Words.pdf

Volume XIX, Issue 4

L EGACY

OF D EREK P RINCE

Words!

“It’s only words!” . . . “What is there in words?”

How often we hear people use such expressions as these! And how false they are! The truth

is, rather, that it is scarcely possible to estimate the power and signiﬁ cance of words. The fac-

ulty of language—that is, the power of expression in words, whether spoken or written—is

one of the supreme gifts of God the Creator to man the creature whom He formed in His own

image and likeness. It is one most important aspect of the likeness between God and man,

which is not shared by any creatures of a lower order.

theory of evolution, this faculty of language

possessed by man remains one clear and

unchallengeable mark of division between him and

the animals which evolutionists have never been able

to remove or to explain. So long as this barrier stands,

the theory of evolution can never provide a satisfactory

account of the origin of man.

material of reasoning. The simplest forms of physical

sensations and desires—just those things that man

shares in common with the animals—can partly be

expressed by thought in forms other than language.

But as we rise above this level, we ﬁ nd that we have no

other means of expression but language. This becomes

even plainer if we include under the term language

the symbolic systems of logic, mathematics and music,

which are in reality only specialized forms of the same

general faculty.

These conclusions about the importance of

language, drawn merely from common human ex-

perience, are fully conﬁ rmed when we consider

what God Himself teaches on this subject. The two

supreme revelations of Himself that God has given

to man are the Bible and Jesus Christ. Upon both of

these, divine authority has conferred the title, “the

Word of God.” Could anything give to words, as such,

a higher importance than this?

Language Sets Man Apart

Indissolubly linked with this faculty of language

is the faculty of thought and reasoning. If you wish

to satisfy yourself of this, analyze the processes of

thought that go on in your mind for a short period.

You will ﬁ nd that at least eighty percent of your

thinking is done in words. In fact, the more reﬁ ned

and subtle a man’s power of reasoning becomes, the

more dependent he becomes upon language as the

L E G A C Y

T HE T EACHING

T oday, after unremitting efforts to prove the

Language Sets Man Apa

Volume XIX, Issue 4

Words Are Things

Words are the material out

of which the whole universe is

constructed. It is not too much to

say, therefore, that in committing

to man the faculty of speech,

God committed to man His own

divine, creative power. No wonder

that it remains the supreme

distinguishing mark between man

and the animals.

revelation of the heart of God. Just as

a man’s words convey to our senses

the invisible thoughts of his heart,

so Jesus conveys to our senses the

nature of the invisible God. He is,

in the deepest sense, the “Word of

God”—the perfect expression to our

senses of the heart and mind of God,

which we could never fully know in

any other way. Jesus, the living Word,

breaks down the barrier between the

heart of God and the heart of man.

The two actual human languages

in which God’s written revelation,

the Bible, was ﬁ rst given to man,

are Hebrew (and its sister, Aramaic)

in the Old Testament and Greek in

the New. There is one particularly

signiﬁ cant fact that is common to

both of these languages. In each of

them there is one word—in Hebrew

dabar and in Greek rhema —that

can equally accurately be translated

either “word” or “thing.” Only the

context can show in each instance

which translation is to be preferred,

and sometimes it is necessary to

translate in both ways to give the

full meaning of the original.

For instance, the utterance of

Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:37 can

equally well be translated: “With

God nothing will be impossible,” or

“With God no word will be void of

power.” We might perhaps express

this by saying, “Every word of God

contains in it the power for its own

fulﬁ llment.”

This peculiarity of Hebrew and

Greek, the two languages chosen

for divine revelation, is no accident.

It illustrates a fundamental prin-

ciple of the divine nature. With

God, words are things . There is

no real distinction between the

two. “God said, ‘Let there be light’;

and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).

When God spoke the word, “light,”

the thing, light, came into being.

“By faith we understand that the

worlds were framed by the word of

God” (Hebrews 11:3). In sober

fact, words were the only means

that God used to create the whole

universe.

Words from the Heart

The Lord Jesus gave us a further

insight into the importance of words

when He said: “Out of the abundance of

the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew

12:34). That is to say, the ﬁ rst and

fullest revelation of the contents of a

man’s heart is given in his words.

The heart is the origin and

wellspring of a man’s whole life (see

Proverbs 4:23); but words are the

divinely ordained channel through

which that life shall ﬂ ow and ﬁ nd

expression.

While a man sits silent in my

presence, I cannot sense what is

in his heart. But when he speaks,

he conveys to my senses in words

what is in his heart. Words thus

break down the barrier between one

human heart and another.

It is for this reason that Jesus

Himself is called “the Word of God.”

By our senses we cannot know God,

we cannot search or understand the

heart and mind of God. Creation—

that is, God’s “words” having become

“things”—gives us a certain witness

of God’s eternal power and Godhead

(see Romans 1:20), but it does not

fully reveal the heart of God.

On the other hand, Jesus,

manifested to our senses in human

ﬂ esh, gives us the full and perfect

Words’ Divine Origin

The faculty of speech, then, is

of divine origin. It is something

wonderful and sacred. It is not to be

belittled or misused. Jesus Himself

repeatedly warned us against this.

“By your words you will be justiﬁ ed, and

by your words you will be condemned”

(Matthew 12:37). “Every idle word

men may speak, they will give account

of it in the day of judgment” (Matthew

12:36). “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your

‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than

these is from the evil one” (Matthew

5:37).

Our words should be sober,

accurate, pure, without exag-

geration—sacred instruments used

for sacred purposes. Idle words—

words used in any other way or for

any other purposes—are sins, to be

confessed and put away before God

can restore His blessing.

It is written of Christ, “Grace is

poured upon Your lips; therefore God

has blessed You forever” (Psalm 45:2).

Of the bride of Christ, the Scripture

records:

“Your lips are like a strand of scar-

let, and your mouth [or speech] is

lovely. . . . Your lips, O my spouse,

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Words Are Things

Words from the Heart

Words’ Divine Origin

Volume XIX, Issue 4

drip as the honeycomb; honey and

milk are under your tongue.”

them. Sure enough, for three and a

half years no rain or dew fell. Then,

by his word—spoken to God in

prayer—he liberated them. Thus, in

the Old Testament, men controlled,

by their words, such manifestations

of God’s creative power as the course

of the heavenly bodies, and the fall of

rain and dew.

In the New Testament, Jesus

simply spoke to a ﬁ g tree, and it

withered from the roots. When His

disciples marveled at this, Jesus

expressly delegated to them similar,

and even greater, authority:

words, Satan at least is not. It was with

words that he procured the downfall

of our ﬁ rst parents, and since then

he has never ceased seeking to usurp

the divine authority vested in words

and to use these sacred instruments

of God against God and against God’s

people and God’s purposes in the

earth. In Revelation 16:13 we read of

“three unclean spirits like frogs coming

out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the

mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth

of the false prophet.” The signiﬁ cant

feature of the frog in Israel and

adjoining countries is that it remains

silent in the daytime, but keeps up a

ceaseless, repetitive croaking during

the hours of darkness. These frogs,

therefore, typify as vividly as any

image could that peculiar, distinctive

feature of modern political methods

for which we have coined the word

propaganda . It describes the ceaseless

reiteration of those statements and

theories that its authors desire to

be believed, to the exclusion of all

others.

It is this instrument of words, called

propaganda, which “the rulers of the

darkness of this world” have used to

establish every one of the successive

anti-Christian dictatorships that have

marked the last hundred years of

world history. Armaments, military

power, secret police, all these have

been subordinate to that one great

verbal instrument—propaganda.

Although the forces behind such

propaganda are spiritual, being

expressly called “unclean spirits,” it

is—as always—through the lips of

men that they must work. Therefore

in Psalm 12:4 we read about men,

“who have said, ‘With our tongue will

we prevail; our lips are our own; who

is lord over us?’” Such men do not

(Song 4:3, 11)

To the church Paul commands:

“Let your speech always be with grace”

(Colossians 4:6).

Not only does God desire, through

faith, to restore to our words grace

and purity. He seeks to restore·also

that authority and dominion that

man held before the fall but lost

through sin. In Job 22:28 it is

promised to the sinner who will meet

God’s conditions of repentance and

faith: “You will also declare a thing, and

it will be established for you.” That is,

the decree of a redeemed sinner shall

have the same authority as the decree

of the Almighty God.

Of Samuel it is written, “The

L ORD . . . let none of his words fall to

the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19). That

is, the words uttered by Samuel so

represented the mind and will of God

that they were as sure and effectual

as if God had uttered them Himself.

Joshua spoke to the sun and

moon, and by his spoken words he

arrested their course in the heavens

for twenty-four hours. (See Joshua

10:12–14.)

Elijah said to Ahab: “As the L ORD

God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,

there shall not be dew nor rain these

years, except at my word” (1 Kings

17:1). It is the sole prerogative of the

one true God to control the fall of

rain (see Jeremiah 14:22). Yet Elijah

declared that the fall both of rain and

of dew for a certain period—three

and a half years, the New Testament

reveals in James 5:17—would be

under the control of his word. By

his word he could withhold them,

and by his word he could liberate

“You will not only do what was

done to the ﬁ g tree, but also if you

say to this mountain, ‘Be removed

and be cast into the sea,’ it will be

done. And whatever things you

ask in prayer, believing, you will

receive.”

This double promise includes

both words spoken to God in prayer

and words spoken for God in any

other way. Thus, it is the express will

and purpose of Jesus to invest the

words of His believing disciples with

the same effective and creative power

and authority that God’s own words

possess.

If only we Christians would cease

to despise and misuse these sacred

instruments. If only we would put

away from us all idle and unsancti-

ﬁ ed speech—foolish talk, jesting,

gossip, backbiting, talebearing and

exaggeration. We would soon be

astonished at the power with which

our words would be invested.

Words As Propaganda

If the saints are often blind or

indifferent to the signiﬁ cance of

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

(Matthew 21:21–22)

Words As Propaganda

Volume XIX, Issue 4

know that Satan is lord over them,

controlling their lips for his own

purposes. Again, in Psalm 73:8–9:

behalf, in prayer; or towards man

on God’s behalf, in proclamation.

The God-ward use of words in

prayer is perhaps the greatest task

ever committed to man. So often in

the past this mighty task has been

left to a despised minority. One great

purpose of the present outpouring of

the Holy Spirit on every section of

the church is to bring forth an army

of intercessors, willing and able to

press the prayer battle to the gates

of Satan’s kingdom and to prove that

those gates cannot prevail against

the Spirit-empowered, Spirit-directed

words of a praying church.

For the use of words man-ward

in proclamation, the modern media

of mass communication—television,

radio, print and the World Wide

Web—have put at our disposal

both means and opportunities that

were never granted to any previous

generation of Christians. In many

cases hitherto, the representatives of

Satan have shown greater vision and

faith in availing themselves of these

media than the children of God. Yet

the Bible tells us: “All things are for

your sakes” (2 Corinthians 4:15).

It is time for Christians to repent

of their lack of vision and faith, and

then to wrest these media of mass

communication from Satan’s grasp,

and to use them for the proclamation

and extension of God’s kingdom.

Thus we shall fulﬁ ll the Scripture:

“They overcame him by the blood

of the Lamb and by the word of their

testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

Finally, remember that in this

conﬂ ict there can be no neutrality. Jesus

said: “He who is not with Me is against

Me, and he who does not gather with

Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30).

Neither God nor Satan will accept

compromise. Either we overcome, or

we are overcome. Between these two

there is no third course.

At the time of the reformation,

Luther said: “It is more important to

preach the gospel than to live.” At a

later crisis in European history, the

English orator, Edmund Burke, said:

“All that is necessary for the triumph

of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Both these statements apply with no

less force today. Individually, and as

a body, we Christians confront the

supreme crisis of human history. On

whose side are you and your words?

Are you gathering with Christ? Or

are you scattering?

Taken from “New Wine” magazine’s

October 1969 edition.

“They scoff and speak wickedly

concerning oppression; they speak

loftily. They set their mouth against

the heavens, and their tongue

walks through the earth.”

No modern writer has ever given

in so few words so vivid and accurate

a picture of present-day political aims

and methods. In truth, the age-long

conﬂ ict between the powers of light

and the powers of darkness, both in

the heavenlies and on earth, is coming

to its climax in our generation; and

the supreme instrument by which

the issue is being decided is—words!

Nevertheless, it is not God’s will

that His people should be ineffectual,

or defeated. “Do you not know,” says

Paul, “that the saints will judge the

world?” (1 Corinthians 6:2). Again:

For further study, we recom-

mend Derek Prince’s CD:

Use and Abuse of the

Tongue

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“The weapons of our warfare are

not carnal but mighty in God for

pulling down strongholds, casting

down arguments [or imaginations]

and every high thing that exalts it-

self against the knowledge of God,

bringing every thought into captiv-

ity to the obedience of Christ.”

(2 Corinthians 10:4–5)

It will be seen that the warfare is

not in the material or carnal realm,

but in the realm of the thoughts and

the imagination. And the supremely

effective weapons which God has

committed to us are—words!

Direct Your Words

Derek Prince Ministries

P.O. Box 19501

Charlotte, NC 28219

704.357.3556

www.derekprince.org

There are still the two main

directions in which we may turn

our words: towards God on man’s

TL114

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