Jesus shows the
power of His words in Mark 4:39 When Jesus woke
up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be still!"
Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
Jesus “called out in a loud voice” for Lazerus to come
out of the grave. It was by Jesus’ voice
and command that Lazerus was raised from the dead. Many people witnessed it and it is found in
John 11:43-44. Jesus states that He knew what God would do and could do it in a
quiet way, but He chose to do it this way so that they too, might believe.
These examples show Jesus conquering storms
and death by His words. Take this to
heart and mind. His words also helped
others to believe as they heard him speak and saw the results of what happened
by what he said.
We see peace and
we see life and freedom. In His presence
are such things. When we come to Him in
prayer or reading His Word, this is what pours from His breath into our
lives. In our times of praise He comes
with the joy of His Spirit.
Numbers 20:1-12
is a powerful illustration of God’s instruction to Moses about speaking and the
power of words and God’s intention to show its power. The people were thirsty and needed water. They complained to Moses and Aaron and they were
mad at the LORD and said to Moses, “You brought us out here to die?!”
Moses went to the LORD and the LORD told him to take the
stick and to speak to the rock and water
would come out from it. Moses returned
to the angry people who had just spoken to him in complaining and
aggression. He responded in like anger
and said in self-righteous frustration, “Listen you rebels, must we
bring you water out of this rock?!” Moses’
words took ownership of the providing. He
said, “Must we.” Moses then struck the rock not once, but twice with his staff
instead of speaking to it as God had said and still the water gushed out of the
rock. This was the act that Moses did
that kept Moses from seeing the Promised Land.
12But the Lord said to
Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in
the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I
give them.” 13These
were the waters of Meribah,a where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them.
God, His will and way were shown Holy by Him in His
keeping Moses and Aaron, who had done so much that was great, was not of them
but of Him and so they no longer received the rest of what God was giving, the
Promised Land.
Greater yet, beyond the knowledge of the Israelites and
Moses is the representation of the Spiritual in the event. God was showing the strength and power of
words and not might. He also shows His mercy and His provision even in our
failures. God was showing that as Christ
is the rock, His living water pours out from Him to us through His Spirit and
gives us life in the Spiritual and eternal.
1 Corinthians 10:4
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual
rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Even as Jesus hung
on the cross and had been beaten and pierced, He still poured out forgiveness
and everlasting life as blood and water poured out from His side when He was
pierced.
Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man
does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.'"
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with
God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were
made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In
him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light
shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understooda
it.
I have to admit
that all of this was dark to me. Until
His Spirit showed me the dove-like breath and captured my thoughts and consumed
my curiosity, I would not have found this incredible foundation that is both
physical and spiritual and relational with God and with one another in our
breath and His. I can’t take a single
word of credit for it except that I sat down with all of the puzzle pieces that
He was handing me and put together the puzzle of the picture He had already created
from the beginning.
Here’s another
piece. John 8:20-21 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing
outside, wanting to see you.” 21 He
replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into
practice.
Here we see the pieces fitting together.
We see the relationships in Christ. We become part of the intimate
family where words are life. We see that
it is through God’s word and putting it into practice.
John
3:3 For the one whom God has sent
speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit/Ruah without limit.
These are more scriptures to take to heart as you move
forward in the knowledge and wisdom of what God has given you.
Colossians 4:6 Let your
conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how to answer everyone.
Proverbs 16:23-24 A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his
lips promote instruction. 24Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the
soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 15:1 A
gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Matthew
12:35-36 The
good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out
of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I
tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37for by your words you will be justified, and by
your words you will be condemned.”
The power of words are life. Words can live for all time. When we think of great people, we think of
the things that they said. We often
quote them. Their words are as alive today
as they were then. When the homes of
these famous people decay or the clothes they wore rot away, their words live
on vibrant and strong. It is the
writings that continue; the words published or spoken and remembered. We repeat words said by family members long
since passed away and they continue on.
When I was growing up, our elementary school did an
experiment each year for the 12 -year olds.
We grew bean plants by seed. We
watered our plants and kept them by the sunlight. But, what we did was separate the plants and
placed half on one side of the room and the other half on the other side of the
room. On one side we were told that we
could “talk” in kind voices and positive words to the plants. On the other side of the room we could talk
in mean voices and use ridiculing and criticizing words.
We got to witness the effect of words on plants. The ones that received good words grew
taller, stronger and fuller. The plants
that got the negative talk grew small, straggly and weak. I remember this vividly. Of course, as kids do, some figured out a way
to try and sabotage the process and would speak meanly to the plants that were
to receive the good. I don’t think the
experiment continued much longer.
A friend of mine is an organic gardener and began selling
her plants through Featherly Farms. Her
plants are truly the largest, strongest and healthiest plants I have ever seen
or transplanted. Her garden beds are
well tended to and watered, but the only difference that I see her do is that
she has speakers up on the outside of her home that play music as she gardens
all day. The station she listens to is
Christian music. Her plants are drenched
in this music.
You may think this sounds far-fetched, but I witnessed
it. I am an avid gardener myself and
have spent many years around nurseries and her plants are not like any I have
ever seen. In fact, I had some of her
tomato plants in a pot by our front door.
We received a large bouquet of flowers from a high-end florist and
garden center and the delivery driver raved about the tomato plants being the
most remarkable she had ever seen. Years
ago we used to see little old ladies with amazing house plants and we would
hear about how they “talk to their plants.”
I don’t know how
much is here, but I have seen results of purposeful kind words on plants. I have also seen purposeful, kind words
spoken to people and the strength and encouragement and growth that they have
on people. Even as infants, the kind
words soothe and calm. Pets recognize a
kind word and are drawn near verses angry words where they may run and
cower.
The LORD is inviting us to talk to Him as He speaks to us
in love. He is gentle and has given you
the essence of Himself in being created in His image. Your prayers, your words and your thoughts
matter to Him and in them, He wants them to matter to you, too.
He also desires you to know His Words to you. Knowing them helps you know Him. In the beginning was the Word and the Word
was with God and the Word was God.
There are times when I long to know God so much more,
that I can hardly stand it. Reading the
Bible helps so much! I have also learned
to be quiet enough to recognize His voice.
It is a matter of opening up ourselves to believe it, receive it and
really listen. Sometimes it is in
voice. Sometimes He speaks in situations
or things happening that could only have been done by Him. Like we have learned, communication isn’t
always words.
There are times when the desire I have to be near God in
relationship or communion is so strong and I feel like I need it for the very
life of me! There is a verse that
expresses this well in Psalm 42:1 “For
the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for
streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”
I saw this in real life last Fall. We were on our way to visit my mother-in-law
at a facility where she was recovering from knee replacement surgery. The campus of the facility was deep in the
woods on a tall hillside high above the Minnesota River . There was a deer with antlers standing near
the drive that we were on. He stood with
his mouth open and panting. I had never
seen a deer do this before. The verse
came to mind as my own soul recognized that current desire I was
experiencing. The deer didn’t have much
further to go for its streams of water.
Neither did I, as that evening I had a powerful time of being in God’s
presence.
I had been writing this book and had stopped and felt so
empty and “dry.” When I went to my
computer that night after having seen the deer and identifying with the
scripture verse of my own soul panting for the water brook, there was an e-mail
from another writer and Bible teacher that I greatly admire. She had blogged to “authors.” I had never known her to address so narrowly
an audience. She encouraged and uplifted
in the importance of continuing on to write, to go to God in times of dryness
and to spend time with Him. This was a
way of God communicating to me. He knew
my longing and showed me that He knew. I
wept my own streams as I drew near to Him knowing how intimately He knew me and
provided for me. From there I was able
to go on.
Not all of my words and conversations with the LORD have
been serious or weighty in neediness.
There are times when I just plain have fun with Jesus. I will laugh when He boldly shows me
something to the point where He’s showing off. Sometimes I’m just living out my day.
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