Post #9: Speaking Life
The Power of Our Words
3 Weeks Between Treatment #1 & Treatment #2
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21
"The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18
I have been reading and thinking a lot lately about the power of our own words. Recently I met with a cancer survivor who told me that she intentionally never said I have cancer, even when she did. She always said she was diagnosed with it. I get it. I absolutely do not feel like I have cancer, and I hesitate to say it that way. I’ve been told, but I simply do not want to claim it. It may sound like denial, but it is not. My whole life style and perspective has changed with this information, but it is not who I am or what I will be.
I have been praying lately for divine appointments, thinking they would be opportunities for me to share Jesus with others. The Lord has answered those prayers, but not in the way I expected. He has put people in my path who have spoken life over me. The power of our words!
During these weeks between treatments, Johnny and I spent some time at his parent’s lake house. One day, we went to lunch and found Erin and Jack’s friends Madison and Blake James with their precious little boy and Blake’s parents. They were getting up to leave as we walked up to say hello. I looked at Madison and quietly asked her if Erin had filled her in on me. She said she had and how sorry she was. Then I looked at her mother-in-law and said, “I’ve had a recent diagnosis of ovarian cancer,” to which she immediately and boldly replied, “I speak healing over you!” Tears immediately came to my eyes and we hugged as the Holy Spirit made himself felt. It was a powerful yet simple moment. A divine appointment for sure. But not one for me to minister to another but for someone to shore me up. He knows what we need far better than we know ourselves. I will practice this now. Speaking Jesus, speaking healing over others – immediately and boldly. It was amazing!
We ate lunch on the patio and after we were done, the two couples at the other end of the patio approached us. Dwayne Donner, a friend of Johnny’s, approached our table first. I told him about my diagnosis and when his wife and the other couple approached, he shared with them as well. Surprisingly, I had known the other woman, Margaret, since Auburn when we lived in dorm 9 our freshman year. Before they walked away, she asked if she could pray over me. It wasn’t really an ask as much as it was a declaration. She was going to pray. They put their hands on me and Margaret prayed another incredibly life-speaking prayer over me, even my hair. Only a woman would think to include my hair. I loved it. It was amazing. A beautiful and peaceful day by the lake turned into another powerful showing of the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord! Divine appointments all around.
I ran across a video recently on Instagram of a young woman song what she calls “speaking life over our circumstances.” Day after day, she repeats and posts the same life-speaking words form the Bible. Here is just part of it:
All things work out for my good.
God provides all of my needs according to his riches and glory.
Nothing is impossible for me because I am a believer.
No weapon formed against me shall prosper.
God sets a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
God always brings me through in triumph.
God is directing my path.
God is my very present help in any kind of trouble.
I have mountain-moving Faith.
God is stirred to action on my behalf and delivers me from my enemies.
God is making a way for me where there seems to be no way.
God is my strength and my deliverer, my fortress and my shield.
She repeats the promises of God over and over, day after day. She is speaking Truth over her life. She is rewiring her mind to think in the Truth so that she may also walk in it. Her words are powerful because they ARE the promises of God that she is boldly claiming. She is speaking prophesy over herself.
There is power in the words that we speak over others and ourselves. I recently told a friend that I don’t feel like I have cancer. I am claiming that there are no more cancer cells in my body. I will continue claiming that, speaking only positive words - declaring what isn’t as though it is.
Verses About Speaking Life Over Others
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29
"The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit." Proverbs 15:4
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Verses About Speaking Life Over Yourself
Psalm 118:17 – "I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done." Psalm 118:17
"...Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'" Joel 3:10
PRAYER
This is a prayer I say daily. Every line is a promise of God from scripture:
Jehovah Rapha, you are the God who heals. Thank you, Lord, that your Word proclaims your promises to me that You carried my sickness and bore my pain on the cross. That You heal me completely. Your healing rises over my life like the morning sun and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me. Thank you, Lord, that when I call on You, You hear me and You heal me. My healing springs forth quickly by Your power and that healing power is at work in me. I prosper in all things and I walk in health as my soul prospers. God, You restore my health and heal all my wounds for it is by the wounds of Jesus that I am healed. Lord, thank you for forgiving all my sins and healing all my diseases. Your Word is life to me and health to my whole body. You give me strength when I feel weak. You sustain me and restore me. You keep me from sickness and cover me with Your mercy. Jesus, by Your stripes I am healed. Thank you that I am healed. Amen and Amen!
