Morning Motivation

LIFE & DEATH - 10.29.2022

How do you call someone? You either have to have their phone number or their name. When you know their number and call it, they answer. When you know their name and call them, they look….or even come to you.

To the Christian, the concept of the power of life and death being in our words is an essential teaching. But this has always been criticized by the world, and overlooked by many. Whether due to skepticism, flat out disbelief, or lack of knowledge; people consistently fail to realize the power that lies in their words….and their lives reflect it.

How does your life look right now? Does it reflect life? Or death? Maybe not death physically (though it could be), but possibly a lack of hope for your current circumstance? If so, how are you speaking of this current circumstance?

There is a direct correlation between what we believe in our heart and the words that come out of our mouth. It’s not happenstance. What you truly believe in your heart will come out of your mouth. If your vocabulary is littered with hopelessness, then so is your heart. And the antidote is not to just robotically recite new words to fix this issue - NO - in order to change your mouth, you have to change your heart. They are connected.

Solomon wrote:

As in water face reflects face, So the heart of man reflects man. - Proverbs 27:19

Jesus said in Luke 6:45:

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

Whether you are a Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Pantheist, Pessimist, or “missed the list” - you cannot escape the reality that your words have power. As a believer in Jesus, I know this to not be because of some cosmic energy present in our world that responds to those who harness it, but simply because it is a characteristic of God Himself……and He’s always been this way. From the very beginning. And since we were made in His image, we carry that same capability…..to create or destroy with our words.

Some will say, “That’s too simple. There’s no way that works!” If it’s so simple, then how come so few people do it? How come so few master it? And if you are one of those people that scoff, take my challenge. Change your vocabulary and speak life over yourself and your pressing circumstance and see if it changes. Bless yourself and those around you and tell me it doesn’t change your life! Do it for 1 day. Do it for 1 week. DO IT FOR A YEAR!! And if that sounds like too tall of a task, think about how MANY years you’ve spoken the way you already have. The more you speak, the more you plant, the more those things grow, the more fruit you will have. Whether the fruit of death or the fruit of life.

Don’t come at me with the objection that your life didn’t change overnight when you changed your vocabulary for a day or a week when you’ve been speaking death over yourself for the last 30 years. Give it a fighting chance! Sometimes you have to de-weed the garden before the new seeds can flourish. But don’t let that stop you from doing the work. In English, that’s called being lazy.

So speak life. Try it today. Speak aloud the Holy Scriptures - the inspired Word of God. Speak them over yourself, your family, your job, your church, your boss, your pastor, your annoying neighbor that always parks in front of your house.

How did God make everything from nothing? With His voice.

Speak into existence - like God.

When you don’t have it in your hand, declare it with your mouth.

“even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”

Romans 4:17b

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

John 1:1-5 NASB1995

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Proverbs 18:21