Monday, 14th May 2007I have been listening to a JPM sermon entitled "The Law Does. Faith Speaks." which talks about the power of our spoken words, and this brought to mind something that happened in the room of the then-Pastor In Charge, Rev Wee Boon Hup (who has now gone on to become President of TRAC) about 4 years ago.
It was sometime in Jan 2003, and my wife and I had gone to see him and Mrs Wee because our marriage was going through a rough patch, and I also had problems at the workplace.
During one particular time of the counseling, Rev Wee spoke to me, while Mrs Wee spoke to my wife, separately. The four of us then came together, and we were asked to pray for each other. I remember her praying something along the lines of ," Thank you Lord that our marriage
is strong, and that Mal
is successful in his career."
Now, that was radical! The prayers I have heard, and had been praying, up to then would be more along the lines of "Lord, we pray that you
will restore our marriage, and that Mal
will be successful in his career".
After our round of prayer, Mrs Wee shared with us two verses that I never knew existed in the Scriptures, even though I had been attending Sunday School and church services all my life:
Prov 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."
Rom 4:17 "..God... call things that are not as though they were..."
It began to make sense! My wife was taught to pray as though things had already happened -- even though they had not. She was also using her tongue to speak life (rather than death) into our marriage and my career.
God honoured her prayer, and 4 years later, our marriage has never been stronger, and my career has never been more satisfying!
We are the only creatures that have been made in the image of God. God spoke, and things came to pass. In the beginning, when God saw the darkness, He spoke "Light be!", and light came into being.
Similarly, since we have are made in God's image, He has also given power to our spoken words. If we speak negatively about our current situation or our children, then we are inadvertently pronouncing a curse upon ourselves or upon our children, and the fruit of our lips that we eat will be disaster and failure.
Conversely, when we speak positively about our current situation or our children, and especially if our words are aligned with the Word of God, then the fruit of our lips that we eat will be success and prosperity.
At the start of the week, instead of saying, "Aiyo today is going to be a blue Monday", let's instead align our words with Psalm 118:24 and say, "today is going to be a blessed day because it is the day that God has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it"
When we see our kids not performing up to our expectations academically, instead of saying, Aiyo, looks like things are getting from bad to worse", let's instead align our words 2 Cor 5:21, Prov 20:7, 2 Tim 1:17, 1 Jn 4:4 and say, "I thank you Lord that I am the righteousness of God in Christ, and as a result of that, my children are blessed. Thank you for giving them a spirit of power, love and a sound disciplined mind, and they excel in their studies because you who is in them is greater than he out there in the world."
The context of Rom 4:17 talks about how God called Abraham "a father of many" long before Abraham became one. Likewise, we should proclaim that we have been healed by Jesus' stripes even though the physical evidence shows otherwise.
Our spoken words carry power. Let's appropriate that power accordingly! Amen?
The Greek word for confession is homologeo (Strong's G3670), and comes from two root words, homou (G3674) which means same, and logos (G3056) which means word.
