13 May Speak Out Loud

As we are ending our sixth week of the DTS, we have been blessed to have one of our own, Pete Mahoney, return to teach us about Freedom and Restoration. The week included instruction on recognizing injustices, breaking strongholds, and calling out original design, this last item being something special we do with each of the students. We pray and ask the Lord to tell us about how each of them was made and what strongholds maybe holding them back. What a powerful time it is!

As we continue to seek out a culture of honor within our midst, knowing one another’s original design is a powerful tool to counteract the lies we face from the enemy. We are radically committed to speaking life, and we will not tolerate any dishonoring talk and/or death speaking. Proverbs says this about the power of the tongue:

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21

We have embraced the idea that our tongues contain the power to bring life or death, and when we speak things out, it is powerful. We recognize it was through speaking that God created the world, and we, being made in the image of God, also have the power to bring life with our words. Unfortunately, because of the fall, we can also bring death with it as well.

Two ways we strive to see life speaking being walked out in our community daily are:
–   Blessing and declaration: Sometimes we get really worked up on the idea of blessing one another and fear it, but it can be as simple as declaring Scriptural truths over each other. “You are a child of God”; “You have the mind of Christ”; “God has a plan for you.” This is where knowing the original design of our friends can be important. Often times we forget these things and even start to doubt them, and we as a community can surround these people, declare the truth about who they are, and break off the lies that they have been believing, pulling them out of the darkness and back into the light!

–   Thanksgiving: This is another simple, but huge, aspect of life speaking. Scripture says every good thing comes from God, so we have many things to be thankful about! Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” It is by our thanksgiving that we get to approach the gate of Heaven and enter in, singing the praises of our King! Often times when I am in a low place, I begin to thank God for the good things He has done for me, and soon I find my spirits lifted! There is no thing too small to be thankful for.

Now here is my personal favorite: I love to bless people by thanking them! We have the wonderful opportunity to pull out the incredible things God has placed in each other and show them off to the world! I try to thank them for the God-given characteristic that drives them to do what they did instead of the activity, making it more about who they are instead of what they do. Thank people for their patience with God, for their faithfulness and obedience to God, and for every time they chose God over the world! I believe each time we do this, we build strength, faith, and desire to exercise these characteristic more!

So I challenge you today to see whom can you bless today? Who can you tell “good job” or “thank you”? What things have you not thanked the Lord for recently? How can you pull out the best in others? How can you speak truth into the life of not just a loved one, but even a complete stranger! We hold the power of life and death in our tongue; which one will you be releasing?

(JP is a DTS Staff at YWAM Tokyo. He is servant-hearted, filled with exhortation, and gifted to work in finance.)