The other day a friend and I were talking about the power of the tongue. For most of the morning, she had been putting herself down until I asked her this question, “Do you think we can speak something into existence?” As I posed the question several scriptures began to flood my heart.
“How did God create the universe in Genesis?” was my next question. Several times in the first few chapters of Genesis it says…. "God said" and then it happened. If we are created in God’s image as Gen 126-27 tells us, do we have the same creative power within our mouths? Certainly not to the extent that God has for the word “image” in the Hebrew means a representative figure or phantom.
But there are many scriptures throughout the book of Proverbs that deal with the creative power of the tongue. It has the power to bring forth wisdom or folly (see proverbs 10:20, 31, 15:2), it can bring health (proverbs 12:18), it is a “tree of life” (prov15:4), it can break a bone as proverbs 25:15 tells us and there are many more.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Wow, that sounds like creative power to me!
Years ago the Lord revealed to me that when I spoke negatively about myself I was agreeing with the enemy and his plans for me. Negative thoughts would be in my mind and the minute they would come out of my mouth I would “eat the fruit thereof” in the form of beliefs about myself. These beliefs then created a stronghold from which the enemy could navigate through my spirit to hold me captive.
When the Lord revealed this to me I began to strictly monitor what I was saying about myself. I wanted to agree with what God saw in me and not the condemning voice of the enemy of my soul! I was amazed at how my life began to change when I stopped speaking “death” to myself and began to speak “life” instead. Remarkable the difference!
I think one that the enemy frequently used on me and on a lot of women is….I’m so fat….ewww that sneaky devil! This one was deeply imbedded in my brain. The Lord delivered me from this one when I saw that my little daughters were learning about their bodies from what mommy said about hers….ouch! That revelation stopped me cold in my tracks! I learned to shut my mouth from then on.
My friend and I also talked about how to recognize condemnation from conviction and how condemnation puts you down, “you’re nothing, you’re fat, you’re stupid, you’re slow…etc.” These are the red flag words of condemnation but it can be more subtle such as… “I could never do that or I’m not qualified to do such and such.” These kept me bound until I learned not to speak such things and rely upon my God who was capable of giving me all I needed in every situation, to do what he had called me to do!
Conviction draws us to God in repentance as we see that we have sinned and have a fear of our almighty and powerful God. God’s convictions pierce our hearts as we see him nailed to the tree and recognize that we were to share in the blame of his crucifixion because our sins put him there and our hearts break.
When we are convicted, it is in the form of confession and repentance that we are forgiven and freed from the sin creating growth in us and cleansing for us.
In the end, our hearts were encouraged and we were strengthened by our conversation. It was good of the Holy Spirit to remind us and warn us. God’s love had prevailed!
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