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  The Power of Speaking God's Word: Hyrcania

  Jan 10, 2024

  Do you speak the word of God over yourself? Do you rephrase its prayers so they are personal to you?

   

  Some believers are reluctant to speak God's word over themselves, thinking the promises of God were specific to the time they were written. Or, they think it makes no difference because God will answer or He won't. It is totally up to Him.

   

  But those thoughts aren't biblical, and that person has no problem allowing their circumstances to speak to them and over them. They have more faith in satan's will for them than God's.

   

  God has a better way.

   

  If you are hesitant the root of your problem may be doubt. But hearing the word creates faith (Romans 10:17). Speaking God's word after Him is powerful.

   

  God told Joshua to think about the word and speak it. He wasn't to let it depart from his mouth. Joshua had to lead the Israelites and this was the way he was going to be successful (Joshua 1:8). This is God's template for success and change.

   

  Joshua was Moses' assistant for at least forty years. He knew firsthand how difficult the job was. He saw Moses fail. He needed to be built up. He needed to speak God's will over his life not the inadequacies he felt. He needed to focus on truth, not problems and weaknesses.

   

  God is looking for people who take His words to themselves. God watches over His word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). He searches for people who trust His word. "The LORD's eyes keep on roaming throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts completely belong to him, so that he may strongly support them" (2 Chronicles 16:9 ISV).

   

  The Holy Spirit reveals a principle of God's kingdom in Proverbs 18:21 (KJV). "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." To become saved you had to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth.

   

  If this is how salvation works, if this is how success happens, if this is how change is seen, why do we hesitate?

   

  It seems people have been personalizing God's words to them for a long time. In September of 2023, an ancient inscription was found  at Hyrcania (her khan ya) about ten miles southeast of Jerusalem and three miles west of Qumran. This was the site of a palace fortress built by the Hasmonean Kings in the Judean Desert. It was even used by King Herod. During the fifth century AD, it became a Christian monastery called Castellion, Little Castle. Later it was abandoned during the Muslim conquests and forgotten until the 1920s.

   

  The inscription dates to the Byzantine era when the monastery was in use. Written in New Testament Greek on the side of a gray building stone is a personalized paraphrase of Psalm 86:1-2. Written in red it says, "Jesus Christ, guard me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you."

   

  The original is a psalm of David. "Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee."

   

  You or I might speak this over ourselves a bit differently than the person who wrote it in Koine Greek, but the desire to take God's word for ourselves is the same. Archaeologists say the Greek has grammatical errors. So the person wasn't perfect, maybe a Semitic speaker using what he knew of the Greek and Old Testament scrolls.

   

  He didn't seem worried this was David's prayer either. It seems he was trusting that Jesus would hear his prayer and declaration spoken from a trusting heart.

   

  Woman in red by Michael Dam courtesy of Unsplash

  Man by Oyemike Princewill courtesy of Unsplash

  Judean Desert by Amit Lahav courtesy of Unsplash

  Tags: Hyrcania, Speaking God's word

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