The Last Word

 Words have power. Power to hurt or heal, tear down or build up. Sadly, too many of the words spoken into our lives have hurt and torn down more than they healed or built up. Too many of us still carry the wounds as a result of these words. If one could see our souls, they might well see a soul bearing a multitude of slash wounds, and all of them still bleeding.

Though the words may have come through a human voice, there is no mistaking their true source, that being the enemy of our souls, Satan. Scripture says that He comes to "steal, kill, and destroy" and his success in this is seen everywhere as he has succeeded in stealing hope, killing our dreams, and destroying our lives. He seeks to do this through the words, aiming that we would believe that the words that cut so deeply are true, that we really are useless, stupid, ugly, hopeless, and wanted and desired by no one. He, the father of lies, wants us to believe every lie he speaks through these words. He wants us to believe that what he has spoken is the last word. He does not. As Eugene Peterson writes, "You (Jesus), have the last word, and the last word is life, not death." In all things, and especially in all things concerning our lives, past, present, and future, Jesus Christ has the last word, and that word is always, LIFE!

One of the Bible's names for Satan is The Destroyer. Where has he and is he living up to that name in your life? Where has he, through cutting, hateful words, been destroying your relationships, your homes, your families? He wants to destroy our future, our destiny in Jesus Christ, the very reason for which we were created. If we believe the lies of what he speaks, that those words of hate and accusation are true, that his words are the last words, he will. He will not and cannot if we will believe what the Lord said about Himself in John 10; "I am the Door of the sheep....I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly."

In most Bibles,  the words of Jesus are printed in red, meaning His words are written in His blood. That's not merely symbolic. His words to us are written in His blood. Their power is sealed in and by His blood. All the lies of hell, about us, others, and Him are powerless in His Presence and Words. They must fall before Him. The truth of His Word is guaranteed by the blood He shed for us, for you and me, on the cross. 

Every day, Satan will come to us speaking his words of death, and he will come through a host of different messengers. Jesus promises that those who are His are able to live in the power of His resurrected life. Every word of the enemy is rooted in death, and he seeks to kill us by inches. One cutting wound after another. He wants his word and words to you to be the last ones. Reject the lie. Embrace the truth. The last word for you and about you will always belong to Christ. His last word is Life. It is also His first. Every word He speaks is rooted in His Life. May we receive them all.

Who has been having the last word in your life? Who will have it today? Speaking to Joshua and the people after the death of Moses, God said He placed before them the choice between life and death. They chose life....in Him. That choice is before us each day. May we, may you, choose life!

Blessings,

Pastor O