Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
- Mother Teresa
Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life, and the talkative person will reap the consequences - Proverbs 18:21, TPT
You are beautiful and fruitful. You are chosen to carry the gift of God and affect your generation with the divine seed in you. You are wise, loved, accepted, chosen, worthy, valued, priceless and worthy of honour. You will experience total restoration and live a rich and satisfying life. There is nothing wrong with you and you will be the amazing person God intends you to be. How did you feel reading these words to yourself? When was the last time you heard such good remarks about yourself? When was the last time you told yourself or your spouse something good of this sort? Are these words you will want to hear more often?
What words are you speaking over your life and your current situation? Are they words that uplift and bring life or words that weigh you down and usher in darkness? Everything we see, touch and feel was created by the word of God. As Hebrews 11:3 says, the entire universe was formed at God's command with the intangible element of God's word. When the beautiful world He had created became null and void and darkness was upon the surface of the deep, God did one thing that reversed the undesired order. He spoke, "Let there be light" and light appeared. By His Word spoken over the situation, He initiated a transformation of the chaos.
As children of God, we cannot afford to deviate from this precedence God set for us. In the wait for God's promises, when our realities do not cohere with our expectations, anxieties, tensions and frustrations set in. The natural outlet we often find for these pent-up emotions is our mouths and often the words uttered tend to discourage and hurt the very people we love: ourselves, our spouses and our loved ones. But instead of speaking words that worsen our conditions with a gloomy outlook, can we speak words that lighten up the darkness and instill hope in God's unfailing promises?
Words are powerful. They are like seeds, having a multiplying effect and yielding a harvest of outcomes over time. If we sow the right words, we will reap the right effects. If we sow the wrong words, they will create negative outcomes that we probably intended. This principle works in every sphere of life and the world is replete with examples of the consequences of words. As a football fan, I've seen the power of words play out on a team's dynamics and performance. In a season when one of the leading clubs in the English Premiership with world-class players struggled, they had a renowned coach who chose to use sharp criticisms to effect a change in results. He assumed that his so-called 'objective' remarks bluntly issued in the media would translate into success on the pitch. Instead, they culminated not just in poor team performances but abysmal ethics and outlook on the individual players. In a matter of months, highly-motivated players were crippled to the point that it has taken years to inspire them to rise to their usual top-notch performance. In the same vein, we can tear down our lives with our words.
I had an interesting experience when I first worked on this chapter. As I typed the word fruitful in one of the earlier paragraphs, a friend's name came to mind. So, I felt impressed to text her: "You are fruitful". She responded by asking why I texted this. Apparently, she had gone for some hospital checks with her husband and was wondering if the doctor's report will reveal that they hadn't been able to conceive because there's something wrong with her. That very instant she got the message, she was entertaining this thought and I believe God heard it and intervened by issuing that declaration of fruitfulness through me. Even our silent thoughts are bare before God and it is crucial that we use them for our advantage.
Many of us have ensnared ourselves and worsened our plights with our own words. With unspoken words, we have made internal vows in our thoughts that have negatively affected our lives and marriages. For instance, in a state of desperation, fear or disappointment, some make negative utterances about themselves or their spouses that compound their inability to conceive. Instead of aligning with God's promises, they do the enemy's job by sowing tares of doubt and discouragement. These tares then sprout and compete with the wheat God is growing. The negative thoughts entertained and carelessly declared also begin to shape their lives with their creative ability.
In 2 Kings 7, Israel was in one of the harshest seasons of famine and drought. The situation was so bad that mothers were killing their children for food. God sent Elisha to declare His word: "Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ An officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”
(verse 1 &2). Just imagine having such naysayers in your company. Will they not cripple your faith in God with their negative feedback? His negative report exempted him from the divine turnaround: true to Elisha's reply, he saw it with his eyes, but he did not eat of it. What contribution are the people you associate with making to your life? Are their words inspiring hope and building your faith for God's promises?
Certainly, there are times that God's promises may cause our ears to tingle. Instead of blurting out in doubt like this officer, we can wonder aloud to God in prayer. Like Mary, we can direct our questions back to God and ask: How can this be?" As Luke 1 shows us, God is not against us realizing the limitations in the natural context and redirecting our questions to Him like Mary did. If we approach Him with hearts that are open and humble to hear, He will help us see His supernatural options. By His grace, we will arrive at a point where we can also say: "Be it unto me, according to your Word."
When Mary received the angelic visitation, she took a step that revealed a wisdom that we all must have. She did not hang around her old village in Galilee where friends would interrogate her symptoms and pass comments that suggest she was going mad thinking herself pregnant as a virgin. Rather, few days later, she hurried to the hill country of Judea where she could be with Elizabeth and Zechariah. She surrounded herself with prophetic voices that were operating from a similar realm of revelation. These two could identify the seed of God in her and declare words that would keep her through that phase. She didn't just stay a day; she stayed three months to ground herself in this prophetic atmosphere. Are there individuals in your life who see what God is doing regardless of the apparent hopelessness of your situation? Are you staying tuned to prophetic voices that create God's possibilities in your life?
Whenever the police show up to arrest someone, they admonish the person to remain silent and add that "whatever you say may be used against you in the court of law." Jesus also emphasized this when he said, 'Every idle word will be brought into judgement' (Matthew 12:36). Why? Because idle words have an impact even if we don't intend them to. No wonder angel Gabriel shut the mouth of unbelieving Zechariah until John had been born. He could have spoken words to nullify his declaration and hinder the supernatural process that had been set in motion. When unbelief and doubt rise in your heart, you have to keep quiet so you don’t end up aborting what God intends to do for you.
In 2 Kings 18, when King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked King Hezekiah, he first sent Rabshakeh, his chief of staff, to inject fear in the Israelites by shouting taunts and casting doubts on their trust in God. He strategically did this by speaking in the Hebrew language to deflate their confidence. How did Hezekiah respond? He asked the people not to respond and then He went to the presence of God to declare the greatness of God over the situation. Truth is the battles of life are often a battle of words and not physical weapons. It is high time you used the Sword of the Spirit to cast down imaginations, thoughts and declarations that are exalting themselves against what God has said over your life.
We cannot fight the battles of life by remaining silent. It is not enough to just meditate on the Word. We must believe it and speak them forth. In our battle against the enemy of our souls, we win through the spoken word thus Revelation 12:10b-11 NLT says …"For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. What is your testimony against the reports mounted against you?
In my professional experience as an engineer, I have seen inanimate objects responding to my words. On several occasions, I have resolved computer problems that I couldn't rationally solve by simply speaking over them in the name of Jesus. Some of these machines were returned unfixed from other repair shops but they were brought to me because I gave results that they could not access. To win in this life, we have to develop the habit of speaking God's word over our lives. We have to delve into Scripture, see the provisions God has made for specific areas of our lives, and declare them over our lives.
We cannot undo negative words spoken over our lives, which we have come to accept or believe, with our own words. We require the words of a higher authority to reverse these verdicts and undo their negative effects. This is why God has given us His living and powerful Word which is backed by His authority. Beyond that, He has given us His Spirit to teach us how to use it as a weapon. As we take His Word and speak it forth as decree, we issue His official order to be enforced in our lives.
So, for instance, if you have received a report or heard comments that you are barren, you have to know how to refute it. You cannot just say I am not barren. You need the word of God to counter it. You go into the Word of God and find what has been written concerning this. Exodus 23:26 says, “But you—you serve your God and he’ll bless your food and your water. I’ll get rid of the sickness among you; there won’t be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I’ll make sure you live full and complete lives.” (MSG). Instead of brooding over and crying over medical reports and the tags people place on you, take this promise of God and decree it over your life.
I am a living testimony of the power of decrees to make the impossible possible and bring life out of dead situations. Years ago, I was running an errand in a busy community center when I realized that I was becoming weak and my vision was getting hazy. I quickly requested for an Uber ride and reclined against an ATM machine. That moment, several thoughts flooded my mind: "Why not call your pastor? Call so-and-so to pray for you. What if you don't make it?" I just called my sister and told her which hospital I was going to. When the Uber driver arrived and I was carried me into the car, the only words I could muster strength to utter were "Take me to CNJ hospital" - a hospital 40 minutes away if there is no traffic jam. Once he set off, I started declaring Scriptures: "I will not die; I will live to declare the works of the Lord". Scripture kept gushing out of mouth and anytime I kept quiet I noticed my strength waning. So, I persisted in my declarations all the way to the emergency ward. Beloved, if Jesus, the Son of God, had to overcome the devil by declaring what is written in God's word, you cannot afford to keep mute. Start decreeing and declaring God's Word over your life and situation.
There is always a shift in the atmosphere when God's word is spoken in faith over life's situations. The word's effectiveness is in the speaking of it that why I love The Passion Translation's rendition of Ephesians 6:17b: And take the mighty razor-sharp Spirit-sword of the spoken Word of God. As Jennifer LeClaire prophetically wrote, "There’s a time to pray the prayer of faith. There’s a time to war with a prophetic word. There’s a time to make supplication. There’s a time to release the prayer of consecration. But in this season, I am demonstrating the power of a decree released by the leading of My Spirit through a heart of faith. Decree a thing and it shall be established.”