Understanding The Spiritual Power Of Our Words
It’s always SO exciting when we’re blessed with a greater understanding of something in God’s word, as I was this morning concerning angels and how our words affect their ability to minister to us and work on our behalf! All week Joyce Meyer has been teaching on one of my favorite topics, which is the power of the spoken word, and particularly the power released by speaking the word of God out loud. But this morning she focused more on the power our words have concerning the activities of angels, and like so many things once she pointed it out, I couldn’t believe how I ever missed something so obvious!
Most of the FAM Fellowship members are very much aware that I’m most impatient when I hear them speak negatively about their husbands, situations or futures, but that’s because I know the power such words have to bring the very things we don’t want into our lives, and it literally makes me cringe when I hear them. However, I also remember how difficult it was for me to learn the same important principle, even when others were trying to teach it to me, so I understand how difficult it is to grasp. But once we start focusing on it more as we read the Bible and listen to messages about it from preachers and teachers like Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar, we’ll never be able to speak negatively again without being convicted, and that will change us and our lives very significantly!
Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV) is probably one of the most often quoted verses when it comes to the power of the spoken word, because it says Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. And when we put that together with Luke 6:45, which says The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. along with Proverbs 4:23, which says Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life., we start to see the connection between the things we speak and the issues affecting our lives. That’s why understanding the power of our spoken words is SO important.
One of the verses Joyce used about angels in her message today was Hebrews 1:13, which says Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? When we first begin studying what the Bible teaches about angels, we’re usually surprised to learn that their role is to serve and minister to us, just as we see they did for Jesus in Mark 1:13, which says and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. And according to Exodus 23:20, we see that angels very specifically guard and direct us, because it says “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. And we see the amazing power of angels to guard and protect us confirmed in this awesome passage from Psalm 91:9-16, which says If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the LORD, who is my refuge-then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” And what an AWESOME example we find of exactly how that works in this passage from Acts 12:4-11, which says After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
While there’s so much to learn about angels and how they function, one of the MOST important verses for us to fully understand concerning angels is the one Joyce used in her message today, Which is Psalm 103:20 (NKJV), because it says Bless the LORD, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. That tells us that they excel in strength, that they DO His word and they HEED the VOICE of His word, which tells me it’s pretty important to SPEAK His word, especially since John 6:63 tells us The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
Here’s Joyce’s awesome message, The Power Of Words, which I strongly encourage everyone to take (or make) the time to listen to. And here are links to The Secret Power Of Speaking God’s Word – Part I from Monday and, The Secret Power Of Speaking God’s Word – Part II, from yesterday. It is my most sincere hope and prayer that listening to these messages will finally help all of us realize the importance of avoiding speaking negatively about our situations as we stand for our marriages, but even more the importance of literally speaking God’s word into being in our lives and the lives of those we love!