Hello. My name is Chad Gramling. I serve my father. I’m prepared to die.
Inigo Montoya teaches us all about the qualities of perseverance, passion, and focus. So dedicated to his purpose (to avenge his father’s death), he dedicated his life to mastering the sword so he might restore proper order to his family. Using his personal journey as a loose example, we can see a great model for dedicating our lives to purpose, solidifying the foundation of our future lineage and, most importantly, glorifying our Heavenly Father.
The Events of Your Life Reveal Your Purpose
Something I discuss in great detail in my forthcoming book, Listen Up, Kids, is the way I did a look back on my life and discovered my God-intended purpose. The events leading up to that moment – all the things that happened and what I learned from them – as well as identifying experiences that brought the most joy to life helped me understand I am not only a writer, but I am to use these gifts to Glorify God.
For me, this took 30-some-odd years. For Inigo, it took one event much earlier in life. His father’s death revealed his ultimate purpose.
It provides an easy reminder that we all learn about and experience an awareness of our heavenly Father’s death through Jesus’ crucifixion at different points in life. We also come to genuinely understand the significance of it at different points in life.
Those two things may or may not happen at the same time. As we seek to grow and mature in faith, to pursue refining lives of purpose, it’s fully appropriate that we aim to partner with God.
Here are two ways to make that happen…
Submit to the Sword, on Purpose
because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. – 1 Thessalonians 1:5
We often say or hear that the Bible is “the word of God,” but when you say it or hear it, do you really acknowledge that the word of God – scripture – is God’s intimate, personal letter to His kids? Do you fathom the very real understanding that every time you your are exposed to it, He is sharing with you exactly what He wants you to receive? It is God’s living and breathing words of wisdom that He wants to impart unto you!
In a way, he is saying; “Listen Up, Kids.”
What’s even more amazing is the fact that this can happen as individuals or in group settings. I love how lead pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, Ray Ortlund explains the impact of scripture:
If we are at home alone, we are just sitting there reading and receiving. Or if we are at church, we are sitting there hearing the Bible preached. And what happens? God himself enters into that experience. He blesses us, speaks to us, comforts us, corrects us, motivates us through his word. The word of God and the power of God always go together.
Submit to the word – which is sharper than any sword – and your life can be transformed by God’s amazing Grace.
Scripture is God’s intimate, personal letter to His kids. Every time you are exposed to it, He is sharing with you exactly what He wants you to receive. Sharper than any sword, it is the purpose filled living and breathing word of God’s wisdom. And He wants to impart unto you! Photo credit; Creationswap.com
Take up the Sword, for Purpose
Take a look at Ephesians chapter 6 as it describes the taking up the whole armor of God. In particular, look at verse 17, which says: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
In this, we’re presented with the one offensive Christian weapon referenced by Paul, “the sword of the Spirit.” To say it another way, Holy Scripture is a weapon given to us by the Holy Spirit. However, unlike all the other purely defensive pieces of the armor of God, the sword is uniquely suited for defensive and offensive means. Defense is valuable, yes, but the sword is the means for which we complete the work we’ve been called to accomplish.
Just as Inigo studied and intensely practiced his craft of swordsmanship, we too must be intensely study and become proficient in our use of Scripture. For there is no enemy the Word of God, coupled with His Spirit, cannot defeat.
The Purpose of Dying by the Sword
You may not realize it, but the saying, “live by the sword, die by the sword” has a Biblical origin. It came after Judas’s betrayal, as soldiers moved in to arrest Jesus. Peter, in a rash attempt to protect Jesus, pulled his sword and struck Malchus, a servant of the high priest. Jesus told Peter to put away his sword and healed the man. (Luke 22:51). He also told Peter that “all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
Jesus would not fight the arrest, for it was God’s will. He had come to die as a sacrifice and now was the time. Here, the sword is a metaphor symbolizing the use of violence. Jesus’ warning Peter against using rash violence prevented Peter from also being arrested which would have had impact to the carrying the Gospel message forward following His death.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword” has since become a common expression, adapted from those words to Peter, meaning a person who lives violently will probably at some point be killed in a violent manner.
While Hollywood gave Inigo a happy ending, he in fact very nearly died by the same violence that fueled his passion. We too should be so passionate… but not by violent means. Instead, we should be prepared to allow parts of us to die daily to the sword of Holy Scripture.
As we study it, pray over it, seek God’s revealing nature, we not only should marvel at its ability to sever the parts of us that are no longer true. As we are refined on purpose, we are continually being transformed into new beings. We likewise draw ever nearer to being more like Christ in our ways.
As each little part that’s been put into us by the ways of this world dies, we’re progressively healed from our broken state, the gaps being filled in with mini pieces of heaven. In so doing, we serve our Lord, honor our mothers and fathers and cultivate a legacy capable of transforming the lives of our many generations forward.