Death and life are in the power of the tongue… Proverbs 18:21
Today I was speaking with a friend who has a lot of health issues going on. In the course of our conversation I asked her how her recent clinic appointment had gone and we talked about the rheumatoid arthritis she suffers from. She told me that it was a result of a traumatic accident many years ago when she was a teenager. She did not suffer too much physical damage at the time but her doctor had spoken words over her that, I believe, have caused her to be in the state she is in today. She told me, “I can clearly hear the words he spoke as on the day he spoke them” (probably more than 30 years ago). He said, “You haven’t got much damage right now but your body will suffer when you are older. You will have rheumatoid arthritis.”
Call me fanatical if you like, but I think in those few sentences he spoke a curse of suffering over this lady, and that today she is suffering because of that doctor’s careless words. I have offered to pray with her to break the power of these words in Jesus’ name and agree with her for healing. She has happily agreed to do this. I expect that she will experience a growing measure of freedom from pain as we address this in the spiritual realm.
Did you see how she remembered these words clearly even though they were spoken so long ago? It is a sad fact that we more easily remember the negative words spoken over us than we do the positive. It is so important to use our words carefully. It is so easy to say the wrong thing when we are upset and frustrated. Only recently I had to apologise to someone precious to me for saying words in the wrong way. They slip out so easily and can cause so much damage and lasting pain.
The picture I have used here is a little amusing but not really funny. It’s a picture of how the devil would like to keep us; bound up by the words of death that people have spoken over us – perhaps we have even been guilty of speaking words of death over ourselves – and been silenced from speaking truth. Our tongue also has the power of life. The word of God is life giving and we can take scriptures and speak them out and they WILL bring life and healing because God’s word is living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). Many times Jesus tells us to ‘say’ something, a good example is found in Mark 11:23-24.
The world was formed by the words of our Creator. In Genesis 1 we read the words “And God said” 9 times followed closely by the words “and it was so”. I just looked up my daily devotional reading and guess what! The verse is Joshua 6:5 where God tells Joshua “Shout; then the wall (of Jericho)…. will fall down.” The people had to use words to get the wall to come down. Words are just that important.
Are there any walls in your life that need to come down? Perhaps there are obstacles in other’s lives like my friend that you can help bring down. Will you pray, strengthen your faith and then SPEAK life.Remember light overcomes darkness and our words filled with LIFE will overcome words of death.
Prayer: Father help me always to speak words of life. Amen
Today I was speaking with a friend who has a lot of health issues going on. In the course of our conversation I asked her how her recent clinic appointment had gone and we talked about the rheumatoid arthritis she suffers from. She told me that it was a result of a traumatic accident many years ago when she was a teenager. She did not suffer too much physical damage at the time but her doctor had spoken words over her that, I believe, have caused her to be in the state she is in today. She told me, “I can clearly hear the words he spoke as on the day he spoke them” (probably more than 30 years ago). He said, “You haven’t got much damage right now but your body will suffer when you are older. You will have rheumatoid arthritis.”
Call me fanatical if you like, but I think in those few sentences he spoke a curse of suffering over this lady, and that today she is suffering because of that doctor’s careless words. I have offered to pray with her to break the power of these words in Jesus’ name and agree with her for healing. She has happily agreed to do this. I expect that she will experience a growing measure of freedom from pain as we address this in the spiritual realm.
Did you see how she remembered these words clearly even though they were spoken so long ago? It is a sad fact that we more easily remember the negative words spoken over us than we do the positive. It is so important to use our words carefully. It is so easy to say the wrong thing when we are upset and frustrated. Only recently I had to apologise to someone precious to me for saying words in the wrong way. They slip out so easily and can cause so much damage and lasting pain.
The picture I have used here is a little amusing but not really funny. It’s a picture of how the devil would like to keep us; bound up by the words of death that people have spoken over us – perhaps we have even been guilty of speaking words of death over ourselves – and been silenced from speaking truth. Our tongue also has the power of life. The word of God is life giving and we can take scriptures and speak them out and they WILL bring life and healing because God’s word is living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). Many times Jesus tells us to ‘say’ something, a good example is found in Mark 11:23-24.
The world was formed by the words of our Creator. In Genesis 1 we read the words “And God said” 9 times followed closely by the words “and it was so”. I just looked up my daily devotional reading and guess what! The verse is Joshua 6:5 where God tells Joshua “Shout; then the wall (of Jericho)…. will fall down.” The people had to use words to get the wall to come down. Words are just that important.
Are there any walls in your life that need to come down? Perhaps there are obstacles in other’s lives like my friend that you can help bring down. Will you pray, strengthen your faith and then SPEAK life.Remember light overcomes darkness and our words filled with LIFE will overcome words of death.
Prayer: Father help me always to speak words of life. Amen
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