Broken Arrow

“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” - Revelation 12:10-11 NASB

Here in the scriptures, we see the enemy of our souls standing before God, day and night accusing us. In Ephesians 6, we hear of flaming arrows that the evil one is continually casting at us. Let’s for a moment take a look at Ephesians 6.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:10-18 NASB

In this scripture, we again see there are wicked forces in heavenly places at work against us. Here, the scripture points us towards two realities in the Kingdom of God. First, we are at war, not a war of this world but a war against the dark spiritual forces at work in the world. Jesus continually pleads that we would have our eyes, ears, and hearts open to the spiritual realties that the scriptures and His parables point to. Second, the enemy is hurling accusations, flaming arrows, at us in this war and the Word of God is both our defense and our weapon.

To our first reality, that we are at war. We can see all throughout the scriptures that God is at work in this war through the obedience of the believers to the Word of God. The book of Hebrews calls the Word of God alive and active, saying it is shaper than any two-edged sword, even dividing the soul from the spirit. Here we see a reality that has been allowing Gods Kingdom reign on earth for millennia, men and women of God, hearing and obeying the Word of God, allowing the soul(flesh) to be separated from the spirit, thus enabling us to walk in the spirit, to walk in the power of Gods Holy Spirit.

The first reality flows right into the second, the Word of God is our weapon against the enemy and against even our own flesh as the first reality points out. We can see in Ephesians 6 that the shield of faith is our defense against the flaming arrows of the enemy. Where does faith come from? The book of Romans says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, so the shield of faith is built on the Word of God. Now back to Ephesians 6, we see the sword of the Spirit and the scripture says the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.

For a minute, having faith built upon the Word of God we just read, imagine yourself standing on a battlefield. You are wearing the armor of God and you can clearly see your shield in one hand and your sword in the other hand. The enemy is at a distance shooting flaming arrows, which are accusations, lies, condemning thoughts, and the like. You see some arrows flying right past and you see that your shield of faith protecting you from the arrows that would hit there mark if it were not for the Word of God. You are standing there, fully protected, your faith has you free but those arrows just keep coming. Our heart at Broken Arrow is to equip believers to not only stand firm against the attack of the enemy but to equip them to begin to live faith on the offense. Teaching them to use the sword of the Spirit to go on the offense and destroy the work of the enemy, literally breaking those flaming arrows. So again, imagine yourself on this battlefield, only this time you have been taught to use the sword of the Spirit to attack the archer. You are attacking, but you are not alone, you have brothers and sisters to your left and two your right, living their faith on the offense, seeking to destroy the works of the devil and in the process rescuing prisoners of war who have been kept bound by the enemy and his schemes.

This vision of seeing believers set free by the power of the Gospel, that is Jesus living in you and I, to be the affective change we so desperately need in this community. If nothing else we ask that you pray for what the Lord is leading us to here. Feel free to email or call us with questions.

In Christ

Rev. Zarda