The writing jag has kicked in. Why I'm writing, other than to take up space on someone's server on the other side of the ethereal reality we call the internet, is really to complete some assignments. God has been giving me things to write about for about 5 years now. Off and on I've been trying to perfect them. But, at times I find myself procrastinating...well, I'll just refine this some more and put it out when it's ready. (Tell-tale signs of a compulsive perfectionist writer with a bad case of procrastination syndrome.) Self-reflecting humor aside, God told me a few months ago that it's not my job to perfect his words since the perfection of his words isn't just the form, but the timing of what he says. (For a related blog post on why perfection is more than just nice filler word, see this post.) Nonetheless, He's reminded me again that in war, grammar and literary merit matter little. It's all about the message. So, I put my own standards to death and pray his would fill my heart and mind!

So, onto the whole point of this post: speech. There are books upon books that New Age and mystical Eastern literature that discuss the power of sound. For most folks, these are not common topics that you can just pull down off the shelf and thumb through. That's why folks like me have read all the weird books and noticed some things...so you don't have to. Nonetheless, sound is actually one of the most overlooked things in our oh-so-confused-and-mislead, current Christian culture.

Sure, the story of Jericho comes to mind for some. But, beyond, not much, right? Okay, next, song, psalms, praise. Some very interesting things there too. (Read about Jerry's sermon on praise here.) David's soothing of the evil spirit sent upon Saul by the Lord. The thunder in the Gospels some heard as thunder, others heard as angels. More interesting stuff, right?

Well, lets look back, way back, to the beginning. Even before the beginning. In Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. The greatest opening line of all time. I mean come on, how can you beat that! Okay, literary snickering aside, it took a long time for God to get it through my head that before anything happened, he spoke. This is a major key to seeing the importance of sound in God's Kingdom.

Let me say that again looking at it a little more closely. Genesis 1:2 reads, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, an the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light." If we take the order of events literally, sound, released through God's voice, came before light.

This is revolutionary in our neck of the woods. Why? It challenges so much of what we, as natural beings, are trained to accept about experience. Aristotle, over twenty five hundred years ago, wrote of mankind's experience,

All men naturally have an impulse to get knowledge. A sign of this is the way we prize our senses; for even apart from their utility, they are prized on their own account, especially sensing with the eyes. For not only from practical motives, but also when we have nothing practical in view, we could be said to prefer sight to any of the other senses.

As such an oracle of what natural man is, Aristotle's summation couldn't capture what our natural mind would incline do any better. Indeed, sight can only occur with light, if we are to imagine the rabbit trail reason would go down by following Aritstotle, i.e., the natural man's perspective, to its natural conclusion. Taking this in a spiritual connotation, knowledge, or soulish mentality can lead us to rely on what can be seen and overlook what came first, sound.

Looking at another element of this scripturally, 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light". If God is light, he had to speak before he could be revealed to creation. It was by the power of his word, that is, his speech, that God could be revealed to creation. Taking this and applying it to our own lives, if God had to speak to reveal himself, and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, in other words, God, why would it be any different for us?

Many times we seem to fall into this trap of believing that once we see God in our lives, we will then be justified in speaking forth his will. In reality, it is the exact opposite if we are to follow the picture of Scripture. Genesis depicts this pattern clearly. But, if more evidence is needed, take the prophecies of Christ. He was spoken of before he became manifest. The word preceded the act.

Such is the principle I aim to outline here: as Christians we are all too often brainwashed into thinking, by our very nature, that we need to see things of God as confirmation that they are true. This is an utter lie. Truth is an eternal principle and time is no limiting factor on its power. When God speaks truth into us, it is our duty and obligation to speak it, to do as God did with Himself and His very own son, before it can become manifest. This is part of our labor, our work.

Prayer, as an act of speaking, is a way of doing just this. So, if you ever feel weary of prayer and the powerlessness of words, remember, it is not be sight, but by faith. Look at Hebrews 11:1-3 for evidence of this.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Paul was onto this! He knew that the order of events told a story and people were not taking note of this fact.

Faith, alluded to here, is also referred to as the substance of things hoped for. If faith is a substance but cannot be seen how is it created?

Through the power of Jewish thinking the idea of pregnancy, with all its implied symbols and metaphorical language, we as Christians have had conceived, given birth to and are growing spiritual beings. But, as such, this substance, that is, faith, is an idea that goes back to Medieval theology and philosophy when the term substance was more potent that it is today. Substances were considered to be the only real things, while the properties of these substances, things that could be sensed, only indicated things about these realities. So, we have been mislead into thinking that the characteristics of what is real, our sensory experiences, are more real than the things themselves. What a deception!

By being drawn away from faith as a substance, Christians have lost touch with what faith really is. We have been detached from faith by being led to believe that since faith cannot be seen it does not exist. Well, that sort of backwards thinking is exactly what the enemy wants us to get into. It reverses, and therefore, perverts God's order. God wants prayer to build faith. Prayer is speaking our pleas for justice and mercy before the act occurs. Only by doing so can we give God the power to give us faith. Without our actively speaking God cannot build our faith. But, the key is to realize that sound, speech, proclamation, precedes revelation, display and demonstration.

Also, it is important to realize that things are not always perceived right away because they may be happening either so fast or at far enough a distance that nature prevents us from sensing the event even though it has actually occured. For example, jets travelling at supersonic speeds can fly directly above a person but the sound of that aircraft passing may not reach them for minutes. Does that mean the jet has not passed them yet? Of course not. It just verifies, that if we rely on what falls in line with reason, according to our natural senses, we will easily fail to be in touch with what's really going on.

There were a lot of things in there that I wanted to reserve for other entries, but I guess they went where they needed to go. Hopefully God uses them the way they need to be used.

God bless and take care.