“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21
In yesterday’s service, we looked at a powerful truth: what goes on in our minds eventually comes out of our mouths. We talked about why that matters, and more importantly, how to catch and deal with negative, destructive thoughts before they turn into words that shape, and sometimes ruin, our world. Today, let’s take that a step further and see how this plays out in real life.
Imagine walking into a room full of people and immediately thinking, “Everyone here thinks I’m weird.” You haven’t spoken to anyone, nobody has said a word to you, but you have already convinced yourself it’s true. Before an obstacle even touches us, the story we tell ourselves in our heads and speak out loud shapes everything that happens next.
A dramatic story from the Old Testament shows us just how powerful this really is. In Numbers 13:1-33, 14:1-9; After God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he led them right to the border of the Promised Land. To check out their new home, Moses sent twelve leaders on a scouting mission.
When the spies returned, all twelve agreed on two things. First, the land was incredible; so fertile that it took two men just to carry a single cluster of grapes on a pole between them! Second, the land had real challenges; fortified cities and massive people known as the descendants of Anak.
However, even though all twelve saw the exact same things, they spoke two completely different reports.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, immediately spoke life and confidence: “Let’s go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”
The other ten spies did the exact opposite. Panicking, they declared, “We are not able… We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Notice that crucial detail: the ten spies had no idea how the giants actually saw them. They never talked to the giants! They simply projected their own inner self-doubt onto others and stated their fear as absolute truth. We do this today whenever we tell ourselves, “I’m going to fail this test,” or “They won’t pick me,” before we even try. We act like grasshoppers in our own minds and let fear write our reality.
Unfortunately, negative words are contagious. As soon as the ten spies shared their bad report, the fear spread like a virus. That night, the entire camp wept, panicked, and blamed their leaders, even crying out, “Would that we had died in this wilderness!”
Tragically, their words became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because they spoke defeat, they lost their courage, refused to move forward, and spent forty years wandering in the desert until their generation passed away. When we constantly repeat things like, “I’m just bad at this,” or “Things never work out for me,” we stop trying and accidentally build the very failure we said we feared.
In the middle of all that chaos, Joshua and Caleb stood up against the crowd. They urged the people not to be afraid, calling the giants “bread for us”; meaning the obstacle would actually nourish and build their faith. The crowd was so set on negativity that they tried to stone them! But standing for life-giving words often requires standing against the crowd.
At the end of the day, your words act like a steering wheel for your life. You can use your tongue to build up anxiety, project your insecurities, and give up early or you can choose to speak life, encourage those around you, and approach challenges with confidence.
What kind of report are you speaking over your life today?
