Submitted Hearts, Words of Power!

When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

Matthew 26:1-4

This short passage has made me think about two big questions:

First, have you ever had to make a decision, knowing that the outcome is going to be something you know is going to hurt, but you do it anyway because it's going to result in something good?

Second, do we realise the power of our words in making stuff happen, both in the spiritual realm and then in our physical reality?

Here we see Jesus doing both!

In stating, "the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified", He is both embracing His fate on the cross, and activating the course of events that would lead Him there. We could read this as purely semantics, but I think much more is happening here. Jesus makes this declaration, and it says "then the chief priests assembled". I believe Matthew is wanting us to connect the dots and see the domino effect, that would ultimately lead to Christ's crucifixion.

Words are powerful things, not really in and of themselves, but more because of what they reveal. When we speak, we reveal the attitude and stance of our heart. Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, "Out of the heart, the mouth speaks." When we speak, and even more so when we declare, we are putting our hearts, our faith, our intention and desire out in to the world. Jesus, I believe, speaks His death in to existence, not just by being prophetic but by activating events through His declaration. This is the spiritual determining the physical. And just as Christ bought about events through His words, we do the same. When we speak, we activate things in the spiritual realm. It could be a prayer in private, a declaration from a platform, or a conversation between friends. All these words can activate spiritual events and outcomes. As Christ is the Son, and carries the authority of heaven, so we as adopted children also carry that authority. Our words are powerful.

And the truly powerful revelation we see here about Christ is that His declaration was part of His submission to what needed to happen to Him to bring about salvation for all people. Jesus could have said anything, but He chose to say "I'm going to be crucified". He activated events that would lead to Him being scourged, beaten, humiliated, nailed to a cross and tortured to death - He chose the cross right here with His disciples. I've often been struck by Christ's submission to His fate in the garden of Gethsemane, but this is just as powerful and extraordinary. Christ used His own authority in the spirit to bring about His death.

Today, meditate on the incredible attitude of heart that Christ maintained, an attitude of humility and submission that set aside not just His ego but His very right to live or die. Know that the Holy Spirit is forming that same heart in you. And realise the power of the words you speak, that you can play a part in activating Kingdom events around you. A submitted heart willing to lay everything down for God, and words of power and authority - that's a powerful combination, and it's available to all of us!