Sermon Central
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You Are God's Battle Axe
Contributed by Peter Balogun on Jun 6, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: Whenever a warrior prepares for war, he considers his weapons of warfare. God is a warrior and the believer is His weapon of warfare. Are you born-again? Then you are God’s battle axe.
Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; [21] And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; [22] With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; [23] I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
God is a warrior; the Man of war is His name. Every warrior goes to battle with weapons of warfare trusted, effective and reliable. No warrior ever goes to battle without his weapons, no matter what it is; there must be something with which the warrior hopes to fight.
When God says that you are His battle axe, He is saying you are His weapon of warfare. He intends to fight battles through you. A battle axe is anything in the hand of the warrior that is capable of bringing down the enemy. So God is saying with you in His hands, He can bring down any enemy.
Think about Moses when he was to go to Egypt to bring up the children of God. God told him, ‘I have made you a god unto Pharaoh…’
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh:
This would mean that whatever God would have done by Himself to Pharaoh, He would do through Moses. Pharaoh did not see God but he saw God’s power working through Moses. People should see the power of God in you as a child of God.
The world is a battle-field and it is a place of darkness. Many Christians have died untimely and some are in hell now because they refused to be the battle-axe of God. Today, beloved, you have the opportunity of making the choice of becoming God’s battle –axe or not. The enemies of God are the arch-enemies of God’s children. And usually when you cannot get at a man, you make his children the next target.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD BATTLE AXE
A good axe must be swift, sharp, strong and powerful. God expects every Christian to be His battle-axe, which He will use in destroying the kingdom of darkness. The devil is aware of this fact, so he is vigilant, he knows the Christians that are not useful and cannot function as razor blade, let alone being battle-axes, for the Lord. That is why the seven sons of Sceva suffered in the hands of a man that was possessed of evil spirits (Acts 19:13-16). Some Christians are tools and toys in the hands of the devil; whereas, that is not the will of God.
The devil is occupied 24hours of the day and he fires arrows at people, day and night.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD’S BATTLE AXE:
1. Must be SHARP:
What sharpens you as a child of God is the word of God. When the word of God is rich in you, you will be a sharp axe in His hands. The word of God can cut into pieces anything it lands upon. With the word of God you can bring into captivity everything that exalts itself above the knowledge of God.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
The stone in the passage talks about the word of God.
2. Must be RUST FREE
An axe must not get rusted; otherwise, it becomes blunt and will not be able to chop anything. Rust in the life of a Christian, could be in many forms. Any atom of worldliness leads to impurity and hinders person from prospering in the things of God. Some of the impurities include:
1. Instinctive addiction to food, sleep, drugs etc
2. Sin: Disobedience against the words of God, either spoken or written would make the axe head to be blunt.
3. Pride: When you allow what you have to get into your heads, you can run yourself blunt as God’s battle axe.
4. Inordinate love for the opposite sex: Many people started on the right track with God but fell out because of this sin. Solomon was lured away from God by strange women and he sinned against God. Samson was prophesied into being and he was a special child dedicated unto God. He was powerful but gave himself up to a strange woman, who betrayed him and died with his enemies.
