The Bible speaks a lot about our words. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death.” And James wrote, “Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things” (James 3:4–5). He recognized that although our tongue is a very small part of our body, it directs the course of our life for victory or defeat even when we’re in the midst of stormy, negative situations. Too often when we get in difficult situations, we forget the power that we have in our tongue and where it can lead us.
Think about the woman described in Mark 5 who had suffered with bleeding in her body for twelve long years. She’d spent all her money on doctors but only got worse. Can you imagine the negative voices in her head? Her family probably said, “You’ve tried everything. It’s hopeless.” But when she heard Jesus was coming to her town, she kept saying to herself, “If I can only touch His clothes, I will be healed.” She could have listened to all the negative voices that said there was no reason to think Jesus could help her, but these words fueled her faith that day. These words gave her the strength to push through the crowds thronging around Jesus. And with that last reach up behind Him, she was saying, “If I can only touch Him…” Her words got her to the hem of Jesus’ cloak, and the power came out of Him and gave her a miracle.
A word of faith set her on course to get to where she needed to be, and the same is true for you and me. She not only had to push through the crowd of people but through the crowd of negative voices in her head that said, “Don’t even try. It’s too late for you.” If you’re going to direct your life in the course to receive your miracle, you have to push through the voices and the opinions of others. You have to be strong with your words of faith as well as being strong in your thoughts. And the best way to get your thoughts to line up is to release your words of faith. Words reinforce what you think. Make God bigger than anything else that you see.
That woman prophesied her future that day, and you and I have the ability to prophesy the course of our life as well.