Words Reveal Who Our God Is

I’m going to describe a scenario that demonstrates the point of my last post. In that post I stated that our words are not innocuous, rather they are charged with meaning. Our words actually reveal our God and the source of our life. Living words come from God, evil words emanate from Satan. Our words reveal the source of our worship.

A Portrait and Words

I am currently painting a self-portrait from one of my baby pictures. I have always loved this picture and it has tons of meaning to me. God has used it to minister to me about the direction of my heart, the purpose of my gaze, and the fact that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. For me it’s not just some random snapshot, it’s a love note from God.

Because of the significance of this image to me, I’m taking a lot of time and pride in painting it. I’m now at the stage where I am sketching the image on the canvas prior to painting. On this particular day, I was talking to my art teacher about it and I mentioned that the finger that I am holding up in the image was the finger that I sliced off. I joked and said it’s like my infant self was calling out to say, “Hey, when you’re 44, you’re going to cut this finger off. Be careful!” (huh huh huh)

My teacher was shocked and immediately asked to see my finger. Then I told him about how I had disassociated myself from the finger because to me it was like a Franken-finger. Though it was on my hand, it wasn’t my finger. I told my teacher that God shockingly told me, “Put it in your mouth!” And in a wave of obedience, that primal act somehow broke some kind of psychological barrier. It was a miracle for me and something I would only do out of obedience. When I say, Franken-finger, I mean…ew!

Our Words Reveal a Lot

At this point in my story, a lady nearby, who’d been eavesdropping said, “WHAT?” I just repeated what I’d said, but I didn’t go into it any further. At the end of the day, this lady walked up to my painting and said, “You’re drawing well an ugly baby!” This completely shocked me to my core. I couldn’t even respond. Who says that? Even if I had two heads, who in their right mind says something like that? I know who – a monster and Satan!

Am I saying that this woman is Satan? No, but he is the one she is listening to. He is filling her mouth with his words, so somewhere in her life she has bent her knee to him. This was a curse straight out of the pit of hell. She was speaking Satan’s opinion of me, not her own. And through her words, Satan tipped his hand by revealing who she was, because I revealed who I am through my “God told me” comment.

A friend of mine in the class told this woman that she was completely inappropriate and wrong to say what she did to me. In response this woman ended up texting me and humbly apologizing for her rude comments and saying, “I don’t know where that came from!” I drove home that day smiling because Satan’s attack made the purpose of my painting just that much more meaningful. If he hates it enough to attack it, it must be truly important.

“You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this; you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”
Matthew 12:34-37 NLT