Exercising Authority: Speech

God made humanity in His image, and that includes giving them authority. He also gave them dominion on the earth. However, knowing why and where people have authority is of little benefit without knowing how to exercise it. Beginning in Genesis, and continuing throughout Scripture, humans consistently exercise their authority by speaking.

From the very beginning, speech was the explicit exercise of divine authority. God made the man and woman in His image in Genesis 1:27. Up to this point, most of what the Bible said about God was that He said. Clearly, a being created in God’s image would also say. God underscored the connection between man’s authority and his speech by having Adam name all the creatures in Genesis 2:19-20.

The serpent also recognized speech as evidence of authority. When tempting the woman, the serpent asked about what God had said. He did not challenge Adam’s strength, intelligence, or position. Nor did he attack God’s existence or power, but the serpent attacked what God said, because that represented God’s authority. In fact, Satan tried the same tactic with Jesus in Matthew 4:6, trying to twist what God said in Psalm 91 to advance his own agenda.

Speaking is so foundational to humans exercising their God-given authority that God has never stopped it. There were two speechless people mentioned in Scripture, and God restored both of their abilities to speak. Zacharias was struck mute by the angel Gabriel because of his unbelief, but God restored his speech after he obeyed by naming his son John (Luke 1:20, 64). Furthermore, Jesus cast a demon out of a boy whose speech the demon had attacked (Mark 9:17-27). Jesus called it a “deaf and dumb spirit,” but the demon “cried out,” indicating that it was not mute, but rather caused the boy not to be able to exercise his God-given authority through his speech.

Interestingly, Genesis 11:1 says, “The whole earth had one language and one speech.” In the original Hebrew, it is literally one “tongue” and one “lip.” Speech is the ability to use your mouth and voice to say things, and language is a system of sounds and symbols that conveys meaningful information. The whole earth had the ability to say things, and used the same sounds and symbols to convey meaningful information. When God had to stop their wicked agenda, He did not rescind their ability to speak, He only confused their language. Why? If God took away their ability to speak, they would no longer bear the fullness of His image that He intended, and they would no longer be able to exercise their authority on the earth.

God chose to preserve their speech because it is central to His plan for mankind to bear His image and exercise their authority on the earth. When speaking, people transmit meaningful information using words. These words do more than just carry information; they function as seeds with the power to produce desired outcomes according to God’s design. Because words function as seeds, understanding how to speak them according to God’s will is key to exercising your authority most effectively.