Speak Life: The Power of Your Words - Guest Speaker Terri Hill

“Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” On average most people speak about sixteen thousand words a day. If you transcribed those words they would fill a three hundred-page book every week. At the end of a year, you would have an entire bookcase full of words. In a lifetime you would fill a library. · How many of those words would really matter? · How many of those words would make a difference? · How many of those words speak life into your situations or speak death? Proverbs 18:21 NIV The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18: 21 NLT The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. 1 Peter 5:8 “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Passage: 1 KINGS 17: 8-24 8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” 1. Believe that where the Lord leads, he Feeds. 2. Where he guides He provides. 10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.” 12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.” Point #1 Your perspective influences your Words. 13 But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!” Point #2 Your Words have the power to bring hope and life. 15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. 16 There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. 17 Some time later the woman’s son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. 18 Then she said to Elijah, “O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?” Point #3 Your words only go as far as your opinion of God. 19 But Elijah replied, “Give me your son.” And he took the child’s body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed. 20 Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?” 21 And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, please let this child’s life return to him.” 22 The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived! 23 Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. “Look!” he said. “Your son is alive!” 24 Then the woman told Elijah, “Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.” Point #4 Your Words are a testimony. Because Elijah allowed God to speak through him the widow experienced the life giving power of God. • The words you say reflect your heart? • God wants to heal broken hearts, • Restore relationships, • Renew hope and • Bring Life to troubled past. Hebrews 4:12 (NLT) 12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. James 3:5-6The Message (MSG) 3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! 5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. Philippians 4:8 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Proverbs 13:3 Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but