Wish or blessing?

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:2).

This is the part of Paul's letter you skip over, the way I always skip the opening words of the high school principal's late August back-to-school letter that starts: "Dear parents, It is hard to believe that summer has flown by so quickly. It seems like it was only yesterday that. . . ." Just a meaningless introduction; the meat is in paragraph 2.

But not so fast. Are the words that the Apostles pronounce at the beginning of their letters (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:3; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2; Jude 2; Revelation 1:3) mere empty wishes, or are they words that carry efficacious power? That is, are they blessings that really bless, or are they standard formulaic greetings and nothing more? Are we to regard them as on a par with the blessings Isaac pronounced on his sons---which they were so confident would come to pass that Esau cried like a baby when he got a bad blessing?

What joy! I believe God has shown me that Paul and Peter are not speaking empty formulas of social greeting but imparting a spiritual gift! Even as God's words create and destroy, so He has conferred such dignity on man-in-Christ that our words are analogous to His. This is part of our riches (Ephesians 1).

I wrote an essay for the print magazine, making the case that our words do affect spiritual realities. A letter to the editor published a few weeks later took issue with this:

"[W]e do not bless, give benedictions, or pray because we have the power to create realities with our words. Rather we have a good and gracious God who condescends to work His will in this world in large measure through the prayers and blessings of His people."

May I say, with respect, that the gentleman's objection, which is evidently an attempt to safeguard the honor and sovereignty of God from what he suspects is dangerous theology, does not stand. His second statement---that God works his will through our prayers and blessings---is nothing different from what I am saying. And yet he leaves the impression that we are at odds.

The purpose of my essay was merely to share an insight that thrilled me---the ecstatic fact that God should use the very words of our mouths to silence the enemy (Psalm 8:2). What glory to him! And how he crowns man with splendor in spite of his smallness! This is the wonderful surprise announced on every page of the New Testament. Who could have expected it? Who could have deserved it?

When people present their members as instruments for righteousness (Romans 6:13), there is a reigning in life that is the exercise of God's own rule.

But I would like to plead regarding a different matter: When a brother or sister comes with an insight or revelation (for "the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him"---Ephesians 1:17), do we despise it without due consideration because its expression does not conform in every jot and tittle to the patterns and formulations we have devised and are accustomed to? Or do we test the spirits?

And why should we not expect that there are more insights to be had from Scripture than the ones we have already been shown by the Spirit? What then does God mean by urging us to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18)? Do we really believe in the possibility of that growth? Have we become such stiff custodians of our venerable traditions that they keep us from considering new depths of understanding? Do we quench the Spirit?

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