Speaking Life

[Part 6, Chapter 39] 

“Check out our science experiment we’ve been doing over the past 10 days. We’ve had two jars of rice that we’ve been speaking ‘hate’ and ‘love’ type words to. We can’t quite believe how crazy the results are from just our spoken words! Xxx.”

Accompanying home-schooling mum Taya’s text message was a photo of two glass jars with lids. One was labelled “I hate you”, with a picture of a scratched-out heart next to it. The other was labelled “I love you” with a beautiful heart drawn alongside.

The results astounded me. The rice in the hate jar was green, mouldy, and stunted. The rice in the love jar was clear, fluffy and clean.

People grow in favour when favour is planted into them.

Our joyful responsibility is to speak words of life into one other. In a broad sense, this is what it means to prophesy. Prophecy is not some spooky act like fortune-telling, fixated with the future and foretelling foreboding events. Nor is it an activity solely for the seemingly super-spiritual.

According to 1 Corinthians 14, it is to build one another up, bless each other with our words, and impart life-giving favour into people.

When we do the opposite—speak critically, lie, tear down, gossip—it is akin to cursing others. They grow mouldy. Their growth is stunted. They walk around favourless. You can see it in their low self-esteem or the way they in turn bully others. It’s evident in how they always must be the best or have the most, all out of their subliminal attempt to prove to themselves—and convince others—that the words spoken over them weren’t true.

You, however, get to bless. You get to prophesy and bring life to others.

• Take care how you speak about yourself.
• Lay hands on your unborn baby. Tell Bubs how much Jesus loves it, how welcome it is, and that it is known by Father.
• Regularly bless your children. Whether through prayers at night or when they’re sitting in your lap, bless them with the love of the Father, and your own love.
• Affirm your teenagers with grace and truth, looking for things to compliment.
• Speak out loud to each other that which you feel in your heart. Start with a text message if you need to, but then buck the trend by verbalising how you feel and watch your relationships soar.

Those of us who share life in Jesus through smaller groups don’t do so only to have another meeting. Who has time for that? We do so to encourage one other, to bless, and to prophesy. That is, we get together to speak their identity into them, to remind them they are loved, and they have the Spirit of adoption. We do this to send them into their daily lives, and to all the people they will meet, as a blessing.

When you have received the truth about whose you truly are and live in the truth of who you are, you will impart the truth in everything you do, wherever you go, without even trying.

How much better is that than a green, mouldy life?