What is it for God to Speak?

What is it for God to Speak?

An essay by Allen Fletcher

“For everything that isn't, God has thought; for everything that is, He has spoken.”

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In Genesis 1:3 it states, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” This is where is all began, everything thing to ever be started in this very moment. God said, “Let there be light” and then there was light. He spoke, and therefore, there was (and is).

God said it. He spoke it. He spoke our world into existence. However, one must stop and ask themselves... what is it for God to speak? What did it sound like? What language did he use? When God speaks, is it like when humans speak? Do words leave his mouth to make audible sounds and inform meaning? Or when God speaks... is it something completely different?

I haven't the slightest idea what it might audibly sound like for God to speak. Surely, God can communicate in all the languages of the world with perfect fluency, for any language that exists, God himself created. Though, if God created all languages, how could a human language possibly be the voice of God? How could any human tongue possibly be the language of God when languages are something God spoke into existence? If God spoke before language was created, then how did God speak? I pose this question not to ask, “how was he capable?”, but “how was it?”, and “What is that like?”.

Even as I pose this question, I face quite the conundrum because I am forced to ask it in English; a human language that is severely limited compared to that of God’s. Irony aside, I will do my best to consider and analyze, with words created by the creator himself, what it might be for the God of the universe to speak.

God speaking was arguably the first action to ever take place, and one of the first verbs to be incited. Gensis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth”, which might imply that the first verb to be carried out was the act of creating, not speaking. However, one must ask, how did He create the heavens and earth? Well, the second thing he created was light, and God did so by speaking “let there be light” and thus, light was created. The act of speaking set forth the act of creating... or perhaps is the act of creating. For all of creation, God speaks and thus, he creates. This is not to be overlooked or disregarded. It is important to analyze how speech functions for God, and what it’s purpose might be. For it is apparent that God does not speak as man does, yet He speaks to make thought become real and true. He speaks to actualize, to form reality. God spoke, and therefore, there was, (and is). So how is it, that the speech of God can simply... create? And what does this say about God? And the speech of God?

God is clearly capable to speak plainly and simply and can communicate through the languages of man, as exemplified many times throughout history. Obviously, as the creator of language, He should inherently be the master of them as well. However, if God is to speak to man with the language of man, then God is drastically simplifying his power of speech. This is because God speaks not only with verbal sounds but speaks a language with qualities incommunicable to man. God speaks the language of omnipotence (perhaps, for fun, we could name the God’s language, “Omnipotensie”?). God’s language of omnipotence is something man is not capable of comprehending, for it is a language that surpasses the abilities to inform or communicate and is a perfect and practical example of an incommunicable attribute of God.

There are six incommunicable attributes of God which belong to God Himself and that no other being can possess: Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotence, Immutability, Self- existence and Eternality. For God to speak, and to create with speech alone is an example of his omnipotence – all powerful, capable of anything. Thus, if God’s speech creates, and no other being possesses this quality, this means that speaking for God functions differently than it does for humans. To think of it this way, "God speaking" functions more similarly to when we write words in a book and our words become what is the story, just as God’s words become what is (in regard to reality). If I write, “there is a tall tree”, suddenly there is a tall tree in my story. The story of man is just as such, penned by God the author. Once a story is spoken (or written), a story becomes. In order to become, the words cannot be left inside one’s head, they must actualize on the page. This is how speech functions for God and it is profound because God indeed decided to speak. He saw everything in his "head", and then decided he wanted it to play out. He wanted it to be real. He wanted the book to be written, and thus, He spoke.

However, when man speaks or writes, in reality, words remain words. Of course, words are powerful! Words inspire and incite action, they inform, communicate and lead to manual creation... but the words of God, not only do all these things, but they also create; they make things real and true. You see, God doesn't need to gather materials, or put in physical labor to create. God simply creates from nothing. The only thing that needs to happen is ideation, and realization. The idea needs to move from theory to reality; thus, by speaking, God creates. Speaking is Gods immediate means of actualizing.

So, if God doesn’t merely inform or communicate with language, but actualizes, then what is actualization? Simply put, actualization is moving thoughts and theory into reality, “to make real of”. God’s thoughts, ideas, vision, all of what currently is, became a reality when he spoke aloud. “Speaking aloud” was the first conception of thought taking up real physical space in our physical universe.

Not only does God’s speech make things real and true, but he must speak in order for things to become real and true. He cannot just think thoughts for them to be real, but he must actualize them so they may enter into existence, for actualization is the purpose of speech for God. To understand this in a more human context, God must write his words into the story for there to be a story at all. If a person has an idea for a book, the idea does not exist in reality until it is physically written or spoken aloud. Once written in the story, the words become real and true within the story’s context.

For God didn't just imagine there could be light... he said, "let there be light". God could have theorized the entire existence of the word and seen every detail of what would happen in his mind. God could have imagined and envisioned the entire world we know and had decided against it, but he didn’t, and instead he created it. How important it is that He spoke! For it created all that we know, and thus exemplifies just how important it is anytime God speaks, because when He speaks, He makes his thoughts true rather than keeping them as mere possibilities in the mind of a God where anything imaginable or unimaginable is possible. How incredible, what a miracle it is to exist, for God could have created anything, and he created us; he created you.

God could see his creation in thought and ideation. Before all things He could know exactly how it would all play out. He could experience the existence of humanity and every human life, including the nitty-gritty details of everything, and he could experience it all in his mind, with perfect clarity and vision. He could know it all before creating it, and yet, He still created it. God decided to actualize our world. He decided to make it become. He decided to speak aloud.

On a similar tangent, this lens also demonstrates that God’s "speech" (synonymous with His Word) is the most direct line from God’s creation to who he is. So, if Gods creation reflects who God is, then His words even more so! For it was his words that created, his words precede creation. God speaking is less about making vocal sounds, and all about actualization, transforming thought and theory into reality. The language of God forms, it makes real, and it makes true whatever He speaks.

Needless to say, these observations do not serve many practical uses, but I do find them incredibly fascinating. However, understanding how the language of God functions does give us insight as to what it looks like when God speaks to us. Christians all around the world confess that they have heard the Lord’s voice, professing that God has spoken to them some sort of way... Although this rarely ever means that the person has heard the audible voice of God. Typically, this means something has happened to a person, something that carried a personal message of meaning toward an individual receiving the message. Maybe it was a miraculous event, an extraordinary coincidence, a thought placed in the head, or any such thing. A secular thinker might argue that if you did not hear God speak to you explicitly through words, then he did not. However, the native language of God is to actualize, it is not vocal. Thus, when God speaks to you in your life, it rarely comes in the form of audible speech, while rather, it comes in the form of things happening, and sometimes when specific things happen, God’s handwriting becomes very apparent. God’s speech is not only of words, but of actualization... and this is exactly how the Lord speaks to us.

All this to say, it is a joy to marvel at the speech of God. To contemplate what it really means for God to speak. When God speaks, he moves His will directly from thought to actualization. When he first spoke, He decided that the world needed to become, and not merely be left as theory. His Word (synonymous with his creation) come straight from the source of goodness. Just think of the power of God’s Word when spoken by humans, there is robust power in this! Think of the transformation, hope, peace, and salvation that God's words can bring? So, just imagine experiencing the spoken word of God directly from the source, God himself? Think about Jesus, fully God and fully man, humbling himself to walk amongst men, and when Jesus spoke, he healed, cast out demons, and forgave sins. This was our humble God, Jesus Christ, who suffered, and hungered, and did daily laboring’s here on Earth, confined to an earthly body, so imagine words from our heavenly father, not humbled to a body or this world, yet outside of it. What would it be like to hear His words? Would they be heard? Or would they be "experienced"?

I am still fascinated to wonder what language God might have spoken... What would be the language of heaven? (Omnipotensie?) However, the more I think of it... I think “speaking” for us is a very simplified reflection of what it is for God to speak. For us, speech expresses thought, and can allow our thoughts to materialize through preceding action and communication, although, our thoughts do not simply "become" once spoken. Our speech is merely a reflection of the power God's words hold. With this perspective, the idea of categorizing God's language into a verbal dialect seems small... God's language is that of realization and of truth, not auditive sound. God is Word is the is of everything. All of the things we could ever think, and all of the things we could never imagine. Incredible. God has limitless capabilities and to have decided to create what currently is... and this should mean everything. For everything that isn't, God has thought; for everything that is, He has spoken.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", John 1:1