Power in the Tongue?

From the desk of Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Th.D. I hear many Christians saying, “There is power in the tongue, so speak, decree, and declare only what you desire to happen in your life and it’ll happen.” Brothers and sisters, there is power in the tongue, but not for declaring and decreeing things we want to have in life! There are indeed a number of verses in the Bible that talk about the significance of the “tongue,” that is, the power of our words. The one I usually see cited says this: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21). What does “power” mean here? If you look at this chapter, you will see that verse 21 is surrounded by verses that are all about how we treat other people. People may become strong friends or strong enemies, depending on how they are spoken to. Words will bring a person good or ill, depending on what they mean and how they are spoken (19-21). So when verse 21 says “the tongue has the power of life and death,” it means that we can hurt or encourage others by how we speak. The second part is meant to indicate the need to use caution both when speaking and listening. The biblical truth is that Proverbs 18:21 is not talking about Christians decreeing and speaking things over their own lives, but about being careful about how we talk to other people. Our tongues are powerful. Our words have great influence on others. So be careful what you say, because your tongue can tear a person down, or build them up. Some Christians claim that because we are created in the image of God, we, like God, have the power in our tongues to speak things into being. This is unsound and poor reasoning. God spoke the world into being literally out of nothing. No human has ever done that and can’t do that. Another thing—if we have the ability to speak things into being simply because we are created in the image of God, then any human being can do this, not just Christians, because every person is made in the image of God. However, it doesn’t work because it has no biblical support! Be encouraged!