When we look at the power of our words on those terms, it hits home how important it is to use words wisely. They have both long term and short term affect, and they are more effective on our children and others when the character behind the words is Godly.
It's not a coincidence that 'tongues of fire' appeared over heads at Pentecost. The power of God is a great fire - given to spread the Gospel and burn away the old life - if our words are spoken at His direction. And this is not impossible – it simply calls for relationship with God. Jesus exemplified this, and the result is that He only said what He heard the Father say (John 12:49, 14:10).
The Bible is our example for living and it’s filled with instances of God telling people what to speak – every day, ordinary people like you and I. We are instruments of God’s purposes here on earth and our words and actions are vehicles to fulfill those purposes. In fact, James tells us that the ‘ship of life’ is turned in directions against prevailing winds by the very small rudder called the tongue. A look at the current media trends can verify this same concept (for the negative or positive). People who have made mistakes in their speaking (and today not much is private) see the course of their lives changed by one little sentence.
Although God has given us power through speech, I am not suggesting that we become little dictators to the world around us by commanding everything to our liking, but that we submit our mouths to God as instruments for His work - that we let our words be seeds planted in the right season for a harvest of righteousness.
Life and death are seeds within the power of the tongue – strewn at the tongues bidding. And those who love God will allow Him to direct life and use our mouths to plant seeds accordingly! (Paraphrased from Prov 18:21).
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