Spirit Daily

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There Is Power Is Everything We Say, And Darkness When We Misuse Our Tongues

By Michael H. Brown

This time of year, we have to be especially careful of what we say. At a time when we're close to relatives and friends, our tongues can give us a lot of trouble. In fact, most of our holiday troubles are caused by what we say. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue," says Proverbs -- and when we look back at our lives, we see how powerful and sometimes devastatingly true those words can be.

"The moment I understood how powerful our words can be, I repented for the wrong use of my tongue and asked the Holy Spirit to take control of it," says a Catholic author named Maria Vadia, who writes on this subject. "We can use our tongues to bless or to curse, to encourage or discourage, to edify or tear down, to bring healing or destruction. With our tongues we grumble, complain, criticize, gossip, slander and pass judgment on others. Our words are packed with power for good or evil, and basically what we say is what we get."

As Vadia points our, our tongues are like the thermometers of our souls. They reveal the need to repent or change. The answer to a tongue that's out of control? "As you submit it to the Holy Spirit, you will start experiencing His transforming power," says Vadia.

Did you ever notice how negative words seem to draw down a pall of darkness? That's because there is actual darkness, says the author. "Grumbling, complaining, murmuring, and negativity are a sure way to attract evil spirits into our lives, and they come to 'steal, kill, and destroy' God's blessings and promises from us," she notes in a book called There's Power in Your Tongue, quoting John 10:10. "When we use our tongue for evil, what is manifested in our lives is death, not life. When we grumble, complain, and confess negativity, we are really confessing what the devil wants us to say; we are confessing his 'report.' And those are words that produce death, not life."

This operates in surprising ways. Vadia gives herself as an example. She describes how in the 1990s, she was trying to sell a house. The "negative report" came from realtors who told her the market in Florida was slow and she might not be able to sell it. It was taking many months for others to move their homes, they warned. But Vadia rejected that notion, pled the Blood of Jesus on her property -- and, like Joshua, marched around her property seven times in prayer.

The house sold within two and a half weeks.

How many times in our own lives do we let the enemy program us for failure? The state of our hearts is revealed in what we accept as a true report as well as in what we speak, which tells volumes about the power of words. Especially we must be careful about angry ones. "Anger is one of the doorways through which the enemy comes in," she says. "This is another reason why we shouldn't stay angry or nurse our anger. Anger is an invitation for demonic activity. If you stay angry long enough, you're giving the devil an opportunity to 'steal, kill, and destroy' in your life."

In other words: when we get angry, we cause more harm to ourselves than to the targets of our wrath! Anger runs in some family trees, and should be broken in the Name of Jesus. These are unhealthy soul-ties. We get bound in such unhealthy ties when we retaliate, lack forgiveness, and open our mouths.

"The way we use our tongues is crucial!" warns Vadia. "Remember James' word that our tongues are like a bit in a horse's mouth and like the rudder of a ship; depending on how we use it we will or will not make it to our destiny."

Jan 2004