Of course, believing in the power of our words is one thing. Actually changing the way we speak is another. Many of us have long-standing speech patterns that do not match our theology. Shad Helmstetter notes that behavioural research shows that as much as 77 percent of everything we think is negative or counterproductive. He also notes that children, on average, hear the word no 148,000 times before they reach the age of eighteen. It is easy to see how, even in otherwise healthy households, human beings can learn to think negatively about themselves and their circumstances.
All too often, these negative thoughts become negative words, and we begin to expect and empower defeat in our lives. Though we claim to believe in God’s purposes, because of the way we speak we unknowingly empower the enemy. This is why it is important to think about the kind of words that come out of our mouths. The Book of Proverbs describes what happens when we speak negatively about ourselves and our lives:
“From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied” (Prov. 18:20), and, “You have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth” (Prov. 6:2).
This is a serious reality. If we say things like, “I have such bad luck,” “That’s killing me,” “I can’t ever get that right,” or any other number of negative statements about our lives, we are assigning ourselves to failure. God has so much more in store for us, but to access it we need to believe that what He says about Himself and about us is true. We need to speak like we believe it. The question is: Are we contributing to our victory or to our defeat with the words we are speaking?
No matter what we experience, we must not let the circumstances of life determine what we say and do. Instead, we need to start talking about our lives the way God does. We have to treat our words as powerful, knowing that each thing that leaves our mouths carries great weight. We have to protect the words that come out of our mouths. If we don’t, we will be doomed to live the lives we can make for ourselves instead of the lives He has built for us
extract from ‘Giant Slayers’ by Leif Hetland