Kenneth Copeland - The power of the tongue

The Power of the Tongue

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

Proverbs 18:21, Amplified Bible There is a Bible secret of words. Words are spiritual; they carry power. The words we speak are of vital importance to our lives. Jesus said, 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 shall be justified, and by thy words thou shall be condemned (Matt 12:36,37).

When God created the human race, He placed in us the special ability to choose our own words and speak them forth at will. That ability makes the human being different from all other creatures, even the angels. Angels can speak, but they speak only the words God tells them to speak; they act, but only by command of God.

Man's unique ability to choose and speak words has become a key factor in the development of the human race.

THE CREATIVE POWER IN WORDS

Words have played a vital role in life since the beginning of time. God used words when He created the heaven and the earth. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God (Heb. 11:3). God spoke the worlds into existence, as evidenced in the first chapter of Genesis: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. The literal Hebrew says, "God said, Light, be; and light was."

All power in the natural, physical world came into being when God spoke those words.

And God said, Let there be a firmament.

And God said, Let the waters be gathered together.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass.

The words, And God said, appear ten times in the first chapter of Genesis. To the natural mind, the repetition is almost monotonous; but through spiritual understanding, you will realize that the Holy Spirit had it written that way to stress how vital a part words played in Creation.

Each time God spoke, He released His faiththe creative power to bring His words to pass. He created all things by the power of His Word and, according to Hebrews 1:3, He is still upholding all things by the Word of His power. God's words produces exactly what He says.

His method of operation never changes. Once He speaks, His words will come to pass. Look again at Genesis, chapter 1, and notice these words: God said ... and it was so. When God speaks, power is released and things move!

God created the world and everything in it; then He said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. The moment God said these words in verse 26 is the moment man became alive. Man was created from the faith-filled words of Godwords of power, dominion, and life.

Those words came from the very insides of God where the dominion and authority lies; so all of the power that it took to have dominion over the earth was a part of man from the very beginning. Man was made out of that power.

Adam was created in God's class. He was made in the likeness of God and, consequently, had a free will. Genesis 1:28 says, And God blessed them. To bless means "say something good about." He blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

When God said, Be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue, and have dominion, He made a covenant with man. Man was created with power; then God gave man authority to use that power by making a covenant with him, guaranteeing him dominion over this earth.

Man had total authority to rule as a god over every living creature on earth, and he was to rule by speaking words. His words would carry the power and anointing of God that was in him from the time he was first created.

POWER PERVERTED

It was not until Satan entered the picture that the power of words was perverted to bring death and destruction.

Satan is not a god. He is a fallen angel. He is not in the God class. Consequently, there is no creative power in him. As an angel of God, Satan (or Lucifer) was forbidden to act by his own will; but he chose to exalt himself over God. He tried to use the power of words against God when he said, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High (Is. 14:13, 14).

By choosing his own words, Satan broke a cardinal law in the spirit world. He violated the limits of His authority and chose to stand against God. He said, "I will be like the Most High. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God!" But God would not stand for it. He answered, Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit (Is. 14:15).

At that point, their words clashed and God's Wordthe Word of a free Spirit, a Spirit with authorityreigned victoriously over the word of an angelic power. Immediately, Satan was expelled from heaven.

By using cunning and deception, Satan approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis, chapter 3, we see how he very subtly used the words God had spoken to them as a challenge to their faith and obedience. God had said, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen.

2:16,17). But Satan came in the form of a serpent and said to them, Yea, hath God said...? The Amplified Bible translates it: Can it really be that God has said...?

First Timothy 2:14 says the woman was deceived, but the man was not. Adam had his eyes wide open. He knew what he was doing when he disobeyed God's command and took the forbidden fruit. Through that disobedience, Satan was able to obtain authority in the earth. He became man's god, or as 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls him, the god of this world. Though he has no creative power of his own, Satan uses the creative power in man's words to manipulate the circumstances of the world.

Everything he produces is only a counterfeit of the real. He takes what God has already created and perverts it to his own use. James 3:6 tells us that the tongue is set on fire of hell. Satan desires the use of men's tongues. Tongues of creatures in the God class are much more powerful. Man was created in God's image.

GOD'S WORD SENT FORTH

God places a high priority on words. He has never done anything without saying it first, as we have seen from chapter one of Genesis. God's faith-filled Word was the original force in the universe. At creation, God set into motion what I call the law of Genesis, dictating that every living thing would produce after its own kind. God's plan was for man to live eternally, producing a race that would be in close fellowship and communion with Him; but once Adam disobeyed God, that plan was altered.

The authority that had been delegated to man was suddenly in the hands of Satan. At that point, God was forced back to the original sourceHis Word.

He couldn't make another man from the dust of the earth because the ground was cursed. He had to revert back to speaking His Word, filled with faith.

Immediately, God began to search for a man who would teach his children and live uprightly before Him. Finally, he found that man, Abram.

He made a covenant with Abrama covenant that was to last forever. As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee... And I will make thee exceeding fruitful... And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (Gen. 17:4,6,7).