Mysteries

This is the ninth blog post where I've shared with you what God is teaching me about the spoken word, and what has struck me most is mystery. There is much more here than we know. Someday in glory, when faith is sight and we no longer see but shadows on the wall or through a glass darkly, all the little hints the Bible dropped about the power of words will be so clear that we will momentarily reproach ourselves.

We will remember the command to "Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!" (Psalm 81:1), and we will repent that we didn't simply do that, with a childlike obedience. We will learn that it was not some mere stylistic preference of the ancient choirmaster, but that the call to "sing aloud" and to "shout" was our spiritual weaponry against principalities and powers in the unseen realms. It will suddenly make sense about Jericho and the instructions to keep silent for six times around the town and then to shout in triumph on the seventh.

We will learn that the angels also heard every word, and how those "ministering spirits" (Hebrews 1:7) who ascend and descend the ladder of heaven took encouragement and the cues for their assignments from the audible praises of the saints---as when Daniel poured out prayer and supplication, and Gabriel came with haste; and when Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns in prison and the earth responded and shook the jail's foundations.

We will realize that God himself, whose eyes "run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him" (2 Chronicles 16:9), is pleased to cause his presence to be directly related to our praises: He is "enthroned on the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3). That time alone in your room back in 1993 when in crisis you cried out to him, your cry became the entry point he sought for his kingdom to come with authority and power to change the coordinates of earth.

We will see that every word we spoke was eternally consequential, and none were neutral. We wielded them not only to the betterment or detriment of our hearers but for ourselves, our very words incrementally forming the persons we would became, rendering us either capable of greater victory or more susceptible to temptation. We will see that the little phrase we always skipped over in Philippians 4:6---"with thanksgiving"--- was the ticket against depression and the gateway to happiness.

I sometimes go hours without talking to God, and I notice I don't feel good when that happens. Call it an addiction but I need to reach over and feel God near me every minute. The screaming banshees of condemnation don't sleep, so I'm glad God doesn't either. The louder they shout, the louder I need to shout.

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