Your words are powerful and full of purpose. Every word you speak stands as a catalyst for your success or a snare that keep you from accomplishing your goals. Proverbs 16:11 stays, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” This means the words you speak will shape your experiences. You shall have what you speak. With so much riding on what you say, it is critical to understand how your words might inadvertently be sabotaging your success.
The words you speak are literally an expression of your faith. Hebrews 11:1 states, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” What you say reflects what you believe. Recall that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Believers are called to live by faith; subsequently, they should speak according to their faith. Sounds simple, but if it were as easy to apply as to say everybody would be doing it.
Lining your words up with the will of God requires a little wisdom and lot of understanding. It is more than mental agreement. Most Christians have heard they can “speak those things that be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). It’s probably not even a stretch to say that many have even said something like “I will have what I say.” Yet for most the words that come from these thoughts continue to be statements not realized experience. Having what you speak is more than simply being led by your own desires. It is intrinsically tied to knowing the will of God. Knowing the will of God allows you to speak with confidence and assurance. There is an additional spiritual truth to touch here; that is, God watches over his word to perform it. What you speak literally, unleashes activity in your life. Remember also, that “God’s word will not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish what he sent it out to do and prosper in the thing to which he sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). In order to rightly apply this principle you must understand the spiritual truth, discerning the will of God in the situation, and then speak in accordance with God’s revealed truth.
God wants you to succeed. He has given you the power through your words to make that happen. You must commit to leveraging the power of your words. You can change your life and you can live a life of unparalleled success and fulfillment. Over the next four days, I’ll share strategies that will help you understand how to use the power of your words more effectively in order to experience life the way God intended.
1: Understand when to speak death.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” but you must know when to do which. There are times in your life when you need to speak life and there are times when you must speak death. This truth may be difficult to grasp because often believers are trained in a spiritual atmosphere that inadvertently promotes a fear of using the word death. The word is often equated with negativity and doubt. Yet, Jesus spoke death to the fig tree because it was not producing the fruit it was intended to produce even though it looked pretty. Jesus didn’t want to simply see a beautiful fig tree. He wanted to eat. The unfruitful tree was not producing fruit so he got rid of it. The lesson to be learned from the Master is this, be alert to those things in your life that should be producing something and are not. You need not be afraid to bring things to an end. As you pursue your purpose and live the life God ordained for you, get comfortable with endings. Recognize a lack of productivity and cut it off. You must recognize that these things will only take up space in your life and not add any value. Don’t be afraid to speak death. Not randomly, but with skill and precision.