Chapter 3. The power of words
In the preface, I mentioned that spoken words control our faith. There is a relationship between faith and words; in this chapter, I want to show you the power of the spoken word.
Creative words
At the end of Chapter 1, I called your attention to the way that God created the heavens and the earth – He spoke them into existence. Many theological explanations exist for the concept of “Logos”, or the Word. But rather than go all mystical here, I would like to stick with the literal. The things that are written in the Word of God are often written in metaphors because they are true on multiple levels – the literal and the metaphorical. Focus with me on the literal for a few pages, and then you can go back to the deeper meanings.
While I am on the subject, I have noticed a definite human tendency to go all mystical and metaphorical on many matters. There is a book in print called “The Secret,” and a movie by that name. The basic premise of the book is that that there is some mystical power in the universe that brings us what we think about, so by changing our thoughts, we can change our lives. The “Law of Attraction” describes how this occurs. And it must be true, because so many people have said it was true.
Logically, there is a problem with this. When something is true, it is true regardless of popular opinion. Well, not everything. By definition, the current President’s popularity is true or not depending on popular opinion… but I digress. For most things, truth is not dependent on mass opinion, and the book “The Secret” is built on the premise that if so many people (some of them even famous people) believe it, it must be true. I would rather cite scripture and admit that if the Bible is wrong, then I am wrong, too. My personal bias is to accept the Bible as the word of God.
Interestingly, the concepts in “The Secret” do have some basis in scripture, as I am attempting to bring out in this book. It is not true because a lot of people think it is true, it is true because that’s how God put the universe together.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). King David waxed poetic and described it in Psalm 33:6 as “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” In short, all that God made, He made by speaking it into existence. Then He turned around and made man in His own image, named him Adam, and put him to work.
Examples of words at work
Throughout scripture, there are descriptions of the power of the spoken word. In Numbers 20:8, God told Moses to speak to a rock. “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.”
Side note: “Ye” is plural. The translators of the King James Bible spoke a version of the English language that is 400 years older than what we speak today; we have since abandoned the idea of singular and plural forms of “you”. So literally, God told Moses that both Aaron and Moses were to speak to the rock. They didn’t; they spoke to the congregation and hit the rock with Moses’ rod, just like they had in Exodus 17:6. In Exodus, they were told to strike the rock; this time they were supposed to speak to it. This failing later cost Moses his ticket into the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:49-52). When God says “speak”, we better open our mouths and say something, and when He says whack the rock with a stick… that is when we should get all physical with the rock.
Jesus illustrated the point about faith and speaking when He told the disciples that “…If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20). He said something very similar in Luke 17:6: “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”
Transplanting trees and moving mountains are given as examples of what the voice can do, when faith is present in mustard-seed quantities. Mark 4:31 tells us that the mustard seed is the smallest seed of all, so I assume that the amount of faith required for these feats is also small.
But faith quantities are not the point here; the point is that Jesus said “say unto this” mountain or tree. Speaking is the tool that our faith uses to accomplish the work.
Verbal utterances are given great weight in the scriptures; consider the following list of verses about talking:
Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue
Proverbs 15:4 – A wholesome tongue is a tree of life
James 3:5 - Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things
Romans 10:10 - …with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Clearly, the tongue is used in reference to speaking, rather than licking things here. James goes on to describe the tongue in more detail.
James 3:8 - But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9)Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Clearly, the strength is there – what is lacking is direction. Our tongues should be wagging for good, not for evil.
Words cannot be recalled
There have been some times in my life when I wished I could go back and un-say something that I had said; often because it was hurtful or untrue. I have found to my great regret that words cannot be unsaid. Sometimes, you can smother them with more words, confessions, apologies, and so on… but that is not the same as un-saying them.
Isaac ran into this problem when he blessed the wrong offspring.
Genesis 27:36, 37
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? (37) And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
When Esau complained that his brother had been blessed, Jacob lamented that the words he had said could not be recalled; the blessing was given, the words spoken, and the children of Jacob are still stereotyped as wealthy… they are still blessed with corn and wine. Not only were the words “no deposit – no return”, but they were “no expiration date”… The blessings continue indefinitely.
Even God Himself cannot un-say words. In Isaiah 55:11, God says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” In Isaiah 45:23, He says “…the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return…”
Because words are so durable and so powerful, we ought to watch them carefully!
In the preface, I mentioned that spoken words control our faith. There is a relationship between faith and words; in this chapter, I want to show you the power of the spoken word.
Creative words
At the end of Chapter 1, I called your attention to the way that God created the heavens and the earth – He spoke them into existence. Many theological explanations exist for the concept of “Logos”, or the Word. But rather than go all mystical here, I would like to stick with the literal. The things that are written in the Word of God are often written in metaphors because they are true on multiple levels – the literal and the metaphorical. Focus with me on the literal for a few pages, and then you can go back to the deeper meanings.
While I am on the subject, I have noticed a definite human tendency to go all mystical and metaphorical on many matters. There is a book in print called “The Secret,” and a movie by that name. The basic premise of the book is that that there is some mystical power in the universe that brings us what we think about, so by changing our thoughts, we can change our lives. The “Law of Attraction” describes how this occurs. And it must be true, because so many people have said it was true.
Logically, there is a problem with this. When something is true, it is true regardless of popular opinion. Well, not everything. By definition, the current President’s popularity is true or not depending on popular opinion… but I digress. For most things, truth is not dependent on mass opinion, and the book “The Secret” is built on the premise that if so many people (some of them even famous people) believe it, it must be true. I would rather cite scripture and admit that if the Bible is wrong, then I am wrong, too. My personal bias is to accept the Bible as the word of God.
Interestingly, the concepts in “The Secret” do have some basis in scripture, as I am attempting to bring out in this book. It is not true because a lot of people think it is true, it is true because that’s how God put the universe together.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). King David waxed poetic and described it in Psalm 33:6 as “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” In short, all that God made, He made by speaking it into existence. Then He turned around and made man in His own image, named him Adam, and put him to work.
Examples of words at work
Throughout scripture, there are descriptions of the power of the spoken word. In Numbers 20:8, God told Moses to speak to a rock. “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.”
Side note: “Ye” is plural. The translators of the King James Bible spoke a version of the English language that is 400 years older than what we speak today; we have since abandoned the idea of singular and plural forms of “you”. So literally, God told Moses that both Aaron and Moses were to speak to the rock. They didn’t; they spoke to the congregation and hit the rock with Moses’ rod, just like they had in Exodus 17:6. In Exodus, they were told to strike the rock; this time they were supposed to speak to it. This failing later cost Moses his ticket into the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:49-52). When God says “speak”, we better open our mouths and say something, and when He says whack the rock with a stick… that is when we should get all physical with the rock.
Jesus illustrated the point about faith and speaking when He told the disciples that “…If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20). He said something very similar in Luke 17:6: “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”
Transplanting trees and moving mountains are given as examples of what the voice can do, when faith is present in mustard-seed quantities. Mark 4:31 tells us that the mustard seed is the smallest seed of all, so I assume that the amount of faith required for these feats is also small.
But faith quantities are not the point here; the point is that Jesus said “say unto this” mountain or tree. Speaking is the tool that our faith uses to accomplish the work.
Verbal utterances are given great weight in the scriptures; consider the following list of verses about talking:
Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue
Proverbs 15:4 – A wholesome tongue is a tree of life
James 3:5 - Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things
Romans 10:10 - …with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Clearly, the tongue is used in reference to speaking, rather than licking things here. James goes on to describe the tongue in more detail.
James 3:8 - But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9)Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Clearly, the strength is there – what is lacking is direction. Our tongues should be wagging for good, not for evil.
Words cannot be recalled
There have been some times in my life when I wished I could go back and un-say something that I had said; often because it was hurtful or untrue. I have found to my great regret that words cannot be unsaid. Sometimes, you can smother them with more words, confessions, apologies, and so on… but that is not the same as un-saying them.
Isaac ran into this problem when he blessed the wrong offspring.
Genesis 27:36, 37
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? (37) And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
When Esau complained that his brother had been blessed, Jacob lamented that the words he had said could not be recalled; the blessing was given, the words spoken, and the children of Jacob are still stereotyped as wealthy… they are still blessed with corn and wine. Not only were the words “no deposit – no return”, but they were “no expiration date”… The blessings continue indefinitely.
Even God Himself cannot un-say words. In Isaiah 55:11, God says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” In Isaiah 45:23, He says “…the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return…”
Because words are so durable and so powerful, we ought to watch them carefully!
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