Psalm One Thirty Nine

Words are so powerful aren’t they? Good or bad. We often find ourselves replaying over and over again certain things that people have said to us or things that we have said to people. In fact some of the very things we have not forgiven people for are words that they have said to us. Words have such power over us. Power so much that at the time they may sound good, but later after we replay them in our minds we start questioning whether they line up with God’s word or not. Proverbs 18:20 states, “From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.” Our lips…what comes from our mouths is having a harvest. Is it having the harvest we want it to? Our words have power but what type of power are they having over our lives? Verse 21 goes onto say “the tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Basically- we will eat our own words! They could be sweet and lovely! We are going to eat the fruit of our own words. As for the tongue: our tongues have power, metaphorically speaking, of life and death.

God’s words are omnipotent and man’s words (my words and your words) are potent. Why? Because we are created in the image of God. God is spirit and He gave us a spirit… we are the ultimate image bearers. The power to use words is such an attribute of divine image bearing! God wants to use our mouths so that He is glorified and people are edified! Do our words have Godly potency? The word of God tells us that God literally spoke the universe into existence. It happened as a command…He opened his mouth and from absolutely nothing the universe came into existence. The Message says it as “He spoke the word and there they were.” How cool is it that He has full creative power in His words?! Hebrews 1:3 says that “the Son is the radiance of Gods glory and the exact representation of His being sustaining all things by His powerful word.” That means, when He went let there be light… it stays until He tells it not to! THAT is some power. You see… God can only be Holy. One of the most important things that we can ever get through our heads is this: GOD HAS NOT MESSED UP. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all! He can’t get in a bad mood and use ugly words with you. Spotless integrity and spotless Holiness. We as His image bearers have the invitation to say what is right! But we also have to deal with the devil and our fleshiness and our sinful man. What a mess. Do this for a minute... think about the part words play in temptation and participation. In all relational sin (any sin that takes two or more), the connector between temptation and participation is conversation. Everybody’s got temptation. Temptation is not sin! It’s when temptation begins to be meditated on and turns into participation. What is the connector? Conversation. It will start in the mind, it will go to the mouth and then it goes to the body. We have to nip it in the butt when it comes to the mind. If we don’t, then it will start coming out of the mouth and so on and so forth.

John 6:63 states “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” If we are invaded and empowered by His holy spirit, we can be used by God through the power of His holy spirit dwelling in us to speak words that are spirit and life. HOWEVER! Before we do this, we need to let God heal us of wounds that people’s words have had over us. Words that have been said to us in the past still effect us, don’t they? There is a famous saying “wounded people wound people” “hurting people hurt people”. We need to lash out words that have come from cold and mean spirited people. James 1:19 “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” Why? Quick anger brings quick angry words. Think about the things that have slipped out of your mouth to somebody else. My greater regrets are some of the things that have come out of my mouth. I bet you remember the words of your first breakup. I bet you remember when a teacher said something to you in front of the class. I bet you remember when your parents expressed their lack of trust in you. Words can burn holes in our minds.

Only words can cancel out words. AND only omnipotent words can cancel out potent words. Gods words can heal the words that have caused us so much human pain. Isaiah 54:17 states “no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord” The word of God also tells us in Revelation 12:10 that as new testament believers in Jesus Christ that Satan is our accuser and accusations take place in words. You have the will power to refute every single tongue that the accuser can point at you. Luke 6:28 says “Bless those who curse you.” Use words to fight back!! When we have been hurt by words, it takes words to heal. When people hurt us we need to pray for them. God can use the words from our mouths and our hearts to bring healing to us. We need to pray that they will be restored and healed from the mean words and things that they have done. Isn’t that hard to do!? The very thing that hurt us can heal us. God wants us to open our hearts and mouths to pray that the person who cursed us would be blessed. God teaches us lessons through this! How ironic and yet how marvelous that He would at times use words He puts in our own mouth to heal us from what has come out of someone else’s. THAT has potency, would you agree?