies in our lives that will take our prayer time from us. Some of these hindrances may even be good things. Some people go to church weekly yet they never pray. Some sing in the choir, teach classes, and yet, never take time to pray. This will leave you weak regardless of how busy you may be. In fact, if you are so busy you aren’t praying, then you are too busy!

 

Jesus drew His disciples away to a lonely place to pray, away from the noise, the hustle, and the busyness of daily life. We still need that today my friend. Some equate “spirituality” with how many times they are down at the church during the week. Yet busyness is no substitute for not praying. We are in a spiritual way!

 

Jesus did not just say if you can get busy enough you will be victorious. No, He said that it is through prayer that direction and strength come to us! Prayer is hard work. People that are spiritually lazy people and do not want to change will not pray. Neither will they be victorious! Satan is hoping that we of the household of faith will get so busy, even doing good things that we don’t take time to pray. God has given us the weapon of prayer, yet, he will not force us to use it! Everything we do needs to be baptized in prayer. Through prayer we can see ourselves as God sees us. We can also see Satan for the deceiving, lying, defeated foe that he is! When you pray, Satan always leaves. Satan is no match for spirit filled praying!

 

You will not talk Satan into leaving you or your family alone. You can’t sing enough to him to make him go away. You can’t do enough “good things” that he will get discouraged and leave. Yet when you begin to pray and release things in the majestic name of Jesus, then soon Satan’s influences will leave and angelic influences will take its place. So pray! Fight the fight daily and pray. Pray when you understand. Pray when you don’t understand. Pray as Paul said, ALWAYS! Through prayer, lives are spared, and through prayer cities are released from the death hold of sin! Through prayer dead churches can be resurrected. Through prayer you and I can make war! So pray and give Satan a bad day instead of letting him give you a bad day! James 5:16 declares, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

 

The Weapon of Worship

 

Someone has said that our worship is “giving God goose bumps.” The statement presupposes that God not only seeks our worship, but thoroughly enjoys it. I remind you that Satan’s desire was to be like God and to be worshipped! Our worship is the summation of adoration, the expression of our highest congratulations. Worship is a magnification of God and minimization of self! Worship isn’t for us; it’s for God. Is it no wonder that Satan desires that we worship everything except God?

 

While it is true that God has no need of anything because of His nature, it is also true that God has desires. His top desire is to receive praise and worship from you and me. Our worship declares God’s worthiness. Psalms 48:1 says, “Great is the Lord, who is worthy of praise.” The Bible teaches us that we were “created for His praise.” Worship honors God’s holiness. In Isaiah 57:15 God’s holiness is called “high and lofty and holy.” Worship is always the proper response to our salvation. “I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more (Isaiah 43:25). The phrase “for my own sake” declares that our salvation is for His glory. Satan cannot stay where God is being worshipped!

 

Worship moves God to manifest Himself to us. David declared that no matter where he went, God was already there. If I ascend into the heavens thou art there or if I make my bed in hell thou are there! God’s spirit is everywhere in this universe. However, we must know that there is a difference in His presence merely being everywhere and His spirit being manifested! God’s spirit is over every wicked city on the planet. It is apparent in some cases that the spirit of Satan is being manifested instead of the spirit of God because men have given themselves to sin instead of holiness! The worship of God will bring a manifestation of God. God manifested Himself in the garden. He came down and fellowshipped with Adam. The hot burning desert floor that Moses was so accustomed to turned into a holy place when there was a manifestation of God in a bush! Mt. Sinai, says the scripture, was “a smoke”, it trembled and shook when God manifested himself there. The lion’s den that Daniel was confined to became a “safe place” instead of a “death place” when there was a manifestation of God’s power. Our worship will cause God to manifest Himself. When God shows up, Satan cuts out! In 2 Chronicles 5:13-14, it says, “His glory filled the temple,” this manifestation was referred to as the “Shekinah” glory of God.

 

In the New Testament, God manifested Himself in the person of Jesus Christ and we are still feeling the effects of it. At Pentecost, He manifested Himself as the promise and the infilling of the Holy Spirit was the results thereof. Worship releases God’s power, intervention, and His deliverance. The presence of worship means the absence of despair, the absence of dejection, shame and discouragement. The prophet Isaiah challenges us to “give God our spirit of heaviness for the garments of praise” (Isaiah 61:3). Who gives us all these feelings of despair and hopelessness and heaviness? Our enemy, Satan. Yet, God says have a worship service and I will come!

 

Use your worship to drive out Satan and to bring in God. Psalms 68:1 boldly proclaims, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered.” God did not create us to give our worship to Satan. He created us to worship Him. Drive out the spirit of heaviness in your life and in your home and have a manifestation of God. Worship Him and give Him “goose bumps!” Psalms 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

 

The Name of Jesus a Powerful Weapon

 

In this conflict we are engaged, we must take advantage of all that God has made available for us. The Name of Jesus is one such weapon. Satan and all his host cannot resist or overpower the Name of Jesus. We must use it! He has given us His name to use. I might add, not only to use, but to honor and to uplift. We are known in the spiritual realm by His name. We cannot only use it against the enemy. We can use it to bring blessings to others. We can use it to help ourselves.

 

John 14:14 says, “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” That’s a promise. Yet, many try to use the name of Jesus as some “magic word” to be added on to the end of a prayer to get what they want. This, of course is not what the above scripture is implying. How then do we use the name of Jesus effectively?

 

First of all, we must realize that we must, through obedience take on the name of Jesus in our relationship with God. We come in covenant agreement when we take on His name. We identify with the body of Christ. We set a level of authority in the spirit realm through the Name of Jesus. We begin to mature in our relationship with God when we pray in the spirit. Through the name of Jesus we are not merely praying for our selfish will to be done, we are through the spirit praying for the will of God to be revealed and then released. Many immature people try to take the promises of authority and power in the name of Jesus to use it to fulfill their selfish desires. Satan loves it when people do this. Of course, God doesn’t honor this kind of “short cutting” and when it doesn’t work Satan is always close by to give the immature person a double dose of unbelief and confusion.

 

I John 5:14-15 gives some insight about the proper use and the proper mindset we should have. “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him. (We are sure) that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to us and hears us.” Verse 15 “And in (service) we (positively) know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know (with settled and absolute knowledge) that we have (granted us as our present possessions) the request made of Him.”

 

The power of the Name of Jesus can only be released when we are in covenant agreement with what He has commanded for us. This is why it is imperative for us to obey God’s word. The things that Gods words requires of us are not mere suggestions, they are commandments that when obeyed will without doubt bring great anointing, power, and maturity to our Christian life.

 

The Name of Jesus cannot be over emphasized. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus told His disciples “all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.” We must know it is God’s will for us to be victorious and to know His will for the world, and for our lives. Once we understand this truth, and then when we speak His name, we will see results!

 

Trying to defeat Satan and be victorious without the proper understanding and use of the Name of Jesus is like trying to run a freight train without a track! Anyone knows that even as powerful as a train’s engine is, it cannot pull the load attached to it and reach its proper destination unless there is a track for it to travel on! It was made to travel on a track. It has to have a track.

 

So it is with us. The Name of Jesus is the track we must travel on. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is the fuel that runs our lives. Even if we have fuel and are not on the track, we still won’t go very far! So get on track, and as Paul said, “put on Jesus Christ and identify with Him.” Jesus is the family name of the Heavenly kingdom. Take it upon you. Use it to know the will of God. Release it to set people free. Declare it to drive the powers of the underworld back to the dark pit where they belong! Philippians 2:8-9 says, “That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, and on earth and under the earth.”

 

Scriptures that reveal the authority of the Name of Jesus:

 

• Isaiah 9:6
• I Corinthians 1:24
• John 14:6
• Romans 10:4
• Hebrews 1:3
• John 11:25
• Colossians 2:10
• Acts 4:12
• I John 1:1
• Revelation 19:16
• Hebrews 13:8
• Acts 2:38-39

 

Prayer:

 

In the Name of Jesus I ask that you give me greater understanding of the revelation of Your name. That I may use the weapons of warfare wisely, thus securing not only my victory but the victory for those that I reach out to help as well. I repent of any disobedience that may be in my life. Let your spirit empower me daily to do your will. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

 

This article “Our Secret Weapons” was excerpted from the book Winning the Spiritual War by Dr. James Holland, Sr. It may be used for study & research purposes only.

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