Category: Devotions

What are You Giving Life to?

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21 NIV

Hello everybody! I hope this finds you blessed and favored on this Wednesday! I think now I have written a few devotions on healing and a few more on the importance of watching what you say. But today God gave me a different view on this scripture.

Lately, I have decided to embark upon a personal journey towards total healing; I believe that you must be healed in all three parts of the person: mind, body, and spirit and I want to be whole. I have realized that you can pray for healing and deliverance but if you are not getting to the root of the problem, most times a mental seed that you have planted within yourself, it will continue to grow because you have already nourished this seed with bad thoughts and words to yourself. Every time before that I have thought of this scripture I have always focused on the death part, how we can speak death and defeat inadvertently over a situation or ourselves. But today, I was praying on whether to talk about certain diagnoses I have received. And it hit me, well let’s be honest here, God laid it on my spirit that some of the things I have dealt with are resultant of the fact that I spoke life into whatever it was. I spoke life into the kidney disease; I briefly gave life to the false lupus diagnosis. I spoke life into the financial troubles I had by complaining and “woe is me-ing” over it. If I want to be healed and delivered, I cannot give life to these things; that is, by continuing to speak to them as if they exist. See, as a child of God, we have already received the promises of the word. Jesus has already died. He has already provided for that healing, deliverance or prosperity we want. Everything evil in the world is the result of the first sin, perpetuated now for many millennia. Now the way I see it, I must continue to cast down the words, or weapons, that come against everything I believe God for—Isaiah 54:17 in full states “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, said the LORD.” In order to have life, I have to speak life into the right things, and I have to condemn the tools of the enemy that come against me. The verse says to condemn every tongue and especially your own—think about it, James 1:6-8 GWT says “When you ask for something, don’t have any doubts. A person who has doubts is like a wave that is blown by the wind and tossed by the sea. A person who has doubts shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. A person who has doubts is thinking about two different things at the same time and can’t make up his mind about anything.” You cannot be double-minded about GOD!!!

This does not say that things will not happen, because they will. But when they do, I know now what I am to do. I have to first check myself and my tongue so that I am not prematurely giving the enemy the victory over me. Because Jesus’ death already won every battle we face. We must remember that this is not just a physical battle, because if the devil can control your mind—by the words you say—he can plant seeds of doubt in everything you do. We have to tell ourselves that the past is dead and all of the things that happened in it—instead of continuing to feed those bad plants with the decay of unresolved pains. We have to tell ourselves that the Word is the Truth and that we are already victorious because of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). We have to tell ourselves even through the tough times that it will pass and God has not stopped loving us and will never stop. We must stop giving life to these fruits of the enemy by uprooting them forever and filling up on the Word and the truth that is in it!

“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” Matthew 12:36

Refuse to Use Your Mouth for Death

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.” Proverbs 18:21
“The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” Proverbs 13:3
“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.” Proverbs 21:23

Have you ever been around someone that just complained and complained about the poor quality of life they had? They could find no good in their life so they would sometimes even wish death on themselves. These types of people eventually talk themselves into an early grave, either by illness unexpected yet traumatic deaths, or even at the hands of someone else. But if they had only realized how truly powerful those words were, they could have changed their situation and their outlook on life.

I love Donald Lawrence’s CD, “The Law of Confession.” One of the key points he strives to make is that we are what we speak. If we speak life, health, and wealth over ourselves, we eventually make decisions that align with what we are asking for. This was something else he said: we have conditioned ourselves to not trust what we say, by confusing good thoughts and words with the meanings for bad thoughts and words. In the wise teachings of Solomon above, several times he mentions the importance of guarding our mouths. And here’s why: when we say something, we hear it by three separate ears—the two outer ears sitting on the sides of our heads, and that inner ear, and by far the most important one, our heart. By saying things, you plant seeds that become thoughts, ideas, habits, decisions and these things become engrafted in your mind and heart. Saying things that do not line up with the word will cause you to be deceived and guided in the wrong direction. Matthew 15:18 says “But the words you speak come from the heart–that’s what defiles you.” So by speaking these words, you defile yourself, you sin against yourself, and as the Word says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Think about it, God gave us all these promises, healing, eternal life, prosperity but how can you benefit from them if you have taught yourself to not believe them in the first place! Do not allow your mouth to guide you in the wrong direction. Do not be misled because you have been cultured to think that God’s Word is not true! Learn to keep your mouth and tongue by feeding your spirit with the truth! God says that He will give you your heart’s desire and will provide all of your needs so if you speak that you can keep yourself from any form of lack! (Psalm 145:19, Psalm 21:2, Psalm 23:1, Philippians 4:19)

“Jesus answered them, “I can guarantee this truth: If you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I did to the fig tree. You could also say to this mountain, ‘Be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.” Matthew 21:21 GWT