And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17
The Jewish New Year is different from our Gregorian calendar that starts on January first each year. The Jewish New Year is centered on the seven feasts that God instructed the Children of Israel to celebrate each year according to Leviticus 23. Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) started on September 11 and ended on September 13. The New Year starts on the Day of Awe, a day of rest and reflection, and focusing on God the creator. The ten days end with the day of repentance, the Day of Atonement. Like our calendar it is marked in a numerical year and our year is 2027, but the Jewish year is 5787. The numbers of the year are represented with letters that each have a significance in the outcome the year holds. The year 5787 and the letters that spell it are; Tav, Shin, Pey, and Zayin. It tells the story of what God is going to do in the year, it is a prophecy for what this year holds. The first letter Tav is the last letter of the Jewish alphabet and it means “it is finished.” It speaks of something being sealed and confirmed. Kind of like God saying, “this is real, this is Mine and this is sealed.” The second letter is the century we are in and it is Shin, and it is associated with the consuming fire of God’s presence, a season of pressing out what does not belong. This decade is the Pey, the time of the mouth. A mouth that has been shut is shut is open again to speak again. So, the first three letters indicate a year that (Tav) is marked and sealed, the old is pressed out (Shin), and something opens, a mouth that has been shut begins to speak again. (Do you think it was a coincidence that this decade 2020 was started with the demand for masks that cover and hide the mouth?) It is the decade of your voice, your testimony, and your prayer life that opens closed doors, Pey is the letter of breakthrough into speech and utterance. The year of this decade we are walking into is the Zayin, the sword that nourishes. The letter in the Jewish alphabet looks like a plough, what was used to break open the ground for planting. It is the root word for food, substance and provision. Zayin also represents a weapon, a sword. Joel 3:9-10 clearly ties the picture of a plow share a tool used for nourishment and provision into a weapon of defense, a sword. “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men of war draw near, let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords.” In short this year is prophesied to be the year the sword of the mouth prevails. This is what the year says to me, This is the year that God has sealed and completed, it is full of God’s consuming presence that has removed the things in life that should not be there, my mouth has prevailed, it is a decade I am to use my voice to pray and use my testimony to change lives and the sword the word of God is not only my provision, but it is my weapon to defeat the enemy. If we would arise and use our mouth the way God created it to be used, we will have a very productive year in the spirit.
The first thing we must do is to recognize the power of our tongue. Proverbs 18:21 clearly tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We are made in the likeness and image of God and He created this world with the words that He spoke. Much of the world we create is a result of the words we speak. If we speak life and encouragement to those around us, we will reap the blessings of those words in the fruit of others' behaviors. If we use our words to destroy, criticize and humiliate others, we also reap the words we have sown in the broken and dysfunctional people those words broke. Our prayer life is full of words and Jesus told His disciples that they were first to honor God and who He is, and the power of His name, then pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God goes on to promise us in 1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. Love the way the Message reads, “And how bold and free we then become in His presence, freely asking according to His will sure that He’s listening. And if we’re confident that He is listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.” What do we have need of that God has already promised to do, but we have either not asked for or not been confident that He will do it. According to Ephesians 5, the Sword is the Written Word of God. Find a promise of God and use it to plough through your problems, believing that the seeds you plant in faith through prayer will change the circumstances in your life. Philippians 4:19 God promises to meet all your needs, 1 John 1:9 God promises to forgive your sins when you confess, the stripes on Jesus’ back gives us our healing Isaiah 53:5, He is our Peace is found in Ephesians 2:14, He puts the lonely in families Psalm 68:6, He gives direction and orders our steps Psalm 37:23-24. There is a scripture promise for every good thing God has in store for you. Psalm 84:11 “For the Lord is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” What good thing is lacking in your life, are you bold enough and confident to believe that God is able and willing to provide and nourish you.
Too often we overlook the second part of Zayin, our words are a sword, we may use our words to devastate the people around us which is an abuse of the sword instead of rightfully using the sword to fight our enemy the Devil. Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.” James 4:7 promises “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” How does someone resist the devil? By pure willpower and selfcontrol? The easiest way to resist the devil is with the written word of God. In Matthew 4, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for a forty day fast. When the Devil came and tempted him, challenging Him to prove He was the Son of God, to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the mountain so the angels could rescue Him, and the final text was to get Jesus to bow and worship him and receive all the kingdoms of the world. Jeus did not fight with the devil, he did not argue, but instead after each temptation He said, “It is written.” He gave us the greatest example of using the sword (the word of God) in our mouth to resist the temptation of the devil. How much better would our life be if we resisted the devil with the spoken Word. For example, when the devil tries to get you to give in to fear, tell him, “For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7. When anxiety tries to take over, “Be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” : Philippians 4:6. When given a bad doctor’s report, Psalm 107:20 “He sent His word and healed them.”
I do not want to live my life as a victim or getting by, I want to be victorious, an overcomer. The words we speak tell the world whether we are victims or overcomers. I have not found any “rewards for someone who is a victim. 1 John 5:4-5 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is victory that has overcome the world- our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes, Jesus is the son of God?” Overcomers in Revelation are promised: Rev. 2:7 give to eat from the tree of life, Rev 2:17 shall not be hurt by the second death, Rev 2:26 he who overcomes will be given power over the nations, Rev 3:5 he who overcomes will be clothed in white garments, Rev 3:12 I will make him a pillar in the temple of My god, and Rev 3:21 promises to evelations 12:11 reveals how to be an overcomer. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” We all have a testimony! At a women’s conference at our church one of the speakers told us to tell the person next to us what the last good thing God did for us. There was a buzz all around the room and everyone had something to share with her neighbor. When we were finished sharing, she said that is how easy it is to share your testimony. Maybe we are trying to make too much of sharing the Good News of Jesus with others. It is really that easy, sharing with others the good things God has done, the prayers He has answered and the promises He has given us.
Twenty seven is the year of the sword in the mouth. How will you use your mouth this coming year? Will you use it to destroy people or will you use it the way God intended and bring Him glory with all our conversations and battles? I believe to use the power of the year of the sword in the mouth will be a conscious decision, there will be days it will come easy and then there will be days that we will not hit the mark with our words. I pray for more days of hitting the mark than missing. Will you join me this year as I seek God and ask Him to help me use the Sword in my mouth wisely. After all, Jesus will fight the final battle by the sword in His mouth. Revelation 19:15 – “And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations…Happy Jewish New Year!