Harness the Power of Your Tongue

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

I quote this verse often. It says “Death and life.” It’s not death and life and a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn’t matter. It only gives two options. Every word we speak either ministers life and benefit to others and ourselves, or it ministers destruction. Most people think that most of what they say doesn’t have any effect. But neutral is not an option in this verse. If we truly believed this, it would change what we watch on television, what we listen to, and what we say.

I know some people say, “I just like the style of music, and even though they’re singing bad things, I don’t listen to that; I just like the music.” But “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Not just our tongues, but everyone else’s as well—including every song that’s sung. There are even a lot of “Christian” songs that I guarantee are ministering death. They aren’t godly. We need to be more discerning. If we believed that every word we hear is ministering life or death, it would drastically change our lives. I mean drastically.

First Corinthians 15:33 says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” If you’re saying that listening to or watching certain things doesn’t bother you, then you’re deceived. So, what if you’re in a situation where someone’s speaking death over you? What do you do? Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” Notice that it says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,” and then, “and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” Words are weapons, and when they rise against you, what do you do? The scripture says, “Thou shalt condemn.”

I’ve learned that when I hear doubt and unbelief, whether it’s directed at me or just in general, it is a weapon from Satan, who is trying to get me to accept the unbelief. An example is how everyone says that it’s flu season, and everyone’s going to get the flu. That may not be directed at me, but if I don’t come against it, unbelief will be planted in me. It will cause me to think that I’m just like everyone else and have to get sick. But that’s not what the Word teaches. There’s no season that the Word of God doesn’t work in. I don’t have to be sick with the flu, with a cold, or with anything else.

Some of you think I’m weird, but I think you’re weird for just accepting sickness and putting up with it when 1 Peter 2:24 says that by the stripes of Jesus, you’ve been healed. So, when I hear something like that, I come against it. I’ll condemn it right then, according to Isaiah 54:17. You can ask my wife or others who’ve been with me. If I listen to the news at all, it’s typically in the car because it’s in short, two-minute segments, and they can’t do too much dam- age in that period of time. I’m interested to know what’s going on, so I’ll listen. But even in that short time, they’ll say, “It’s flu season!” And I’ll say, “It’s not flu season for me. By the stripes of Jesus, I’m healed. I don’t believe in getting the flu, and I don’t get sick.” I’ll immediately condemn it and counter it.

I’ve learned that if I counter it right when I hear something, then I don’t have to deal with it later. But sometimes I’m in front of people, and they’ll say things like this. I had this sore on my ear for years, and I’d have people say, “That’s a melanoma.” I had doctors say things like this to me. Satan tried to cause me to get into unbelief and fear through people, and I learned that if I didn’t say anything in an effort to not offend people, then I’d have to get by myself and rebuke what I heard.

Every word that comes out of our mouths is either life or death, and it produces fruit. Every time people speak negative words over us, they’ve just spit seeds into our hearts. Over time, those seeds will start germinating and producing results. But if we stop it the moment we hear it and say, “No! In the name of Jesus, I don’t accept this,” the seeds will never get a chance to germinate. It’s like water off a duck’s back. Most people won’t do this.

When I had people speak negative things over my ear, I’d just say, “In the name of Jesus, I’m healed,” and I’d counter it. Sometimes people would understand what I was saying, and sometimes they wouldn’t. Sometimes people would take offense, and sometimes people would agree with me. But I didn’t care what they did. I wasn’t going to let them plant a seed of doubt in my heart.

Death and life are in the power of my tongue, and they’re in the power of your tongue. They’re in the power of every word that we hear, and if we ever hear anything contrary to the Word of God, we need to condemn it right then. We need to stop that seed from germinating. This is something that every person can take away today. We need to ask the Lord to bring this verse back to our remembrance. We need to spend a few moments to memorize and meditate on it. And we need to start evaluating every word we say and every word that’s spoken to us. We should think about those words, and if any are contrary to what we’re believing for or what the Word of God says, we should condemn them, reject them, and counter them one way or another.

Living Commentary

Proverbs 18:21

This verse does not say that death and life and a lot of nonproductive words are in the power of the tongue. Every word we speak or hear spoken produces death or life; those are the only two options. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36–37, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Many people who don’t realize the power of their own words are talking themselves to death. They speak forth whatever negative thing they feel or have been told and don’t realize they are signing their own death warrants.

This is not only true of the words we speak; every word we hear produces either life or death. We not only have to police the words we speak, but we also need to turn away from the words of death that others speak (Philippians 4:8).

Words are weapons, and we have to condemn the negative words spoken against us (Isaiah 54:17).