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.

How to have AUTHORITY wherever you go (Part 2)

AUTHORITY IS USING THE NAME ABOVE YOU.

Jesus said, "He who speaks from his own authority seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is nothing false about him."

 

In other words, we tend to trust people who aren't acting in their own name or for their own pleasure.  When the mail carrier comes, he is simply the messenger; she is simply delivering messages; he has no self-centered agenda.  The police officer has a badge that represents his governmental authority.  He is acting in the name of the law or the government, not his own name.

 

You use authority by using the name above you, or the name of the one who authorizes you. 

 

I'm at the library typing these words.  I have 33 minutes left on this computer.  This means I have authority over computer number 13 for 33 more minutes.  I have "command" over this computer, the ability to command it and it to obey me.  I received this authority from the librarian who told me where the adult computers are.  I typed in my library card number, given to me by the librarian.  If anyone tries to use this computer, I can tell him or her in the name of the librarian that I now have 31  more minutes on this computer.

 

Authority is actually easy to experience.

 

Wherever you are, or wherever you go, find the one who is in authority and submit to his or her authority.  Then you will have authority, the ability to command and be obeyed.  You can use the name of the authority figure above you to enforce you.  This is true no matter where you go.

 

In your house, if you are an adult who owns or rents, or someone who lives with that adult, the lease, given by the owner, gives you authority in that house.  The keys are your power.  You can command people to leave your house and expect them to obey, or law enforcement officers to enforce your authority. 

 

You want authority.  You have it by submitting to the authority where you are.

You want powerful influence.  You have it by using the name of the authority over you.

Your freedom to speak and act comes from the authority above you.

Your respect comes from respecting the authority above you.

 

How to have AUTHORITY wherever you go

You want authority. 
You want powerful influence.
Freedom to speak and act.
Respect.

How can you have these wherever you go?

To have authority, you must be under authority.

 

 

But first we must answer three questions:

1. What is authority?

2. Where does it come from?

3. How do we use it?

 

AUTHORITY IS THE POWER TO COMMAND AND BE OBEYED.

Once a soldier (a "centurion" in this historical context) wanted the Lord Jesus to heal one of his beloved servants.  Here is what happened according to Matthew, one of Jesus' chosen ambassadors:



 

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.  “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

 

Notice what the centurion says.  He felt confident that Jesus had authority to heal diseases, and he believed authority meant the power or ability to command and be obeyed.  In other words, because Jesus had authority over diseases, he had the ability to command diseases in the same way that the centurion had the ability to command soldiers under his authority.  The centurion would say, "Go," and his soldiers would go; he would say "Come," and his soldiers would come; he would say, "Do this," and his servant would do it.  That's authority:  The ability to command and be obeyed.  The ability to have happen what you want to have happen.  But where does authority come from?  Jesus and Paul tell us.

 

AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD.

This is what Jesus said after he rose from the dead: 

"All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth."

 

Paul, Jesus' ambassador to all who were not of Hebrew descent (Gentiles) said this:

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God.  The authorities that exist have been appointed by God."

 

The centurion we've been focusing on said he was "a man under authority."  And he assumed Jesus was under the authority of God, and thus had the ability to command diseases to leave and they obey him. 

 

To have authority, you must be under authority.

God's authority.

Directly or Indirectly.

 

This means you are either in authority, from God, or under the authority of someone who has authority from God.

 

For example, I am a father, and fathers have God given authority from their God given identity, as Moses said,

 

"Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long on the earth."

 

Paul also says, "Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord."

 

As a father, I have the right to command my children and expect obedience from them.  I have authority over them because I am in authority.  They have authority when they act under my authority. 

 

Authority comes from God.

You are either in authority right now, as you read my words, or you are under someone's authority as you read my words.  When you act under the authority over you, you have authority. 

 

If you are at work, and your manager or supervisor tells you to do something, you have authority to do it.  This means you do it in the name of your manager.  You can say, "My manager says to do this," to whom every you must interact with.  Your manager is your enforcer.  If you are resisted, he or she is the one being resisted, and he or she is the one to enforce his or her authority, given to you. 

 

Authority is the ability to command and be obeyed.

Authority comes from God.

You use authority by speaking and acting in the name of authority.

 



(Click HERE for part 2)

How To Be Angry Without Regret (Part 2)

3.  DON'T GO TO BED ANGRY.
God isn't just slow to anger, but His anger is short termed.  He gets angry, judges those who sin against Him, and then it's over. He doesn't hold grudges or let his anger linger.  Neither should we.  God's anger lasts a moment, and so should ours.  We should get angry slowly.  We should be and express anger quickly.




4.  DON'T GIVE SATAN AN OPPORTUNITY.
The devil loves to be angry and to provoke anger.  He loves conflict and harm.  He wants us to get angry quickly and to stay angry indefinitely, expressing our anger violently and harmfully. 




When we are quickly, uncontrollably, and unjustly angry, we give Satan an opportunity to express himself through us and with us. 




But when we our anger is slow, controlled and just, God's Spirit will empower our anger to bring justice and peace. 




How can we practice this?




By remembering anger's purpose:  justice. 
To practice justice, we must first practice wanting justice by wanting the truth. 
In other words, we have to put ourselves in a state in which we want to know the facts....all the time.  We don't quickly make up our minds about things or people without hearing all the facts. 
We become people of truth who are committed to perceiving things as they actually are.




Perception creates emotion.  What we perceive affects what we believe, and thus how we feel. 




For example:
You receive a phone call.  You're told that someone you love has been in a fatal accident.
How do you feel?


You receive another phone call moments after the first one.  You're told that your loved one is completely unharmed.
How do you feel?




Within moments, your emotions shift from anxiety and fear to complete peace and relief, based on your perception of the situation.  Based on the truth.




If we become people of truth, we can indirectly control being angry, and all of our other emotions through our truth perception. 




It's up to us.
If you agree, pray with me:


God, help me to see as you see, and to be angry like you are angry.  In Jesus name, amen.


May God help you by His Spirit to be angry without regret.