Taking a Knife to a Gunfight
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. (Matthew 11:12 NASB)
It has been said, “you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” According to an online article by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2017 the United States spent more on its military than the next seven highest-spending countries combined. That is like a runner who laps the field, including the runner up, many times over. It is a lot of fire power. Yet, the devil, your enemy, has so much more fire power than the natural physical weapons of the world. The devil can influence, and instigate, war; natural wars are fought under spiritual influences. The concept of good versus evil is real.
As an individual, it is important to know that you are at war. There is a war waging within and without; your enemies are fighting against you. The lead scripture emphasizes the reality of the battle that every believer faces; a fight to overcome the violent assaults of the enemy and to advance the Kingdom. Sometimes it may not be apparent to you because, as with many wars, it is a battle of strategy; and the devil is quite patient, always seeking to pounce at the opportune time (Luke 4:13). Bro. Keith Moore once said of the devil that he has thousands of years, ages even, of experience in how to wage war against people; therefore, going up against him without any spiritual help is like taking a knife to a gunfight.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV)
But the Scripture says that the weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world, rather, they are mighty through God bearing divine power to demolish the devil’s strongholds. There are a few points to note from this scripture; first, there are weapons that we can use in our battles against the enemy that ensure victory. Second, they are potent to demolish evil because the ammunition of those weapons is God and His word. Therefore, every time we engage in battle we must have the understanding that we have the big guns now. We must dare to use the word of God to enforce our victory even when faced with the onslaught of the enemy. We can win; we will win if we rely on God and His word. One of the weapons that we have is our words -speaking and making declarations; independent of God’s word, the practice of speaking is a “knife”, but, if we engage the word of God as we speak, if we allow the Word to inform our speech, it becomes an arsenal of life transforming weapons. Speak the word, only.
