God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Genesis 1:28

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Mark 11:12-14,20-25

I’ve had a speculative theory recently, not contradicted by any scripture that I can think of, but maybe impossible to confirm as well. Here’s the theory: God gave mankind dominion over the earth; when Jesus cursed the fig tree, or when he talks about commanding mountains to throw themselves into the sea, he obviously has the divine authority to do so…but could he also do so merely as a perfect man? Is Jesus’ statement about faith to move mountains not just about the power of faith but about the authority we have? Is that the level of spiritual power that we have been bestowed with? Think about this for a moment – it could explain a lot. It would explain why people who believe in “affirmations” seem to have some success with them, or why everyone’s seen or been that person with a bad attitude cursing everything around them only to have everything continue to get worse. Or think about how many people have steered entire nations or world history with just the power of their words – Churchill and Hitler…Lincoln…so many of our founding fathers…was the power of what those people said just from their arguments, or did they have spiritual force behind their words for better or worse?

We’re Christians. We believe in the spiritual – God, angels, demons….and yes, spiritual power behind the things we say. How much spiritual power did God give mankind way back in Genesis?

But here’s the thing – it doesn’t even matter. We’re Christians: above and beyond whatever amount of spiritual power you believe God granted us in the beginning, Jesus promised in his ascension that all authority on heaven and earth has been granted to him and that he is with us to the end of the age. That’s ALL authority, and it’s on our behalf.

Both of our previous two presidents have joked about using the administrative state to punish the other side. And each time the other side has been rightly outraged. Someone with that level of authority should not speak casually about abusing it. Let me reiterate a previous statement. ALL authority has been granted to Christ, and he will grant whatever we ask in proper faith. This is way higher than the level of authority the president has. Do you realize you speak with this authority? Do you realize the power behind your words? Bless the things you should bless in your life. Be very careful with the things you curse (although there is a biblical place for cursing, but that’s for another time). Do not treat lightly your words or make jokes you should not. Your words carry the power of the Holy Spirit – or at least they should. Treat them as such.