Saturday, February 16, 2013

Five Bible Verses on the Power of the Spoken Word

1. Mark 11:22-24 And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Jesus tells us to have faith in God! Faith is an incredibly powerful thing. It can move mountains. The metaphor here used by Jesus is of moving mountains. If we pray earnestly we can move mountains! Have you heard stories of pastors and healers in modern times who heal people of great sickness? Though many of these accounts are indeed false, I believe many are also true. Why? Because anything is possible for the strong believers. We are told not to doubt! Do not doubt that your prayers will be answered, but believe they have already been answered. This is a personal favorite of mine as far as Bible verses go. This is a command from Jesus himself. So faith is the power through which prayers can be answered completely. We are to believe we have already received what we pray for. Assuming God sees it to be a good and just thing to have, he will give it. So how do we have that faith? In our modern culture we are all doubters, and we're taught to be scientific doubters. Especially here in America it seems that all must see something and touch it to believe it even exists. This is not the way of God. So how do we improve our faith? We improve it through communion with God, and we are watchful of the world around us for signs of God working. This can be as simple as looking up at the stars at night, or hearing something you knew you were meant to hear. It's also crucial to make sure we are studying the Bible and participating actively in our walk with Christ.

2. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue! The power of the spoken word is extremely powerful. That's why we go to church to hear the sermons. God speaks through people. He speaks through us if Christ is within us. The power of the spoken word is incredible and so is the power of the written word. The very word of God was written on paper and carried through the ages so that we may be redeemed by it today. Considering the persecution of the early church it is a miracle of God that the Bible survived for us to learn from. The power of death is in negative use of the spoken word. And that's something we're very good at today. We say all the wrong things. We condemn our neighbors. We gossip. We laugh about stupid things. We laugh about our sins. We indulge in ugly things. To those who do this, the ones around them are harmed. It brings spiritual sickness and spiritual death. Just in the same way speaking positively and speaking the truth of God brings great rewards. The people around us are enriched. They see what we say and explore their own faith. They feel better and smile because of the good news from our mouths. And those who speak well the word of God reap the rewards of it.

3. 2 Corinthians 4:13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak,

This passage in Corinthians refers to Jesus and how he spoke our requests to God and they were answered. Jesus believed in and loved God. We as Christians also believe in and love God. So we also have the spirit of faith. So as long as we strongly believe, we ought to speak the good news of Christ. We ought to also pray, and should we pray faithfully we will receive our prayers. When we are strong in Christ and following the word of God, God is happy with us. And God as our true father, our spiritual father, he likes to give us things that make us happy when we do his good work. This is so simple, yet makes complete sense. I love it, God be praised!

4. Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."

This is yet another passage, which I included to reinforce the point that prayer is powerful. We are told once again that should you pray you will receive as long as your faith is strong. Do not doubt when you pray! But also don't be discouraged if you do doubt when you pray. Keep praying. Keep searching out the truth of God. Keep diving into the word, and your doubt will disappear as the complete picture slowly fills your mind. Don't worry, don't be afraid, just keep after it!

5. 2 Corinthians 4:18 As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

In Corinthians we see that we are not to only believe what we see and touch. We are to have the exact opposite. The reason this scientific idea is so prominent in our society of doubt and sin, is that Satan is at work in the world everyday. We must look to the unseen! We must make that perspective our entire world. The physical things are transient, short lived, they will all disappear. We are taught in our society to place such value on the physical, yet it has none at all. The unseen things, faith, the holy spirit, God himself, they are eternal. They will last forever, and so shall we.

I love this passage from Corinthians so much. It says so much, and it's so powerful. It just goes to show how perfect the word of God is. I've been a writer for ten plus years. I know my trade very well, and I've read a lot. I love to make my writing concise and to the point. I just marvel at scripture. Every single passage is written perfectly. It's just not possible, yet there it is. It's so completely perfect, concise, short, yet containing such a wealth of knowledge. Each passage could have books written on it. This is extraordinary and this tells me that there is no doubt it is the word of God . I get little hints like that everyday, little things that build my faith up. I see that through watching for and acknowledging God in all things he shows himself completely. This builds our faith, upon his great rock. But if we do not see the rock, how can we believe? God will show us the rock if we ask him and then watch for it.