Words are powerful! They can play an important part in our daily lives and the godly results or the negative outcomes we manifest. Choosing to speak the life-giving positives of God’s Word rather than the negatives of the world can help direct us to powerful, victorious living.
We see in God’s Word the power of spoken words—they can produce life or death. God’s Word is living and powerful. So it is easy to see that we want to speak God’s Word of deliverance in life’s situations.
Proverbs 18:21:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is quick [living], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is the living and energetic Word spoken with boldness and love that can cut to the heart of situations and have a positive impact. This is illustrated very powerfully in the Book of Acts. We have the same power and promises to claim in our lives today that believers had in the first-century Church. They knew who they were in Christ, and they spoke and walked with great believing. The Book of Acts provides a template for living the Word today.
In Acts 2 we learn that Peter and the other apostles received the gift of holy spirit, power from on high. Let’s pay attention to some of the words Peter and John spoke in the days that followed, bringing to pass the power of God.
In Acts 3, as Peter and John were entering the Temple, they came upon a man who was lame from birth. They saw his desire to receive deliverance, and Peter said, “Look on us….Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:4,6). Then Peter “took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. And he [the man who was healed] leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God” (verses 7,8). Can you imagine what would have happened if Peter and John had walked right past him and said nothing? God’s Word, spoken and believed, gave healing life to this man’s feet and ankles!
Moving on to Acts 4, we see how the adversary, the Devil, wanted to thwart the purposes of God—a challenge we see in our day and time too. The Judean religious leaders were upset about the attention given to this miracle of healing. They threatened and commanded Peter and John to not speak or teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:15-18). Peter and John responded in verses 19 and 20: “…Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” The religious leaders were not able to withstand the truth spoken with boldness. They could not find a way to punish them, and Peter and John were released (Acts 4:21).
In life we encounter situations that challenge our believing. Building the Word in our hearts will put us in a position of strength, so we too can see the power of the spoken Word manifested in our lives, bringing about deliverance and direction. Here are three simple things we can do to help direct ourselves and others to powerful, victorious living:
- We keep, or guard, our heart with all diligence, holding fast to God’s Word so we can control our thinking and not be shaken by circumstances.
Proverbs 4:20-23:
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Keep [guard] thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. - We speak the positives and power of the Word, which minister grace.
Ephesians 4:29:
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. - We line up our actions with the Word; we do the Word. As we move, God can move and open doors for us to prevail and bring about godly impact, as we saw in the Book of Acts.
James 1:22,25:
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Just as the believers in the first-century Church made a tremendous impact by thinking, speaking, and acting on God’s Word, we too can bring about deliverance and solutions in our lives and the lives of others. The spoken Word of God is powerful! Let’s believe to see that power living and real in our day and time.