Now I'm going through this really quick, but the essence of it is this, that God used words firstly to create a man, and then used words to define his purpose, and to begin to enter into relationship with him. God put a boundary around the relationship, to protect the relationship. He said listen, you have all this freedom, but you can't eat that particular tree over there. You eat that tree, you'll die, so God used words to establish boundaries in relationships, and consequences for breaching it.
The Bible says in Genesis 3, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. Obviously it was God's practice in the evening to come and talk to the man He'd made, so we see emerging here, without looking into it too deeply, we see emerging in it two primary uses of words; number one, to create - to create in the natural world something that wasn't there, by releasing the power of God into that area; secondly, to establish, and build, or develop, or cultivate relationships, and protect them by speaking words. Now you think about this. How did Adam and Eve come into such a big problem? Why is it we got such a mess in the world? Very simple - they listened to someone else's words, and agreed with those words, and then hell came into the earth. Think about that.
Here's another thing to think about just while we're on it, that Adam who was mandated to protect with words and actions what he was entrusted, failed to speak up. Adam was with her, when she was talked to by the serpent, and he never did a thing. He never spoke. It's still a problem today; silent men. Silent men. Silent men allow the devil to work. The women are all smiling now, the men are - I don't like this message! Why don't you preach something better? Silent men allow the devil to work, because without saying words, they allow relationships to suffer and be neglected, boundaries to be broken, and in the end death and destruction come. Words. Oooh! Now you've got it. Now you begin to see what we're designed for, so if you begin to think now, and just keep remembering now, I'm designed to be creative with my words, to bring changes in the world around me by the use of my words, and I'm also designed to establish relationships, and to nurture them, or maintain them, and to protect them, by the use of words.
That's what it is, and I know I use my tongue to eat, but animals can do that too. See what distinguishes humans, is humans by their words, can release a spirit content into the world. Animals can't, so although animals can communicate, they cannot release spirits into the earth. Animals cannot release the Holy Ghost to move. Animals cannot release demons to take place, and move into areas in the earth, but people can. Why can they? Because their words have power. It's part of design, part of design. Okay then, so we got that clear? You've all got real quiet about that now. It's true, see? Now we're called. Now if God used words in those two ways, to create things, or to create by releasing supernatural power, and to nurture, protect, establish relationships, and we're called in Ephesians 5:1 to be imitators of Him, then we're called to do the same stuff. We're called to do the same stuff, create things with words, start things up that weren't there with words.
How does a new business get started? Someone has words. How do you get into an agreement to get married? Words. How do you meet a girl? Words. How do you form friendships? Words. Now it'll take more than words, but words are what initiate it. You've got to start with words; hi, how are you doing, you know? That's why silent men are a bit of a problem. [Laughter] It's true, silent men are - there's an issue there. There's an issue of malfunction. It's true, it's malfunction. We're just not functioning like we're designed, and we've got to learn how to function how we're designed. We're going to see how that works out in a moment. Okay then, so now I want you to have a look in Psalm 16. The Bible says your tongue is your glory. I'll show you that. I want to compare two verses. We'll just quickly look in Psalm 16, and then we're going to go and look into Acts, Chapter 2. The Bible says a strange thing about your tongue. It's called your glory. Like to stick your glory out, and we'll have a look at it? Ooh, it's furry. How did that happen?