When I was growing up, Christians were always arguing about what counts as a marriage. It’s a surprisingly complicated problem, since there is no Biblical definition of marriage, not one mention of vows, ministers, judge, licenses, special clothes, songs, rituals of any kind. So what makes a marriage?

Matthew 19:4-6 indicates that God “joins together” a marriage, and most people conclude that a minister must bless the union for it be a “Christian marriage”, although it says no such thing. But what if you’re married by a judge, or by a witch doctor? Did God join together these marriages?

As a child, I listened to all of this back and forth and realized something; these questions all miss the point! Because what makes a marriage binding is the WORDS the couple says!

He says “you’re my wife”, and she says “you’re my husband” and those words, and NOTHING ELSE, make a marriage! No civil or spiritual authority need be involved for that to be legally binding. Because God considers you bound by your words.

Matthew 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

You spoke; and God, taking you at your word, joined you together. It’s as simple as that. Doesn’t matter if you do it in front of a witch doctor or an Elvis impersonator or Mickey Mouse; it is your words that create that legal relationship in God’s eyes, everything else is fluff.

But this is not only for marriages; any relationship can be created at will by words, and ratified by God. David and Jonathan were so close they made an agreement – a covenant in the name of God – to be brothers:

…the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul… Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul… saying, ‘Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever.’ … (1 Samuel 18:1-3, 1 Samuel 20:42)

A relationship which David openly declared after Jonathan’s death:

2 Samuel 1:26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

Thus, brothers can become brothers by words alone, and those words are likewise bound in heaven; not because of a special ceremony, but simply because ALL WORDS you say are heard and written in heaven, and used against you in the day of judgment!

Matthew 12:36 I tell you that EVERY idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

Thus any and all words you say on Earth are bound in heaven; and any relationship agreed upon on Earth is bound in heaven. Even the bonds of a parent and child can be formed by words alone; in fact, the most significant relationship of all time was formed in exactly this way.

Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did he say at any time, “You are my Son. Today have I become your father?” and again, “I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?”

On the day when He said to an already existing, already ancient being, one “without father or mother, beginning of days or end of life” (Hebrews 7:3), on the day when He said to such a Being “TODAY I have become your Father”, ON THAT DAY, and BY THOSE WORDS, He… was.

Thus Jesus is the Son of God, if for no other reason than because He called God “my Father” and God called Him “my Son”.

These words created bonds that transcended flesh and blood. Because bonds made with God’s words, even bonds He placed on Himself, are unbreakable – which is how He expects you to treat your own words.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

So as His words created our reality, reality must pass away before His words pass away. And as His words created His reality, so likewise your words create your reality if you are to be like Him.

So what reality are your words creating?

DO YOU LISTEN TO YOU?

Of course, the reality our words create is limited to those things we have the power to make happen; we can declare an orphan our son, declare a good friend our brother, declare a woman our wife (with her consent of course).

But we do not have the power to declare a dead man alive, to declare a barren woman pregnant, to declare ourselves prosperous because these things are inherently beyond human ability. No amount of willpower you put into keeping your word will give you this power unless the source of that power wills you to have it.

It is possible to get God’s attention, possible to convince Him to make your words your reality, even in things far beyond your innate power. But before God will even consider taking your words seriously, they have to be something you take seriously.

When words pass your lips, those words must be something you’re prepared to stand behind to the death. They must matter to you, if the universe is ever going to care about them. Because we’re supposed to be becoming like God; and when God says something, worlds come into existence.

Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not go back again, but gives water to the earth, and makes it fertile, giving seed to the planter, and bread for food; So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it.

Can you say the same? Can you boast that “my words will not come back to me without results”? That they will come to pass as surely as rain never falls up? That you will see them through, no matter what unforeseen thing happens? Because that is one of the fundamental requirements of dwelling with God.

Psalms 15:1, 4-5 …O LORD, who may stay in your tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?… [among other things…] The one who makes a promise and does not break it, even though he is hurt by it… He who does these things shall never be shaken.

You’re not expected to create the Earth with your words… but whatever you do set out to create, whether reading a book or building a birdhouse… does it get finished? Does what yousay come to pass… always? Even when it’s inconvenient, costly, even painful?

When you tell someone “I’ll be there in 30 minutes”, and you’re not… well, if your own heart and spirit don’t take you seriously, if you let yourself get overworked and overcommitted, thus making your words mean nothing…

…then why would you expect a mountain to jump into an ocean because you told it to? If you didn’t value your word, if you couldn’t make yourself, on such a tiny level, bring your words to pass… why should God value your words, and make them come to pass?

Thus, your word has to mean something to you, before it means anything to God.

LESS IS MORE

So if you want mountains and waves and devils to obey when you speak… then first you have to make your words mean something in those areas you can control. And ironically, that starts with doing less, not more.

Proverbs 10:19 (GWV) Sin is unavoidable when there is much talk, but whoever seals his lips is wise.

See, it’s actually relatively easy not to break the letter of the ten commandments. How hard is it to just, you know, not kill or have an idol? So when we’re annoying God, which is most of the time, it’s because of our words, spoken voluntarily, which bind us to do things we don’t really intend to see through.

James 2:2-6 For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn’t stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body… So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature…

The lesson here is, the more you talk, the more your mouth writes checks your body and soul can’t cash. The more words you say, the harder it is not to say something you regret later; because every word you say risks binding yourself to something you might not actually be able to get done.

James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapour, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

So if you couch your phrases in things like “I hope to be there by 5” or “If the Lord wills, we will build this house”, you escape this risk. Stating an intention is not a binding vow, so you can’t be held accountable for missing your goal due to unexpected circumstances.

IF THE LORD WILLS

And yet, that being said, you can take this too far – because stating an intention will not raise the dead. Saying “if the Lord wills, let this mountain be cast into the sea” won’t work. I mean, if the Lord did indeed want that the mountain in the sea, He’d have put it there Himself!

I stress this because many people, reading James 4 there, use it as an excuse to be verbal cowards. They refuse to commit to literally anything, to give themselves permission to do whatever is convenient at the time.

My aunt was terrible at this; she would always say “Well, I can’t make any promises but if the Lord wills I’ll be there at 5”. She was, of course, never on time. In fact, she was routinely hours late. Do you suppose it was because the Lord willed her to be late?

Or because, knowing she could blame her tardiness on the Lord’s will, she made no real effort to keep even the intention of her word? She failed to be on time, not because of unforeseeable events, but because of poor planning and poor self-control, things which were totally within her power to control.

As James says, do not promise things you can’t control. You can’t be certain you will be able to take a business trip tomorrow, as in James’ example – and it should be acknowledged that you cannot account for all the “acts of God” that might disrupt your plans. But you can still promise that if it is in your power, you’ll be there.

She wouldn’t do that; and never improved, for she had the security of knowing she’d never actually promised anything. And a person who refuses to be bound to anything, however much it’s in their power, is just as unreliable and useless in practice as a person who promises and doesn’t live up to it.

Because the reality is, far more of our life is in our control than isn’t. We control when we wake up, how often we say yes, how much time we allow ourselves to get ready for a meeting. God’s will very rarely intervenes.

Thus, you could say “we should arrive around 12” , and if there isn’t an act of God, you really SHOULD be there then. The “should” of a person whose word matters is stronger in practice than the oath of a person whose word doesn’t matter to them.

Because at the end of the day, you control whether you choose to suffer loss or inconvenience rather than to break your word. Choosing to be faithful to a spouse even when tempted by someone younger and hotter is not a matter of the will of God, but of your own power over your heart’s lust.

Choosing to die rather than to break your promise is simply a matter of what you value most – your life, or your word. These things do not depend on the Lord’s will, but rest solely upon the strength of your own will.

And while it’s understandable why someone would want to avoid being backed into a corner by their words, and why someone would prefer to be a verbal coward, you’re useless to God if you do so – and mostly useless as a person, too.

So you do have to build confidence in your word by accepting bindings, by performing your promises. You do need to learn how to be somewhere on time, and you need to learn to keep your vows. You should start small, and build on your successes until you know exactly what you can agree to and what you can’t.

So bind yourself, but bind yourself to things that are in your power, things you have the will to see through to the end no matter what. Build trust in your word, for others but most of all for yourself. Because if you cannot manifest yourself at work on time, you absolutely will not be able to manifest a broken arm whole.

And before God will have any interest in confirming your words, He has to know those are words He can get behind. And to determine that, He’s going to look at words you’ve already said which you’ve lived up to. And if you’ve never made any promises, you’ve also never kept any.

And so God has nothing to get behind even if you’ve never broken your word! Because you also never gave it!

EVEN IF YOU WERE TRICKED

You are judged for every idle word you speak, in your day of judgment – which, for the house of God, is today (1 Peter 4:17). And the power of your word is directly related to the purity of your word; the value you place on it is the value others will be able to place on it.

So once you give a word – whether a promise, a vow, or a casual statement of fact – you have to keep it absolutely no matter what happens next – foreseen or not... Even if the other person is evil, deceptive, and literally tricked you!

This last part is shocking, but we can prove conclusively that God binds you to your own words even stronger than to His own commandment! Don’t get me wrong, you’ll be punished for breaking the commandment… but not as much as for breaking your promise even if the other party dealt in bad faith!

Case in point; in Joshua 9, inhabitants of one of the doomed cities of the promised land, Gibeon, disguised themselves and tricked Joshua into making a covenant with them. They said they were from a far off land, offered to be bondservants of Israel forever, and wanted him to swear by God that they would not attack them.

Joshua was suspicious at first, but their baggage looked like they came from a long journey, so he didn’t see the harm and eventually he relented and made the oath. Three days later, when the deception was uncovered, the Israelites, naturally enough, felt betrayed and wanted to kill them anyway. After all, the oath was extracted with a lie, so it shouldn’t count, right?

Joshua 9:19-20 …We have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.

And so the oath was honored, and these people became the servants of Israel, but Israel was forbidden from killing them even though God had EXPLICITLY commanded them to kill every Canaanite! So even though this oath was in direct contradiction to a direct command of God, the oath trumped the commandment!

But the story doesn’t end there. Four centuries later, when Saul was trying to mend fences with God, he decided to get rid of these same Gibeonites – to keep the original commandment to exterminate Canaanites – and as a result God cursed Israel. Four centuries later God considered the promise binding enough to curse an entire nation!

2 Samuel 21:1 There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.”

This was a promise extracted in bad faith, a promise built on false pretenses, a promise made with a people God had commanded them to kill! How much more binding does God consider promises made in good faith, with people who have done you no wrong?

The lesson here is that God takes words deadly seriously. And even though the oath was extracted with deception, the words were said in His name. And words spoken in the name of God are holier even than the commandment of God.

Psalms 138:2 I will give worship before your holy Temple, praising your name for your mercy and for your unchanging faith: for you have made your word greater than all your name.

Because God values His word even greater than His own name!

Think about that.

WORDS WITHOUT POWER

But don’t mistake this for new-age, wishful thinking, manifesting, live-your-delusion nonsense. We have no power, iron-clad word or not, and the universe won’t listen to us because we don’t matter. Our words become reality only if some being with actual power is interested in making our word mean something, and those beings do that only if it suits their purposes.

Psalms 106:8 …he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known.

Creating worlds by the words of your power requires words that are unbreakable and power. If we fix our shaky word, that might get God’s interest, but until it does, then iron-clad or not, our word still won’t have any power!

And this is where the millennial-influencer-power-of-positive-thinking-people who are living their delulu (look it up) are so wrong. Writing it down and putting it out there in the universe is an absolute and utter waste of time unless someone is listening and has a reason to make your words be true.

Even Jesus said “the Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19), and “I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does His works” (John 14:10). So it wasn’t that Jesus, or any of the apostles, had the power to make things happen because they said so.

It wasn’t that they were declaring and manifesting their truth and the universe was falling in line because of their confidence. Human words have no power, no matter their confidence, no matter how reliable their own personal word is, because God has no interest in making the selfish babbling of your average Instagrammer come true (James 4:1-5).

Because what’s in it for Him? Why SHOULD He stand behind some random person’s word, no matter how well they keep it? Because if He’s not involved… why should He be involved?

Ezekiel 20:14 But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

So God will confirm your words with unlimited power on two conditions; first, that your word already matters to you. He doesn’t want someone running around manifesting chaos everywhere, or shaping reality for their own selfish purposes.

And second, God will confirm your words with unlimited power if and only if there is something in it for Him. He has to be convinced that giving you power is in the best interest of His name – which is to say, His reputation – or necessary for the well-being of His household.

If you’re in that household, that’s a good enough reason right there. Just as you would take care of your kids, so God will take care of you with power if you ask (Matthew 7:7-11). But if you’re not in His house, your problems are not His problem (Matthew 15:24). So you’ll have to convince Him why, as an unbaptized Gentile, you deserve His attention (verses 25-28).

THE PROOF OF A PROPHET

But this only covers a small amount of the really cool reality-bending miracles in the Bible. No one was sick when Jesus walked on water, for example. No one was dying when Jesus said the fig tree would never fruit again. And yet God confirmed that declaration anyway. Why?

Deuteronomy 18:22 when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

This is the proof of a prophet Moses gave us. You know a person is a prophet if what he said happens. Period. Now most people assume that was talking only about the specific “thus saith the Lord” of the prophet’s message.

But think about it! If the prophet says something true one day, and then says something else which doesn’t come to pass the very next day… that invalidates everything the prophet said! This is why God said of Samuel…

1 Samuel 3:19 Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and let NONE of his words fall to the ground.

This is what God does for people whom He wants to be respected for His own name’s sake. He follows them around and makes sure that anything and EVERYTHING they say comes to pass – whether it’s about the death of a king or about the weather.

Verse 20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.

And that is HOW they knew He was a prophet! Because according to the test of Moses, everything HE said happened. God did not let any idle words Samuel said “fall to the ground” – because if EVERYTHING a prophet says doesn’t happen… then according to Moses, he isn’t a prophet of God!

PREDICTING… OR DECREEING?

It always bugged me how Jesus could predict that Peter would deny Him three times. I mean through the doctrine of antichrist, we know that Jesus came in the flesh, just like one of us; thus, He couldn’t have possessed foresight above what was available to any of us.

And it would certainly be impossible for me, no matter how wise I was or how well I knew a person to guess the number of times a person would approach Peter before the rooster crowed twice. So how did He know it would happen?

Then I realized… He didn’t say it because He knew it would happen! He knew it would happen because He said it would! And God couldn’t let His words fall to the ground! Because if ANYTHING Jesus said didn’t happen… Israel would be fully justified in rejecting everything else He had said!

Likewise, when Jacob gave blessings to His sons in Genesis 48-49, he wasn’t seeing the future. He was creating the future by favoring his favorite sons with his best blessings. A future which God made happen because God wanted everyone to know that He loved Jacob.

And these blessings of a parent, once spoken, couldn’t be retracted even if they were extracted by blatant deception. So when Jacob himself had deceived Isaac into blessing him, and was found out, Isaac couldn’t take the blessing back and give it to Esau, even though he wanted to, even though Jacob lied, and even though he thought at the time that he WAS blessing Esau!

Because God wanted everyone to know that Isaac was a prophet, and so God made whatever he said… True. And He did this for His own name’s sake, for He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What they said reflected on Him, for good or evil.

Likewise, when Jesus told the fig tree that no one would eat off of it again (Mark 11:13), God made it happen because none of His words could “return again to Him empty”.Because if it hadn’t happened… by Moses’ test, it would have proven Jesus to be a false prophet, and that was unacceptable to God! For His own name’s sake!

MAKING A MIRACLE

The fig tree died simply because Jesus said it would. He declared, manifested, proclaimed, choose your preferred word, the reality He felt should exist; and then God got busy changing reality to make it fit what Jesus had said.

Which is, once you look for it, how literally every miracle was done. Men of God simply said what they thought, and then it happened. Naaman the Syrian was told to wash seven times in the Jordan to get rid of his leprosy. Why there? Why seven times? Because Elisha felt like it, and God made sure it happened.

Elisha could have chosen the Nile just as easily, or told him to wear a sheepskin for a week, or eat a handful of charcoal… whatever he felt was right – and God would have backed him up for His own name’s sake!

Why did the axe head float? Not because Elisha found a magic stick that made iron weigh less; but because God wanted Elisha’s reputation upheld (2 Kings 6:5-7), and holding up the axe head was easier than finding a new prophet!

Why did the Earth open and swallow Korah and the rebels? Because Moses said that God would make a new way of killing them, so an earthquake and sinkhole was manufactured to suit. Because otherwise Moses would be a false prophet by his own definition, because to be a prophet every idle word you say must be true!

PRAYER… OR DECLARATION?

It surprises most people to learn there is not one example in the entire New Testament of anyone praying for a healing. Not one. There is not a single lame, sick, or dead person ever recorded as having been raised by merely asking God to heal them.

In every single example, Jesus or the apostle simply spoke words to the effect of “you are healed” and they simply… were. A very few times they had prayed first (Acts 9:40, Acts 28:8), though what exactly that prayer was is debatable, as we’ll discuss a little bit later.

But even then, in each and every case the actual healing was done by declaring the reality they wished to see as if it were already in existence and such was the power of their word that reality warped itself into the shape they said it already was.

Jesus told the wind to be still, and it was. He didn’t pray first. He told the fever to leave, and it did. Because the Father heard Him when He spoke – every idle word – and confirmed the things He said, by whatever miracles necessary to make His words be Truth.

And it wasn’t just Jesus – Paul told the sorcerer to be blind, and he was (Acts 13:8-12). Peter told a lame man to stand up and walk, and he did (Acts 3:6). No prayers were involved. They just declared the Truth they wanted to see.

“God is able to save us from the fire”, Daniel’s friends told Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:17-18). And God, rather than see His name shamed before the Babylonians… made the impossible real. For with God all things are possible; so likewise when God sends people to teach the world that with God all things are possible, for them all things ARE possible.

Mark 16:20 They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

And this is how the word of these men of faith became Truth; these men who declared the living dead and the dead alive, the dry wet and the wet dry, these were men whose declarations were Truth, because God wouldn’t let them not be.

Every example in the Bible tells the same story. Because Jesus didn’t ask God to cast out the devils, He simply told them to leave. He didn’t ask God to heal the withered arm, He just told him to stretch it out and… he did. He treated the problem as already solved, and lo and behold… it was.

And that’s EXACTLY what He told us to do! And more importantly… how He told us to do it!

Luke 17:22-24 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says. Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you HAVE received them, and you shall have them.”

So if you want to throw a mountain or a tree into the ocean – not sure why you would, but if that becomes an issue for you – all you have to do is to believe that the problem is solved, declare it solved in the PAST TENSE, and the problem will therefore become solved.

Luke 17:12-15 As he entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met him, who stood at a distance. They lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” It happened that as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.

Not knowing Levitical law, this might not jump out at you, but showing yourself to the priest was something you were supposed to do after you were cleansed! (Leviticus 13). Thus, by telling them to go the priest, He was telling them they had already been cleansed.

But had they looked at their flesh and said “uh, dude, I’m still like, white and flaky and stuff, I can’t go to the priest yet”… that leper wouldn’t have been cleansed because he wouldn’t have started towards the temple where, as they went, they were cleansed!

USE ONLY AS DIRECTED

If God is interested in manifesting your Truth at all, He will make all your words come true. But you can imagine the danger to the Lord’s reputation in letting His prophets ad-lib their way through things.

What if they say stupid stuff? He still has to back it up, or else disavow the prophet and all that the prophet taught. Because the reality is, they’re going to occasionally cross the line into foolishness, as Paul did when he told the high priest, “God shall smite thee, you whited wall” (Acts 23:3).

Note, in passing, that Paul didn’t pray to God to curse this priest. He simply declared a future he willed to happen – that God would smite the priest in retribution for him smiting Paul. A future which God would have no choice but to bring to pass or else risk Paul’s status as a prophet.

John 5:14 This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

And yet the law forbids speaking ill of the ruler of your people (Exodus 22:28), thus cursing the high priest was not according to God’s will. Nonetheless, since Paul said it, and God needed people to listen to Paul, I’m confident God made it happen – it’s not like the priest didn’t deserve it anyway – but just as surely, God was annoyed at Paul for backing him into that corner.

There is, after all, a reason why Paul suffered with a “thorn in the flesh” for much of his life. And we know Paul didn’t think this particular curse through, but acted impulsively; because when a bystander corrected Paul, he said he didn’t know that this was the high priest – but he SHOULD HAVE!

Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 …Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words.

Before you curse anybody, or for that matter, bless them, you should at the very least know who they are! I mean, right? Consider their situation and then, and only then, judge them worthy of good or evil. Paul didn’t do that, and had to retract his curse seconds later (Acts 23:4-5), and we can be certain that angered God because He said…

Ecclesiastes 5:5-6 Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger [angel in the KJV] that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

Notice that phrase – “don’t protest before the angel that it was a mistake”. Why would you have to apologize to an angel because of what your mouth said? Because, like Paul did there, you said something hastily, and then an angel was assigned to bring it to pass… but then you realized you shouldn’t have said it in the first place and wanted to retract it.

So before his “mouth caused his flesh to sin”, Paul should have at least known who he was talking to! This is an awesome power, so you need to try very hard to ensure that your words declare a righteous reality, not a petty and self-serving one.

James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.

God learned long ago that most of us spend most of our time running our mouth about stuff we know nothing about, and so He has learned to ignore most of what we say, justly treating it as not worth the air it’s spoken into.

And so if you’re given to impulsively speaking, as Paul was, God will distance Himself from your words. He’ll answer a few of them now and then, but it will be out of compassion, not out of a desire to make His name great by confirming all of your words.

If you want to reverse that trend, draw closer to Him; act and speak more like He would speak, and He will draw closer to you, and confirm more of your words (James 4:8). Make your yes, yes, and your no, no, and nothing will be impossible for you.

Like the men of Hebrews 11, who felled the walls of Jericho and parted the Red Sea and stopped the mouths of lions and walked through literal fire… because their “yes” was “yes”, and their “no” was “no”, in the most literal sense of the word.

And so God made their “yes” into a capital-y “Yes” which even the rocks and the sea obey.

WORDS IN PRACTICE

Which means if Jesus said Lazarus wasn’t dead but sleeping (John 11:11), we shouldn’t think of it as a miracle so much as we should see it as a correction of reality, a revision of the Truth. Because what Jesus said became Truth. Why? Because God’s word is TRUTH.

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word [Jesus] is truth.

Which literally means what God says, no matter how impossible it might seem beforehand, becomes truth in the moment it is uttered. And since Jesus was the Word of God, God transferred this power of reality-shifting to Him. For Jesus is not the source of this power.

John 11:41-43 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. I know that you ALWAYS listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

Most people think this is Jesus thanking God for hearing His prayer; in other words, His supposed earlier request from God to raise Lazarus from the dead. But rather to the contrary, this was thanking God for hearing Him always and not letting any of His words fall to the ground.

Just to see how well this explains the scriptures, take this random string of miracles Jesus performed in Matthew 9:18-30 [I’ve rearranged the order to keep the story of the individual miracles together]…

While he told these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”

Is it likely that the man misdiagnosed his daughter’s condition? Is it plausible, as Jesus was about to claim, that he mistook it for sleep? I think not. But he believed, and declared, that if Jesus laid His hand on her, that she would live. And since that was the reality he believed in, Jesus would only have to lay His hand on her for her live.

…Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples… When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder, he said to them, “Make room, because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” They were ridiculing him. But when the crowd was put out, he entered in, took her by the hand, and the girl arose. The report of this went out into all that land.

Jesus couldn’t possibly have known that she was only sleeping without examining her. Hence, she wasn’t sleeping. That is… not until He said she was. Then reality rearranged itself to make what He had said be true.

Yet bear in mind, another man declared a reality where Jesus simply had to speak the word to heal his servant (Luke 7:6-10). In that case, his reality too was confirmed and the servant was healed from that moment. Why was a touch necessary in one case, and a word enough in another? Because of the reality this person believed in.

Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said within herself, “If I just touch his garment, I will be made well.” But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, “Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

Notice this woman also believed a certain thing, which by all rights should not be true; that touching Jesus’ clothes would heal her. And she was healed without Jesus even being AWARE of her desire until after the fact (compare the version in Mark 5:25-34). Because reality was altered to suit her words.

As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, “Have mercy on us, son of David!” When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They told him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” Their eyes were opened.

And again, there was no prayer, no begging of God, no anointing of oil; but He did need to know if they believed He could do what they were asking. Because that was the only question that really mattered!

Then He simply touched them and said “may what you believe be done to you”. And since He declared that their beliefs would come true, it meant reality changed to where their beliefs did come true! Where their beliefs, not His own, rearranged reality to suit their will!

Thus, we have a very clear case of Jesus passing on, in this particular instance, the power to bend reality to those who believe that what He declares comes true. If we believe that He has that power, then the power is automatically transferred to us by His word here.

John 14:12 Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.

Thus, by this promise, all those who believe He can change reality, receive the power to reshape reality themselves! Provided of course, that their word matters to them – otherwise God will tune them out like the white noise they are.

PRAYER ISN’T WHAT WE THOUGHT

Seeing the examples of all of these miracles, we must reexamine everything we thought we knew about prayer. Because there is no example of anything like a modern Christian prayer ever being used in the Bible. How do we even know that “prayer” in the Bible means what we call “prayer” today?

James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.

James says that Elijah “prayed earnestly” that it wouldn’t rain. And then prayed again, and it rained. And yet… as we understand the concept of prayer, that’s not what happened at all!

1 Kings 17:1 Elijah… said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

This is not a prayer as we understand the term; Elijah simply said “there will not be rain” and there wasn’t. And to lift the drought, prayer was again not involved; at least, not at first.

1 Kings 18:41-45 Elijah said to Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” He said, “Go again” seven times. It happened at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising out of the sea.” He said, “Go up, tell Ahab, ‘Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn’t stop you.’” It happened in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.

It says nothing about prayer here; it’s not a stretch to say that maybe Elijah prayed when his head was between his knees, but there is no proof of that. What we can prove is that before he did anything else, he declared to Ahab that he could hear the sound of abundant rain when there was literally not a cloud in the sky.

And then afterward, while there was only “a little cloud, the size of a man’s hand”, he manifested to Ahab that if he didn’t rush back to the city, the rain would wash the road out. These were not prayers, as such.

Yet James called both of these declarations of Elijah “fervent prayer”. The same exact words he used to describe the prayer of the elders to heal the sick in literally the same breath! So the question is, does “there will not be rain, except my word”… count as a prayer?

James 5:14-16 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

This was Jesus’ brother, James. He knew how the miracles were performed. He had seen Jesus heal the sick countless times. So why would he teach us to heal people in a different way than our perfect example, Jesus, healed them? In a different way than the apostles, His students, were taught to heal people?

By that I mean, Jesus occasionally anointed with oil or spit or some such; but He never prayed a proper modern prayer. He simply said “your faith has made you whole”, or “pick up your bed and walk” or words to that effect. So why would James tell us to heal in a completely different way?

To my mind, he wouldn’t. Especially when the apostles all followed Jesus’ example, not the modern interpretation of this word “prayer”. Therefore, when James said the elders should “pray over him”, he meant the elders should declare them healed, order them to “rise and walk”, which James clearly believed was a prayer because he called Elijah’s declaration a prayer too!

And as one final example, Jesus also called our declarations prayers!

Luke 17:22-24 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says. Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you HAVE received them, and you shall have them.”

Note carefully here; Jesus tells us to SAY, to a mountain, a direct command: “go jump in a lake”. Then later, in the same breath, referring to the same example, says “whatever you pray and ask for”… thus implying that commanding a mountain to be cast into the sea is a prayer!

THE LORD’S… DECLARATION?

But not prayer as we understand it, because the actual examples of prayer we have, like John 17, sound nothing like a modern prayer, or even the “Lord’s prayer” He taught the disciples to use. Why not? Well look closely at that prayer and you will see in it a list of suggested declarations, and not a prayer such as we were taught in Sunday school:

Luke 11:2-4 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. [Declaration of desired reality: your name is kept holy] Thy kingdom come. [Declaration: your kingdom has come] Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. [Declaration: your will is done in Earth] Give us day by day our daily bread. [Declaration: you give us our bread] And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. [Declaration: our sins are forgiven for we have forgiven the sins of others] And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. [Declaration: You do not lead us into temptation]

Rather than see this as a list of whiny requests, it’s easy to see this as a list of the kinds of things a true Christian would be manifesting in a given day. For example, Jesus Himself said not to worry about our daily bread; thus, asking God for our daily bread makes no sense.

Matthew 6:31-32 Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

This was said about the same time, so why would Jesus tell us not to worry about these things, but simultaneously to ask God for these things every time we kneel in prayer?? Obviously, He wouldn’t.

However, He would have told us, when things look bleak foodwise, to declare “that God will provide us with our daily bread”, something we couldn’t declare with confidence if we were “anxious, saying ‘what will we eat?’”!

Nor does it make sense for Jesus to tell us to fear temptation, despite saying several times “Pray that ye enter not into temptation” (Luke 22:40). Why would He expect us to constantly pray “please don’t lead us into temptation!”, when James tells us that God does not tempt any man? (James 1:13). Especially when Jesus surely knew that the Psalms already promised us…

Psalms 121:7-8 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

However, He would have told us to act as if we were certain of this promise, by declaring that we would not be led into temptation above what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13); by trusting that whatever was happening to us was not a temptation, but an opportunity to be blessed:

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.

Thus, declaring that “this is not a temptation but an opportunity” is not a prayer as we understand it, but a declaration of our faith which, because of our declaration, becomes our reality. Which, apparently… is called a prayer.

So when Jesus told Peter “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not” (Luke 22:32), we imagine him saying “Father in heaven, don’t let Peter’s faith fail, in my name, Amen”. But all He really had to do was say “Peter’s got this, he’s gonna make it” for that to be what happened.

After all… that’s what He did when He said Peter would deny Him three times, causing Peter’s faith to fail him. Why would He need to do more to manifest that Peter’s faith wouldn’t fail him in the end?

IDLE PRAYERS

Back to John 17, try reading that passage without seeing it as a capital-P-Prayer, and rather as a string of declarations Jesus was manifesting. Because when you do, you’ll see that Jesus simply declared what He wanted the Father to do; declared the reality He expected to exist, and which therefore would exist.

He said things like “may they be one in us”; “keep them from the evil one”; “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (John 17:24). In each of these cases declaring His own will, manifesting things which were no more in Jesus’ innate power than raising Lazarus was.

So was telling Lazarus to “come forth”, any more – or less – a prayer than telling God to “sanctify the saints through His Word?” If Elijah’s declaration that it would not rain was a prayer, then so was Jesus telling the wind to be still or rebuking a devil.

And so when Jesus tells us to “pray always” (Luke 21:36), or Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), did they really mean the begging, talking-to-God kind of prayers that Christians do today… or did they simply mean that every word you manifest in the world is a prayer that God hears?

Every word we say – from things like “it’ll work out” or “I’m sure you’ll figure it out”, to things like “she is not dead” or “fire won’t burn me” – is being heard, and, if it’s in the interests of God’s holy name to make it happen, then every idle word you say will come true.

Because think logically;

1. Prayer is a message or statement that God hears;
2. God is listening to every idle word we say;

Therefore: every idle word is a prayer.

Thus, every true Christian is “praying always”, whether they know it or not. Some of these words are consciously directed at God, more recognizable as prayers; but by far the majority are the idle words you say all day long.

And we’ll have to give account for these words, these prayers, whether addressed to God or addressed to our worst enemy, in our day of judgment. Which of course, is today – every single day we utter them (1 Peter 4:17).

For both the good and the evil, both the direct and the indirect prayers, reach His ears; and by them we are condemned… and also, by them we are justified. By our words, all of our words, God shapes reality around us.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.

So if we don’t like the reality they create… we should say different words. Or at least, fewer words.

THE VERY WORDS OF GOD

So, bottom line; do what you said you’ll do. Be cautious agreeing to things that aren’t in your power to guarantee. Say “no” to more people, more often. Mind your responsibilities, and nothing else.

But simultaneously, you must let yourself be bound to your “yes” with cables of steel. For you must, through practice, learn how to use the power of words by building confidence in your own. You must accept certain responsibilities and make promises that you can keep.

For only by being faithful in these little words, can you prove to God that your word means something to you. There is no other way to convince anyone, not even yourself, that you won’t let your words fall to the ground, unless you give your word to people occasionally – and then see how strong it is.

There is no way to prove to God that you would rather suffer loss and death than break your word, unless you make a promise and refuse to break it. Because why would God stand behind words that you don’t even stand behind? And how can He know you stand behind your word, if you never give it?

Once you have done that, in order to receive power you must give God a reason to back up your words by creating a reality with them that would bring glory of His name. If you’re going to manifest, make sure people know that it’s His power in you, not your own power, that does the work.

And if reality proves more stubborn than your word, then accept that you’re not a good enough reflection of His glory. Yet. Keep declaring your reality in those areas you can control, and let your actions convince God that His name will be made just a little bit better if you have His power.

God is eager to bestow His power on anyone He can trust to use it justly, so all you have to do is be that person. Make your word good, and God will make it great. Convince God that what your idle words manifest will be at least mostly in line with His will, and why wouldn’t He give you unlimited power to shape reality to that will?

If you speak exactly what God would say… why wouldn’t you have the exact power God has?

1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Of the things we have said, here is the sum; God’s words matter, and God’s words always accomplish that which they set out to do. Make sure that yours do as well, with all the power you do have, no matter what the personal cost – and God will pick up the slack that you can’t.

Hebrews 1:3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the WORD OF HIS POWER, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Because God literally – and I mean literally – keeps the universe spinning by the power of His Word. ALL THINGS rest on the Power of HIS WORD. And the ONLY reason that works, even for Him, is because He values His word even above His own name.

Psalms 138:2 I will give worship before your holy Temple, praising your name for your mercy and for your UNCHANGING faith: for you have made your word greater than all your name.

The least you can do is keep yours.