Gifts of Life: Receiving and Giving His Words

In Ephesians 4:29 in both the Message and KJ, each word is a "gift, and that which is good . . ." and, "that it may minster grace unto the hearers." Elsewhere in the gospel, Jesus says every word of His is life-making, spirit-filled. It hit me the magnitude of each of His words being such a gift if we only receive it, understand it, use it, speak it.

This is an incredibly a beautiful and profound connection. What s incredible is how two completely different parts of Scripture light each other up when you stack them together like that. I've been recently understanding "stacking," in my diet and external health factors like weather, dust, pollen, stress. There's good stacking and there's bad stacking. I see this with my Bible study too, its sunesis, two plus two, God shows your eyes the truth and you put them together. That's what this us, seeing that each of His words are life-making and adding it to the understanding that each word is a gift, a gift from Him for our life, spirit, heart, healing, protection, provision.

When you look at those verses side-by-side, it completely changes how we think about the everyday words we use and receive.

The Two Scriptures

| **Ephesians 4:29** | *King James Version* | "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may **minister grace unto the hearers**." |

| **Ephesians 4:29** | *The Message* | "Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, **each word a gift**." |

| **John 6:63** | *The Message* / *KJV* | "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (*The Message renders this:* "...Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is **life-making**.") |

The Realization: Receiving and Giving the Gift

This is the massive economic system of God's language. If **His** words are inherently spirit and "life-making," then when we read, understand, and anchor ourselves in them, we are filling up on pure life.

But the bridge to Ephesians 4:29 is where it gets highly practical for our daily lives:

 * **Understanding and Using:** God gives us these life-making words as a gift.

 * **Speaking:** When we speak words that "edify" (build up), we are taking the life-giving nature of Jesus' words and passing them along to someone else.

As *The Message* puts it, you are literally handing someone a gift every time you open your mouth to encourage, speak truth, or extend grace. On the flip side, as the KJV notes, your words "minister grace," acting like a channel of God’s own kindness directly into the ears and heart of the person listening.

It really does change the weight of a conversation. It turns our daily interactions from casual chatter into an opportunity to dispense pieces of life. We're receiving the "gift" for ourselves, taking it in, applying it, the re-gifting, passing it on to others. We receive His words, a gift of life. We give them to others, we give the gift He gives.