Our Words Have Power

It is important that we understand the power a child of God has through the words spoken with their mouth.

Many times, when we criticize our children because we are upset about something they have done, we say, “Oh, you’ll never amount to anything,” or “You’re a liar,” or “I’ll see you in prison one day if you don’t change your ways.” These words that come out of our mouths have great power over our children. And when they are spoken by a parent who has spiritual authority over a child, those words, those expressions we hurl at our children, can be extremely harmful.

The Bible says that the tongue has the power of life and death, and we must be very careful about what we say, even about ourselves. Many times, when people ask us how we are, we come out with all kinds of negative expressions: “Oh, I’m not well,” “Everything is going wrong for me,” “People don’t love me,” “God has forgotten me”—so many things we say with our mouths that are ways of filling our lives with negative energy.

That is why we Christians speak of confessing positively, of declaring the good will of God, of sometimes, even when we feel bad, coming out with a word of praise and worship. How important it is that words of song and blessing come from our mouths, that we memorize the Word of God and speak it with our lips when we are in difficult situations, and that we believe God will perform a miracle if we declare it with our mouths.

Sometimes we go looking for a job just so we can say we tried, but we say, “Yes, I’m going to go, but I know it won’t go well for me.” All these things have the power to become negative prophecies that directly affect the outcome of our efforts, and that is why we so often have to change our vocabulary.

If we come from a negative past, if we have had many failures in life, let us change our vocabulary. Let us learn and train ourselves to declare words of blessing over our lives, to bless our children, to compliment and encourage them when they do something well, and to declare positive things over their lives, so that this energy, this blessing from a father and a mother, spoken in different ways throughout their lives, may become spiritual allies that carry them forward along the path of life.

Blessings are so important. We must bless our children; we must fill them with confidence and positivity through the words we speak over them, and over our own lives as well, because we have spiritual authority through the things we envision and the things we speak with our mouths.

Let me tell you something personal: our first grandson is named Caleb. The reason he was named Caleb—his parents named him, and I also suggested that we call him by this name, and they agreed—is that Caleb is one of those wonderful figures in Scripture, in Scripture, a man of power, faith, and authority. He is a warrior, a man who even in old age shows vitality, physical strength, and mental and spiritual strength; a man who, though advanced in years, still has the energy to believe in God, to conquer land, and to defeat his enemies, and who points out that even in old age he has the vitality he had as a young man.

And so, through that name, we have wanted to bless his life and impart a spiritual destiny to him. And in fact, let me tell you: I have in my library a small statuette of a boy about 14 or 15 years old, sitting on a stack of books, reading a book very intently. And the statuette, this statuette, depicts a young man full of strength, athletic but also interested in knowledge; that is why he is sitting on a pile of large books and also has a book in his hand, which he is reading with great concentration. But, as I say, his figure also conveys virility, masculinity, strength, and emotional health as well.

And when I saw that statuette in a store, I bought it, and I have always kept it near my library, where I pray. When I see it, I remember my grandson and declare over him those same virtues that I see reflected in that statuette. So, for me, that statuette has become something like a prophetic energy, a prophetic act through which I bless my grandson’s life. And I believe that, as his grandfather, his spiritual forebear, I have a certain degree of spiritual authority over his life and can declare things, and can come before the Throne of God with authority and bless him in that way.

I believe our lives can be full of gestures like that, can’t they? They can include the prophetic words we speak over those under our authority, what we speak over our family, our husbands or wives, and the ministries we have. We must declare God’s blessing, God’s good will, bless them with our words, and open a channel for blessing to come in.

We will see that, while this mother, very clumsily, tried to declare something over her son, Jabez spoke other words over himself, and that had a very powerful effect that changed Jabez’s destiny. We will see that in our next study. May the Lord bless you, and thank you for being with us.