(part 5 of “how to fight your battles”)
The song we are looking at in this post provides me with a reminder. I would say that this can be a battle song, but I feel it reminds me more of who God is. For this post, we are going back to the beginning and looking at the very first page of Scripture. The reason is that the song we are looking at is called “Authority”[1]. The song opens with these lyrics and then the chorus of the song:
(verse 1) “Creation knows the voice
That spoke into the void
The breath that brought the dust to life
And sang the stars to form”
(chorus) “One word from You
Things change on Your authority
Your word it's true
Things change on your authority” [1]
So when we open the Bible to Genesis 1, we see those words being performed on the Earth.
“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.” - Genesis 1:1-2 MSG
As God looked down at the Earth from the heavens, He started to see what it could be. The Earth wasn’t much at that time and He was going to create a special place for some wonderful creations to call home. But He did this in a special way. We see how He created the Earth in the following verses of Genesis 1:
“God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning— Day One.” - Genesis 1:3-5 MSG
In those verses, we see a pattern that would be repeated throughout all the remaining days of creation - except for one, and we will get to that. We see God, through the verses in the first chapter of the Bible, speak the Earth into existence. As I read those verses in Genesis 1, I can just see the Earth taking shape as God spoke. Trees, grass, flowers, animals, and land popping up as God spoke the words.
This reminds me of something about God - God has all power and authority over the Earth (Matthew 28:18). God speaks and the Earth (except for humans and we will get to that) has to move at the sound of His voice. We see this when God parts the Red Sea for Israel [2]. Jesus also shows this power when He causes the disciples to catch a bunch of fish because He told them to cast their nets out again [3]. How do you think those fish appeared there?! Jesus told them to move! We also see this authority when Jesus curses a fig tree and it dies [4]. The final one that I want to bring up is when Jesus calms the storm. Jesus gets woken up by the disciples who were scared of the storm. Jesus stands up and tells the storm to “be still” and the storm stops them and there [5].
God has all authority over the Earth. But as I said, humans are the exception. Let me explain and to do that let’s go back to Genesis 1:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’” - Genesis 1:26 NLT
This verse shows a shift in the creation process. God goes from saying “let there be _______” to “let us make”. God goes from speaking things into existence to the hands-on creating of humans. God’s creation process is zoomed in on in Genesis 2:
“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.” - Genesis 2:7 NLT
God formed Adam out of dust and breathed him to life. God also made humans higher than anything else on Earth. But as I said, when God speaks we don’t fall under the same response as the rest of the Earth. When God speaks the Earth, it has to move. So why don’t humans? We are a part of the Earth. The answer is free will. God has given us a choice on to listen to Him or not. This is proven in the Garden of Eden and the existence of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God tells Adam not to mess with that tree [6]. This command gives Adam and Eve the choice to do what God says or to not listen and do what they wanted. As we know, they chose to eat from the tree and cause separation from God [7].
This is also the reason why I mentioned last week that we have a choice to be still or not. God tells us - even commands us - to be still and it’s our choice to do so or not. We also have the choice to let the authority of God reign in our life. God has the authority to make things move out of our life when He tells them to move. God has all authority in our lives but he gives us the choice of whether or not we are going to live under that authority.
What is your choice?
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[1] Artist: Elevation Worship
Song: Authority
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Brooke Ligertwood / Christopher Joel Brown / Scott Ligertwood / Steven Furtick
Authority lyrics © Essential Music Publishing
[2] Exodus 14
[3] Luke 5
[4] Mark 11:12-14 + 20-21, NLT
[5] Mark 4:35-41, NLT
[6] Genesis 2:16-17, NLT
[7] Genesis 3
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