Imperial Valley Christian Center

So it's certain that the people who heard Jesus speak and the disciples who recorded
his words believed that words have power. (You can read part #1 here and #2 here to see the evidence for that.)

In order to correctly interpret the Bible passages about "words" we need to start with this understanding. If we don't interpret the scriptures according to what their plain meaning was for the first century Jews who heard Jesus teach then we are sure to mis-interpret them. (All of this of course assumes that Jesus wanted his audience to understand him; which I don't think is a huge assumption.)

Okay, now that we've got all that foundational stuff out of the way lets get to the actual scriptures. I want to show you in a number of different ways that the Bible clearly teaches that our words have power, i.e. they can effect the world around us.

1. Jesus said our words have power
Let's start with the most obvious scripture:

Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Jesus states that if we are able to believe that "…those things which he saith shall come to pass…" our words can move mountains. This principle, that faith filled words can effect the world is repeated explicitly in the gospels on three separate occasions. I don't mean that this story of the cursing of the fig tree followed by the teaching that faith filled words can move mountains is repeated three times, but that this principle of the power of faith filled words is repeated in three different stories; which is a pretty rare occurrence for the relatively brief Gospels.

1. The story of the boy the disciples couldn't heal found in Matt. 17:14-21, with the relevant scripture being:

Matt:17:19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, 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 also repeats the fig tree story at Matt. 21:19-22.

2. The story where the disciples request Jesus to increase their faith at  Luke 17:5-10  with the relevant scripture:

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.

So on these three separate occasions, fig tree, couldn't heal the child, and increase our faith, this principle of the power of words is repeated. It's hard to think of any other principle emphasized this much in the gospels. Not do unto others. Not turn the other cheek. The unusual repetition of this principle suggests that it's something important.

In addition there are other references where a similar, I belive identical, principle is mentioned:

I'll get to these scriptures next.

So the "theologically correct," sophisticated, evangelicals are certain, to the point of mocking those who state otherwise, that our words do not have any real power. Words are mere blasts of wind to them. They do not effect the course of nature and they certainly have no effect of our lives. They know this to be true. It's an "of course," a certainty, a given,  even though they've arrived at this knowledge without investigation or study, they are sure it is so.

In this knowledge they are opposed by most of the people who are now alive or who have ever lived. I love this story related by John Derbyshire (Pronounced dar' bu shur) who was educated as a mathematician but is a polymath by nature who now writes for National Review and National Review Online among other journals.

In last month's diary I mentioned Hank Williams's rather macabre song  " The Angel of Death." Now, I hate to admit it, but this song is kind of catchy. It is so catchy I have been singing it around the house. This stopped abruptly when Rosie overheard me. "WHY ARE YOU SINGING THAT?" she shrieked. "WE DON'T WANT THOSE KINDS OF WORDS IN OUR HOUSE!" I murmured defensively that it is, after all, only a song.

At such times I think of the Comte de Beauvoir's remark about the Chinese being the least religious people in the world, but the most superstitious. A child of, or at any rate a descendant of, the Enlightenment, with an early training in science and mathematics, I am inclined to think that words are basically patterns of vibrating molecules in air. The idea that singing about the Angel of Death might attract old Azrael's attention to my inconspicuous little suburban homestead seems preposterous.

On reflection, though, I am not so sure of myself. I recall a dinner-party conversation I heard

Reading through the blogosphere I came across this, apparently well regarded evangelical blog, mocking (He files it under confused people and refers to it as "Snake oil." ) Joel Osteen, pastor of apparently the largest church congregation in America, for saying that our words effect our lives. No argument. No scriptures. Just the assumption that this must be ridiculous. I guess that's what passes for intellect amongst the evangelicals.

The problem for evangelicals is that they want to keep the supernatural origin of scripture but not its supernatural content. They need the Bible to be, in some sense, the "Word of God," i.e. supernatural in origin because without this it has no authority. But their modern, well educated, thoroughly naturalized,  mind reels against what this "supernatural" book actually says. So they push all of the supernatural into the way distant, "Bible days" past or into the far distant eschatological future. (One famous evangelical Bible teacher apparently even goes so far as to argue that there weren't even really that many miracles in the Bible.) So the modern, "theologically correct" evangelical, sounds pretty much like the Scottish philosopher Hume who argued that since he had never seen a miracle, therefore miracles did not exist. There isn't much distance from there are no miracles to there are no miracles now.

The Bible's obvious belief in things like curses and demons and blessings and visions and dreams and prophecies and healings and exorcisms makes the average evangelical very uncomfortable. They apparently think something along these lines:

Geez, everybody knows these things aren't real. Curses aren't real they're just a superstition. Jesus wouldn't have believed in any of this superstitious nonsense no matter what the plain meaning of the words may be. We can't have our Savior sounding like some character out of a Flannery O'Connor story. He must of meant something else. Something spiritual. Something enlightening. Something for another world or another time. Something supernal. And most important of all something not susceptible to empirical investigation. We can't be having any real world, concrete, verifiable propositions in our religion. If we did that we might end up proving our religion wrong.

Well the all purpose, "everybody knows" is just another way of saying it isn't fashionable to believe in these things. If the Bible really is the word of God then we should believe what it says without regard to current intellectual fashion. We shouldn't adjust it's meaning to fit what we "know" to be true. We shouldn't react with embarrassment upon encountering some "theologically incorrect" saying of Jesus and try to twist the plain meaning into something we find more acceptable to our culture. The Bible teaches that God's wisdom no matter how foolish it may sound to us is greater than our wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1:19-30 “19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. … 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:”

We're the ones who are supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It's not the Word of God which is to be transformed to accommodate our understanding.

I'll have more on the power of words later.

Here's a great article about healing, Healing In Redemption, by the author, Joe McIntyre of one of my favoirite books, E.W. Kenyon, The True Story.  Every Christian should have a copy of this article if just for the footnotes and references.

Here's a couple blurbs:

Another hindrance to the idea of healing in the atonement is the influence of Platonic Dualism on the Church. An increasing number of scholars are challenging our Western presuppositions and noting that we are viewing reality through a Greek influenced lens, rather than a Hebrew perspective. Marvin Wilson says that we “have often found ourselves in the confusing situation of trying to understand a Jewish Book through the eyes of Greek culture.” One of the ways in which we are guilty of this mistake, according to Wilson, is viewing our world dualistically, instead of as a “dynamic unity.”

Unlike the ancient Greek, the Hebrew viewed the world as good. Though fallen and

Occasionally you'll here someone say something like this,

" I believe that faith is necessary to receive answers to prayer but in spite of our faith there are times when God, for reasons which we may not understand but are, no doubt, good for us does not answer our prayers in spite of our faith."

The problem with this idea is that it undermines faith. This type of reasoning is in fact doubt.  Faith is based on certainty. Lack of certainty is doubt. Put another way, the basis for our faith is knowledge about what cannot be seen or knowledge about what will happen in the future. Where does this knowledge come from? It comes from what God's Word says.  Faith begins with what you're expecting to happen. If you're not sure, if you don't know what to expect  you're in doubt.  How do determine what will happen? We look at God's promises. What God has promised lets us know what we can expect to happen.

Dad Hagin used to put it this way. If the preacher says, God will heal but he doesn't heal all, immediately the devil will come to you and say, and you're one of the ones he's not going to heal. That's why we hammer so hard on the fact that it is always and at all times God's will that everyone be healed of everything. That is the only way to build faith into people for healing.

God says, call upon me and I will answer you. That statement tells us what will happen in the future. Jesus says ask and it shall be given you. That promise lets us know what will happen when we ask. If Jesus had said ask and you might get it, we would have no basis for our faith. We would always be in doubt as to the outcome. If God had said, call upon me and you just never know, we would have no reason to expect our prayer to be answered. So when a preacher says that you just can't be sure if God will answer, the preacher is creating doubt.

I don't really have time to elaborate on this right now, but it will probably help your thinking in this area if you use some synonyms for faith. For example, Confidence. Can you have confidence in your lawyer if he tells you he will probably work on  your case. Trust. How much trust do you repose in the plumber who says he might show up to fix your toilet? You can readily see why most Christians have such weak faith, they've been told they can't trust God. They are constantly preached at that they can't have confidence in His promises.

Here's an interesting hint to meditating God's word. This is a blurb from a blog Next Reformation, the  permanent link doesn't appear to work. The author doesn't provide a reference and I haven't checked it out but it is interesting.

On the subject of meditation, the Benedictine monks had a habit of reading and re-reading a passage until something "shimmered" for them (meaning that it challenged, comforted,  confused or otherwise "called out" to them), and this was what they would meditate on. Wendy introduced this to our home group in California as we were spending a couple of months working through the Epistle to the Galatians, and it was amazing to see people begin to connect (many for the first time) with God through reading and meditating on His Word. Meditating isn't difficult once something "shimmers" -- you usually CAN'T get it out of your head!

If you spend time meditating on a list of scriptures you'll discover that some of them will become more "alive" to you. They will have more meaning. They will be very encouraging. They will be food for your spirit. By meditating I mean reading the scripture over and over to yourself. Reading it out loud to yourself. Personalizing it, i.e. restating it in terms that make it apply to you. It doesn't take much of doing this before the word will begin to become alive, but it may take a few days before you really get in to it.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

I prefer the Spanish translation of this verse in the NVI (Nueva Versión Internacionall) which is basically the Spanish NIV (New International Version).

Josué 1:8 (Nueva Versión Internacional) Recita siempre el libro de la ley y medita en él de día y de noche; cumple con cuidado todo lo que en él está escrito. Así prosperarás y tendrás éxito.

It translates the first part of the verse, "Recita siempre…" which translated back into English is "Always recite this book of the law and meditate in it by day and by night…" That's how you meditate the word, be constantly speaking it. Don't let it depart from your mouth, i.e. make sure it's always coming out of your mouth.

In common, everyday, use the word hope has the sense of wish. Hope is something we would very much like to happen. "I hope I get the job." "Is God going to answer your prayer? I sure hope so." "I hope you're better soon."

Here's "Webster's" definition: HOPE

1 :to cherish a desire with anticipation 

2 archaic : TRUST

1 : to desire with expectation of obtainment
2 : to expect with confidence : TRUST
synonym see EXPECT …

The Bible sense of hope is the archaic one mentioned above, i.e. a confident expectation. Something you are certain is going to happen. The Greek word (The oldest known copies of the New Testament  are written in the Greek language.) translated "hope" in the English Bible is "elpis." Here's W.E. Vines definition of "elpis":

Well this is kind of cool and since we have a very strict policy of taking compliments wherever we can find them, The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)Radio 4 has selected Imperial Valley Christian Center's podcast as their podcast of the week. Here's a link to the radio program, Saturday Live, where they mention Imperial Valley Christian Center. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the, Listen To This Programme in full, button. The section about Imperial Valley Christian Center starts at about 45 minutes. I suspect this link will only be good for a week, i.e. until their next show, so  here is the relevant portion in mp3 format:

Cool.

Update: Here's the full message they referred to on the BBC.