That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 43: YOUR WORDS SHALL RETURN

1. The Return of Words

 The boomerang is a curved, roughly V-shaped flat hardwood missile thrown with a spin. It is used by the Australian Aboriginals to kill prey. The missile is often of a kind able to return in flight to the thrower. The boomerang is used not only as a weapon but sometimes also for sport.

 Scripture shows us severally that words are like the boomerang. They can return to their throwers.

 In Isaiah 45:23 the Lord God states that the word that goes out of His mouth "shall not return ." He makes the same point in Isaiah 55:10-11:

10 As the rain and the snow / come down from heaven / and do not return to it / without watering the earth / and making it bud and flourish, / so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater / So is my word that goes out from my mouth / it will not return to me empty / but will accomplish what I desire / and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (New International Version).

 2. Words are Messengers

 It seems apparent from these passages that words, like the rain and the snow from heaven, are substantive entities, but of a different nature; that words are messengers, which may be "sent," on specific assignments. "He sent forth his word and healed them" (Psalm 107:20, NIV; Matthew 8:8). Because they are substantive messengers, they not only go on errand but can "return" to report to the sender, when they are unable to "achieve" the purpose (good or evil) for which they were launched from the lips.

3. The Birth of Words

In Luke 10:5-6, Jesus told His disciples,

5 When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will RETURN to you (NIV).

 From this scripture, again, we can see that words are not mere sounds that we hear. They are, one dares to say, beings of a sort, which are birthed by speech through the canal of the lips. At the point of ‘birth’ they assume an individual existence, just as a baby becomes an autonomous being when birthed.

4. The Entrance of Words

In Psalm 119:130, we read: "The entrance of thy words giveth light." This means that words can enter; enter into (or possess) persons. It takes a being or an intelligent creature to be capable of that quality or action of entering. This may suggest that words are beings; spirit beings (John 6:63)

 Every entrance presupposes a door. Every person has a door into their soul. Jesus the Word stands at such a door and knocks, to enter into those who would hear His words and open to Him (Revelation 3:20). Satan "entered" into Judas through such a door (Luke 22:3; John 13:2,27). Ananias had his life fully occupied by Satan when Satan gained entrance into him through words of deception that he had exchanged with his wife (Acts 5:2-3). A woman divorced her husband after having received counsel from concerned family members and friends to do so. She realized only nine months later that she had been fooled. But it was too late. Another woman was already in the house. A spirit of divorce got into her through the words of divorce that she had allowed.

 The condition of a house is often a statement on who or what enters there, whether a bugler, a pest, a person wearing a loud perfume, a tidy or dirty person, a quiet or noisy person, and so on. Every house is an expression of who inhabits it. You are the expression of what inhabits you. You are the expression of the words that enter you (Proverbs 4:23). The entrance of some words brings light. The entrance of other words brings darkness and death (Psalm 122:1; Luke 24:17; 1 Samuel 17:11).