No soldier marches into battle wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans; he needs a helmet, boots, body armor, and camouflage, as well as offensive munitions. Likewise, God has equipped you…. The well-armed believer puts on the incredible defensive gear that the apostle terms “the whole armor of God.” Then he straps on the most powerful offensive weapon ever devised—the Word of God, described in another passage as “mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.”

Weapons have to work reliably or they are of no use. God’s Word never rams, rusts, or becomes obsolete. A soldier learns in basic training to take his rifle apart, clean it, and put it back together very quickly. Then he is taken to the firing range and taught to use it properly and to maximum effect.

The reason for all this preparation is so that he can rely on the weapon in battle, without second thoughts, or even first ones, since good training makes the weapon almost like an extension of his brain. The best fighters make the right moves on sheer impulse.

God’s Word is utterly reliable in the mouth of the thoroughly trained. I don’t mean the man who treats it like a candy vending machine to satisfy his latest craving, but the true lover of God who treasures it the way David did, whose mind is so interconnected with it that reliance on it becomes an impulse. Paul commended the Thessalonians for the way they “welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).

God’s Word, abiding in you, enables you to stand strong in spiritual warfare, and makes satan flee.