Proverbs 18:21 says that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." The Apostle James expands on this truth in his epistle when he points out that we can use our tongues for either blessing or cursing.
Personally, I've heard plenty of instruction in my life that focuses on the negative power here: the power of the tongue to curse and bring death. This kind of instruction is usually followed up with warnings and exhortations to watch over the tongue and keep it under tight control.
I'm convinced, however, that when we understand the power of the tongue to bless and bring life, we won't even be thinking anymore about the potential danger of the tongue. We'll be too busy speaking life into dead situations and seeing them get resurrected.
We're made in our Father's image, so I anticipate that I'm going to be reflecting something of His nature in who I am. Actually, as a Christian who is a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), I anticipate that I'm going to be reflecting a lot of who He is and how He acts, and one of the things He does is to create through speaking. He spoke the universe and all of creation into existence, simply by calling it forth. It would appear that He's encoded some of this tendency and ability into our spiritual DNA as well.
There's something of this principle in the words of Jesus, when He said "Whatever you bind upon the earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth will have been loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18). It's not so much that we speak and then God rubber-stamps it in heaven, it's that His perfect will has already been executed in heaven and needs to be reflected as reality-on-earth; whatever needs to be bound has already been bound there, and whatever needs to be released has already been released there. Our job is to see what He's doing there, and declare it here so that the Lord's Prayer may be fulfilled: "on earth as it is in heaven."
So how powerful are words? How powerful is the tongue?
God instructed the high priest of Israel in how to bless the people in this famous passage from Numbers:
This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." (Num. 6:23-26)
That's as much of that passage as you'll typically see quoted. But what I really love is the very next verse: "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them." (Num. 6:27)
When the priest pronounced the blessing over the people of God, those words had weight. Those words had value. Those words, in fact, accomplished a kind of transfer in the spiritual realm, because with those words the people were marked with the name of the Lord: "So they will put my name on the Israelites." The end result of speaking blessing over the people? God says, "I will bless them." It's almost as if God promises to back up with power the words that we speak. "You bless them," He says, "and then I'll bless them, because your blessing puts my name on them."
Maybe that was just an Old Testament anomaly? Maybe that was a power reserved for the priests?
Well, we're all priests now: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). And the power to bring tangible blessings into earthly reality is very much part of our inheritance in the New Covenant. Paul instructs us in Ephesians 4 to speak blessing: "Let no corrupt word go forth out of your mouth, but only what is good for necessary building up, that it may give grace to the hearers" (Eph. 4:29). Just like in Numbers 6, our words of blessing carry real weight and cause a real transfer in the spiritual realm. When you speak words of "building up" it gives grace (the NKJV says "that it may impart grace") to the person who hears you.
Here's the practical side. It's so easy to get stuck in a tough patch of life and respond with complaining, and complaining is usually just a continual declaration or announcement of what's gone wrong. But that's also the best way to guarantee that the situation never changes, because those words have power. "He's so lazy!" becomes an almost prophetic promise that he'll stay lazy; "She's such a selfish person!" is a declaration that perpetuates the problem. "I'm going to be stuck in this dead-end job forever!" is a good way to make sure you stay stuck.
But speaking blessing and grace into those situations, and over those people, releases the transformation of heaven. "You are compassionate and caring, and you will touch the lives of other people" is a word of building-up and blessing that opens the grace channels for that person to become more compassionate, more caring, and more influential for other people. "God has a destiny in mind for me and plans to prosper my life, and today I'm going to take another step towards seeing that become reality" is a blessing that can change your current situation.
The power of life is in the tongue. The power of changing earthly realities so that they line up with heavenly realities is in our speech. When you bless, God blesses with you. When you loose what is loosed in heaven, God speaks with you, and His word never returns without first accomplishing its purpose.
So who could benefit from your blessing today? What situation in your life can you begin to change and transform by speaking God's blessing over it?
Jacob
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