Words & Faith | Words that open the heavens

Words have power – they can des­troy or give life. When we accept God’s word in faith, it opens the hea­vens and chan­ges our lives. Con­fes­sing with heart and mouth, bles­sing ins­tead of cur­sing, pray­ing with cer­tain­ty and encou­ra­ging with good words – all this releases God’s rea­li­ty. Our words of faith build a bridge to his pro­mi­ses. Tho­se who speak in harm­o­ny with God’s truth expe­ri­ence it: His words carry.

The­re was a strong model church in the Greek har­bour city of Thes­sa­lo­ni­ki. Their good exam­p­le in deeds, love and pati­ence was well known far and wide. Why was it that Paul only found words of prai­se for the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans? The key to such an exem­pla­ry life of inte­gri­ty and vic­to­ry is reve­a­led to us: «We will never stop than­king God for the fact that you did not take the mes­sa­ge we brought you for our own words. You recei­ved it as God’s word – which it tru­ly is. And this word con­ti­nues to work in all of you who belie­ve» (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 2:13 NLB).

They did not under­stand the ser­mons of Paul, Silas and Timo­thy as human words, but as the word of God. And this word crea­ted a new rea­li­ty. Obvious­ly, it was not only the sen­der of the mes­sa­ge, but abo­ve all the recei­ver. The reci­pi­ent deci­des whe­ther or not he wants to accept what he hears as the effec­ti­ve word of God. Only then does God’s word, which is as powerful as a ham­mer that shat­ters rocks (Jere­mi­ah 23:29), unfold its heal­ing and life-chan­ging effect.

Today we are loo­king at the ques­ti­on of what hap­pens when our speech comes from faith. Becau­se words can not only inform or hurt – they can release God’s rea­li­ty. They can open up hea­ven for us and others.

Confess – heart and mouth in unity

Paul says: «If you con­fess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and belie­ve in your heart that God rai­sed him from the dead, you will be saved. For by faith in your heart you will be jus­ti­fied befo­re God, and by the con­fes­si­on of your mouth you will be saved» (Romans 10:9–10 NLB).

The heart and the mouth – they belong tog­e­ther. Ima­gi­ne a tree: The roots are invi­si­ble, hid­den deep in the earth. This is whe­re the tree draws strength, whe­re its life is foun­ded. The­se roots are like our faith in the heart – hid­den, but vital. But a tree wit­hout a visi­ble crown, wit­hout lea­ves and fruit, would be a dead tree. What grows in secret must beco­me visi­ble. Con­fes­si­on with the mouth is the fruit of faith. It shows what lives in our hearts. That is why it is not enough to say sil­ent­ly: «I belie­ve for mys­elf alo­ne.» True sal­va­ti­on is also shown in the fact that we con­fess Jesus – befo­re others, with our words, with our lives. Heart and mouth belong tog­e­ther, just like root and fruit.

And that is pre­cis­e­ly our invi­ta­ti­on: Let us dare not only to keep our faith in our hearts, but also to con­fess it. Per­haps in a con­ver­sa­ti­on with a neigh­bour who is loo­king for hope. Per­haps in the fami­ly, when doubts ari­se. Or in ever­y­day life, when we are asked why we live the way we do. A faith that con­fes­ses beco­mes strong – and through this con­fes­si­on we are pre­ser­ved and streng­the­ned on the path to salvation.

Blessing – saying good things

Last Sun­day, we sat around a table as a fami­ly and shared memo­ries of my father who had pas­sed away that same day. Someone in the group said: «He never spo­ke nega­tively about other peo­p­le.» What a sign of matu­ri­ty! The con­di­ti­on for such a life-enhan­cing life­style is blessing.

In the wis­dom lite­ra­tu­re of the Bible we read: «Death and life are in the power of the ton­gue, and tho­se who love it will eat its fruit» (Pro­verbs 18:21 SLT). Our words are like seeds – and we will have to live from the fruit. We have all expe­ri­en­ced how a nega­ti­ve sen­tence can des­troy a rela­ti­onship. But a word of bles­sing can also give life.

In the Ser­mon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to a radi­cal­ly new life­style: «Love your enemies, bless tho­se who cur­se you, do good to tho­se who hate you, and pray for tho­se who insult and per­se­cu­te you» (Matthew 5:44 SLT). Bles­sing means not wis­hing the other per­son ill, but con­scious­ly ent­rus­ting them to God and say­ing good things about them – even if they have hurt us. Paul picks up on this thought: «Bless tho­se who per­se­cu­te you; bless and do not cur­se!» (Romans 12:14 SLT). And Peter reminds us: «Do not repay evil with evil […] but on the con­tra­ry, bless, becau­se you have been cal­led to inhe­rit bles­sings!» (1 Peter 3:9 ELB). Bles­sing breaks the cycle of hat­red and reta­lia­ti­on. It pro­tects our hearts from bit­ter­ness and opens up the pos­si­bi­li­ty for others to expe­ri­ence God’s good­ness. Our grea­test role model is Jesus hims­elf, who pray­ed on the cross: «Father, for­gi­ve them»(Luke 23:34). Tho­se who bless reflect the heart of Jesus and recei­ve bles­sings themselves.

The best way to over­co­me nega­ti­ve talk about others is to bless them. This not only trans­forms the situa­ti­on, but also your own heart. Bles­sing is more than «being nice» – it is put­ting faith into words and pla­cing it in God’s hands.

Praying – full of faith and certainty

Jesus says: «I assu­re you: If you say to this moun­tain, «Lift yours­elf up and throw yours­elf into the sea», it will hap­pen. The important thing is that you belie­ve and do not doubt in your hearts. Lis­ten to my words! Ever­y­thing you ask for in pray­er – belie­ve that you have recei­ved it and you will recei­ve it» (Mark 11:23–24 NLB).

Of cour­se, this does not mean that we should bring Mount Rigi to Lake Hall­wil. It is not about a spec­ta­cu­lar natu­ral won­der, but about a spi­ri­tu­al image. The «moun­ta­ins» in Mark 11:23–24 are sym­bo­lic of gre­at obs­ta­cles, pro­blems or bur­dens that can be addres­sed direct­ly in pray­er and over­co­me by His power.

This is whe­re it gets radi­cal: Jesus com­bi­nes spo­ken faith with super­na­tu­ral action. Jesus chal­lenges us to ask as if we had alre­a­dy recei­ved it. The­re is a dif­fe­rence bet­ween pray­ing: «Sir, per­haps if you want to, you could …» or whe­ther I say: «Lord, you have pro­mi­sed … the­r­e­fo­re I trust you and speak it in faith.» We Swiss love to include auxi­lia­ry verbs in our pray­ers, like «The Lord shall heal you», «Jesus, I want to ask you …» To my ears, the sen­tence: «Moun­tain, lift yours­elf up and throw yours­elf into the sea!» expres­ses much more faithful conviction.

If, for exam­p­le, the elders» pray­er in James 5 con­ta­ins the pro­mi­se that the pray­er will help the sick per­son and lift them up, then we can say it wit­hout hesi­ta­ti­on – as if we had alre­a­dy recei­ved it. It’s not about choo­sing exact­ly the right words to hit the jack­pot. It is not an invi­ta­ti­on to «magi­cal thin­king», but to an atti­tu­de of pray­er that reco­g­ni­s­es and expres­ses God’s pro­mi­ses. Jesus pro­mi­sed us his peace (John 14:27), so we can cla­im it in pray­er. God is with us in all that we will do (Joshua 1:9). That is why we can express and cla­im com­fort and despon­den­cy. God will fill every lack (Phil­ip­pians 4:19), so we speak it out in prayer.

Encourage – build others up

«Refrain from spea­king evil, but let what you say be good and edi­fy­ing to others, so that they may be encou­ra­ged in the faith» (Ephe­si­ans 4:29 NLB).

Our words have tre­men­dous power – they can des­troy, but they can also give life. That is why St Paul calls on us not to put others down with poin­ted remarks or dero­ga­to­ry sen­ten­ces, but to choo­se words that inspi­re hope, com­fort and faith.

Encou­ra­ge­ment is not just a task for pre­a­chers or pro­phe­ts. Each of us can – inde­ed should – beco­me an encou­ra­ger in our ever­y­day lives. We are allo­wed to speak God’s truth to our fel­low human beings. Say to a col­le­ague at work: «I know that God will use you here.» Reassu­re the child: «God has made you won­derful and he has a plan for your life.» Lovin­g­ly stand by the sick per­son with the words: «I pray for you – and God hears your sig­hing.»

At the end of my time at the Chrisch­o­na Theo­lo­gi­cal Semi­na­ry, the direc­tor of stu­dies said some­thing about me and a fel­low stu­dent. He com­pared me to Paul and my col­le­ague to Timo­thy. By this he meant that the way I would car­ry out my minis­try was simi­lar to Paul’s apos­to­lic way – or at least could be a faint reflec­tion of it. When you hear some­thing like that, it brings a blush to your face. But – this encou­ra­ge­ment pro­ba­b­ly gave me the cou­ra­ge and con­fi­dence to start the youth move­ment JMS or to join the see­tal chi­le later in a situa­ti­on whe­re it was unclear in which direc­tion to go.

Ima­gi­ne you are stan­ding on a rock at the edge of a deep ravi­ne. On the other side is ever­y­thing you hope for: Peace, joy, heal­ing, for­gi­ve­ness, the future. A port­fo­lio of God’s pro­mi­ses in the Bible. The only pro­blem is that the­re is a gap bet­ween you and this other side that is too wide to jump over. Faith is like the foun­da­ti­on that lies in your heart. But in order for you to get to the other side, a bridge must be built. This bridge con­sists of words of faith. Every time you speak in line with God’s truth, you put a new plank in that bridge: A plank when you say: «God is faithful.» A board when you con­fess: «Jesus is my Lord.» A board when you bless someone. A board when you speak God’s pro­mi­ses out loud in pray­er. At some point, the bridge is so far that you dare to take the step – and rea­li­se: God’s words car­ry. And per­haps, as you cross over, someone wat­ches you and beg­ins to build their own bridge.

Possible questions for the small groups

Bible text: Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:2–7; 2:13

1. Per­so­nal expe­ri­ence: When was the last time you expe­ri­en­ced that a word – encou­ra­ging or hurtful – had a las­ting effect in your life?
2. Deepen the Bible text: Read Romans 10:9–10 tog­e­ther. What does it mean for you in prac­ti­cal terms that heart and mouth belong together?
3. Bles­sing in ever­y­day life: Which peo­p­le around you could you con­scious­ly bless or encou­ra­ge with words over the next few days?
4. Inter­ces­si­on in faith: What is a «moun­tain» in your life that you should speak to in faith? How could your pray­er be for­mu­la­ted in con­cre­te terms?
5. To be bridge buil­ders: The ser­mon con­cluded with the image of the «bridge of words». Whe­re could you build such a bridge for others so that they can expe­ri­ence God’s love and help?