Me, Myself, & Lies by Jennifer Rothschild
Chapter 1: Day 1
Finally, and I mean finally—someone articulates what I have been trying to say regarding the power of our speech. Jennifer says the following:
“God used His words to create. He spoke things into being. Our words have influence but only God’s words have power. Our words don’t create or destroy, but they do promote life as they build up or death as they tear down our emotions and disturb our spiritual growth.”
Often, I hear preachers and good Christians say that we can “speak things into being” or “call forth that which is not as though they were (cf. Rom 4:17).” Humans do not have the power (by themselves) to do that. However, God can (and often does) use our prayers to bring about instantaneous and miraculous results as we make our requests known. When people experience healing, it is God’s doing, not a person’s words that brings about the miracle. When we pray for a need and God provides it, it is according to His will and divine purpose that the need is supplied, not because that person spoke the need into being.
I believe that cultivating positive thoughts and using positive/optimistic words are intrinsic to becoming a positive, uplifting, and energetic person. However, I do not believe my words can cause you to become wealthy, healthy, or deathly sick. I have had Christians say that they have to avoid a particular person because that person might speak “death” to them. That is absolute nonsense! A mere human cannot cause you to become sick simply by saying that you are sick. You have to believe and absorb and meditate upon that spoken word to have it affect you in any way. My words cannot bring money into my pocket. My words cannot miraculously make me well if I am sick. My words, in and of themselves, cannot change someone’s physiological state. Only God has that power. With that said, my words can encourage or discourage. They can promote wellness and wholeness to myself and those around me, or they can bring negativity and discouragement.
Our words have the power to heal when the hearer listens to what we say, think about what we have said, and meditate on our words. Words have to be absorbed in order to have any effect. So, if I speak negative words to myself and begin to meditate on them, they will undoubtedly affect my emotional wellbeing. The same would occur if I did the opposite. What we say we often believe and what we believe affects how we think and behave. Therefore, words are powerful because they can affect how we think and behave.
What we should do is focus on Christ, say what He says, think on what He says, and strive to do what He does. That is my goal.