Are you an optimist? A pessimist? Somewhere in between? It’s easy to tell. Look at what you say. An optimist’s words are full of hopeful positivity. You can’t help but feel a little lighter after listening to them speak. They are able to see the silver lining in every dark cloud. They have a bit of Irish luck, making the best out of a bad situation. Spend some time with a pessimist, and the opposite happens. Their words are full of heaviness and negativity. No matter how bright the sunshine looked when your conversation started, it is now a duller shade of grey. It’s like they walk around with a little rain cloud over their heads, and you can’t help but get wet if you spend some time in their company.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21). Our words carry more weight than we realize. They carry the power of life and death. We’ve all heard the saying, “You’re going to eat those words,” but did you know that this saying holds a biblical truth? When we speak words of negativity, we are speaking words of death. When you think about it, its easy to see this truth in action. The more negativity that comes out of my mouth, the harder it is for me to reach my goals. My dreams begin to die. Promises begin to crumble. Faith seems to get lost. “Death” is happening to the things that give meaning to my life. What about when we speak negative things over others? How do you feel when someone says something unkind about you? Speaks negatively about you? Sure feels a bit like the death of something inside of you.
Of course we know the opposite is true as well. When we speak positive words about a situation, we are speaking life. The more positive we are about something, the easier it seems. Even a difficult situation can seem a bit easier, a bit lighter, offer a bit more joy, when we look on the bright side. Goals get a bit closer. Dreams soar a bit higher. Promises hold hopeful potential that they will be fulfilled soon. Faith seems to rise up. “Life” is happening, and I can feel it. Nothing makes my spirit soar as much as a well spoken complement on a rough day!
It’s important to watch the words that we speak. Our words hold power. We are made in the image of God, and God used His words to create the world, the universe, and everything in it! We have that same power in the words that we speak. Your thoughts go where your mouth leads. If you allow anything you think or feel to come out of your mouth, true or not, it’s going to take on a spirit of truth. If you say a situation is hopeless, it sure seems that way. If you say a situation holds promise, it surely does. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
The Bible tells us that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). The heart is the center of what we truly believe. We’re all going to have negative thoughts come at us from time to time. That’s life. Satan would love nothing more than to discourage us. After all, “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10a). Think about that. Satan’s entire plan is to steal your hope, kill your dreams, and destroy your life! And he does it through lies and negative thoughts. If you give ground to those lies, they will take root in your heart. Your words will pour forth the darkness and negativity you let grow there. A stronghold has been formed, and it isn’t long until the promises of God are forgotten and death has taken over.
But Jesus came so that we would have “life and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). That’s why Paul counseled us to “take every thought captive” in 2 Corinthians 10:5. We are to take those negative thoughts captive to the Word of God. What did God say about my situation? If this thought doesn’t match what God says, it’s time to throw it away. I can do this best by repeating, out loud if necessary, what God says about my situation. By speaking God’s promises and God’s Word, I am taking hold of God’s thoughts. I am giving ground to the good seed He has sown in my life. It takes root in my heart, and suddenly my words pour forth faith and hope and light. I have a garden of promise on the inside of me. This is the “power to demolish strongholds” that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 10:4, just before he counsels us about our thought life. This is spiritual warfare! When we combat the enemy by speaking life over our circumstances, we have victory over him.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my heart to be full of negativity and darkness. I’d much rather have a light heart full of joy, hope, and sunshine. Having a heart full of positive thoughts and joy brings abundant life. So how do we fill our heart with these things?
We study the Word. We memorize Scripture. We speak the Word of God out loud. We make a confession unto faith. A confession unto faith means we say what God says, even if we don’t yet believe it…even if we can’t see it as reality yet. So if sickness is our circumstance, we say “I am the healed of the Lord” while we sneeze and cough and continue to have symptoms. And we keep saying it until our body lines up with the promise of God. The more we make these confessions unto faith, the more we give God’s seeds time to take root. Then one day, we start to believe the promise we are speaking. Now we’re making a confession of faith. The confession of faith is the first step to receiving what God has promised us: life, and life to the full!
So begin to pay attention to the words you are speaking over your life right now. Are they life or are they death? And make the conscious decision from this point forward to speak only life!
A Beautiful Mess 