Practical Wisdom from the Word of God

Proverbs 18:21(NKJV) ²¹ Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

This week we have been looking at Joshua and the place the power of promise played in his life. Joshua was given a promise that God would be with him as he was with Moses. In Joshua 1:8 the Lord told Joshua that his success depended upon meditation in “this book of the law” on a day and night basis.

As we looked more deeply into this verse, we discovered that meditation in the written Word of God would energize the promise of God. As we meditate in the written Word of God, it becomes alive in our hearts and faith to receive the promise is produced.

The word translated “meditate” in Joshua 1:8 carries with it several ideas. One of them is the idea of “muttering.” To mutter means to say quietly. The picture here is of repeatedly saying something to ourselves. Joshua not only read the “book of the Law,” he spoke it to himself over and over again until faith rose in his heart.

There has been much controversy over the place of words and confession in the life of a believer. Some use the place of words to bring bondage and condemnation on people. This is not what the bible teaches. However, there are those who say that the words we speak have no effect upon our lives one way or the other. They feel it is silly to talk about disciplining what we say. No matter which side you may fall on in this discussion, the verse we quoted today is irrefutable. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

What is this verse really saying? I have studied the place of words for much of my ministry life. I believe this verse means exactly what it says. We have the power to release either death or life by what we say. To the natural mind, this does not make sense, but if we accept the truth of the Word of God, we must accept what it says. The words we speak are very important. In Joshua 1:8, God says that meditation in the Word of God was key to his success. One element of that meditation was what he said with his mouth.

Next week we will look at a number of New Testament verses on his topic. Today I want to spend a few minutes looking into this verse. There are some keys within the words used that will help us understand the importance of what the writer of Proverbs wants us to know.

First, let me comment on the two words that are central to everything else in the verse. They are the words “life” and “death.” We tend to focus on the natural meaning of these words to the exclusion of all else. This is understandable given the place natural life and natural death hold in our thinking. However, looking only at this perspective causes us to miss their biblical meaning.

From a purely natural perspective, death means the cessation of life. When we die our physical consciousness ends and our bodies cease to function. Death is the end of life. On the other hand, life is the just the opposite of death. It is the continuation of consciousness. If we are alive, our bodies continue to function. When our bodies die, they decay and eventually disappear. As long as they are alive, they do not decay. However, this is not the meaning of these words from a biblical perspective.

Biblically, life is to know or be connected to God. Death is to be separated from God. Genesis 3 tells us that when man sinned he was separated from the life of God and death took control of the earth. Life is a force or a nature that flows from God. Death is a force of nature that flows from the devil. Everything that is negative to man is a product of this “spiritual death” that came into the earth because of the fall of man. Conversely, everything that is positive to man comes from the life that flows from God.

If we look at Proverbs 18:21 with this in mind, the Lord is telling us that our words release these two forces. When we speak words of life, life is released. When we choose to speak words that convey death, death is what will be released instead. One way to look at it is that the words we choose to speak enforce one or the other of these two forces.

Police officers do not write laws. They have no say in what the speed limit should be on any given road. Their job is to enforce the law. When someone breaks the speed law, the police officer will stop them. Even if he does not stop the lawbreaker, the presence of the police car alone is enough to make most people slow down. We do no write the promises of God. We did not decide what is life or death. We do have the right to enforce one or the other in our lives. We do that with our words.

When we see things in our lives that are negative, they are a result of spiritual death at work. If we choose to speak in line with those things, we enforce their right to exist in our lives. If I am sick, that is a manifestation in the natural of spiritual death. I can choose to say, “I am sick and I think it’s getting worse.” That enforces the idea of sickness in my life. However, because of the blood of Jesus I have the right to enforce something else.

The bible contains words that enforce life. The bible says that the stripes of Jesus purchased healing for me. (Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24) I can choose to enforce life by speaking the words of God. Instead of saying, “It’s getting worse.” I can say, “I have healing because of the stripes of Jesus.” One enforces the death that is taking hold of my body and the other enforces the life of God that can bring healing to my body. I can choose which words I will speak

As I read this verse, I noticed the word love. I thought, “That is an odd word to use here.” I looked up the word love and in the context of Proverbs 18:21 it means friendship. The idea is that your words make friends with either death or life. I do not know about you but I want to make friends with life not death. I want my words to join me to life and not death.

Our natural minds rebel against the idea that a simple thing like what we say can be so important. We find it hard to believe that disciplining what we say can actually produce a change in our lives. However, Proverbs 18:21 is only one of many bible verses that tell us they do make a difference.

I find it interesting that something so simple is resisted by our flesh. We do not want to discipline our words. We tend to feel like this is infringing on our freedom. We say, “I will say what I want to say and nobody will tell me I can’t.” I am not saying you cannot say what you want to say. On the contrary, I am telling you that you can choose your words.

You can choose life with your words. You do not have to let your words flow from doubt, fear or unbelief. You have a right to speak words of life and victory. The devil does not want you to make that choice, because it will cause him to lose his hold over you. Your flesh does not want you to make that choice because when you do, the flesh loses control.

Look at the words of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 30:19(NKJV) ¹⁹I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

God wants us to choose life. One way we do that is by the words we choose to speak. There is tremendous pressure to speak death words. It is part of the nature that came upon man at the fall. If you are a Christian, you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. You do not have to submit to that nature. You can use your words to enforce the new creation in the life of God and reject the old creation death. Choose life today.