What Is The Word Of God And How To Use It Against Satan

We want to consider an important weapon that God has given us, by which we can overcome Satan our spiritual enemy, and that weapon is His 'Word'.

Some Christians think the phrase “word of God” in Scripture always refers to the Bible. Often it does, but often it doesn’t. In many places it refers to Jesus, to oral prophecy, or to the oral preaching of the gospel. Here are a few representative examples.

“And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11).

“[T]he word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins;” (Luke 3:2-3).

“[Jesus] was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. And it came to pass, that when the multitudes pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesareth, ” (Luke 4:44; 5:1).

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear; . . . Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. . But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.” (Luke 8:11-15).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14).

“And when they had prayed, the place was moved wherein they were assembled; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with confidence. ” (Acts 4:31).

“[W]hen you had received of us the word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God, who worketh in you that have believed. ” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

“Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest; lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is.” (Hebrews 4:11-13).

“By faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of God; that from invisible things visible things might be made.” (Hebrews 11:3).

God's Word is like a seed that brings us to being born again (1 Peter 1:23). From 1 Peter 2:2 we learn that God's word is like milk that helps us to grow. We also see in Ephesians 6 that God's Word is like a sword - the sword of the spirit with which we can fight against Satan; " ... And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God)." (Ephesians 6:17). It is a wonderful weapon that God has given us to resist the attacks of Satan.

Many believers are discouraged - do you know why? Because they don't know how to use this sword when Satan comes attacking them with discouragement.

Are you living with feelings of guilt and condemnation? Are you feeling uncertain whether God has accepted you -whether God loves you, whether God has forgiven your sins, whether God still remembers your past against you? These are some of the ways in which Satan harasses the believers. And believers are weighed down, around the world, with guilt which they should not be bearing.

How can they overcome Satan? How can you overcome Satan? Whatever feelings that come to draw you away from God - discouragement, condemnation, guilt feelings - every one of these can be overcome if you can take the Word of God as a weapon. For example, supposing you are not sure that Jesus Christ has accepted you; supposing the devil comes to you and says, 'Oh yes, you think Jesus has accepted you? Jesus is far too holy to accept a sinner like you'. What are you going to do when he tells you that? Are you going to argue with him? Let me tell you, you will be defeated.

You can never argue with Satan. He is far too clever for you. You know when Satan tempted Jesus Christ, saying to him, "And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." (Matthew 4:3), he questioned Jesus - are you really the son of God? If he could put such a question to Jesus Christ Himself, do you think Satan will not try those questions with you? Of course he will. He will make you doubt whether you are a child of God. How can we overcome it? We need the Word of God. Here is a Word which you could use - Jesus said, "All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out." (John. 6:37).

Now some of you may have another problem. You may feel that there are certain sins that you have committed in your past life which were very, very bad -even serious. May be some of you have committed adultery or murder, or it could be any horrible thing. You may feel, well some of the less serious sins God has forgiven you, but some of those horrible, wicked things, which nobody knows but you, does God always remember them when He thinks of you? Is it like that?

You know how it is. Supposing somebody has killed your son, and you are gracious enough to forgive him. Yet every time you see him you will remember that this is the man who killed my son, even if you have forgiven him. Does God look at us like that? That every time He sees us He thinks of us as the one who did all those wicked things twenty years ago, or ten years ago, or last week. What does the Bible say? The answer again is to know the Word of God .

Satan will come to you with all these torturing thoughts. His aim is to keep you far away from God. You cannot overcome him with arguments or psychology, or any such thing. You have got to quote the Word of God.

You know when Jesus was tempted by Satan. What did He say? He only said, 'It is written, God's Word says this.' The second time Satan came to him with another temptation and Jesus said, 'God's Word says this.' Satan then came to Him quoting a Word of God, but Jesus' answer was, 'But it also says in God's Word, this.' Every single time, in those three temptations in the wilderness, Jesus overcame Satan only by quoting Scripture - no discussion, no argument, nothing. Eve was the one who discussed and argued with Satan and you know what happened to her - she fell.

Jesus never did that. He just quoted the Word of God, and that is what you need to do too. Here is a promise - God says,"I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12). Not only 'I will be merciful to your sins' - that in itself is wonderful - 'but I will not remember your sins anymore against you.' That means, when God looks at me, He does not hold against me any of the sins I have committed in the past; not the ones I committed 40 years ago and not the ones I committed yesterday. If I have confessed my sins, the Bible says that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity." (I John 1:9)

These are powerful weapons. These Words of God are like swords. We can say the Bible is like an armory with many swords and you need to take out the appropriate one when the devil comes to you with one or other type of attack. When he reminds you that you have sinned so much in the past, you can say, 'well the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sins'. Satan is a great accuser. He seeks to accuse, torment, and harass believers, preventing them from being happy. So many believers go around with long faces. That is not God's will for you, my friend. Do you think God wants you to go around in this world with a long face? How can you ever draw anyone to Christ if you go around with a long face? How can you be happy? You can't psychologically work up happiness, can you? You must know that your sins are forgiven; you have been accepted by Christ. Not only that, but God will not remember your sins anymore.

Now I want to lead you one step further.

It is not only that God forgives our sin. It is not only that He doesn't remember our sins anymore, but He does something more.

There is a word called 'justified' used in Romans - that God has justified us. It says, "Having been justified by faith" (Romans 5:1). Do you know what justified means? It means 'declared righteous'. That means God has declared you to be a righteous person. Now let's use an illustration: supposing I have been accused of a crime, and I have been taken to court. The judge says, 'okay, you are forgiven.' I am happy, because I come out of the court forgiven, but I still hang my head in shame, because I am accused of a terrible crime. But on the other hand, if the judge says, 'Well, after considering all the evidence I don't believe you are guilty at all. There is no need to be forgiven, you are righteous. You can go home.' Righteous! Then I come out of the court, not just as a forgiven criminal, but as one with my head lifted up. This is the meaning of justification. It is more than forgiveness and many Christians haven't understood it.

God not only forgives, He justifies. He declares me righteous. Thank Him for it and resist Satan with this weapon of the Word of God. Say, 'I have been accepted by Christ.' Say it right now, 'I have been accepted, I have been forgiven. God does not remember my past against me anymore. I have been justified. I have been made a righteous person I am just as precious to God as Jesus Himself is.

These are the weapons by which Satan will flee from us.