Creation part 1
I hear people talk about God speaking the world into existence, but according to the Genesis account, God created the heaven and the earth in verse one and didn't speak until verse three. And when God spoke He said the only Word He ever says. He said, "Let there be light." He released Jesus--He released Himself, He released love--into an earth that was without form, and dark, and void. Why is this important? Because to me there's a difference between what was created, and what was spoken. Even though the source was the same. Love created the heaven and the earth. Because that's what love does: It creates. It unifies. It holds things together. This is different than what is (or what can be) spoken. Proverbs 18:21 tells us that, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." Jesus said, "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shal be condemned" (Matthew 12:36). Now before we go any further I do NOT believe that God is keeping a list of every word we say so that He can justify us or condemn us. In Christ we HAVE BEEN justified, and there is no condemnation in Christ. So perhaps Jesus was talking about something else. Perhaps He was talking about the creative power of our words. I quote this verse often but Ecclesiastes 8:4 tells us that, "Where the word of a king is, there is power..." What we say matters. What we say, or confess, is what will manifest in our lives. Here's the key to confession though: To confess means to agree with. I think that's where the church has really gotten it wrong; we always want people to confess their sins. But that doesn't agree with the Word of our Father. Jesus is the Lamb of God who TOOK away the sin of the world. When we confess sin, it manifests in our lives because we give it power. Where the word of a king is, there is power. We are kings and priests ruling and reigning in the earth. What we confess has power. Creative power. Power to justify ourselves (and our reality) or power to condemn ourselves (and our reality). Death AND life is in the power of the tongue. God created the heaven and the earth. And then He spoke. And when He spoke, His Word became flesh. He Word (Jesus, love) manifested. That was the pattern that He gave us. 1 Peter 3:10-11 says it like this, "For he that will lve life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eshew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." And, listen, I know it seems like we're focusing a lot on good and evil today--even though we've moved out of that tree and moved into the Tree of Life--but as we're going to see in this Rant series... we do good, and seek peace by speaking life. By letting the creative power of God--of love--that is in us, come out of us. By confessing, or agreeing, with His Word! Not by changing anything--that's not what creation is about--but by revealing the true nature of things. That's what the light does when it shines! It reveals things as they really are!