From Altar: The Power of Life and Death

The Power Of The Tongue - Why we need to pray earnestly and without ceasing!

There are few of us who do not know the proverb 'The tongue has the power of life and death..'  Proverbs 18:21 is well quoted and especially in relation to what we heard during a sermon preached by our brother Chris Mauki. The angle was towards our taking good care of our tongue's and what we say. But what if we did the same in what we said in our conversations to our Father in Heaven? After all is He not our 'friend' and can we be found to be holding back with our tongues what we are required to utter?

Looking at the following scriptures we see a pattern being established that compels us to 'petition' the heavenly throne so as to get results. In the history of the saints and those who went before us we see an established pattern of 'Asking' and 'Receiving', 'Seeking and Finding'. All the way from Jacob, Moses, David, and many others, God is a God who ANWERS prayer. That is firmly established in the way He began creation by speaking things into being and Jesus in Mark 11:24 tells us that 'whatever' we 'ask for in prayer' we will get if we believe. Thus it is not whatever we wish for, whatever we dream of having or whatever we think we should should have but rather, WHATEVER we ask for in prayer.

There are a number of proverbs that clearly illustrate the power of the lips and the tongue:

1. Protection from evil: Proverbs 14:3 A fool's talk brings a rod to his back but the lips of the wise protect them
2. Fountain of life: Proverbs 10:11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked
3.Source of Good things we need or desire: Proverbs 12:14: From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him
4.Power to to prevail: Proverbs 18:21: The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

John 14: 12-14 Jesus tells His disciples that anyone who has faith in Him will do what he has been doing and even greater things and goes even further to say that he will do whatever we ask in His name.

Prayer then is essentially 'earthly permission for heavenly intervention'. In Genesis God establishes a precedent that we cannot ignore. After creating all the creatures and creating man in His likeness he 'said' 'let them have dominion'. The Hebrew word 'radah' used here is to subjugate, rule, prevail. However once man fell, we ceded the kingdom we were given to rule to the Prince of Darkness.

Jesus came as the second Adam to restore this authority as much as He came to restore our relationship with God.  Little wonder that He himself spent long hours in prayer, consulting with the Father and as a result He exhibited authority and dominion over everything including sicknesses, diseases, demons, storms and finally even death.

We have the authority in our lips to change situations supernaturally and dramatically if we chose to submit our lips to the Holy Spirit who is within us so that we can pray His will into being. This act of obedience will bear much fruit in our lives as we grow in faith and begin to call out the impossible, not because of emotions or winds of excitement but because we humble ourselves to Him and see things as He does; Jeremiah 33.3 Is the promise of a great God who has great plans for us if we pray in humility and seek Him earnestly. 

The disciples knew this and appointed deacons to minister when they saw their prayer life was being affected in Acts.  As we pray let us remind ourselves and God of His covenant and promises and pray that He will empower us to walk like Jesus did.

Be blessed! Be on Fire!

By John Kagaruki