Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners. I'm Sharon Hardy Knotts, welcoming you to the Sound of Faith because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message is part of an in-depth study entitled The Spoken Word Series, which includes teaching on the creative word of God because everything that's created, visible and invisible, God spoke into being.

Also, the living word, the revelation of the two-mouths sword of the spirit, which is the spoken word of God when we speak what God has quickened to our spirits. This teaching is the culmination of my own personal journey from a place of deep despair to an authorized and dynamized deputy of the spoken word of God.

R. G. Hardy: In 1967, a Swiss doctor, Hans Jenny, wrote a book about cymatics. He got onto this and he did some experiments. He actually built his own apparatus called a tonoscope. He constructed it in such a way so that sand would respond to the human voice. Somehow or another he had an arm on it, and you can see this online, too. You can see actual old footage of him doing this.

He had this apparatus made in such a way that when they would speak certain things, again, the arm would cause vibrations and that would cause the sand to move. But he tried it speaking in different languages and he decided to have someone speak in ancient Hebrew. When they spoke in ancient Hebrew, this tonoscope began to draw in the sand the vowel sounds of the words that were being spoken.

Now, I don't know what's more marvelous, the fact that this thing wrote the vowel sounds that could write anything for that matter, but that it wrote the vowel sounds knowing that in ancient written Hebrew, they don't write the vowel sounds. But yet, this tonoscope began creating in the sand the vowel sounds. He tested many languages and it only occurred when they spoke the ancient Hebrew.

So this is significant because it's marvelous that he was able to come up with an apparatus to let you see the activity of sound waves. But it shows you that Hebrew is a living language. Now we can understand that when God spoke why it occurred and why it happened. It is a living language. Therefore, when God spoke his word and when he added his name in, we find out that instantaneously it came into being.

Now as marvelous as the Hebrew language was, we all know that after Israel came into being as a nation, when God brought them out of Egypt and gave him his laws and gave him his word, we know that eventually they backslid. We know they went into rebellion and we know that they had to go into captivity.

Jesus even prophesied before he left because his disciples were saying, "Isn't this temple marvelous?" It was one of the wonders of the world. "Look at this temple how beautiful it is." Jesus said, "Time's coming when there won't be one stone left upon another." And they looked at him. That was inconceivable that that huge gorgeous temple would not have one stone left upon another. What is he talking about?

Well, it not only came to pass, it came to pass real quick. It came to pass in 70, the year 70. So we're talking about approximately 40 years after Jesus died and was resurrected and went to heaven. And the Roman soldiers came in and the general Titus came in and they destroyed the temple. Why would they do that? Why not preserve it? I mean, it's beautiful. Why do you have to come in and tear it down?

I'll tell you why. There was solid gold on the walls inside and they wanted that gold. That's why there's not one stone that they left upon another. They set it on fire so that the gold would melt off the walls so they could have the gold, but it fulfilled what Jesus said. And so they burned up all the records that were in there because they kept the genealogical records. It would be like their town hall or something.

So all of them were burnt up and that's a whole another message. You could get into some good stuff about that. But here's the thing: the people were scattered all over the world. Jews ended up in faraway places as China and down in South Africa. They were scattered and what happens when you take a people and scatter them literally from one end of the earth to the other, one nation after another?

They stop speaking the language from home and they start speaking the language where they are. We should require that people that want to come and live in America should learn how to speak English. Why should I have to learn how to speak Spanish? If I want to learn how, fine, but eventually you should have to learn how to speak English.

So you assimilate into the place where you migrate and you begin to speak their language. It did not take very long before the Hebrew language was defunct. It no longer was a language. And we know what happened in modern history. We know the Second World War. We know that Hitler rose up, tried to annihilate the Jews.

Because of the terrible things that he did, killing 6 million in the death camps of Europe, the nations came together and said, "It's time for them to have their own country." And they came up with the pact that allowed Israel to become a nation. In May 1948, Israel became a nation. But God is so wise and he's so perfect in his foreknowledge.

He knew that they were going to become a nation. In fact, he prophesied through Isaiah and said, "Who ever heard of such a thing? A nation was born in a day." How can a nation be born in a day? Well, I'll tell you how. It's when the League of Nations got together and voted and passed the vote and said, "Today we decree that Israel should have Palestine as their own nation."

And then their great man that they looked up to, he stood up and declared and said on May the 14th, 1948, "Today we declare the state of Israel." And from that point on to this very time, the Jews began to flood back to Israel because God said, "I'll call you from the four corners of the earth. I'll tell the north, give them up, give them up, they're mine."

He said, "I'll call down to Sheba and Dan and I'll say, 'Give them up, give them up, they're mine.'" And if you know anything about history, you know that there have been airplanes full of Jews from Ethiopia, Black Jews that look just like most of you sitting here today, but they're Jews and they're going back to Israel.

Now here's the thing: if you're going to be a nation and everybody's going to come back, don't you think it would be good if you all spoke the same language? You're going to have a problem if they come back speaking wherever they went, if they're going to be speaking Chinese and they're going to be speaking Telugu and Hindi depending on where they went, and Polish and Russian and German and all of this.

But God is so perfect in his foreknowledge because back in the late 1800s, there was a Lithuanian Jew. I like to say that because my grandmother was born in Lithuania. There was a Lithuanian Jew, his name was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. It means Eliezer is actually the same word as Lazarus, Ben meaning son, and Yehuda of Judah. So Lazarus, the son of Judah, was his name.

He loved the Hebrew language. Now at that time the only ones who would have spoken it would have been whatever rabbis were still keeping reading the word in the Hebrew. But nobody else spoke it. But when he was a young man, at first he wanted to study to be a rabbi, which he did. But then he decided he wanted to study medicine, so he went to Paris to study medicine.

But at that time, God was just beginning the stirrings of the Jewish people wanting to go to Palestine. And a trickle was going there. And he decided to go, too. And when he got there, it had to be the Holy Spirit put the tug on his heart that these people all need to speak the same language.

Now we're talking about now, I'm talking about the late 1800s. When he went there it was 1881. We got a long way to go before they become a nation. But God was already setting it up. So he went there, he was married, and he told his wife, "In this house, we're only going to speak Hebrew." He was Polish, she was Russian. He said, "That's the only thing," and they had a son.

He said, "You are only to speak to him in Hebrew. He is going to be the first child in the land of Palestine," because it wasn't Israel yet, "that is going to be from birth speaking only Hebrew." He even had it so that they only spoke to the dog in Hebrew. All the dog's commands, sit, stand, eat, whatever, were all in Hebrew.

He had to coin words because even by then, there were words that weren't in the Hebrew language, like ice cream and bicycle, things like that that wasn't in the ancient biblical Hebrew. He had to invent words. And so this is what he did. One day he came home and his wife was singing a lullaby to the baby in Russian and he jumped all over her. He said, "I told you we only speak Hebrew in this house."

So that was his mission. It may seem like it's severe, but you know what? He kept working on it and working on it and he finally he printed a dictionary of Hebrew words and even with the new ones that he coined for things that were new.

To make a long story short, on November the 29th, 1922, the British authorities who at that time were ruling over the land of Palestine, they recognized and said from here on, Hebrew is the official language of Palestine and every Jewish person in this land. And three weeks later, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda died.

So when Israel became a nation in 1948, they were already speaking Hebrew. And let me tell you what the scripture says. In Zephaniah 3:9, it says, "For then I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." In other words, everybody serving the Lord and speaking the same language.

Jeremiah 31:23, "As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity." Is God awesome or what? That he restored the Hebrew language. It's in its pure form. And today if you go to Israel on a holy land tour, you will find out that they speak Hebrew.

Many also speak English, which is a leftover from when the British ruled there and because a lot of places speak English, because that's sort of the universal language. You'll see signs in both, Hebrew and in English. But Hebrew is the language that they speak because it is the language of creation. Everything that God created, he created speaking this word. The very sound of God's voice caused things to be created.

Now, I'm running out of time so I'm going to skip ahead here. But I want you to see that God not only brought everything into existence by speaking his word, but I think we already established that everything remains where it's supposed to be because of his word. You know there are many that have said they have heard the voice of God and it sounded like thunder. How many know that it says that in the scriptures?

David said God's voice sounded like thunder upon many waters, powerful and full of majesty. We know that one time when Jesus was ministering, you find this in the book of John, that they heard thunder. And the people did not know what was said because it sounded like thunder to them. But though it sounds like thunder, it's not unintelligent because Jesus heard what he said.

Jesus heard what his father said because Jesus had made the thing, "It's now time for me to be glorified." And God spoke out of heaven and said, "I have glorified you, myself and you, and I will yet glorify myself in you." Jesus heard it even though everybody standing around thought it sounded like thunder.

We read in the book of Revelation that John is telling us all this things that he's seeing and hearing and he heard seven thunders thunder. And he's getting his quill out and he's ready to write it all down because he understood the thunder. And what happened? The angel said, "No, you're not allowed to write this down."

We don't know what he said. For whatever reason God did not want to reveal it to us, but John understood it clearly. So all creation understands and hears God's voice. And we find out that all the angels understand and hear God's voice.

If you read the book of Job, how many know the book of Job is also like reading a book of creation? Because God, when he answers him, begins to tell him by telling him, "Job, you want to know who I am? You want to know who I am, Job? Well, I'll tell you who I am. Where were you, Job, when I created?" And God begins to give him the whole creation.

So it's really great to read Job because you'll find things in Job that are very interesting. But here's one I want to zoom in on. He says, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I laid the cornerstone?" Here's what I love: "Where were you when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy? Where were you when I shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as a woman who is giving birth?"

So he says, "Where were you when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy?" Now let me tell you right off the bat, the sons of God is not talking about saints, it's not talking about Christians. It's talking about angels. In the book of Job, sons of God are angels. And he said, "Where were you when the sons of God shouted for joy and the morning stars sang together?"

I don't know how true it is. I've tried to research it, but you will always have skeptics and scorners to put a doubt in your mind. But my understanding is that when you go into deep space, especially on the other side of the moon, when the astronauts in Apollo 10 went on the other side of the moon and they were in three different spaceships, they were all communicating to each other, but they were in three different little things going around orbiting, they heard music.

They heard music and my understanding is it sounded to them like church music. Now from what I understand, if you go and read the transcripts, which you can because it's public knowledge, you can go and read this transcripts and you can even hear some of the tapes. It's obvious that they have spliced things together and it's obvious that they've taken things out.

Because the astronauts are talking to one another and saying, "Did you hear that? Did you hear that music? Can you hear that?" And the other was saying, "Yeah, can you hear that?" And supposedly in the original transcripts, they were saying that it sounded like church music. But if you go read the transcripts now, it says, "It sounds like outer spacey music."

Outer spacey music? And there's other things that people that knew these astronauts said, "These men did not talk like this. They did not speak that way. This doesn't even sound like anything remotely close to what they would say to describe what they were hearing." And then there's a place where you can hear an audible place where the voice drops down and another voice comes in and they go back so it's obviously been spliced.

So why they wanted to cover that up, I don't know, because the devil does not like anything that seems to prove anything about God. But the Bible is what I go by. I don't understand all that scientific stuff. I don't know if it's true or not, but I can tell you what the Bible says. The Bible says when God created the heavens and the earth that the morning stars sang!

And the sons of God shouted for joy! And the sons of God obey the voice of God's command because the Bible tells us in Psalm 103:20, "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, and hearken unto the voice of his word." How many know that God has got myriads of angels and they're not wimpy?

They're not little fat cherubs with curly hair, and they're not beautiful ladies with long flowing hair. They are awesome warriors. They are mighty. They excel in strength. And it says they hearken to the voice of God's command. He commands them. What does he command them? He commands them, "Go down there and take care of Sharon. The devil's getting ready to attack her. But I want you to go down there, I want you to bear her up in your hands that she won't fall and dash her foot against the stone."

"I want you to go down there and intervene because that big tractor trailer's getting ready to run in the back of one of my little ones. But I want you to go down there and get behind that trailer and I want you to push it and let my child just go on by." And we don't even know the many times when angels had intervened on our behalf.

But you got to get your theology straight. We don't command them. They hearken to the voice of God's command. The Bible says he sends them forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. Now we can pray, "Oh God, send your angels. You know somebody's in trouble." Or you send your kids out the door to school in the morning, and to these days you need to pray. "Lord, put your angels around my kids. Put your angels around my grandchildren. If there is shooting and violence and evil that goes on, that it will not come nigh them."

"They'll not be afraid of the arrow that flies by day." Today we'd say by the bullets that fly by day. You can pray. The point is angels obey the voice of God's command. We found out the heavens obey, the stars, the moon, the water on the earth, all of these things. The laws of gravity, all these things obey. The angels obey. The animals obey.

How do you think that Noah got those animals in the ark? Do you think he went and got ropes and pulled them in? God spoke and they just said, "Let's go get in that ark." God spoke. He created them, so they listen to him! And for all of those skeptics that have some kind of natural answer, it's not that hard. We find out that before the flood, the animals were tame.

You read after Noah and his sons came out of the ark, God said, "The dread, the fear of man will now be upon them. Now they'll be afraid of you." And when you're afraid of someone, you attack. But prior to that, they did not have the fear of man on them. Do you think Adam and Eve were running around the garden hiding from the lions and the tigers and the bears? No.

They did not have the fear of man on them. After the flood and they came out of the ark, he said, "Now the fear of man will be upon the animals and now I give you permission to eat them." Man didn't eat meat before. Well, of course that's going to make the animals... if they know you're trying to make dinner out of them, they're not going to like you. They're going to say, "I'm going to eat you before you eat me." That's how it works.

But the point being that animals obey the voice of God. Even the rocks, even the rocks obey the voice of God. How many know that if the earth begins to vibrate and shake enough, that the vibrations will crack a rock? And Jesus said when they reprimanded him because the little children were saying, "Hosanna, Hosanna," and they said, "You should shut them little kids up. Do you hear what they're saying?" He said, "If they be quiet then the rocks will cry out."

Everything in creation obeys the voice of the creator because God is the one that created them. We know that when Daniel was in the lions' den, the lions did not eat Daniel. Why? Because they weren't hungry? No. Because God said, "Leave him alone, he's my guy." As soon as they pulled Daniel out and put the other people in, the lions ate them immediately.

How do you think that fish that swallowed Jonah spit him out? Why didn't he just, you know, chew him up real good and have a... no, he just swallowed him whole. And why did he spit him out on the third day? Because God says, "That's enough, now spit him out. He's my guy, you got to spit him out."

I'm making a point: everything obeys the voice of God, everything. How did that mule that Balaam was riding and Balaam was beating the poor thing to death? But the mule saw the angel of God with a flaming sword because all creation, everything, obeys the creator.

There's only one creation that gives him resistance, that gives him backtalk. There's only one. The fish in the sea obey him. Remember when they fished all night, caught no fish? And all Jesus did was say, "Put it on the other side." And they caught 153 fish. Why? Because Jesus gave the signal and all the fish went in. When he had to pay the taxes and they had no money, Jesus said, "Peter, go and the first fish you catch, there'll be a coin in his mouth, go pay our taxes." How did that happen? Because they obey the voice of the creator.

But man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, we're the ones that gives him all the trouble, all the backtalk. If we would get in harmony with God, get in alignment with God, and use this gift of speech that we're the only ones who have it and use it the way God designed it to be used, we would be backing the devil up in all kinds of corners. And we're going to find out how to do that next week.

And I'm going to close with this and I'll be done. This morning I was reading my devotionals, I have like several that I read every morning, and I thought, "Oh, wow, this is really cool, God." This was what it said: "My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. People are always trying to diminish me, to cut me down to a God who is understandable and predictable. When these attempts fail, they often respond by judging me or denying my very existence."

"But you are immune to such struggles. Leaning on your own understanding is your very strong inclination and this mindset dies hard. But the truth is, you can no more understand the infinite wisdom of my ways than you can create something from nothing. I made people in my image and I have gifted some of them with remarkable creativity. However, every human creation is formed from the substances that I made when I spoke the world into existence."

"Whenever you find yourself struggling to accept my ways with you or my ways with the world, stop and remember who I am. Bow your mind and your heart before my infinite intelligence and worship me, the mysterious, majestic, holy one who suffered and died for you."

Amen. So next week when you return, we're going to go into part two of this message, which is the living word. And now that you understand how powerful the creative word is, you will find out that you have the ability to speak the living word and you will get great results. And this is a revelation the devil doesn't want you to get because if you get it and put it into operation, it will revolutionize your entire spiritual walk.

All right, let's stand on our feet. We're going to be dismissed in prayer this morning. Father, we thank you for your word that is alive and powerful. That is mighty and able, able, Lord, to look into the very recesses of our heart where we have doubts and unbelief and skepticism and cynicism all lurking in there. But we ask you to take the spotlight of your Holy Spirit and shine it in every corner and bring the light, every doubt and every lie, bring it out in the open because, Lord, you're not afraid for us to ask our questions.

You want us to get it all out in the open because you want to show us what a mighty God you are. I pray, Lord, make this word real to us, Lord. Let this word be alive in our spirit. Give us understanding even when we're meditating. Some of these people are going to meditate on this and I believe, Lord, you're going to give them even truth that wasn't even brought out here today. I pray in Jesus' name. Lord, send your angels to watch over them, guard, keep, and protect them and bring us safely into your house tonight in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I really hope you're being blessed and spiritually enlightened by this teaching, The Spoken Word Series. This revelation was forged in my spirit during a time of prolonged suffering in my body, which triggered emotional and mental anguish. I had always had a strong spirit of faith, but after being homebound and bedridden, I despaired. And in my distress, I begged God for a word to hold on to. And he gave me John 15:7, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done."

Honestly, I was disappointed. I wanted something more dramatic. But then I began to get this revelation of God's spoken word. And gradually as I put it into practice, I overcame the attacks of the adversary. The foundation is the creative word. The word of God literally spoke everything into existence. He framed the worlds and he upholds all things by the word of his power.

The revelation is the authority that Jesus, the word of God made flesh and dwelt amongst us, had himself and gave to us to speak the word as a sharp two-edged sword against the enemy. The literal Greek says two-mouths sword. One mouth is God's and the second is mine or yours when we speak forth the word that God quickens to our spirits. This creates the one weapon against which Satan has no defense. Rhema is not a magical formula. It is the active living word of God, a word from the word that comes out of our mouth.

The application is the illumination of Jesus' own ministry by which he demonstrated faith in his own spoken word and its unlimited authority over time and distance when he sent his word and he healed them. Friends, I urge you to order The Spoken Word Series. The complete set is a three-CD set, offer SK136. That's SK136. Please send a minimum love gift of $15 to the Sound of Faith, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or order online at soundoffaith.org where you may also order on MP3. But to order The Spoken Word Series by mail, send your minimum love gift of $15 to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203, request offer SK136. Until next time, this is Sharon Hardy Knotts saying, "Maranatha."