Words are a part of life, whether they are spoken aloud, written on paper or other media, or whether they are signed or communicated in some other way. Words are an integral and inescapable part of existence.

The Bible gives special emphasis to the importance of what we speak. I have noticed on several occasions that often times the things I speak tend to (in one way or another) either directly come to pass, or have an influence on the outcome of a particular event.

Now, am I some kind of magical being or a wizard of some sort? No. The scriptures do however make it clear that the things which we speak do indeed have a very real and very potent effect on our lives and in some cases the lives of others as well.

I have been reminded this week of several scriptures which
state this fact directly… The first is in Mark 11:23-24:

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” 

And also in Proverbs 18:20-21:

“A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” 

These scriptures make it very clear the amount of sheer power that the words we speak carry in this life. When we stop to consider that God spoke the universe into existence and we are created in His image and likeness; our words also have power because He says it is so.

Yet how often do we a step back and moderate the things that we say? Knowing the power that our words have, we should be all the more careful of every idle word which comes out of our mouth. This is why I have suggested to several people to be very careful of the music that they listen to because catchy lyrics soon get subconsciously sung by those listening.

I have found myself guilty both of listening to unhealthy lyrics and speaking less than life-giving words on occasions. And that brings me back to the title of this teaching; you might be wondering why it is titled blessing and curses… well exactly for the reasons we have been taking a look at, the things that we speak will either bless those listening, or curse them.

What I have discovered both through my own experience and the experiences of those around me is that we can work both blessings and curses with our words without ever actually uttering the words “bless” or “curse”.

If one day I wake up and my arm hurts and I say “Awww my arm
always hurts” then in-effect I have worked a mini-curse on myself with my words. On the other hand if I say “Thank you Lord that I know I am already healed.” I have worked a blessing with my words just the same.

So my prayer this week is that I will pay closer attention to what I speak and give my words the proper respect they require since according to scripture the very powers of life and death are held within them.