The Power of Your Words (Part 2)

How do you speak with power?  How do you determine how your words make people feel?
I'll give you two things to consider when you speak:


1. Intent
2. Content


Your words can make people feel how you intend to make them to feel.  First decide how you intend people to feel when they listen to you.  If you intend to make people happy, then consciously choose to bring happiness through your words.  If you intend to make people feel peaceful, then consciously choose to make them feel at peace.


But your intent must be matched by your content.  What you say and how you say it should logically lead to the feeling you want your listener to have.  Good news makes people feel good.  Peaceful news makes them feel at peace.


Here's an example.
I feel honored by you reading my words.  Thank you.


What did I want you to feel?  My honor and appreciation.  I intended to give you those feelings, and I used words to match those feelings.


You can do the same.  Every time you speak, choose wisely your intent and content.


Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 
Ephesian 4:29 NIV

The Power of Your Words (Part 1)

I read one blog that gave me nightmares about ebola.  I heard one reporter that gave me hope about ebola.  One wrote, the other spoke.  Both used words.  One used her blog as an instrument of hopelessness.  The other used his news report as an instrument of hope. 


What about you?  What have you said today?


I'm thinking about how I felt after reading her blog. 
Fear.  Helplessness.  Hopelessness.
I'm thinking about how I felt after hearing his report. 
Courage.  Power.  Hope.
I'm thinking about how my words are making you feel right now as you read them.
What do I want you to feel?


I want you to feel the power of your own words and how they have energy to hurt or heal.  You know how words feel.  You know the difference between good news and bad news.  One minute your life is as it always is; the next minute the wind is knocked out of you, all because of a phone call, text message, a blog, or a news report. 


Have your words knocked the wind out of someone, or have your words been a breath of fresh air in a suffocating world of fear and falsehood?


"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." 
Proverbs 18:21 NIV

The Source of Power and Perfection

"Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness."
G.K. Chesterton


I'm sitting in the dark, wanting to die.  I tried to resist her, but continued to lose the battle of lust.  "I can't resist you," I whisper as she attempts to seduce me.  I escape her, but unwillingly.  I longed for defeat; I longed for her victory over my body.


I'm holding on the barely existing virginity, wanting to die.  No matter how hard I try, it is inevitable.  I will fall as my fathers fell.  I can't escape hell, or so it seems, until these words unlock my cell of sin:


"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for my sins."


I feel peace cover me like a blanket.  I no longer want to die.


With my sins forgiven, I experience perfection.  My new life begins.  I no longer place my confidence in my good intentions, but in my salvation, in my Savior. 


In His Presence, I experience power.  Faith in Him is power.  Faith in myself is weakness, as G.K. Chesterton said above.  I know better than anyone my limitations.  But He is unlimited in knowledge and ability.  Completely trusting Him is power, perfection, and sanity. 

Why you should STOP seeking God's will

God's will is not a mystery.
It's a choice.

You choose to do as He chooses, right now, right where you are.

His will is just that, His will.  His authority.  His right to choose and refuse.

As His creature, His son, or His daughter, you choose to be what He made you to be and do what He made you to do.  This is God's will.  A choice.  Not a place.  Not a mystery.

It's easy.
Not so much in the sense that doing His will always feels good.
But it's easy to simply decide to submit.
Unless you don't accept who He is and thus who you are.

Who is He?
Who are you?

He is the Creator, perfectly good, perfectly powerful, perfectly wise.
You are His creature, good only when you are what He made you to be.
Powerful when you submit to and receive His power.
Wise when you accept your ignorance and receive His omniscience.

If you accept who He is and who you are, then you accept your purpose, which is to submit to His will for you.

God's will is not a mystery.
It's a choice.

Choose to submit to His will, and you will have found His will for your life.