I awoke in the middle of the night and heard in my spirit, the word “echo.” I wondered why the Lord awakened me and had me focus on that single word. When I got up this morning, He directed me to something I wrote in my book, The Sound of Reformation, which I posted below. 

Every sound our voice makes will create a spiritual echo – a testimony. Unfortunately, not all the testimonies we share are positive. Some of these echoes can actually come from a kingdom in opposition to God. This happens when our heart and our voice are not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We are in a moment of cultural transition. This transition is deeper than the talking news heads and social commenters realize. It is important for each of us to check the content and quality of our words because those words are releasing a testimony to our friends, family and the larger culture. 

God has a plan to make the Earth an echo chamber – a repeating testimony of His goodness. The Church is the mouthpiece for that testimony. In this time of cultural transition, it is important that the sound of our collective voice creates the right sound. The world is listening.

The following excerpt is from chapter four, The Sound of Reformation:

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“These new, Spirit-indwelled disciples came to the Day of Pentecost in obedience to the marching orders Jesus had given them. On that day, a new sound was released: “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven…” (Acts 2:2).

The word translated as sound here is ēchos: it means sound or noise (and is also the root of the English word “echo”). The same word was used in Luke 4 to describe the sound of a testimony created by the ministry of Jesus when a demon-possessed man was set free. It was also used in Hebrews 12 to describe the sound of a ram’s horn trumpeting the Israelites to attention to hear the word of the Lord. 

That root word ēchos also forms the verb, ēchéō, which means to sound or roar and is found in I Corinthians 13:1 where Paul is defining love to the Corinthians: “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

The Church has been called to make the sound of love that will echo through each sphere of cultural influence.”