Earlier this year, this book was studied in one of the groups I belong to, and I learnt a lot from it, so I'll be sharing part of what I learnt.

It is a book for women at least that's the deduction you make once you see the topic; Girls With Swords, but it is a book that men also can read and get blessed.

There are various swords the author talked about which Christians of today can use which includes;

When I first started reading the chapter, I thought it was just one of those chapters on keeping quiet in the face of heated argument but reading it proved that it was way beyond that.

Silence is a sword unseen because it is a word unspoken and an action untaken.

Sword of silence is one of the very important swords that we must use as people on this side of eternity if we ever want to amount to anything for God and his kingdom and if we want to remain victorious in this battle against the enemy of our souls. There are so many times when we speak out of turn or just literally put our foot in our mouth. We fight for ourselves with the words of our mouth oftentimes leaving God out of the situation.

One of the places in the scriptures where this sword of silence was used in battle was during the period when the children of Israel wanted to take over the land of Jericho. By the time they were to pass through that land, it was recorded that the Lord demanded through the mouth of Joshua that they march around the walls of that land in total silence except for the sound from trumpets for six days. 

That would have been a very difficult thing to do for the children of Israel, they would have expected that the lord would just have them take that land with their sword and men of war but God had different plans, he demanded that they stay quiet for six days just rising up in the morning, move round the land in total silence and them go back to their camp. And on the seven day, they were demanded to shout and then the whole massive wall came trembling before them. Silence is a kind of weapon most of us haven’t really harnessed.

A paragraph from the book

Silence can mean many things. It can mean you truly have no answer to the question, accusation, or assault. Sometimes things come at us that we literally do not understand and, therefore, do not know how to respond to it. Silence can also mean you have a response but have chosen not to give it voice. If the sword is not drawn, it would be because something has stilled our hands. I am not talking about being arrested by fear but about God whispering ‘leave this one to me.’ Remaining still often requires more strength than striking.

We all face several situations at various times of our life where we have to make the decision of either opening our mouth to talk or just keeping quiet. Keeping quiet is something we must all learn to do. Not every word demands our epic comeback, there are some times when silence is what is needed.

Most times, we are the one who don’t allow the lord fight for us by just disrupting the whole plan by choosing to open our mouth. Staying silent even when we have several things we could have said is what really matters. 

The sword of silence is so important that even the son of God while he was on this side of eternity used it. When he was before the people who were to judge him, it was recorded that Christ kept quiet, ah, my Lord kept quiet, someone who could have called ten thousand angels to come to his rescue kept quiet and committed his life into the hands of Him who was indeed able to keep him.

Matthew 26:62-63, NLT

Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” but Jesus remained silent.

The bible says a fool when he keeps quite is considered wise.

The bible further says that the tongue although small makes boast of big things.

The psalmist prayed that God would put a latch on his mind.

Just imagine God putting a lock on your mouth?

We can choose to keep quiet and then watch God rise up and defend us in ways we couldn’t have even defended ourselves. Will it be easy keeping quiet especially when we have one thousand and one response we can give?

Of course not!

The sword of silence is not a readily used sword because most people think it’s not effective, they use the sword of forgiveness well, they use the sword of songs well too, but  because the sword of silence seems not to have an immediate effect, we tend of neglect its use. 

When we choose to keep quiet, God is committed to working behind the scenes and by the time we see the result of what He can do for us, we’ll be dazed.

Do you have a seemingly difficult colleague who seems not to have a latch on her tongue and you’re already thinking of how best you’ll give her a response so she knows you’re not as dumb as you appear, that would seem right but are you really interested in fighting that battle? Use the sword of silence, rather than replying such a person, just keep quiet.

Is wielding the sword of silence the same as allowing people ride a roughshod over us?

No, not at all

It does mean that sometimes at least most often than not, they will be times we just have to let go and let God.

It won’t be easy but it will definitely be worth it.

On a flip side, using the sword of silence isn’t same as deliberately watching evil prevail while we watch and do nothing about it. It is in choosing our battles and fighting accordingly.

Do well to get a copy of the book, you'll be glad you did.

Have you read this book? Please share some lessons you learnt from it with us.