Have you ever heard someone say these words to you? Perhaps a well-meaning friend who was sure he heard something from God, or a preacher from the pulpit? Some people have had such experiences and it has left a bad impression on them. Other people just don’t think that sort of thing is real. But as strange as it might be for some people to hear these words, the simple fact is that God does speak. A quick look at a concordance will show you that the phrase “God said” or its variation “The Lord Said” occurs more than 250 times throughout the Bible. But these words are not merely common they are the most powerful two words in all of scripture.
Think about it for a moment. What could possibly be more powerful than an utterance from the God of the universe – the designer, creator and sustainer of all things? I think that as Christians many of us have read these words in the Bible so many times that they no longer have the impact on us that they should and would if we had never seen them before. But when we understand just how powerful these words are, it becomes clear that we can’t afford to take them for granted.
The first chapter of Genesis is perhaps the clearest and most powerful passage in the Bible when it comes to illustrating the power of God’s words. Each new aspect of creation is introduced by the phrase “And God said…” after which follows a declaration by God of what he was about to create next. But what makes this passage most amazing is the fact that God was not mere saying what he was going to do before he did it, but rather it was by his words that God created.
Look for example, at Genesis 1:3:
“Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”
As simple and concise as that verse is, it contains an incredibly powerful principle that we cannot afford to overlook - God said something, and it became reality. He spoke, and it was so. This same principle is repeated in verses 9, 11, 14-15, and 24. And, even though it is not always quite so easy to see, God was operating according to this same principle throughout scripture and still does today. When God wants something done, He says it. Paul referred to this same principle in Romans 4:17 when he said,
“God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are
not as though they were.”
By the mere act of calling, or speaking something the way he
wishes it to be, God makes it so. He
sometimes uses a “middle-man” if you will to actually carry out what he has
spoken, but even when that is the case, it is accomplished because God
spoke it. Once we see that this
principle is the method by which God creates reality, we can begin to
understand how important it is that we hear the word of God. Ultimately it is God’s word that shapes our
destiny, and it is our task to hear it and believe it!