I had the pleasure today of listening to one of pastor’s old life changing messages on tape. He began in his customary thundering voice “Death and Life lies in the power of the tongue. When you speak words of hope, you will get what you want…when you speak to the contrary, that is exactly what you will get.” I don’t want to get into names here, but my pastor is well known for his prosperity messages. To preach prosperity is not accepted even today by many Christians, because to them being poor was holy.
I remember once pastor gave a real life example of his kid daughter using his own technique of ‘calling all those things that be not as though they were.’ Pastor had asked the congregation to say “Money coming to me now!” His daughter without even to his knowledge had started confessing privately “Thousands of dollars are coming to me right now.” Over and over again, she went on saying the same thing. Weeks passed, months passed and one day pastor noticed that his daughter was counting the dollar bills in her wallet. He asked her “What! How did you get all this money?” His daughter replied “Be quiet daddy, don’t tell anyone. I got dollars!” It was then he remembered.
During the church services every day, people generally would come forward with their offerings as gifts. I have also seen people place hundreds of dollars on the altar after the services. Some people would hand over their gifts personally to pastor. His daughter always used to stand by next to him after the service. He would sometimes say “Give this Lauren” Until the time his daughter began her ‘money coming to me’ in private he had never asked anyone to hand over the money to Lauren. Her collection had grown so much that daddy had to notice it! He proudly declared to his congregation the next day “It is working for a baby!”
Folks, how many of you believe that you can have what you say? If you really believe that, have you checked the words that came forth from your mouths? Do you catch yourself saying things you shouldn’t be saying, or do you just shoot off with your mouth in front of people who do not have any idea of the power of your words? Maybe you do not know this but your life is the grand total of all the words you have spoken. You can talk your way to prosperity or you can talk your way to endless misery. Believe me, it is the words that you speak that settles it.
I know today’s post is going to stir up a number of people in protest. Many of you are going to say “This man must be nuts. I have been saying terrible things that have never come to pass.” I can only say that it was God’s grace that spared many of you. Or someone somewhere has been praying on your behalf to cancel the effect of your words.
Speaking words is a spiritual principle which God Himself gave us. Didn’t He make us in His image? Remember He spoke all that we see in today’s world into existence. And he gave the same power of calling those things that were not there before we said it to us. Our words have the same power that God used when He did all that He did in Genesis.
Why should I point this to you all today? Because to improve our lives, we need to change the way we think and use the words we say to convey what we think. Our words should be used to create and not to destroy. Some of you might argue “Listen, I cannot say I am not sick when in fact I really am sick.” To this you can say, “This sickness is bothering me, but by His Word which said ‘By His stripes I am healed’, I declare in the name of Jesus that I was healed and I am healed.” See that? Your words create a spiritual force backed entirely from the scriptures that brings about the healing.
So let us take stock seriously about the words we speak. Listen carefully. Let us repent if we have spoken anything contrary to the Word. God’s Word should be the only Word we go by. We cannot say “I am broke” when we know and live by His Word from Psalms 35:27 which said ‘Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’ Jesus was all powerful only because He truly believed in the power of words full of faith. He knew always that He had the backing of His Heavenly Father. Remember Isaiah 55:11? Here God had said “So shall my Word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I had sent it.” So whatever we speak comes to pass!
When we get a hold of this simple biblical truth we will begin changing our lives with the words we speak. We can change our lives for the better.
Halleluiah!
Bible commentator: Sunder Venkataram (Thane)
