by Tom Brown
One of the greatest fears of mankind is the fear of the future. There is no reason to fear the future, because Jeremiah 31:17 says, “There is hope for your future.” Combine this verse with Jeremiah 29:11 and you have assurance for a great future: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Some people have the attitude that some are born to have a good destiny while others are born to have a bad destiny. They think God is up in heaven saying to one person, “I like you. I’m going to make you into a great person.” Then they think God turns to another and says, “I don’t like you. I’m going to give you a bad destiny.” Some people think that some are meant to have a great future but others are meant to have a bad future. But this is simply not true.
God means for everyone to have a great future. God has never placed upon any person a terrible destiny.
You say, “Why do some people have a terrible destiny?” Because they haven’t hooked themselves up with God’s plan for their lives.
This is why I have written this article. I want you to hook yourself up with God’s plan. His plan for you is great, however you have to believe in it in order for God’s plan to work for you.
Not only do you have to believe in God’s plan for you, but you have to know it! How can you believe in something that you don’t know? You can’t. Yet some people say, “I believe God has a plan for me.”
When asked what the plan is, these people will respond, “I don’t know, but I believe in it.” But you can’t believe in something that you don’t know. You have to find out God’s plan for your life.
GOING IN CIRCLES
Some people are always going in circles. They do a lot of work, but they never get anywhere. Why? Because they don’t know where they’re going.
Imagine sitting in an airplane and hearing the pilot’s voice, “Hello, this is Captain Lost. Our goal is to arrive somewhere. I don’t know where I’m going, but I hope to arrive there anyway.” That is your cue to get off the plane.
A pilot has a map that tells him where to go. You have a map that tells you where to go and where God wants you to be. It’s called the Bible. The Bible contains thousands of promises to us: from healing, to prosperity, to guidance, to victory, to happiness in every realm of life. It is in these promises that you will find your glorious future. Unfortunately many people do not avail themselves to these glorious promises; therefore, they don’t have a glorious future.
THE POWER OF WORDS
In the Bible God tells us how this great future can come to pass in our lives. It comes to pass through our words. God has ordain our words to be the rudder to our lives. What we say will determine our destiny. Solomon says: “From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him” (Proverbs 12:14).
Working with your hands will produce certain results for you. Work will determine your future. If you don’t work, then you will have a bad future. It’s just that simple.
Yet God says that your tongue can produce the same kind of results as the work of your hands. Solomon is saying that a man is filled with good things by the fruit of his lips.
If you had a choice between having good things or bad things, wouldn’t you choose the good things? Of course you would. Well, how do you get the good things? By the fruit of your lips.
Let’s look at another scripture which echoes this truth. From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things… (Proverbs 13:2)
How does a man enjoy good things? By the fruit of his lips.
Now let’s look at the classic scripture on the power of the tongue.
From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:20-21).
You do remember that God said, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore choose life.” You choose life by choosing the words you speak. What you say out of your mouth is going to determine whether you have life or death. Your words determine whether you are going to have blessings or curses.
When the Bible speaks of the tongue, it is not referring to the pink, wet, slimy organ in your mouth. It is referring to the words that the tongue speaks. Don’t be like the woman who said, “I’m always saying the wrong thing. I think it’s because my tongue is wet and it’s always slipping.” The tongue is an organ of speech. It is speech that is powerful, not the organ itself.
This scripture says that the tongue produces fruit. We could say it this way: Your words produce fruit, and fruit is the end result of seeds. If you hold in your hand an apple, then you hold the end result of a seed. So fruit is the end result of a seed.
This means that your words are initially seeds. And what you plant now, you get later. So, what you say now, you get later.
My friend Don Gossett wrote a best-selling book entitled, “What You Say Is What You Get.” This is true. What you say now, you will get later. You are going to reap the words of your mouth. So you better watch what you say, because if it is bad you will reap it. This is one of the most powerful truths that you can learn when it comes to successful living. Of course you can always repent for what you say, and God will forgive you so you can set your life right.
PROMISE OF TOMORROW
Every seed holds the promise of tomorrow. Tomorrow is the future. Every seed holds the promise of the future. Your words hold the promise of your future. The life you are living now is the result of the words you spoke in the past.
I’ve heard parents say, “We don’t understand why our kids didn’t turn out right. We did everything we could. We even warned them. We told them that they were never going to amount to anything. We told them that they were going to be failures, and they were.”
Do you see what they did? They constantly spoke negative things to their kids. They predicted their kids future by their words.
You say, “Wait a minute. Aren’t we supposed to warn our children when they do wrong?” Yes. You can warn them without predicting their future, though.
For example, after your son has done something wrong you can spank him and afterward say, “Son, what you did was wrong. Jesus lives in you, so you can do better. Next time, let the Lord live through you. I forgive you.” That’s better than saying in anger and fear, “You’re never going to amount to anything! I won’t be a bit surprised to find you in prison some day!”
I have noticed that nearly every Miss America winner will say something like, “I want to thank my parents for their support. They told me that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. They believed in me and said that I could be Miss America. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for believing in me.”
You hardly hear any winner say, “I thank only myself, because no one believed in me. My parents said that I was foolish in thinking that I could be Miss America.” No! You don’t hear those lovely ladies say that.
Unfortunately, you may be walking in the fruit of your parents’ negative words. Maybe they told you over and over again that you would never amount to anything. But don’t believe them. Believe God’s report instead.
* He says that you are a world overcomer.
* He says nothing is impossible for you who believe.
* He says that greater is the Holy Spirit who is in you than the devil who is in the world.
* He says that the righteous may fall seven times, but he shall arise every time.
* He says all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His good purpose.
Start speaking God’s words, and don’t repeat the negative words of others, even if those people happen to be your parents. Love your parents, respect them, be kind to them, but don’t believe their negative report about you.
In Numbers chapter 14, the people were declaring that they and their children would die in the desert and not enter the Promise Land. God spoke to Moses and told him to give them this message: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say” (v. 28). God tells them that they are going to get everything they said. God said to them, “What you say, is what you get.” God did, however, exempt the children: “As for your children that YOU SAID would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected” (v.31). So you see that your parent’s words do not have to determine your destiny.
GOOD AND BAD
Proverbs 18:21 says that the tongue can produce both life and death. It can be an instrument of good and bad. The tongue is neutral. It’s neither good or bad; it’s only an instrument. You can use it to produce good or you can use it to produce bad. The choice is yours.
Your tongue even has the power of health. The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life…” (Proverbs 15:4). Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs 12:18).
Your tongue can make you well. Doctors have known this for some time. Some patients have told their doctors that they would live and not die, and they did. These patients should have died according to the doctor’s reports, but instead they lived. Such miracles have constantly baffled the medical profession. I’m convinced that in many of these miracle cases, the people got healed because of their words.
Mary Bustillos is one person who got healed because she maintained a positive confession of God’s Word. Mary is my secretary at church. In 1986, Mary began to experience excruciating pain in her breast. During this time she cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me!” At this time, Jesus appeared to her in a bright light and showed her his nail-scarred hands. Mary thought, Oh, my God! I’m going to die because I have seen the Lord. Because of this vision, Mary gave up hope of living, thinking that the Lord was coming to take her to heaven.
She shared this vision with a sister in the Lord from Albuquerque. This lady helped Mary understand this vision. She rebuked Mary by showing her that she was misinterpreting the vision: “Jesus is showing you, Mary, that He bore your sickness, not that He is going to take you home.” Most importantly, the lady told Mary, “Quit speaking about dying. Speak life and healing.” She did, but the symptoms worsened.
Finally, she went to see a doctor about this condition. The doctor gave her the news that every woman has feared hearing, “You have cancer. Unfortunately, it’s already in the last stage. We can’t do anything to help you.”
Despite the negative report from the doctor, Mary began to declare, “The cancer is dead. The tumor is shrinking. I shall live and not die, and declare the glory of the Lord.” This sounded silly to the doctors, but to their amazement the cancer eventually disappeared. They gave her a complete bill of health in 1988. She is still alive and well and working hard for the Lord.
Mary and others like her have talked themselves into health. Others, unfortunately, have talked themselves into dying. Sometimes there was nothing seriously wrong with them, but they died anyway. Their words killed them.
Your words have the power of life and death. Your words are the most powerful thing you have working for you, or against you. So make your words work for you!
Tom Brown Ministries 