Choose Life

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Also Read chapter 3 of James. The tongue is mentioned around 160 times in scripture and in most of the verses listed it talks about both good and bad coming forth from our mouths. I have listed two scriptures above and could list many more but I will let you look them up yourself. The two that I have mentioned I believe are very important because the more that I seek the will of God and His purpose in my life the more He shows me areas that I myself need to correct and we as Christians need to correct. I have heard a lot of Christians quote... "Life and Death are in the power of the tongue..." I have even done it myself, but one day while studying God took me to Proverbs 18:21 and had me to slow down and really read it. It says, "Death and life, not life and death are in the power of the tongue." I thought it was interesting that it was written that way instead of the way that we generally quote it and I believe that God showed me that it is written that way because we, His people, have a tendency of speaking cursings first and not blessings. We speak death before we speak life.

I know that this is hard to read, especially if you have a problem in this area, it was hard for me too. However, I believe that we have to get a grip on this if we ever plan to succeed in the things of God. God tells us in so many scriptures that we are healed, we are to forgive, to serve, to be kind, to be longsuffering, etc. etc... Even though we are told this, half the time we spend arguing why we are still sick, why we can't forgive and why we can't serve and the list just goes on. Here is an example, which if you have read my blogs for very long you know I love examples. Let’s say someone walks in the church, they haven’t been in church in a while and as a matter of fact they come in and out of the church a lot. They are walking one day with God and the next they are walking in the world. Do you know what a lot of people would say “Oh great here they come again and they are still drinking or still partying, they never stick around long enough to change, I don’t even know why they try.” Let me guess you would never say that, well maybe you would and maybe you wouldn’t but can you say you have never thought it? You have to take those thoughts captive so that they do not turn into words but that is another message for later.

You see if we speak these words about someone then we are speaking death into their lives. God never intended for it to be that way. When God created the Heavens and the Earth it was by speaking it into existence. We are made in God’s image and we have the power to speak death or life into a situation. We have the power to pray and ask God to deliver a person from their bondages and one day see them in church. You never know whose life you will affect by your words. Pastor once said that words, once they are out there can not be taken back. They become part of the sound waves and due to that scientists have proven that those sounds waves from times past are still in the air today. Transmissions that where played back in the 60’s could still be heard today if we had the scientific gadgets to hear them. We can affect change but we need to control the change we affect. We need to speak life into people’s lives. Instead of assuming that a person is going to be that way forever because that is the way that they have always been, why not speak that we see God working in that person’s life and that they are becoming the man or woman of God that God has designed them to be. You never know if your positive words in the air could bring forth the next Billy Graham, Joyce Meyer, Rod Parsley or Smith Wigglesworth. I will take it one step further, you never know what positive words were spoken about you that brought you to where you are today with God. My challenge for you today is this, speak life into people. Guard every word that proceeds out of your mouth and make it word of edification. Bring Glory to God through the words that you speak and ask the Holy Spirit to help guard your heart and your mouth so that what you say will change the world. I leave you with this:
Jesus said in James 3:8-11, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Let’s us strive together to speak the words that God would have us speak, knowing that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us.