Death and Life Are in the Power of the Tongue

Every word you say out of your mouth is a seed that produces after its kind. If you are griping, complaining, and speaking forth all this negativity, then that’s the kind of fruit you’ll wind up eating from those words.

If you get angry and bitter, you’ve just yielded yourself to Satan.  Whether you recognize it or not, the devil is the one who influences us to respond in the wrong way.

Venting anger, frustration, resentment, or
unforgiveness affects you whether it affects anyone else or not.

James 1:20 says, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”  In other words, giving place to anger and bitterness doesn’t accomplish the righteousness of God.  You aren’t going to accomplish God’s purposes by getting in the flesh, giving in to anger, and losing your temper. That’s not the way God’s kingdom works. So whether anyone else ever hears you or not—what you say is having an effect on you.

When you give place to anger and let yourself vent, Satan jumps on it like a chicken on a June bug. The enemy will take full advantage of an open door like that to come and steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10.)

Spiritual Aroma
What is your spiritual scent? Are you giving off the sweet aroma of Christ, or are you spiritually stinky? (2 Cor. 2:15-16) Just like flies and rats, demons are attracted to open wounds and garbage in your life. Your rotten attitude—getting mad in traffic, being bitter over whatever, and criticizing everything and everyone—is putting out an aroma that’s drawing every demon in the county to your house.

And you wonder, “why am I having these problems?”  Why does nothing go right for me?  Why am I always depressed?  You need to recognize that we’re in a spiritual battle. Your thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions are either releasing the power of God in your life, or they’re releasing the power of the devil.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8

Notice that it’s “whom he may devour.” Satan cannot devour (or destroy) you without your cooperation. One way he gains that cooperation is through ignorance. You may think that it doesn’t matter if you get mad in traffic.  The truth is, once you start venting these things, Satan takes advantage of it.

In order to gain an inroad, the enemy is constantly trying to snare you with strife, bitterness, unforgiveness, and ungodliness of all kinds. Therefore, no matter what you do, you’re either obeying God or obeying Satan. You’re either submitting to God and His influence or to Satan and his influence.

Every time you act, you are releasing spiritual power — either God’s or the devil’s—into your life. Since most people are ignorant of this truth, they allow all kinds of things in their life. Yet, if they were to recognize the results they’re going to reap, they would never allow these things. Every time we submit to doing things Satan’s way, we are having spiritual relations with him, which conceives evil. It isn’t just benign.

Sin is conceived in your emotions. Every time you have a negative emotion—whether it be sadness, anger, fear, bitterness, strife, or one of many others—you conceive something. Many people are conceiving things that they don’t want to birth. They don’t want depression, strife, suicide, or their marriage to fall apart.  Yet they allow these negative emotions to flow through them without recognizing that we’re in a spiritual battle. When you give in to your flesh and start saying and doing these things, you are releasing spiritual forces. There is a battle raging and the enemy is looking for an opportunity to come against you.

Jesus is trying to release life into you. Satan is trying to steal, kill, and destroy anything good that you have. Both are willing and able to move and manifest those things in your life, but the determining factor is you. You need to recognize this battle that’s raging and the fact that everything you say and do is either empowering God or the devil. The Lord wants to release His life into you. Satan wants to steal that life and kill and destroy you. It’s not fate or luck. Your thoughts, choices, and actions make a huge difference in your life.

God’s Word says, “Neither give place to the devil,” (Eph. 4:27). You are the one who gives Satan inroads into your life. He takes whatever “place” you give him through your thoughts, words, emotions, and actions. Your emotions can give Satan a place. Satan will take advantage of whatever we give him. We are often hung by our own tongue.

There are times in life when we just feel like speaking forth our negative thoughts and emotions. In light of the spiritual battle, however, these are the times we must exercise our faith and self-control.  In Matthew 6:31, the Lord reveals to us at what point we take a thought for our own: Take no thought, saying… A thought becomes your own when you begin speaking it out of your mouth.

You can’t keep all kinds of thoughts from coming across your mind…..you can keep from taking those thoughts as your own.  Negative thoughts will come at times, but you don’t have to receive them. They don’t have to become a part of you. If you don’t say it, it won’t be yours.

Hung by the Tongue
Satan passes thoughts, feelings, and attitudes across our hearts and minds. So how do we prevent these seeds from taking root, beginning to grow, and then producing the negative crop he desires? We just saw how—we “take no thought, saying.”

If you don’t say it, then it’s not yours. However, the moment you start verbalizing and speaking forth these negative things, they become yours and begin releasing this negative power in your life. You need to take on this attitude: “I refuse to speak forth anything contrary to what I’m believing for.”

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18:21

You can’t only just speak life with your tongue. You can also speak death. Sadly, the truth is that most of us release much more death than life. We counter ourselves with our own words. We’re hung by the tongue!

You need to be constantly aware of the truth that your words are either releasing life or releasing death. Don’t just allow anything to come out of your mouth. Set a watch over your mouth and speak life because you will eat the fruit of it.  “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.”  Psalm 141:3.

In this spiritual battle, Satan takes advantage of the words we say. “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matthew 12:37

When we don’t realize just how important our words are, we speak forth foolishness, doubt, unbelief, bitterness and other things that allow Satan to devour us because we let down our guard.

The Power of Words
Although there are many different spiritual laws, one of them that governs whether you receive from God or not is the power of your words.

A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the
increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the
tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.  Proverbs 18:20,21

Although many different scriptures reveal the importance of our words (see Matt. 12:34-37; James 3; Mark 11), this verse clearly reveals that both death and life are in the power of the tongue.

When we’re trying to receive a healing from the Lord, many of us ignore this law and say, “I’ve heard people talk about this name it and claim it, blab it and grab it group who tell people they can have what they say. They say you’re supposed to say you’re healed when you don’t feel healed. Well, I just don’t believe in that stuff.”

So when somebody asks, “How are you?” they will respond, “Well, I’m dying. I only have a week to live. The doctor told me it’s terrible. I feel so bad.” This individual is releasing death with their mouth through their negative speech. Yet, they’ll go to the Lord in “prayer” and say, “Oh, God. Heal me, if it be Your will.” Then when they don’t see a physical healing manifest, they get upset with God as if He failed. There are laws that govern how to receive healing. One of them is you will have what you say. (Mark 11:23.)

Wood or copper?
You can’t speak death out of your mouth and expect to receive life. It doesn’t work that way. You might say, “I just don’t believe that.” Fine. That’s just like a person saying, “I just don’t believe that copper is a better conductor of electricity than wood. I’m going to wire my house with wood, not copper.”

When they plug the electricity into the connection of wood, I guarantee the power isn’t going to flow. It won’t run your lights, appliances, or air conditioning. You may not like this, but it’s how God established these laws.

Faith flows through words. Words release either death or life, but your ignorance of this law doesn’t mean that the law is going to change. You can declare, “I can say whatever I want to and it doesn’t make any difference.” That’s not true. It’s not how the spiritual laws of the kingdom operate any more than wood is a better conductor of electricity than copper. It’s not up to you to make the laws. You just need to discover what they are and then enforce them. God’s Word says that faith speaks. (Rom. 10:6.)

Neil Anderson – The Bondage Breaker
James warned: “but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:19, 20). Paul admonished: “be angry, and yet do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). If you wish to be angry and not sin, then be angry the way Christ was: be angry at sin. Be angry with your spiritual enemy.  Turn over the tables; don’t attack the money changers.

The hammer of indiscriminate expression – another unhealthy way
to respond to emotions is to thoughtlessly express everything you feel.