Tag: #speaklife

Speak Life

by Angela K. Crow-Mitchell

The Word of God is not just a collection of verses but a living, powerful force. It’s like a sharp sword, cutting through our innermost thoughts and desires, exposing them to the light. This is no coincidence. One of our most potent spiritual weapons is the sword of the Spirit –the Word of God (Eph. 6:16). Paul confirms that we should use prayer and the Word of God to thwart the enemy’s attacks. Combined, they become a mighty two-edged sword, wielded in the power of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 6:16-17; Heb. 4:12).

 When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He didn’t rely on His strength. Instead, He used the Word of God to stand firm against the enemy’s tactics, frequently quoting Deuteronomy when Israel failed its wilderness tests (Deut. 6:13). Jesus set an example for His followers by standing firm on the Word of God to resist the devil (Matt. 4:1-11). 

The power of the Word – only God’s Word – has the force to break strongholds (2 Cor. 10:5), create (Gen. 1:1), give life (Ezek. 37:1-4), direct nature (Ps. 147:15-18; 148:8), reveal the glory of God (John 1:14), and demand a decision (John 8:51; 12:47). Moreover, The Holman Bible Dictionary explains that the Word is Jesus’ message; the message about Jesus and Jesus Himself. A pre-existent life-giving person (John 1:1-18).

The next time the enemy tries to steal your joy – speak life. Let us be in the Word enough to pray and quote verses that destroy strongholds. We can start each morning by confirming our thoughts on what we know to be accurate and constant in our lives – God’s grace and His Word –the continuous, irrevocable promises we can claim daily. “True joy is the divine work of the Spirit in a yielded vessel” (Find Joy in the Journey, Teresa Cooper).  This is my favorite quote from a Bible plan I recently completed. The key phrase here is ‘yielded vessel.’

Intentionally surrendering ourselves to God—inviting the Holy Spirit into everything we do – to fight the good fight of the faith and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness (I Timothy 4:7, ESV).

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4:8, emphasis added).

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105).

Speak Life

by Angela K. Crow-Mitchell

My professor recently sent out a video titled, “You will probably fail,” and began his introduction by saying the same. He explained that he would put an image up on the video, and when we saw it, we were not to think about it but say the first thing that came to mind.

He counted down…1, 2, 3, go!

The image I saw was a shirt, so I said, ‘shirt’ out loud, as instructed. But, then my first reaction was that I was not supposed to get this right, so I looked for my failure and decided that since the image was clearly on a circle that looked like a decal, I automatically assumed that I should have said sticker. Lastly, I  noticed the words across the shirt’s image read “pants” and continued to listen to the rest of the video.

He explained that most people will shout out pants instead of shirt, and the lesson was that we tend to read people without seeing the image behind them. Wait a sec, what? I just got that right, but I found a way to assume my failure because I was told I would probably fail.

Words are powerful. We can choose terms of affirmation to encourage one another, or we can choose to tell others they are not good enough, they can’t do something, instead of encouraging them to try. One way we can watch them fall, get up and try again. The other way, we can watch them fall flat on their face and give up, assuming failure is inevitable.

I may have received a different lesson from this than he intended, but I’ll take it. We all need encouragement sometimes, but kids especially need it from their parents.  I would say that employees may do better if bosses do the same thing. Let us be intentional about speaking life-giving words to those around us.

“Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” (Eph. 4:29, NLT emphasis added).