I don’t remember exactly who told me that I was good at break dancing when I was a toddler. All I know is that someone told me, and I believed them. On the strength of this belief, I went ahead to volunteer to do a special performance during an event as an innocent four-year-old. At that point, nobody could have convinced me that I was making myself a laughingstock. It was after a few years that someone re-enacted my moves and I realized how ridiculous I must have appeared. This was all because someone told me something which I believed.
The words we open ourselves to go a long way to influence our thoughts, our actions and their associated consequences. That was why God’s question to Adam was: “Who told you that you were naked?” He knew the instructions that He gave to Adam as Eden’s custodian. He knew that if they had not listened to words from another source, there was no way they would have derailed. They would have stayed within the limits God set for them and ended up where God wanted them to end up. Someone told them something and they listened and acted on those words.
God spoke back then, God is speaking today, and God will still speak tomorrow. We may not hear audible words in our physical ears, but one sure source through which God speaks to us is the Bible.
Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. 2 Timothy 3:16 [CEV]
In just the same way, words that are directly opposing God’s Word find their way into our space through multiple sources, in the form of news, doctor’s report, conversation with friends, personal challenging situations, bank balance, etc.
When we consider the circumstances around us practically, these multiple sources are not really lying, they are presenting the present facts that we can touch and feel. However, God’s Word that He has told us is the ETERNAL TRUTH, which no fact can diminish. They stand sure, irrespective of the veracity of the realities.
John 11:14 says; Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead”. Everyone around there could plainly see that Lazarus was dead, they could point to his tomb. They could count the number of days that he had laid in there. Nevertheless, this practical reality could not stop Jesus from manifesting what was written in the Word, that He was The Resurrection and The Life.
Jesus told Mary …“Your brother will rise again.” These were power-backed words. The tomb spoke other words. Loud words that contended with the Words of Jesus. This contention will always be there. Our actions and reactions flow from the words that we end up believing in the face of this unending contention of words.
In the words of the song, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. My prayer is that we will receive the grace to believe God’s word in spite of whatever comes our way and be patient enough to wait for Him to settle it. In this way, our answer to the question, “Who told you?” will always be: GOD SAID IT.