In John 10:10, Jesus says “the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly”. The thief (the devil) steals, kills and destroys people through the words that come out of their OWN mouths. Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:34). Whatever is in our hearts is readily available to come out of our mouths, bringing to surface the overflow of what we are occupied with. Whether attitudes of our fleshly nature or the peaceable fruit of righteousness pouring forth from our spirit. God knows the thoughts and intents of our heart (Heb 4:12) and is not fooled by our words when they don’t line up with what is in our hearts. Discerning persons are also able to determine what kingdom is giving voice to our words; the devil also is taking surveillance.  Our words may try to cover up and conceal the foundation in which we have been building upon, but over time it is abundantly evident.  

Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Our tongues have the power to speak life or death into any circumstance we are in. We must not be careless with the words we choose to speak because God will hold us accountable for every idle word we say (Matt 12:36).  As we remember, in the book of Numbers, chapters 13 & 14; twelve spies came back to report of the findings they were sent to spy out in the Promised Land. All of them except Caleb and Joshua spoke unbelief with their tongues likening themselves unto grasshoppers, in fear that they all would be devoured by giants in the land if the children of Israel were to enter into the Promised Land.

Upon hearing this, the whole congregation of Israel lifted up their voice and cried, complaining and lamenting having ever left Egypt. God was angered; after all the signs that He had performed among these people, speaking through Moses He said to them “As I live, says the Lord,  just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you…”. In God’s judgment (verses 29-35),  He set Israel aside in the wilderness for 40 years according to the number of days the men had spied out the promised land (vs. 14:34). God’s rejection of the evil congregation that gathered against Him was that they would die in the wilderness. Only Joshua, Caleb and those under the age of 20 years would go in and possess the land of Canaan. The spies, who brought the evil report by the fruit of their tongues had caused the congregation to sin, they were all killed by a plague before the Lord.

God is listening to our words they have power and authority behind them, and they also have creative ability. We create our own future by the words we choose to say and. Our words will either testify for us or against us (Mt 12:37). God has a future of abundant life destined for us but Satan has a plan of death waiting. There are crossroads ahead for our future and we have two paths we could choose. Satan has plans for our death and destruction on one path but God has plans to give us a life of hope and future on the other narrower path. Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God loves you, He has a plan of hope for your future.

As we consider, in application to our own lives, God instruction for Joshua to meditate on the Book of the Law day and night that he might observe to do all that was written in it, then he would be prosperous and successful (Josh 1:8). God also told Joshua to be strong and courageous and not to be afraid or dismayed because of his enemies (vs9); God was with Joshua and He promises to be with us.

For myself, it is not always easy to confess God’s promise for health and healing as I’m hooked up to a breathing machine, fed through a feeding tube, wearing a brace that supports my neck with Velcro to keep my head in place. When my breathing was failing last month and I had no capacity to use my authority to declare scripture or the energy to read my bible on-line, my wife would remind me of God’s promises and say to me, “You are getting better every day” and, “We have a future together”. God also sent people that visited me, wrote e-mails and would call on the phone to speak words of life to encourage me. I was greatly strengthened and it helped to bring me to a place of expecting God for a victory with my breathing. Slowly my breathing improved and I began to regain energy to declare scriptures of life. During the time that I was most affected with restricted breathing, projections of death filled my mind but God kept reminding me that it wasn’t my time to go; He was using me despite my illness. I realized that God was sustaining me and I could not just pass away quietly in the night although I was having trouble breathing. No, God has a future and a plan for me and my wife, He wanted me to believe Him and confess scriptures of life. The issues of death and the timing of it belong to God (Ps 68:20) so I didn’t need to worry about that. One of my favorite verses that I would meditate on during this time was (Ps 118:17) “I shall live and not die and declare the works of the Lord.” Praise be to God, I have learned that when I am most vulnerable, in a position of weakness, that is when God’s strength is displayed greatest to the atmosphere and to those around. In confidence and completely at the mercy of God, I profess His words of life trusting Him to bring to pass that which He gave faith to believe.

We must comprehend the importance of thinking and speaking aloud the truth found in the Word of God seeking God’s guidance and provision for our lives. When things seem unfathomable and impossible, we stand on God’s Word for His best, this becomes the evidence of Faith…the substance of things not seen (Heb 11:1).  The world in which we live was framed by the power of the Word; the living Word has power to bring forth things into existence. Do we realize that we can pray words of life to affect our future? By possessing the indwelling Spirit, we are given access to the Resurrection power of Christ; this power brought Jesus up from the grave to defeat the devil.  We take charge of our mind and guard our heart, not being ignorant of our adversary the devil, for he will war against us to steal away our confidence. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds” (2 Co.10:4). This verse gives us our warfare plan. This is a spiritual battle; we are not to let Satan steal our future by playing his hand and confessing words of death. We are to take charge of our words and bring all our thoughts captive casting down anything that exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ. As believer priests in this world we have been given authority to speak words of life which come from the kingdom of heaven. When we confess God’s Word over our circumstance we allow God to do His creative work.  

 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb 4:12

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.