The Power of “Just a Word” from God

I was reading this week about how Jesus delivered people from demonic influence and healed the sick. In Matthew 8:16, it says:

“When evening came, they brought to Him many who were under the power of demons, and He drove out the spirits with a word and restored to health all who were sick.”

–Matthew 8:16

What was the word?

Matthew doesn’t record what exactly that word was or what that meant. But Jesus healed everyone in personal and intimate ways. Like spitting into dirt to make mud and putting it over the blind man’s eyes so he could see. Like telling the crippled man to take up his mat and walk after asking if he wants to be healed. Jesus saved a woman who was about to be stoned to death by a mod of angry Pharisees by just writing something in the sand when he had the crowds attention.

So it makes me wonder. What was the word and what kind of word was it? Was it a word of knowledge? Was it quoting Scripture? Was it a command like go or flee or be healed or be free? All that brings healing and deliverance.

Many the point wasn’t what the word was but Who the Word was. Who was speaking with such authority.

After all, with just a Word, God created all things. And in the beginning, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

–John 1:1-3

The safety of God’s Word

This also makes me think of times in my life where I was in duress or crisis. Where trauma and oppression made the Word of God blur in my sight and my mind. And in those times, I couldn’t read a bunch of words on a page or a big long book. I couldn’t even read a whole psalm.

But I could hang on to just a word from God. It might have been a personal promise. It might have been one little verse. Like an anchor holding me from being thrown under the torrent of the storm.

One such verse is this. I could actually see it like writing on the wall above my bed. Not written in paint or sharpie. But written there in my mind’s eye. Written there in the spirit realm. It was a banner over me and it kept me alive and kept me comforted. With this one word, the Lord began to show me how He really thinks of me and what His plans were for me. I meditated on this one word over and over for years. And still to this day, when the waves get high and the storms crash in, I can still often see it written on the wall above my bed just like when I first saw… many many moves, bedrooms, and storms ago.

May this word anchor you today too.

Meditate on this and you will find your identity and security and safety in the Lord:

“He led me to a place of safety;

he rescued me because he delights in me.”

–Psalm 18:19

Selah.