Weapons

Isaiah 54:17

    “'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me.’ Says the Lord."

        This verse is often quoted, but not often quoted entirely. In general, people {especially Charismatics} state it this way- “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” While that is true it is imperative that we not only quote this verse in contextual entirety but that we understand it in contextual entirety. 

The word for weapon herein applied is a word that means a tool, or a vessel and its root word is a word that means complete or finished. The concept of “formed” implies one taking their time in order to fashion a thing- likened unto a potter. Therefore, the beginning of the verse should be conceptualized in this way:

    That there is a force or a being really that is taking the time to craft a weapon to use against you. This tool is built and is finished and is ready for use. Notice the first portion does not say that the weapon will not finish being formed. On the contrary, it implies that it is already formed. The promise and the comfort however lies in the words “No weapon….shall prosper.” To be sure that means that although the weapons are formed, they will not succeed not be profitable. This word “prosper” also etymologically implies the act of attacking. Meaning that the promise is that although the tools for your destruction are completely ready for use, they will not be able to be used to attack you. 

    The natural inquiry then is what exactly are the weapons? The answer is found in the next stanza of the verse- “every tongue”- or words. Words are the weapon that is formed and shaped on purpose to be utilized as a tool to destroy humans. The power of death does not lie in a bullet or a spear, a grenade, a bomb or even a deadly disease- for if it did then no one in human history would have ever survived any of these “weapons.” No, the word of God says that death {and life} is in the power of the tongue. For it is the tongue that says you will die if you contract this or that disease. It is the tongue that says people don’t live through atomic bombings or artillery attacks. It is the tongue that displays a yielding and an acceptance to the “natural results” of these threats. This is contrary to the word of God and must therefore be rejected entirely. 

    This brings us to the second stanza of the first sentence of the verse- “every tongue {word} which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.”  Herein lies the key, the understanding to the first stanza statement that no weapon formed shall prosper. These words, these weapons are formed, they are ready to be utilized against the lives of humans but who forms them? Humans do. It may be oneself that forms the words, or it may be the mouths of others that form the words. Once formed, the powers, principalities, rulers of darkness, and heavenly hosts of wickedness in high places take the words and aim them at the believer- the weapons have now “risen in judgment.” It is stated that they rise in judgment because the serpent would have us believe that because we or someone else spoke the words, they must have a bit of truth to them. This ideology causes us to yield our wills in acceptance and submission to these words. For instance, let us suppose that when you are young, someone says to your mother that you are an odd child. You may not hear the words immediately when they are spoken but eventually they will come out somewhere. At that point, instead of fighting against them by rejecting them, your natural mind will begin to reason out why that person would think you odd. You will begin to “see their point” even if you do not admit it. Thus, you yield to the thought and at some point in the future, you will say something like, “I know I’m a bit odd…” The weapon formed against you has just prospered! The problem is that the word of God says that these weapons, these words are not going to prosper, so why do they? Because you did not “condemn” them prior to them manifesting!

    The last half of the first sentence says, “you shall condemn.”  It has been intimated that the “you” here refers to God and not to the person. However, to accept this rendition is to blatantly disregard the laws of English sentence construction. The entire portion reads “which rises against you {not God} in judgment you {not God} shall condemn.” “You” is the clear subject of this sentence and as such shall remain when any action in the sentence is applied. The English language does not allow for the changing of the subject of a sentence impetuously without indicating the new subject of that sentence. This salient truth reveals the responsibility of the “you” in the sentence. “You” is required to take action in the form of condemning the words formed against itself. To condemn means to declare guilty. The words are declared guilty of being lies and therefore are sentenced to bondage where they will have their power for destruction stripped from them- as a criminal would. 

    Before discussing the actual methodology which we are to utilize per this verse’s instruction, let us now examine the second sentence in the verse. 

“'This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me.’ Says the Lord.”  The word translated as heritage here is a word that means inheritance of course, but it also means “domain”. God states emphatically here that it is the domain of His servants to take down weapons or words formed against them. It is what they do, what they are required to do. It is where they rule and reign, where they have the most dominance and success. As well, the Lord says, “their righteousness is from Me.”  These five words speak volumes. For in them, it is understood that there is nothing that the servant of the Lord can do or fail to do that can earn righteousness for themselves or remove righteousness from themselves. In these five words, the Lord makes clear that He has abjured any sin against His saints that would otherwise disqualify them from acting as judge and jury in the condemnation of the words formed. When our Lord Jesus was presented with a woman caught in the act of adultery, He, in accordance with Mosaic law directed the Jew who had no sin to cast the first stone at the adulteress. For it was regulated that if someone was to accuse another and condemn them to death, then they themselves had to be sinless. This of course was impossible and thus none of those who accused her could begin the stoning. They had to take their accusatory weapons and leave this woman unharmed. The weapons against her were surely formed and they threatened her but because there was no one qualified to use them, they could not be used. In this same way, the Lord has said that it is the servant of the Lord who is the recipient of righteousness and this side of the cross that means that none of our sin is held against us. Because there is now no sin in our life, we cannot be accused of anything. We, as servants of the Lord are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are sinless and thus any words that are formed against us do not have the legal right to prosper. 

    However, it is our obligation to actively fight against these weapons. God states clearly that we “shall condemn” the words that rise up in judgment against us. It is a command. We are to do it, or it will not be done. 

    Beloved, it is my earnest and whole desire that you follow me as I believe God has revealed an actionable plan where weapon words are formed. That is that each time the Holy Spirit brings it to my remembrance, I say aloud that no weapon formed against me shall prosper, for I condemn every word that has been spoken against me either out of my mouth or out of the mouths of others and those words will not manifest in my life in the name of Jesus!! Please, for your sake and for the sake of the entire body of Christ, of whom you are and to whom you supply necessary things, allow the Holy Spirit to provoke your heart to condemn any words formed to destroy you and thereby weaken the entire body!!