Do you know that what you say about yourself goes a long way to determine your entire existence? Try listening to yourself. Who do you say you are? A weakling, infirmed, never-do-well pessimist or a bold, confident, vivacious, charismatic, optimistic person? The list of wonderful attributes God has deposited in you is endless.
There are people who delight in self-pity, they get easily depressed and their lives are usually determined by what people say about them.
Even in relationships, your utterances can make or mar your marriage or friendships.
When I hear people say, “I have so many problems here and there, there is no harmony in the family…I dread going to work everyday because of the problem I have with my boss, my account is always in the red…” I already know where their lives are heading to if there is no change in what they say about themselves.
Who are you? What do you say?
... For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45c
As students, it was normal for us to compete among ourselves academically. Prior to the examination, my classmates would ask me what my results would be and I would tell them I was not expecting more than 30% in each subject.
Why I predicted such poor results was to mislead them so that they would not be serious in their studies.
The day before the examination they would see me playing football and to them, I had no time for my books. When the results were released and they asked me how I fared, no matter the marks I obtained, I would tell them, “I am a failure, weak, simple and not like those brilliant students”.
After repeatedly uttering these words, I realized I had gotten used to them simply because I did not want to let my classmates know how brilliant I was! To me I thought I was being humble but in reality, it was false humility.
In the spiritual realm all that happens to us are the results of what we say or have said.
You often hear people say:
“Lord! What kind of country is this? What type of government is this?
Is it possible to live in this country? When I was in school, things were better, but now things have changed for the worst! Why am I such a failure?”
Today’s social and economic situations are the results of yesterday’s confessions.
Every sphere of any country is created by the confession of her people. Therefore what you see happening around you today is not unconnected with what you said in the past.
Hard to believe, you’ll say…
Do wives not paint dismal pictures of their husbands and children by what they say and the husbands and children end up seeing themselves in that light?
A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth. Proverbs 18:20a
You are the leading factor behind the outcome of your life. You either build it on the platform of optimism, or you destroy it by being pessimistic.
I have a friend, who some years ago barely had enough to eat but he believed so much in himself, at times, I wondered what was behind his confidence. After working for over a year, he managed to rent a room in a ghetto. When I went to see him, he said smiling, “Welcome to my palace. Over here is my kitchen, on the other side is my master bedroom, here is my sitting room and where you are standing is going to be my guest room.” I looked at him long and hard and suddenly burst into laughter. All he had in that tiny room was a mattress!
He never lost faith in himself and before the year ended, he had fully furnished the apartment.
Today, Eddie is building a lovely house in a highbrow area, enjoying the fruit of his confessions.
People who never see anything good in themselves, and definitely in everything around them, are people who do not believe in themselves. It is even sadder that Christians who read and are taught God’s words on a daily basis about the need to believe in their Maker, in His prophets and in themselves still fall into the habit of saying and believing all the wrong things about themselves!
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1: 7, 8
There are some people who are grouches. It is totally impossible to be close to such people for more than five minutes. Their words spell disillusionment and depression! It is therefore needful to watch what you say, not only about yourself but also about people around you, such as your wife, husband, children, friends etc.
A man’s confession will fill his life.
A powerful man of God and motivational preacher, Myles Munroe, said growing up was a very tough experience for him. He slept on the floor in a room he had to share with other children. Cockroaches and rats were constant companions.
His teacher at school was always taunting him, telling him he was ugly and would never amount to anything. As a boy it was easy for him to believe what the teacher said because he felt then that his teacher knew everything.
But Dr. Munroe said, as a young boy, he asked God that he wanted to know who he was. He knew he could be better than what the teacher was constantly saying about him. He was determined to believe in God and in his God - given potentials. Today, Munroe is one of the most popular motivational preachers in the world, speaking to renowned men and women at conferences.
Munroe’s secret: He believed and he confessed it.
Remember, a man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth: and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Proverbs 18:20
You need to break that habit of confessing negatively. You can start today and I believe that with your confession you can create a new family, a great husband and a much happier life.
An American woman, Andrea Yates, was recently convicted for drowning her 5 children aged between 7 years and 6 months. After she was placed in a jail cell, naked and on suicide watch, Andrea said there was a demon inside her and she had to kill the children, as the demon demanded.
Spirits from hell tormented her telling her children were not righteous because she was evil. She believed all these lies from hell, and meditated on them because she had allowed these spirits to take hold of her mind. Because she believed she was what those spirits told her she was, she succumbed and drowned her children.
The truth however is that she could have been able to overcome these spirits with prayers, strong faith and positive confessions because bible says:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10
If there are areas of your life that are dying, where darkness has appeared, where there is emptiness, remember: Death and life are only in the power of the tongue.
Start speaking in a new way, instead of death you will receive life; instead of darkness, light and the emptiness in your life will be filled with God’s blessings.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21
You will reap the fruits of the seed you sow with your mouth.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health. Proverbs 12:18
What is health? The tongue of the wise.
No matter how bad things are around me and no matter how difficult things appear to be either in the office or in church, even if everybody is against me, I will never utter anything pessimistic because I have made up my mind never to allow words of despair to come from my mouth.
Rather than utter negative words, I will praise the Lord!
While counseling some Christians, I would begin to wonder where they keep what they learn from the bible because they keep moaning about their problems as if there is no “God-laid-down” rules to tackle such matters.
When I am around people who constantly speak negative words, I actually feel tired and a sense of death in my flesh. At such times it is difficult for me to work. Once, after arriving home in a state of tiredness the Holy Spirit told me, “You must leave Kiev for some days, you need a rest”.
Remember the story of the Shunammite woman whose son died? When the incident occurred, she asked her husband to allow her to visit Elisha the man of God. When Elisha saw her coming from afar, he sent his servant to inquire about her state of health, and those of her husband and child. Do you remember her reply?
“It is well”. And things changed for her.
The Lord through Elisha resurrected her son (2 King 4:18-37).
… And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. Genesis 1:21b, 22
God always sees something good even in bad situations. Therefore, because you are created in God’s image, you should see the way He sees. If the devil through the mouth of the doctor says you are dying, you know what should be done: Open your Bible to where your situation is addressed and confess those words!!
For instance, David says:
I shall not die, but live and praise God. Psalms 118: 17
You also must say the same to yourself. “I shall not die. Doctors say my body is weak and dying because it is plagued with cancer but I believe in God’s word that “I shall not die, but live to declare the goodness of the Lord.’’
By so doing you are healing your body using God’s words.
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword;but the tongue of the wise is health. Proverbs 12:18
There was a sister that came to me for counsel about her family problems. I talked for a few minutes and she exclaimed in joy, shouting “O, I have been shouldering these problems for six months, now after listening to you for five minutes, it is as if a heavy burden has just been lifted off me!
I neither prayed nor quoted the scriptures. All I said were encouraging words.
Your tongue can heal your country, city, family and relatives because …the tongue of the wise is health.
Who is a wise man? He who has the ability to speak correctly, who confesses positively.
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Joel 3:10
Let the weak say they are strong. Of course we know that anyone having physical, emotional and financial difficulties is weak.
Are you weak? Good! Confess the opposite because what your mouth confesses is with what you become.
But if you are weak and still confess that state you will remain so. It is not my law; it is God’s law because it’s contained in His word.
In Vorzel, I met a very spiritually active Christian sister in her twenties who was fond of sitting in the front pew. After some time I stopped seeing her in church. I bumped into her one day and the following conversation ensued:
“Why don’t I see you in the Church?” I asked
“I attend services, I was there on Sunday”
“ I did not see you last Sunday”
“I sat at the back”, she answered looking away.
I knew something was wrong with her. After a long pause, she opened up:
“I was so strong... and believe in ... but I cannot imagine that I can fall so low”. She was finding it difficult to speak coherently.
It turned out that she preached to one young man and he started attending services in the Church. According to her, the man started making advances, paying her compliments and escorting her to her house. After a while, overwhelmed by the man’s gentle and pleasant nature, she gave in to his overtures. She slept with him and afterwards, the man stopped coming to church.
She was lured by the sweet tongue and gentle disposition of the man and she compromised her faith.
The end of the story is that this lovely young lady lost the young man and God. This young man did not accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, although he had attended church services. He became a ‘Christian’ because of her.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14
There must never be any relationship between light and darkness, even when you want someone saved.
She was in a state of depression and could not bring herself to go to church or ask God’s forgiveness.
“I am afraid to be alone” she said repeatedly.
So I answered her: “That is the root of your problem, and you have come to believe that God is not enough for you, you are afraid of aloneness. You feel you are going to be single for the rest of your life because the devil has made you believe so and you assumed that by sleeping with that man, it will guarantee your security and your place in his heart”.
I prayed for her and asked her to start confessing positively – “I will get married soon, my husband is just around the corner, I am not afraid anymore because I am not alone.”
This applies to all singles out there who believe they can be proposed to only if they sleep with the man. Heal yourself with your tongue.
From the time you become a Christian, sin becomes unappealing, but there are times the flesh would want to have its way and the only way it does this is through your mind. If you succumb to those thoughts without negating them with God’s words, you realize that soon, you fall victim of the thoughts and before you know it, you have backslidden.
The sister I told you about felt very much like jumping from a moving train because she was confused and confounded.
Stop speaking fear, rather speak boldness and confidence and those qualities will become a part of you.
Let’s go to the book of wisdom - Proverbs, written by Solomon, king of the undivided Kingdom of Israel, (1015-975 year B.C.).
…but the tongue of the wise is health. Proverbs 12:18b
David also in his psalms confirmed:
So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away. Psalms 64:8
The meaning of these sayings is summed up in Proverbs 18:20
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
While some are healing themselves through their words, others are destroying their lives through words also!
I have already said this, but I will repeat it once more: do you want to have a successful family? Then start confessing success. Do you want a good husband or wife? Call him or her to you with your confessions!
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well
able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the Children of Israel, saying, the land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Numbers 13:30-33
In this passage, one of the spies, who Moses had sent to spy out the land of Canaan, scared the Israelites by saying that that land was impossible to conquer because of the stature of the inhabitants.
Caleb, having an understanding in the power of the spoken word said with boldness:
…Let us go up at once, and possess it: for we are well able to overcome it. Numbers 13:30b
Logically, the spies were correct in their assertion of the state of that land. In reality, the people living in this land were giants and therefore stronger than the Israelites. The giants were soldiers. Caleb however believed in the power of positive confession. He believed that the God they served is greater than those giants and if God had been with them all this time, fighting all their battles, He would definitely fight this battle for them. And he confessed it.
Since you are a believer, it means God is for you to help you overcome any obstacle in your way. When you understand how great God is, then you can see just how tiny your problem is!
The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. Numbers 13:32
What was their conclusion?
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Numbers 13:33
These spies judged based on what they saw, but the bible says we walk not by sight but by faith!
May be your husband drinks, your daughter does not sleep at home and your son gambles in the Casino. Do not allow these problems to make you see yourself as a grasshopper; don’t look at those problems with your physical eyes. Look at them from the spiritual angle and begin to see things differently, begin to see them in a new light and things will definitely change for the best for you.
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked
me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully,
him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Numbers 14:23-24
God is saying: “Caleb, because you have another spirit with you, and followed me faithfully, I will bring you into that land others are afraid of possessing.”
‘Another spirit’ here, means that Caleb saw everything with spiritual eyes and in all things believed and followed God.
… a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey… Exodus 3:8a
Be a man with ‘another spirit’, speak only positively in any situation. Don’t allow the problem to overwhelm you to the point of despair and despondency. Make a decision to live for God and to confess only what is good.
This is the day, which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24
What do you say when you wake up in the morning? This is the day the Lord hath made or I have resigned myself to fate?
Make a conscious effort to build your life everyday by what you say. Remember that you are a person with “another spirit”. Therefore when you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and say:
“This is the day the Lord hath made. This is a new day. I am only just beginning to live in it. And I know that this day will bring something special, something that I have never experienced before. I am the only “me”, there are not two of me, therefore I am unique and I rise above difficulties! I rejoice in this glorious day because great and marvelous things will happen to me today!!
Funny, you don’t pay a dime to confess this; you don’t go through any rigorous task, yet it works wonders!
What you want to receive, that you speak. The day is in your hands. After waking up, you must not simply confess or pronounce, but realize that this is the day the Lord hath made and you will live through it in joy. Confess what you expect this day. Be a die-hard optimist. Speak to the Cosmos, to the spiritual realm, to the heavens, to the principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. You can stay in the spiritual and control the physical.
“Today, I will be healthy. I feel light and I have peace in my soul; my son is blessed, my daughter is protected from anything of the flesh and my wife is in a safe place, for she is washed with the blood of Jesus Christ. I love and I am loved. Today will come and go in joy, without discord and I am not expecting anything bad, but I am expecting success today.
Remember:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue:and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21
A word of caution: Be careful in your discussions with others.
If a man only speaks negative things, bless him and advise him to read the Bible and if he does not change, its better you keep off from such a person.
Also, select your words carefully so that you don’t hurt or irritate others by what you say. Be determined that only words of peace proceed from your lips. Let what you say be a source of encouragement and comfort to others.
This does not mean that you cannot correct others, but never call anyone a failure. Correct, rebuke, but do all in love. Encourage, praise and edify others.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that, which is good to the use of edifying
that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29
No matter how bad a person is, always make sure you see something good in him because such a person is God’s creation and there must be something wonderful about that person.
Let no “corrupt communication” proceed out of your mouth.
There are some people who only criticize and speak lies. Cultivate the habit of saying only pleasant words to such.
After your discussions, your listener should feel encouraged, because your words should always minister grace.
Therefore surround your life with words of love.
