MAKING YOUR MOUTH A
SHARP SWORD

What makes a human different is the fact he uses his mouth primarily to speak and to communicate with fellow-humans and especially with God his Creator.

To say that man was created in the image and likeness of God is to affirm that man is vocal and reflects the vocal nature of His Creator.  Although God can reveal His will to man in an immediate internal manner, He chooses to communicate with him vocally, that is, audibly.

We see this clearly in the Garden of Eden.  The Creator did not communicate with our first parents by sending them an angel, prophet or messenger.  He reached them directly and personally in spoken words.  After the fall it was only at rare times God spoke audibly and directly to man, as, for example, to Moses out of the burning bush.

Too often our awareness of the awesome nature of God causes us to think of Him as remote from us.  As a result of this, we end up by relating to Him as a mute God.

It is, however, revealed to us by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, that God is vocal.  He quoted from Deuteronomy 8:30 when He resisted Satan’s temptation: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

God, therefore, does indeed have a mouth and spoken words have come out of His mouth.  In earlier times God spoke to His covenant people through the prophets.  Then in the fullness of time He spoke through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the opening chapter of the gospel of John we read: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

The attribute of speech, consequently is intrinsic to the pre-eternal nature of God.  God never existed without the Word.  Indeed, the Word is revealed to us as part of the godhead, more specifically as a distinct person who ultimately "became flesh and dwelt among us…”  (John 1:14)

. God the Father always longed to reach out to man in his fallen condition and to speak to him.  His redeeming love was ultimately expressed verbally in the person of Christ, His pre-eternal Son and Word.

The mouth of Christ served in effect as the mouth of God the Father.  He is the perfect image of the Father, “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).

  The mouth of Christ is none other than the mouth of God.  He makes it crystal clear that the words He speaks are the words of His Father: “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. “And He that sent me is with me.  The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:28f.).

So, the words that come out of the mouth of Jesus are words that come out of the mouth of God.  They are not mere ordinary words.  When they come out of the mouth of God, they are spoken to accomplish a specific purpose in the supernatural dimension.  God says, “I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12).

Too many men and women in the church take the Word of God casually.  They are totally ignorant of the supernatural power that is inherent in the word.  Jesus makes it clear to us: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). Jesus is saying, “The words that I speak to you are carriers of divine, supernatural power.  They bear miraculous energy.  They are channels of Holy Spirit power and divine life made available to the believer”.

  God and His Word are one.  You cannot separate them.  The word is an extension of God.  He never existed without the Word.  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

When the Lord utters forth His word, things start happening.  He assured us that His word is never spoken in vain, that is, without achieving a specific result: “My word that goeth forth out of my mouth shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

During His earthly ministry Jesus worked miracles by simply speaking one or two words.  When He calmed the stormy sea from the boat in which He and His disciples were sailing, all He said was, “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39).  Instantly, “the wind ceased and there was a great calm”.

When Jesus visited the home of the leader of the synagogue to minister to his dying twelve-year old daughter, He found her already dead.  All it took was two words out of the mouth of the Master to raise her from the dead: “Maiden, arise!”  (Luke 8:54).

In the same manner, as Jesus entered the town of Nain, He came upon a funeral procession.  They were carrying out the body of a young man, the only child of a widowed mother.  The Lord went up to the body and it just took some few words to raise the boy from the dead: “Young man, I say unto you, arise” (Luke 7:14).

Jesus knew that His words would give life and death.  When He spoke to the widow’s son, he became alive.  Both the inanimate and animate world remain under the dominion of God’s Word.  Nature that was created through the divine Word is also governed and controlled by the same word.  The God Who spoke the world into existence is the God who now restores and sustains that world.

The words of Jesus caused death, as well as life.  He spoke to the barren fig tree and it died from the root up.  Each  believer has been given the power of attorney from Jesus to act in His name and to speak in His name words of healing, restoration, but even of death.

Just as Jesus cursed the barren fig tree and it died when He spoke death to it, so in like manner the believer can smite what is evil and exterminate it.  Jesus said, “These signs shall follow them that believe.  In my name they shall cast out demons.  They shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17f.).

When I am a believer, it is that Word in my lips that heals the sick that breaks the power of demons over man.  It is the strength and the very ability of God that is made available to me.  I speak the Word that the Lord spoke when He ministered healing and deliverance during His earthly ministry.

The believer who keeps that Word in his heart, on his lips and lives it can speak death to the cancerous cells that afflict the body.  He can speak as Jesus spoke to the barren fig tree: “Father, I smite this cancer now, and curse the very root cause in the name of Jesus.  I tear you loose from the root. Come out!  Set him (or her) free!  Loose him!  Come out now, and go from him forever!”

Faith is acting on God’s Word once we accept its credibility and trustworthiness.  Believing is acting on the Word for the desired results.  But there is no possession without confession.  We read in Romans 10:9: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the lips confession is made unto salvation”.

The problem is, far too many church members believe in the Word of God, but their believing amounts simply to mental assent.  It stems from the mind of the senses, namely from a spiritually dead mind.  But God’s Word must dwell richly in the heart of the believer and come out of his mouth as his confession.  The mouth speaks from the overflowing of the heart that burns with the fire of the Word.

The most important point I intend to bring out in this article is the fact that the Word of God is a two-edged sword.  St. Paul speaks of  “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…”.

The vivid description of the appearance of Jesus at the second coming is awesome as recorded in the book of Revelation: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.(Revelation 19:11) “And out of His mouth goeth a SHARP SWORD and with it He should smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron…”  (Revelation 19:15).

The returning King will contend first of all with the two global leaders:  the Antichrist and the False Prophet.  What is striking here is that Jesus will obliterate them and their armies by the Word that He will speak forth from His mouth. “And the remnant were slain with the SWORD of Him that sat upon the horse, which SWORD proceeded out of His mouth” (Revelation 19: 21).

Please note the power of death in the Word of God.  In Revelation 2:12 and 16 we read: “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the SHARP SWORD with two edges”. “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the SWORD of my mouth”.

True and genuine peace comes only after the conflict with the author of false peace and his defeat have been accomplished.  This is what Jesus meant when He stated: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.  I came not to send peace, but a SWORD” (Matthew 10:34).

  By sending a sword, He intended to engage the Adversary in spiritual warfare.  The sword is His Word that serves to expose the counterfeit peace that the Antichrist has included in his master plan for the close of the age.  His Word is “sharper than any two-edged SWORD… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

The SHARP SWORD that comes out of the mouth of Jesus also comes out of the mouth of you and me, dear reader.  The condition that the Lord expects us to meet first is to keep His Word in our lips and in our hearts, to live His Word, to cause it to fuse with our spirit, to identify with His Word, to speak it forth as the spontaneous and normal part of our daily vocabulary and speech.  It becomes part of your existence.  You are no longer conscious of the difference between your words and the Word of God.

Then you and I dear reader, can declare without the least doubt or hesitation: “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword” (Isaiah 49:2).

What a fantastic privilege we have, as heirs of salvation!  How wonderful and exciting!  How sad too many in the church live below the level of their privileges!

We don’t need a revival.  We need a spiritual revolution.

Why don’t you let the Holy Spirit, dear reader, make your mouth like a sharp sword?

Then you can thrust that sharp sword into the heart of Satan and enjoy victorious living.