This is more of a lesson than a couple of random thoughts. Sorry if it's a bit dense….
When was the last time you thought to yourself, "my words hold power"?
For some, maybe its during a speech; crowds of at least semi-attentive eyes give that impression. Perhaps its when you're casting your vote for the new President. Has it occured to you when you see the sick, the sad, or the lost? The truth that you hold the power of life and death in your words. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit~Proverbs 18:21
This is a common verse, usually pulled out when instructing others to more carefully consider what they say. They emphasized the death in the verse. I know I always had. It was a warning. But look at the power of the tongue to give life. Jesus understood it. He commanded life into people. He commanded healing into a man's hand (Matthew 12:14) Guys (and gals), He told a dead little girl to get up. He didn't ask. He told. This isn't just a Jesus miracle spree; its what He's always done.
During creation, God spoke and it happened. A void, a blob of nothingness, had no choice but to obey God and become something. He spoke life into the void, and it complied.
In Ezekiel 37:1-14, He does the same. The Isrealites are like sun-baked, aged dry bones laying in heaps in a valley, He says. God easily might have said, "Get up bones. I will give you flesh to restore you. Breath, bring life to these bones." Instead, He told Ezekiel to say these things. Full authority over these bones was given to him. He spoke out the words of the Lord, and in the Lord's name.
How do we miss that we are allowed, even called, to do the same?
Jesus told the apostles in Acts 1:8, "But you shall recieve power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses…" Two chapters later, Peter and John were walking to the temple, through the gate called Beautiful. A lame beggar, who was regularly there, asked alms of these men as they were passing by. Their response? "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And he did just that.
Throughout scripture, the name and authority of God the Father, was needed. Jesus himself fell under the authority of God to work miracles. Until His resurrection, that is. When He defeated death, and was restored to His former glory, His Abba gave Him full authority on Earth, Heaven and down below. He always did carry God's authority, but now it is His as well. And He calls us to the same.
Coming back to the idea of God's kingdom that I love……in this kingdom, there is a King and his Son. The King tells the people one day, that anything the Son says, must be obeyed, just as if the King himself had said it. The King also appoints mesengers. These are no ordinary messengers; they are His adopted heirs, whom He gives the same rights to. Whatever they declare, in His or His first-born Son's authority, must be obeyed.*
*disclaimer: if God commands something opposed to what we command, our command is not to be obeyed.
So there we stand: adopted heirs, messengers, holding the power of life & death in our words, the authority of the God of the universe resting on us, to do good to His kingdom.
