Don't Leave Home Without This!

What are the items that you never leave home without?  Those things that you pat down your pockets to check for before you close the front door?  For me it would be my keys, my wallet and my cell phone.  When we go for our daily walks, I also make sure that we have a few plastic bags with us in order to take care of any items that our dog might want to leave along the way (no explanation needed...)!

Each of these items have particular meanings and carry specific purposes for me to accomplish my responsibilities outside of the home.  The keys allow me to get in and out of the house, which is very important in case I go outside for a moment without my wife and accidently lock the door.  In her current condition she would not be able to open the door for me.  Thankfully I have a couple of backup plans in case I ever did lock myself out.  The keys also help me to start our car and thereby travel wherever I need to go. 

The wallet not only holds cash and other items that help me to conduct business at stores, but it also holds my wife’s insurance cards as well as hers and my identification information.  The cell helps me to make calls away from home and is especially important now in case emergency situations should arise.  It has also turned into my on-the-go “to do” list, address book, portable computer, bible and watch!

The second part of Ephesians 6:17 tells us of another most important tool that we should never leave home without.  That being the Word of God that’s in your heart!  It states: “And take… the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit.” (KJV)  It is interesting to note that the “word” that it refers to is not “logos” but the “rhema” word.  Meaning the word of God (logos) that the Spirit has given you special understanding, revelation, significance or personal meaning to.  Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary describes it as “a simple text, well understood, and rightly applied…”

It is that word that we are to wield as a spiritual sword to take down the attacks of the enemy that we might face each day.  Henry goes on to say that this well understood and rightly applied word “at once destroys a temptation or an objection, and subdues the most formidable adversary.”   It is the only offensive piece of the armor that the Apostle Paul lists and is the tool that Jesus Himself used to defeat the devil in His face to face encounter with him while on this earth!  The Sermon Bible Commentary comments that “The sword of offensive warfare is compared to the word of God, with which our Lord Himself drove away the assaults of the great adversary.”

The Apostle specifically makes a point to tell us that it is not just any word from the pages of your bible, but one as Oral Roberts would say: “that you know, that you know” will accomplish what it says it will as you make a cutting strike toward the enemy.  Like I said earlier, it is a word that is solidly entrenched in your heart.  

Quite a few years back, I was caught in the great wave of layoffs with the company that I worked for when the economy for the electronics industry fell through the floor.  The firm, which was the largest private employer in the county at the time, laid off over 3000 workers over a period of a few years.  Not too long after that, with my photography background, I went to work at a local professional photographer’s store.  And to be honest, I was having a hard time picking up many of the fundamentals on the business end of job.

I can remember the gal who was training me getting a little upset when I was not able to retain some of the things she was trying to teach me.  One night in the midst of this I went home and began to study the Word and came across Proverbs 10:7 in the New American Standard version which stated: “The memory of the righteous is blessed…”  Now while I understand that the actual context of this verse is talking about people remembering the righteous acts of God’s people, the Lord clearly spoke to my heart and told me that since I was one of His righteous ones, that I had a blessed memory… that I had the ability to remember what was being taught me at my new job.

So, with that "rhema" Word in my heart, I began that very moment, to confess and believe that I had a blessed memory.  And you know what?  When I went to work the next day I remembered what I had learned the day before, and never had another problem recalling all the new things I was shown at that job!  That may seem like an insignificant example, but it was a need I had at the time and meant a lot to me when I began to speak the truth of God’s Word over the situation and see it conform to that truth!

Now that’s a weapon I want to make sure that I have with me every day, wherever I go!  So now I guess its best that I pat down my pockets as well as my heart to see that I have everything that I need before I step out my door.  Might not be a bad idea for you to do the same!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”