Declaratives is the speech act that could be categorized with another form of speech act. For example, saying “I commit to go and meet with you on the fifth” can be categorized under both commissives and declaratives, because not only is the person making a commitment, but he is making it a declaration by stating that it is actually a commitment.
Other examples of declaratives include, “I pronounce you man and wife;” and “The jury is adjourned.” A good way to figure out whether something is a declarative or not is to try and see whether you can put “hereby” at the start of the statement.
We can find plenty of declaratives in the Bible. In fact, some of you may already be declaring them over your life and the lives of the people around you. One of my absolute favorites is this powerful declaration of identity:
But God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are God’s special treasure. You are all these things so that you can give him praise. God brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people. But now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy. But now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
Experience the Power of Prophecy as a gift to open your mind to receive the Mind of Christ.