Some days I spend a bit of time thinking about our God Image-ness. I think there are many aspects of this notion that we overlook. We live in a culture that, for the most part, views us a evolved animals. Of course I don't buy into that because we are told in Genesis that we are created in His image, the image of God. We are not gods but we reflect and are an image of Him.
Today I am thinking about speaking, our ability to form and create complex sounds that convey thoughts, the frivolous alongside the deep thoughts. Speech is important and I believe is one of our many distinctives that set us apart from the animal world. Yes, I think we can observe some forms of communication that occur within other species. My dog Murphy has developed a bit of a vocabulary to get me to do some things he wants me to do but frankly there really is no comparison and I think it foolish to attempt to make that comparison.
Speaking is important and powerful. If we are to take the creation story in Genesis literally - and I do - all of creation was spoken into existence. That is POWER! It makes me marvel and causes me to believe that our ability to choose to speak is an important, fundamental part of our God Image-ness, something to consider whenever we choose to speak. There is power in this ability, a power for good and evil.
This morning our Pastor was in the second part of a series on Freedom. He is starting out the series by speaking of our identity. This is so important. I don't want to rehash what was said this morning but rather tell of something he had us do. In our bulletin was a two sided page in color that listed on both sides many of the things Scripture tells us about our identity in Christ. It is a powerful list that I will refer to again in the days to come. What Scott had us do was read out loud each and every one of the identifiers that tell us who we are in Christ. It was powerful to hear the voices reading aloud the list.
We need to hear, in our own voices those things that we are told we are to help make them more real. There is something in the hearing that helps ingrain them into our hearts. Anyone who has done any acting knows that memorization is aided greatly by speaking aloud the lines as we try to memorize them. (I also have to write as I speak. Six years ago I was deep in memorization to prepare to play Scrooge in our production of A Christmas Carol and I wrote page after page of dialog!)
There is another aspect of speaking truth aloud that is probably more important but may be overlooked. We have an enemy, the father of lies whose native language is lies. There we are again, speaking, language and the power of language. Anyway, I don't believe our enemy can read our minds. I think he's had thousands of years of observing humans and has developed well all sorts of ways to disrupt us in our quest of living with Jesus but I don't believe he can know my thoughts. He will suggest those things that have worked in the past to get us off the rails and unfortunately, we all know he has some success in doing this.
He may not be privy to our thoughts but I do believe he hears our words. Our words are heard by the enemy. Think about that. This morning nearly 2000 people declared in the hearing of our enemy who we are in Christ. It was not just a declaration for ourselves and each other but a declaration of war. We are Christ's possession and do not belong to this world and the forces that are out to get us. John writes in Revelation 12 that we are hated for following after Jesus. We need to, at times, declare aloud who we are and what we stand for, especially when we sense we are being assailed by our enemy. Our words have power when heard by those that hate us in the heavenly realm.
I am not a "name it and claim it" kind of believer. I don't believe God works that way. I do believe that there is power in speaking aloud the words we read in Scripture that tell us who we are in Christ. Next time you come to a passage that says who we are, don't just give mental assent, speak them, declare to the heavenly realm who you are and who you love.
