Your Words are a Weapon
BY GREG CRUM
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21
The last couple of weeks, we have written of how there is more than meets the eye to this world. We’ve reminded ourselves that it’s the unseen things that manipulate the seen, and that we must recognize these unseen forces and unleash the good for our benefit, and use our spiritual weapons to counter the attacks of our ultimate enemy, the devil.
Too many believers today just sit on the spiritual sideline and hope for a better day, someday, sometime in the future. All the while, God has provided us with tools to go on the offensive and help to usher in His will into our lives! One of these tools is mentioned quite often in Scripture, and the importance of this spiritual aid is pointed out prominently in Proverbs 18:21—the tongue that forms our words!
Our words are some of our most powerful spiritual weapons. Weapons that can either send the enemy running the opposite direction or cause fatal self-inflicted wounds! The Bible declares that words are powerful, mountain-moving in fact, but because they are so common, we often forget their potency. It would greatly benefit every believer always to remember the value God places on His own words and our words as well.
In Genesis Chapter 1 and again in Hebrews 11:1-3, we read that God created this universe by His words! Think about this: God created our world by His words, and then He created us in His spiritual image. Part of being created in the image of God means that we are designed to operate much the way He does, and that includes, at least to a degree, the ability to use our words to create our personal world according to His plan for our lives.
One reason why Proverbs 18:21 can declare what it does about the power of the tongue is because God has created us with the capacity to shape our lives by our words of faith.
“Oh, I get it. You’re one of those ‘name it and claim it’ guys!”
Well, yes and no.
I’ll readily acknowledge that some have taken the concept of using your words to shape your life and twisted it for their own selfish means. I definitely don’t want to be a part of that camp, but just because some have abused a truth doesn’t mean it ceases to be a truth. I mean, think about the process we use to receive the most important gift we could ever receive from God—our salvation. According to Romans 10:9-10, how do we receive the salvation Jesus earned for us? That’s right, we “confess with (our) mouth the Lord Jesus” because “for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Hate to break it to some of you, but there’s some “name it and claim it” going on there in order for you to receive your salvation! With that said, can you see then the importance that God has placed on our words? He has made them integral to the reception of our eternal salvation!
For this reason, and more, God desires us to be mindful and accountable for every word we speak. Matthew 12:36-37 reminds us that “every idle word that men speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
How can words justify or condemn us? Isn’t that God’s job? Don’t actions speak louder than words? Sure, eternal judgment is ultimately God’s final decision, and our actions should back up our words, but our words are very powerful in the realm of the spirit, in particular when they proceed from a heart of faith and affirm what God has said over our lives!