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Each week I hear a life changing message preached. I come out of the service convicted and determined to change. I may even remark to a friend or two about how moved I was by the preaching and how I absolutely must change. Yet in most cases, my situation remains unchanged, my life seems to bear no fruit and as far as I am concerned, the world sees no difference between me and them. Jesus Himself boldly declared in the book of John, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”. That means every word of God that is preached to us has within itself the supernatural power to give life. So the question then is, “Where am I going wrong?

Jesus Christ gave up his divinity, walked here on earth as a human being, died an excruciating death and rose up again in glory to not only save us and redeem us back to the Father but to show us by example, the life that we should be leading. We know that he walked in victory in every area of his life and that his life was characterized by miracles, signs and wonders. I once heard a preacher say that eighty percent of the word preached to us is robbed from us while we are still at the church premises right after the word is preached. With all the idle chitchat that goes on after the church service, I can’t say I disagree with him. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it is wrong to fellowship after service, it is the content of what we fellowship about that makes the difference.

This week, the message preached to us was about the importance of the words that we speak. Taken from the story of when Moses sends out the twelve spies to spy out the Promised Land and report back to the rest of the congregation about the conditions there. Ten of the spies came back shaking in their boots and spoke about how impossible it was for the Israelites to conquer the land because of the giants they saw there. Two spies, Joshua and Caleb came back with a different report, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” Same situation, two different perceptions and thus two different reports. And then the question is asked, “Whose report shall you believe. Let’s bring it down to my life and your life. What are we perceiving? Because It all begins with our perception. May God grant us the wisdom and ability to perceive things through His eyes! Only then can we speak the same language with Him.

Just like the children of Israel, we have testimonies galore of the things God has done for us and situations He has gotten us through. God has a divine destiny and a call for us – our promised land. We might have even seen a glimpse of it in our imagination. What stopped us from pursuing it? Is it because no matter how many great and awesome things God has done for us, our testimonies remain tempered with the word “But?” We say, “God really provided for me in that situation, but things were different then”, or I could have died were it not for God, but I had very strong faith then”, and on and on we go. The word “but”, robs us of our testimony and of our faith. According to the book “Life Coaching for Dummies,” one of the things that keeps us feeling trapped and hinders us in our faith walk is the human tendency to see problems instead of possibilities. We have to practice seeing possibilities in all situations and deep within ourselves by avoiding the “yes, but” game. Hebrews 4:2 states, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” Just like the children of Israel, we speak the way we do because we do not have faith in the word of God. We do not believe what God says about us. We might even have trouble believing God is good all the time choosing to believe that sometimes He does bad things to us to teach us some lessons. Ultimately, because we lack faith in God, we lack faith in ourselves.

In conclusion, the message taught me that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits”. That God has given me the power of choice and that my words are powerful. They either bring life or death and if I want to change my destiny, I have to change my words.

Scripture reference: Numbers 13: 1- 31, 14: 1-10, 23-24, 30

Action steps:

i) Take an audit of the things I say on a daily basis whether they are positive or negative.
ii) Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me change. He is in my heart and was sent there to be my helper and to ensure I fulfill my destiny in Christ

iii) Instead of saying “yes, but”, practice saying “yes, and”, for a change and notice the difference in the positive thoughts l experience