Speaking life

There is positive power in speaking out in agreement with God’s will in order to see our plans and purposes fulfilled. With the right motives in our hearts, this will have a strong influence on our fruitfulness in the year ahead and beyond.

Speaking out fruitfully © shutterstock.com | Syda Productions — **Speaking out fruitfully**
© shutterstock.com | Syda Productions

Please don’t think I’m plugging prosperity gospel here, or ‘name-it-and-claim-it’ philosophy, where the motive has all too often been about what ‘I’ can get.

Spoken blessing transforms lives

Four years ago I was greatly impacted by the proverb¹: “By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked the city is destroyed.’” It struck me that, as well as blessing people (the ‘city’) by our actions and resources, but we can also bless them ‘by the mouth’, speaking life over communities and individuals.

When the heart motive behind our plans, goals and declarations involves ‘the city being exalted’ – other people’s lives being enriched and enhanced – then that is something that I believe God will bless.

Here are four ways in which we can speak out fruitfulness by faith – all of course from our connection with God:

1 Radiant word

I’d describe as a radiant word scripture that’s highlighted to you by the Holy Spirit for guidance, encouragement or breakthrough in a particular area or situation (the above proverb is a personal example). God will give us these words as we partner with him on our planning and goal-setting. And they can form the basis of declarations.

Several years ago my family gathered together to pray with me during a financial pinch point in my business. During the prayer time, my then teenage daughter ‘saw’ in her mind’s eye ‘DEUTERONOMY 28:8’. It’s a scripture about the promise of provision – one which she did not know from memory and would not have known how to spell!

That same day, unbeknown to her, I had picked up a small piece of paper from my bedroom floor. On it was that very same scripture, which I’d noted down months previously. It must have fallen out of a book. Around that time, a family friend had also just contacted my wife with the same scripture, saying she felt it was for us from God!

Since then, as well as thanking God for that threefold encouragement, I have also sometimes personalised this word by declaring: “The Lord is sending a blessing on my barns and everything I put my hand to.” And He has – which in turn has allowed me to bless others financially in the process.

2 Reply

“A man makes plans in his heart, but the reply of the tongue comes from the Lord.”² In part 2, I mentioned how, while we make plans in our heart, God gives the ‘answer of the tongue’ (Proverbs 16:1). As well as ‘radiating’ particular words of scripture for us, God communicates in other ways.

These ‘answers of the tongue’ can take the form of helping us formulate and articulate our plans, finding the right words to say as we share or implement them, as well as declaring the plan out loud as an affirmation.

If, say, one of your plans is to write a book or start a group, a declaration might be: “I will write my first book/start a connection group this year, which will lead people to a deeper relationship with Christ, help set them free from the past, and discover and live out their God-given purposes.”

3 Release

In New Testament accounts of healings and other miracles, Jesus and others in each case released God’s will for the people affected, very often by speaking out. Peter said to a crippled beggar, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”³

As believers, we carry that same potential to speak out transformation in the name of Jesus today. Jesus once spoke to a crippled woman who was bent double, saying, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”⁴

That wasn’t just for the Holy Land 2000 years ago, or maybe, at stretch, in the front line of an African mission. An elderly woman with the very same condition had her back straightened a few weeks ago in Glasgow Central Station when a young leader at my home church released healing to her in Jesus’ name! The main point here is that the power comes from Jesus, not us, and we can release it by faith.

4 Removal

Another weapon in our spoken armoury taught by Jesus is to command the removal of obstacles or problems. He tells us, “Whoever says to the mountain (i.e. problem) ‘be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and…believes he will have those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”⁵

I have seen this exercise of divine authority work in all kinds of situations ranging from the removal of severe infirmity and pain to the lifting of unhelpful blockages to progress in practical areas.

As we prepare for 2015, time spent not only writing down our goals and plans but also speaking them out as declarations, will influence the fruit that we bear in the times ahead. And, as Christ’s ambassadors, we can speak life throughout the year into people and places, expecting kingdom transformation and a shift of climate in our communities.

¹ Proverbs 11:11

² Proverbs 16:11

³ Acts 3:1-16

⁴ Luke 13:12

⁵ Mark 11:23

What’s in our hearts influences what we say and our spoken words in turn influence the fruit we’ll bear in life.

Fruitful talk refreshes livesImage istockphoto.com — Fruitful talk refreshes lives
Image © istockphoto.com

It’s well known that the fruit we take in through our mouths can be good for our health. Less prevalent is the idea that what we say – the fruit that comes out – can affect lives for good or ill.

There’s a proverb that goes: ‘From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things, as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.’¹ And Jesus revealed that man’s heart is the source of this fruit, teaching: ‘For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.’²

Back in the 90s, I handled the UK media work for one of the first national announcements of the health benefits of eating ‘5-a-day’ portions of fruit and veg. If I were to create a campaign today promoting 5 daily portions of spoken fruit, here are some memory joggers I’d recommend:

1. Gratitude fruit

A few moments taken to say thank you helps build relationships and co-operation. Several years ago a staff member told me how unusual it was for an employer to thank them for their work as they left for the evening. I know it made things easier when it came to asking them occasionally to start earlier to clear an urgent job.

2. Affirmation fruit

We may sing about not heeding ‘man’s empty praise.’ But we still need to give and receive wholehearted praise, as long as our main motive isn’t to pursue people’s plaudits. Being specific helps. Even better than “you did a good job,” is: “I appreciated the creativity and attention to detail you put into that design in the tight timescale.”

3. Response fruit

The ‘fruit of our fingertips’ also matters – what we ‘say’ through our various electronic devices. Fast response to email messages – even if you can’t give the full answer right away – is good fruit. Quick acknowledgment of twitter follows and mentions or LinkedIn endorsements also helps. Engage well with others and they’ll give your messages a better hearing.

4. Feedback fruit

Giving and receiving feedback well is an art in itself. Keys to giving constructive criticism include: a) exercise the first two fruits regularly, b) keep your cool, c) if possible, open and close with something positive, and d) don’t leave it so long that the matter festers or the feedback is untimely.

5. Declaration fruit

There is power in speaking out life by faith into your own and others’ situations. Igniting Hope Ministries offer some great examples of this kind of declaration.

Glasgow’s motto is in fact a Christian declaration inspired by its 6^th Century founder, St Mungo:

Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of Thy word and the praising of Thy name

I came across a Glasgow church recently where the whole congregation speaks blessings together over the city during Sunday worship. Their declaration starts with Proverbs 11:11 – ‘By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted’ – and closes with the city motto.

Could ‘5-a-day’ become the new motto for speaking out good fruit? Then again, it’s the speaking from the heart and not the frequency that counts.

¹ Proverbs 12:14 NIV ² Luke 6:45b NIV

Fruitful 2015 – 4: 4 Rs of speaking out fruitfully

5-a-day and the fruit of what we say