You might have heard the following phrase:
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but word will never hurt me.”
Although this saying may have been meant as a defense against verbal bullying, when you look at the Word of God, it really is not true.
Words are very powerful and do have the power to hurt you, especially your own words.
Proverbs 18:21 | NKJV (21) Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21 | ERV (21) The tongue can speak words that bring life or death. Those who love to talk must be ready to accept what it brings.
Proverbs 18:21 | CEV (21) Words can bring death or life! Talk too much, and you will eat everything you say.
Proverbs 18:21 | MSG (21) Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit–you choose.
How would we act if every word that we speak instantly came to pass?
Proverbs 18:20 NKJV (20) A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.
Your life is filled with what your lips are producing.
Do you want your life to be full of what you need? Then check up on your words first.
The enemy’s strategy is to get you to speak words that he brought to you so that what he desires will come to pass in your life.
James 3:1-11 NKJV (1) My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. (2) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. (3) Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. (4) Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. (5) Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! (6) And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. (7) For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. (8) But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9) With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. (11) Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
- Your tongue affects your entire life.
James 3:2 | NKJV (2) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
- Your tongue determines the direction of your life.
James 3:3-4 | NKJV (3) Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. (4) Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
If you don’t like the direction your life is heading, you can change it by changing what comes out of your mouth.
- Your tongue can inject poison into your life and the lives of other people.
James 3:8 | TPT (8) but the tongue is not able to be tamed. It’s a fickle, unrestrained evil that spews out words full of toxic poison!
- You have a choice in what your tongue says.
Proverbs 18:20 | CEV (29) Make your words good– you will be glad you did.
- Your words are shaped by what you deposit in your heart.
Matthew 12:34-35 | AMPC (34) You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks. (35) The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things.
Garbage in – garbage out.
- Jesus was very disciplined and intentional in how He used His words.
Matthew 5:37 | NKJV (37) But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
- Learn to use your words on purpose, like a tool in the hands of a skilled laborer.
Matthew 12:36 | AMPC (36) But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.
Hebrews 11:3 AMPC By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.
- If created things were formed by God’s spoken Word, then they can be changed by God’s spoken Word.
If it came into existence by spoken word, it can be altered by spoken word.