The Holy Spirit guides, comforts, and teaches those who have asked Jesus into their hearts. At times, He forwards insights and words of directions from God. These words are to be evaluated and accepted as true only if they correspond to the teaching of the Holy Bible and are never to replace or change the eternal truths of Scripture. I wrote the following words in my journal, after asking God what to teach an adult Bible class:
“TEACH MY PEOPLE ABOUT THE POWER OF WORDS:
Words grant salvation.
Words release My healing touch.
Words set My people free.
Words set My heavenly hosts into action.
Words praise Me, thank Me, and bless Me.
Words call on My protection and cause Me to act in a mighty way.
Teach your class to become more aware of the words they utter all during the day.
Are the words of faith, hope, and love of Me – love of My people?
Are the words from My divine teaching – the Holy Scripture?
Are the words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy that I constantly am bestowing on My people?
Each person needs to become aware of the power of words to heal, uplift, help, comfort, encourage or to defeat, discourage, condemn, and hinder My beloved ones.
Listen to your words.
Measure your words by My standards.
Help My people by speaking My words, My truths, My Scripture.
Be Mine in all your words – in everything you say.
Do this for Me. Amen. Amen.”
I went to the Holy Bible and the Lord brought to my attention specific Scripture that, I believe, correspond to His message.
His first point was: “WORDS GRANT SALVATION”
Romans 10:9 explains that if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:13-18 explains that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but there is a need to tell about Jesus in order for others to know Him and to believe in Him. Faith comes from hearing the message. With a confession of faith you are saved. But there is another reason you would confess your faith aloud: evangelism. Evangelism is telling others about the teaching of Jesus and the good news about how one can have eternal life. (Refer to John 3:16) God loves everyone in the world so much that He gave His only Son Jesus that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life with God. Evangelism can happen in far off countries, but also in your local grocery store, or over a cup of coffee among friends and family members. There might be a time when you would say such things as, “I believe in Jesus as My Lord and Savior. He died taking the punishment for my sin. I believe God raised Him from the dead. He lives in heaven at the right hand of God. I am so thankful for the love of God, I want to live to please Him.” We need to break the custom that says one doesn’t talk about religion in front of others. There are times when it would not be wise. But, as prompted by the Holy Spirit, believers need to help others know about Jesus. We need to be able to speak our faith. There is nothing more powerful than confessing Jesus as Lord, and accepting eternal life with Jesus. There is no gift you can receive that is greater than this precious relationship with the Lord. There is no greater gift that you can urge others to receive than His gift of eternal life. As God prompts you, speak your confession of faith.
Second: “WORDS RELEASE MY HEALING TOUCH”
The Scripture that God brought to my mind concerning this is Acts 3:1-8 where a man lame from birth was asking for alms and Peter said to him, “I have no silver or gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And Peter took him by the hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
Count the words of Peter. “I have no silver or gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Those 22 words released God’s healing power. My prayer is that God would prompt us, by the Holy Spirit, to pray in a way that releases His power — allowing people to experience God’s healing touch.
I came across Scripture that greatly touched me and reminded me that God is calling us to maturity, to walk in His love and power. In the letter of I John 2:1-6 we read that God’s love is made complete in those who obey the words of Jesus, and are learning to walk as He did. Believing the actions of Jesus is one thing, but doing the same things is quite another. When it comes to healing, speaking, and teaching there seems to be a new depth to what God is calling us to do and be. What would happen if we each read the Gospel according to Luke, and as we saw in our mind how Jesus lived and prayed and taught, we prayed to God to help us to abide in Christ, be obedient to Him, be as His disciples and walk as He walked? Pray for God to help you and I believe He will. But the hard part about this is feeling vulnerable because, in learning to walk the way Jesus walked, we try, but we make mistakes, and this is horribly embarrassing. We want to give up, to quit trying when we pray for someone and it is not helpful. Discerning the promptings of the Holy Spirit can be difficult. I can’t make it on my own, can you? Maybe we could help each other by praying for each other. What the Lord is calling us to be is only possible by His grace. If it is true that He is calling His church to walk as He walked, Lord, have mercy! We will really need to pray for each other! Instead of being bitter about why the church hasn’t done this already, I have a growing appreciation for the church. I have a yearning for us to help each other. That is what He is developing in me. God, let us love each other enough, that we can help each other be like Jesus and walk as Jesus did, by God’s grace.
So as we are learning, while one person is speaking or praying, could we support his learning attempts by our silent prayer? What if we became the kind of team, the kind of lovers of Jesus and each other, that any time we heard the words of others we would pray for God’s perspective to be revealed. God would need to give us His love for others. We would be better listeners, not impatiently waiting for a turn to talk.
Third: “WORDS SET MY PEOPLE FREE”
Knowing the truth can set us free from the lies that we have heard and accepted. One of the most important truths we need to acknowledge is that God created our inmost being from our time in our mother’s womb. We are wonderfully made and have a specific ordained number of days written in God’s Book. (Psalm 139:13-16) Believers have available to them God given gifts to serve and encourage others. (I Corinthians chapter 12) Most of us have had lies spoken to us that could prevent us from developing into the person God created us to be. All of us have made choices from which we need to repent, turning instead to live in a godly manner. Living as Scripture teaches is to gain freedom from the lies. John 8:31-32 records what Jesus taught, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Fourth: “WORDS SET MY HEAVENLY HOSTS INTO ACTION”
Psalm 91:9-16 includes teaching about those who have made God their refuge. We are to call on Him and He will give His angels charge of us to guard us in all our ways. God said He will be with us in trouble, not take away all trouble.
A friend told me about a time when he was driving his car down the street and much to his amazement he saw a huge angel – not man size but bigger than man size – in the road before him. He had never seen this before and never since. He wrenched his steering wheel, pulling his car off to the right. Coming toward him in the middle of the road was a huge truck. If he had not pulled over he would have had a head-on collision and he knows in his heart that God sent that angel to prevent him from such a collision.
A few times God has prompted me to pray, “God, release your angels!” One time was when a pastor of a church in Jerusalem telephoned me at home and said that God had awakened him and told him to call me and ask me to pray for him and his church. He gave me a list of things to pray for and as I started to pray, the first words that came to me were, “God, release your angels.” I prayed for protection over the compound, and for angels to be as sentries guarding all the gates and doors and the people.
The Bible tells us of the work of an angel in chapter 5 of the Book of Acts. The apostles had done many signs and wonders and many believers were added to the Lord, so the high priest and the Sadducees were filled with jealousy and put them in prison. But, at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and told them to go to the temple and again speak truth to the people. So it is scriptural that angels do intercede for us. They may come in times of emergency. They may give us messages and free us from a danger and help us on our way. I believe it is scriptural to pray, “God, release your angels,” if God puts that prayer on your heart. But, I do not believe we should pray to angels or in any way worship angels. Refer to Hebrews chapters 1 and 2.
Fifth: “WORDS PRAISE ME, THANK ME, AND BLESS ME.”
Jesus taught the most important thing we can do is love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Luke 10:27) I am sure He is blessed when we acknowledge that He is the creator of heaven and earth and when we give Him His due credit for instances of His healing, guiding, blessing and protecting us. The Book of Psalms gives many writings that may be adapted to be personal prayers of praise and thankfulness.
Sixth: “WORDS CALL ON MY PROTECTION AND CAUSE ME TO ACT IN A MIGHTY WAY.”
During a Sunday evening service years ago, a pastor and his wife prayed for me. God answered their prayers by giving me an inner picture like watching a movie in my head. I “saw” Jesus standing between me and others. His back was toward me until He turned around and I saw He had an armload of fiery darts which represented hurtful words and situations. He had intercepted the fiery darts meant for me. They were not hurting Him as they burned down to hot coals and then ashes. Jesus opened His arms and let the ashes drop down on the dirt. Then with His sandaled foot He smoothed the ashes into the earth and they disappeared. He gave me a word: “DEFUSE”. Later, I looked up “defuse” in the dictionary. It means to take the fuse from a potential explosive. As I saw the ashes of the fiery darts disappear, their power to hurt me disappeared. I have recently come to the realization that He has continued to stand between me and the fiery darts, protecting me from hurtful words and actions. Thank You, Lord!
May the Holy Spirit bring to your mind the areas He wants to teach you, heal you, and encourage you regarding the power of words. May Psalm 19:14 be the prayer or our hearts, asking that the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in the sight of the Lord.