CHAPTER 13: Joy & the Power of Words

c HAP t E r 13

JOY & THE POWER OF WORDS

“My son, if your heart is wise , my heart will rejoice indeed, I myself; Yes, my innermost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things”

Proverbs 23:15-16

Proverbs 18:21 expounds on this same principle when it says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof.”

It is important for us to realize that we are physical and spiritual beings living in a physical and spiritual world and that the words that we speak are more than noise. Our words can literally determine success or failure.

The right word at the right time is very powerful. Isaiah 50:4 “the servant of God says ‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of a disciple and one who is taught that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.” When someone is depressed and discouraged, the right words can lift them up.

Job was going through, literally, the trial of his life. His three friends show up and begin to attack him and make false accusations

against him. Even in the middle of it all Job says, “How forceful are right words.” (Job 6:25) There in the midst of trial Job acknowledges that the right words would make a huge difference.

In the New Testament the angel that appeared to Cornelius speaks of how powerful words are when he said “He (Peter) will tell you words by which you and your household will be saved.” The very act of salvation involves hearing and accepting, as truth, the right words. The power to turn a bad situation around in your life often involves hearing and accepting the right words. Perhaps the most classic Biblical example is found in Numbers chapter 13. Here the children of Israel have come to the edge of the Promised Land to a place called Kadesh Barnea. Moses sends out 12 spies and tells them “Go and see what the land is like and bring back some of its fruit.” The spies go and the land is even more wonderful than they expected. The Bible says that in the valley of Eshcol they cut a cluster of grapes so large it was carried on a pole between two men. (Today in Israel the image of two men carrying a cluster of grapes can be found on some of their coins.)

When the spies return from having fully scouted the land ten of the spies say “The land is as wonderful as God said it would be BUT the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there (Anak by the way and his descendants were giants) “we also saw the Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites.” The ten spies finish by saying “We are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we.” Only two of the spies, namely Joshua and Caleb, say “Let us go up at once for we are well able to overcome it.”

The ten spies respond by saying “There were giants there. We were like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight.” They had what I call the “grasshopper complex.” They chose to see themselves the way they believed they were being seen by those around them. Only two spies were wise enough to recognize

that it is God’s perspective, not those of the inhabitants in the land, that mattered most.

Unfortunately the people believed the “evil report” of the ten spies instead of the faith filled accurate report of Joshua and Caleb. The Israelites began to complain. They said “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:2-3).

Then in chapter 28 verse 14 God Himself enters the conversation “Just as you have spoken in My hearing so I will do to you.” Everyone received exactly what they said. Two million people said “We cannot go in, it would be better to die in the wilderness” and so they did. Two men said we are well able to enter, and of all who were above 20 years of age they were the only two who ever did. The Israelites remained in the desert for forty years while all those who complained died off.

It is interesting to note that when Joshua is finally leading the Israelites back into the Promised Land to take the city of Jericho he doesn’t allow any opportunity for complaining. He instructs the people for the entire time they are following God’s peculiar battle plan of marching around the city “Not to speak a word.” Knowing that human nature was the same then as today, I believe that if he had allowed discussion during those marches the Israelites might have complained themselves out of the Promised Land a second time. It would have been very easy for everyone to begin to second guess Joshua’s orders as they marched around the city, and saw how well fortified it was. Few battle plans have ever been easier to criticize than that one. I can all too easily imagine them saying “This is totally ridiculous and….” Good thing they weren’t allowed to speak because if they had begun to speak those doubts, fears and negativity they would have been right back where their parents had been 40 years before. Instead Joshua said “Don’t say anything until the horns of the high priest blow and then I want you to shout!”

The Israelites, it seems, did learn a lesson about the power of words and the danger of negativity and murmuring. History tells us it became standard procedure for the High Priest to stand in front of the soldiers before they left for battle and say “If you are afraid, go home: just go home because we don’t want you telling others how afraid you are because that will put fear in their hearts.”Of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 the Bible says “She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness.” We live in a culture today of toxic parents. It is sadly common for children to be told by their parents things like “You are so stupid you will never amount to anything.” “Can’t you do anything right?” “They must have messed up in hospital because I know my own kid would never do that!” These kids then spend their life trying to overcome the words that have been spoken over them. Instead they should be fulfilling the blessings their parents spoke over them.

Psalms 77 says “I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.” It is a spiritual reality that if you say the wrong things it can literally cause you to be overwhelmed. Many people who feel overwhelmed honestly believe it is their situation that overwhelmed them. They think their speech is just a reflection of the situation. That argument only appears to be valid if the complainer never looks beyond themIt is a spiritual reality selves. First and foremost that if you say the even a glance into God’s Word tells us our words wrong things it can bring either death or life. But also when we look literally cause you to around we will realize that be overwhelmed. many people have encountered similar, if not worse, circumstances. Many people who have much more challenging circumstances are in fact more content than those who speak negatively about their less challenging situations. Those who chose to consistently speak God’s blessing

instead of complaining are not overwhelmed or depressed like their complaining counterparts. Psalms describes it this way “Yea though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for You are with me.”

As a former missionary I have accompanied many people the first time they see extreme poverty. We visited churches in towns with no electricity and stayed with pastors whose homes have dirt floors… Countless times I have witnessed Americans as they are faced with the radical reality that contentment doesn’t come from your surroundings, it comes from God and is a result of your words and thoughts.

I would like to close this chapter with a quote from Max Lucado, “You have the ability with your words to make a person stronger; your words are to their soul what vitamins are to their body. And if you had food and saw someone starving wouldn’t you share it? If you had water and saw someone dying of thirst wouldn’t you give it? Of course you would. Then won’t you do the same for their heart? Your words are food and water. Don’t withhold encouragement from the discouraged; do not keep affirmation from the beaten-down. Speak words that make people stronger; believe in them as God has believed in you.”