Matthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Looking again at these three things Jesus told us to do, to bring the kingdom of heaven to people:
Number One is “heal the sick”. And how do we do that, exactly? umm, by talking. Talking to the sickness or disease and telling it not to be. The physical things hear what we say and obey the words. (use your badge!)
Number Two is “raise the dead”. We do this by… talking. This time you’re talking to the physical thing (the body) and to a spiritual thing (the soul of the person). Speaking to the earth and the spirit at the same time, and both hear and obey the words.
Number Three is “cast out demons”. Now you’re speaking exclusively to the spirit (the supernatural) and it hears and obeys your words.
Every single thing he instructs us to do is done with your tongue, and both the physical and spiritual realms hear it and obey. Spoken words are fascinating because they immediately transcend the water barrier. We must speak aloud for this work.
Just keep reminding yourself, “Everything in heaven and earth is listening to everything I say, all day, all the time.”
When scripture lists things, the most powerful things often appear in the third position. (think, “faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.” or, “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” i’ll explain why thirty is better than a hundred later.) Why do you think that the instruction to cast out demons sits in the third position? To most of us, raising the dead would be like the coolest thing, right? The answer has to do with the battle for our tongues.
When you heal a sick person, they go around telling everyone and giving glory to God. Awesome!
When you raise a dead person; same outcome. Awesome!
But when you cast out a demon, you have rescued a tongue that was actively being used for the purposes I’m describing – but for the kingdom of darkness. The dead guy’s tongue wasn’t hurting anything; he’s a dead guy. But the demon-controlled tongue is cursing people and the things of heaven, contradicting the will of the Father, and giving strength to darkness. As far as the war in heaven is concerned, casting out a demon is really, really good for the KoH. Like when you get a pawn to the far side of the chess board and get your queen back.
Tongues are so freakin' important. They exist to create audible words, and words exist to change heaven and earth. (yes, even speaking in tongues where you’re changing heaven but have little or no idea what exactly is changing.) Words are a sword, the offensive weapon in the Spirit. Think of a battle where one side raids the other side’s weapons stockpile, and how bad that is for the dudes who now have their own cannons turned against them.
Demons know exactly how critically useful a tongue is. And they don’t have ‘em, so… they definitely wanna get control of one of ours. Since thirty percent of what Jesus told us to do was cast out demons – essentially rescue tongues and transfer them back into the Kingdom – it’s mega important that we do that part of the job! (“what job?” “ambassador.” “oh, yeah.”)
“Everything in heaven and earth is listening to everything I say, all day, all the time.”
That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 12:36, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” I used to read that and think, “Except when I’m just joking around at the lunch table, right?” But, nope.
There’s that whole thing in James about the tongue being able to set a forest ablaze. (think here, people are trees in the spirit.) “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”
Here I shall appeal to you with what I often say: If thirty percent of the job is to cast out demons, how come I’m not really seeing barely any of that going on? Everyone’s so hot for healing in the streets - cuz our faith can more readily accommodate natural change with our natural eyes… just sayin’. Shout out to you evangelists who can see, and fearlessly go rescuing tormented souls and restoring peace to them. (that’s my version of “blessed are the peacemakers.”)
Hence the Scripture quoted at the top of this article: From then until now, there is a war in heaven and we need to take back territory. We literally want to be “the violent” in Jesus’ statement.
So what do we do with this understanding that spoken words are heard by heavenly and earthly things?
I’ve heard many people quote 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing.” I recently learned that the Greek word for “pray” there is actually “declare”.
The idea sounds a lot different when we imagine what “declaring without ceasing” looks like. Praying without ceasing, on our knees in your closet or on street corners (haha), sounds like it’d make it impossible to participate in life among other humans. But to know that every word we say is heard by heaven and earth, and we have the power to create what should be by declaring it, and everything submits to us? That’s something you might do without ceasing. Every time we are given grace to speak, let’s speak with intent to heaven and/or earth. Understanding this makes it easier to swallow his teaching about giving an account for every careless word spoken.
“Everything in heaven and earth is listening to everything I say, all day, all the time.”
What are you gonna tell it to be, in the name of Jesus?
I always appreciate your time, your most valuable resource. Thank you.
Garrison
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