Wielding the God-given Power of Words

I remember having quite a discussion back in fifth grade with a classmate about which is more important – numbers, or words? WORDS, obviously! And not just because we’re writers.

Words created the world and everything in it  Genesis 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” As we continue through that chapter, we see the pattern of “Then God said…and it was so.”

Words hold a power not fully recognized  We often think of this in terms of the spoken word. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Words can be incredibly destructive: bullying, verbal abuse, sometimes even the negative self-talk in our own minds. But it’s not just the spoken word that has power. We’ve all experienced the emotions and connection after reading a written piece of any kind that touched something deep within us.There was a time that God stopped me from writing down, even just in my journal, what I was feeling about myself in that moment, because it wasn’t His truth and it was destructive. Words are powerful, more powerful than we realize.

Two verses that speak very strongly to me as a writer are Habakkuk 2:2 and Jeremiah 20:9.The first says, “Then the Lord answered me and said, ‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.’” What is the vision of the Kingdom of God that I’m to write, and how?

The verse in Jeremiah reads, “Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.’ But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” This verse struck me, and inspired the name of my publishing company that I started last year – Burning WordPress. God has given me the gift, the calling, to write, and I cannot hold it back.

Write the vision As Christian writers, it is so important that we write the vision, that we do not hold back the words that God gives us. We have a responsibility to write what brings light into the darkness. In Genesis 1, Habakkuk 2, and Jeremiah 20, there’s a bit of a theme to the atmosphere: In the beginning it was dark and void; Habakkuk was questioning God about what was going on and why things were so bad. Jeremiah was being mocked and scorned for prophesying to Israel.And what came next? God spoke and light was created. God told Habakkuk to write the vision. Jeremiah could not hold back the words that God told him to speak.

The darker the world gets, the more brilliant our words of hope and truth will be. We must make sure that we as writers feed ourselves with scripture, prayer, and fellowship with accountability so that it is light, and not more darkness that comes through into our writing.

The Holy Spirit gives us a story to tell  Revelation 12:11 says that, “they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Testimony – story – WORDS – they are powerful! Never doubt the impact hidden within your written words. You’ll never know how it might impact someone. At my eighth-grade graduation, we asked our gym teacher to speak, and he ended by reading something that I had written in our fifth-grade newsletter and forgotten about. Years after that, a mother of a classmate mentioned something I had written in elementary school. Words touch lives.

It doesn’t matter what those words create, whether an article, a poem, a novel, a devotion, or amemoir, words hold power.Your story can be present in anything and everything. My brother often used to say fiction isn’t worth reading, but I have been pulled into a time of deep contemplation and conversation with God after reading fiction books. In Walking on Water, (which I would highly recommend), author Madeleine L’Engle says “If it holds no truth, then it cannot truly be a story.” After all, even Jesus told His truth in stories!

What are the words that are burning within you? God made you comfortable with a pen or keyboard for a reason – He gave you a truth to tell, a story to share, powerful words to give to the world. Go write them.