The Power in Our Words

I'm writing this as a stand-alone message but also to preface others that are coming after concerning declarations. If you already know there's power in your words, this is gonna touch on familiar verses and concepts. If this is new info to you, it's important. Very important. Every word we utter has a consequence, either good or bad. The goal of this writing is to inform the reader that you do, indeed, have power in the words you speak. I'm a firm believer in speaking a thing, declaring it, prophesying it...whatever you want to call it. I've used this to my (and others') advantage too many times, witnessed too many things shift to not believe in the power of the tongue. In fact, it's a spiritual principle that works even if you aren't a follower of Jesus. But, we're not going there today. We're looking at this through the lens of the Bible. To be honest, it's wise to do so. When we speak what God is saying to us, we can be SURE it will happen. When we don't incorporate God into our speech, we can't be sure the best outcome will occur. The Bible says in Jeremiah, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds." (Jeremiah 17:9-10) When I speak from my heart/emotions, but my heart isn't aligned with God's, I (we) can do some serious damage. Doing damage with our words is so common to humanity, we rarely think twice about it. But we should. We should change how we use our mouths, our words, to speak life, liberty, and love into every environment, atmosphere, and person we come in contact with. Our words carry that kind of weight. We cannot continue to be careless with our words.

I'll go a little further here in saying that culture has us programmed and primed NOT to speak life over ourselves, our futures, and our families. It takes awareness and the grace of God to step out of the program, out of darkness, and into the light of God where we can discern what's good, holy, and pure and speak only those things. Now, for the good stuff! I'll prove with Scripture that this is all true so by the end, we're all on the same page.

Holy Spirit, I ask You now, to illuminate these truths in the hearts and minds and spirits of every reader. Help them to fully accept and dissect the Truth, Your Truth, about the power of our words. Give us the grace to speak more intently in love and humility and empower us to use our words as God would want us to. Help us to speak life. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

So, let's do this! We were created in the image of God.(Genesis 1:27) God spoke the world into existence with His Word. (Genesis 1) If God can shape, mold, and create with His words, so can we...we're made in His image and likeness after all. You can do a deep dive on what image and likeness mean if you need to, but I'm not expositing that here today. We carry within us, the ability to create, destroy, correct, build, basically do anything we want with our words. This is evidenced in the verses here:

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Proverbs 18:21

and

"Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, 'I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. '" Jeremiah 1:9-10

Our words can and will shape the world around us. They influence the environment, atmosphere, and even people. We have the power to tear down or to build up, to correct an injustice or keep quiet and let it continue to occur. When we see something that doesn't line up with what we know to be the nature of God, we can use our words to change it.

“You will also decree something, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways. Job 22:28

God says in Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." When we partner with the Holy Spirit and speak the words of God, we can be SURE (according to this verse) that what we declared will happen. We might not know exactly how, when, why, where, or what it's going to look like, but we can go ahead and deposit that check. It's going to clear the bank!

But what does Jesus say about using our speech to effect the world around us? So glad you asked! Jesus says in Mark 11:23, "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going ot happen, it will be granted to him." I don't know about you, but I've got a few mountains I need to see displaced, tossed into the sea, drown forever. So if Jesus says I can speak to it and if I believe, well...Lord, help my unbelief (Mark 9:24) because this MOUNTAIN HAS TO GO!

Wanna go deeper? Let's dive in here. Many translations of Matthew16:19 say something like this, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Many translations make it sound like what we speak on earth changes things in heaven. But here's the thing, that's a bad translation. The NASB reads, "...and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” There's a big difference there. The point is, we are supposed to partner with God, to bring His Kingdom down to earth, speaking into the realm we live in, making it reflect what's true in heaven. After all, God is Sovereign and Lord of Lords, but Satan has been given temporary rulership on earth. That's why things look as bad as they do. He's trying his best to destroy God's creation, including us, His beloved children. There's no injustice, no disease, no disabilities, no hate, no death, no murder, none of that in heaven. Therefore, we can use our speech to correct those things. We can verbally bind (tie up, hinder) those things here one earth that aren't allowed to operate in heaven. That's my whole point. We can bind what's already bound in heaven, and stop it from continuing here on earth .Following me?

I'm going to wrap up with these words from Jesus, "Behold, I give unto you power [exousia — authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power [dunamis — strength] of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19) Not only do we have the authority to affect change, we have the power to do so as well. And that power and authority is given to us from Jesus, Himself.

So, with all of that being said, in the days to come...I'm going to share some declarations on this blog. My heart aches to see those who are suffering healed, the blind see, the mute speak, and those in captivity be set free. I can pray, I can lay hands, but I can also share the heart of Holy Spirit here on these pages, teaching others to use their voice, their words to see His Kingdom come! I pray this lands in your heart and stays on your mind. I pray this becomes a practice, the practice of speaking life, the practice of decreeing a thing in the name of Jesus and knowing it's as good as done. I pray you teach someone else these Kingdome principles. I bless you all, friends! To God be the glory!