Words Taught by the Spirit

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” 1 Co. 2:13.

I continue to be amazed at the impact of our own words and how they determine what we say to our souls. Just yesterday, when going about my day, I became aware of two names I called myself. They weren’t necessarily horrible names but they were words spoken by human wisdom. They possessed no truth when measured against the names God calls me. When growing up my mother used to tell us that if we didn’t have anything nice to say, to not say anything at all! I find myself at 50 returning to that lesson of my youth regarding my own thoughts. I realize that, along with sticks and stones that break our bones, our names will always hurt us. Our negative thoughts are too easy to retrieve and too difficult to relinquish.

The only way to change the way we see ourselves is to stop speaking to our souls in human wisdom. Instead of calling myself slack for not accomplishing what was on my list, I will call myself thankful for tomorrow to have another day to accomplish this task. Instead of calling myself a failure I will speak to the successes God has given me. On days when I feel ineffective in my ministry, I will speak of God’s impact through my ministry instead of my ineffectiveness. We must begin to reframe our thoughts to speak spiritual words and truths about our lives. To speak negative thoughts about ourselves is to negate everything God speaks about who we are in Him. ‘To call yourself an untruthful, harsh name is a sin. It’s an insult to God, demeans His workmanship, and devalues His creation.’ Me, Myself & Lies p. 30.

Our human descriptive words are usually negative in spirit and empty of any value. The first step to reframing is the awareness that the old rickety frame that exists supports nothing of spiritual wisdom. We must tear down the old frame and rebuild with the spiritual truths of God, replacing our words of death with His words of life.