Words have power. Words do things. When a marriage takes place, there are certain words that need to be said. “I now pronounce you man and wife” is just words, but these words change people. They bring about an actual change.
Our words have the power to build up and to knock down. Unfortunately, it’s the hurting words that we hear most often and that we speak more than we should. ‘The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.’ An exaggeration? No. The wounds that most of us carry come from something that was said. Maybe unthinkingly, maybe unmeant, but the scars are real.
If our words have power, how much more God’s words? A double-edged sword, says Hebrews. A lamp to my feet, says the Psalmist. God speaks, and there is light. “My word is like fire,” God tells Jeremiah, “a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces”. So what happens when the God inhabits the words that we speak?
In Ezekiel 37, the prophet stands before a valley of dry bones. Whatever life was once there is long dried up.
“Son of man,” God says to Ezekiel. “Can these bones live?”
“O sovereign Lord,” replies the prophet. “Only you know…”
“Prophesy to them,” says God.
Ezekiel speaks the words he’s given. They’re just words, but they bring life where there was none. The dry bones are given life by the words that Ezekiel is told to speak. If we want to knock people down with our words we can do that easily – we don’t need to get God involved there. But what if we want to bring life…?
Pray that God will inhabit our words, so that we will speak life to dead bones. And if we have to speak words of judgement, pray that they will be the words that break the rock of our hard hearts, and not just words that wound. Pray that our words will be His.
