His Word Is Life
by Kimberly Lemler
We’ve all
heard the old saying, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will
never harm me.” Sounds like a good
sentiment on the surface, but is it really true? Do words just slide off our
backs like water off a duck or do they actually penetrate the fiber of our
souls? The Bible has some important “words” of wisdom to share about what comes
forth from our lips…
Let’s take a
look at some scriptures that talk about this topic…
"Death
and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the
fruit thereof."- Proverbs 18:21
"But I say unto you, that
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day
of Judgment. For by thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou
shall be condemned." -Matthew 12:36-37
"A
man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the
increase of his lips shall he be filled." – Proverbs 18:20
"And the tongue is a
fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles
the whole body… it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." – James 3
"A wholesome tongue is a
tree of life." –Proverbs 15:4
"The mouth of a
righteous man is a well of life.” –Proverbs 10:11
“So too the tongue is a small part of the
body, yet it has great pretensions. Think how small a flame sets a huge forest
ablaze. And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing
among the parts of our bodies, that pollutes the entire body and sets fire to
the course of human existence.” – James 3:5-6
And
there are many, many more…
Let’s look
at the Dictionary definition of “word”: “A unit of language; words; speech; an
expression or utterance; warrant, assurance, or promise; news, tidings,
information.”
All of these
expressions and utterances are bombarding us from all kinds of sources on a
daily basis. Whether they are from the television, our ipods, teachers, family
members, our boss, the store clerk…it doesn’t matter the source…our minds are
taking in all of the information. It has been said by scientists that every
word we have ever heard is stored somewhere in the brain. The important question we need to ask is,
“Which words are we allowing to die, thereby losing their power and which words
are we allowing ourselves to soak up like a sponge and rule our lives?”
I ministered
once to a lovely woman who happened to be a pastor’s wife. Her husband had a
big name and traveled all throughout the country, preaching for other pastors.
He was the perfect pastor in the pulpit, but when he came home, he was the
devil himself. He did nothing but verbally and physically abuse his wife,
telling her that he wished she would die of cancer and be gone. He cursed her incessantly
with words of death and destruction. This woman was so beaten down emotionally
that her immune system was compromised, and guess what…..she got cancer.
Everything he had spoken to her came to pass. She eventually mustered up the
courage to leave so that she would have a chance to heal and the last I heard
from her, she was on the mend.
Consider the
words that a parent speaks to a child. Some children hear, “You are no good and
I wish you were never born!” “You will never amount to anything!” “You are
stupid.” “You were a mistake.” These children most likely will grow up hating
themselves, not able to function normally in their daily lives. They may go through numerous relationships,
looking for the love and approval they never received from their parents. Those cursed words play over and over again in
their minds and they can never escape the ferris wheel of negative words. Some even
resort to self-mutilation and even suicide because they feel unworthy of love. All
because of someone else’s words…
What happens
when we allow negative words to overcome us? The truth is that God says we are
in idolatry, placing the words of man over the words of God. Even though God
says every perfect and loving word to us, we falsely believe that pleasing man
takes precedence over pleasing the One Who created us.
The remedy
for breaking this cycle of defeat is spelled out very clearly to us in the Bible.
First we need to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” and “cast
down all imaginations and anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God.” And we do this by contradicting the negative with a positive confession of God’s Word. If someone has said to you, “You
are no good and will never amount to anything”, combat this lie with the truth
that says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm, 139:14). Instead of believing and accepting what
others say about us, say everything that God says.
Christianity
is called “The Great Confession”. We are
to confess what He did for us and what He says about us. In Proverbs 20 the Bible says, “His Word is
LIFE to my body and Health to all my flesh.” When we speak the truth about
ourselves instead of a lie, it changes everything internally. It nourishes
every cell of our body and renews our mind. His love supernaturally flows
through His Word to us and lifts us up out of the pit of despair to set us on a
new level.
So the next
time “words” are aimed at you like fiery darts intended to destroy your very
soul, refuse to allow them to take root. You have an arsenal full of God’s
words in the 66 chapters of the Bible that will extinguish the flames of any
curse that was meant to harm you…
"It is the Spirit that
quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are
Spirit, and they are life." –John 6:63
(A list of personal Biblical
confessions is available on our website.)
©Words To Heart Ministries, Inc. Pastor Kimberly Lemler. 2010.