Start creating a better world for yourself, today. Start by speaking strong and hard words that are for God, not against Him.
If you've ever heard the saying, "stick out like a sore thumb," you've probably never thought a thing about it. Most people don't. It's just one of those sayings people use in conversation without giving much attention to what it really means.

But "stick out like a sore thumb" is a phrase that I believe accurately describes Gloria and me - that is, up to a point. For the past 33 years, we've stuck out, but more like a healthy thumb in a world full of sore ones...and all because we've been careful of the words that come out our mouths.

It started in February 1967, when Gloria and I decided to take the Word of God seriously and believe everything it said. Then we came across Mark 11:23, which said we could have what we say. The concept of "having what we said" was totally new and different to us, but we began living it the very day we heard it.

We began paying close attention to every word and phrase that came out of our mouths because we were suddenly aware that each word would affect our future.

Since that day, we've been called everything from "those name-it-and-claim-it preachers" to "that blab-it-and-grab-it bunch." And it's never been said in such a way that would make us feel all warm and good inside.

I have to admit, though, Gloria and I started doing a lot of naming and claiming back then. We grabbed some "out-of-debt," some "free-of-sickness" and some "peace-of-mind" - and we've been prospering ever since. For 33 years we've been laying hold of everything that's promised in the Word of God and purchased by the blood of Jesus!

Your future, good or bad, is in you, right now. It's in your mouth and it's determined by the words you speak. I don't believe the Bible can get any clearer on the impact that words have in our lives - both now, and throughout eternity. Being justified by our words, or condemned by them, is a spiritual law. It's one that cannot be changed.

Simply put, you and I are what we are today - and we have what we have today - because of what we said yesterday. Not long ago, as I meditated on this principle and the passage in Matthew 12, the Spirit of God said, "Kenneth, most people go from day to day hoping nothing bad happens, hoping nothing happens that I can't handle."

Then, when the curse comes, because of what they've been saying and thinking, they try to change things in a few moments of prayer and tears, not realizing that, over a period of years, their words actually caused what happened.

That was a mouthful of truth. Yet, as telling as it was, the Lord went on to say: "Meditating continually on the lies of the devil builds doubt and unbelief in your spirit until it overflows in abundance into your mouth. Then it is released in words of fear and takes action."

From what the Lord was saying, I saw clearly that, if you and I just go along in life hoping nothing bad happens, and we never walk by faith, we never apply the Word, then we are exercising faith in something bad happening to us, and it will come to pass.

The fact that our words determine our future is a spiritual law. Everyone is subject to it. Proverbs 13:2-3 says, "A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keeps his mouth keeps his life: but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction."

Even as believers, if we just let our mouths run loose and never put a watch over them, the devil will see to it that we fill them with words of destruction.

Can you imagine your words could be so powerful that they could actually stop God? They can. And that's exactly what happened in this passage.

If God tells us to do one thing, and we decide, "No, I want to go this way and do this other thing," that's when our words become hard and strong against Him. They actually stop the power of His Word in our lives.

Remember, when God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26), He meant we would have the same power He had to choose our own words, speak them, and thereby determine our eternal destinies.

So what you and I need to do is, first, stop saying all the same things the world says...such as, "stick out like a sore thumb"... or, "I'm just so sick and tired of this, and sick and tired of that."

If we really believe our words determine our future health, wealth, and place in eternity, then we need to stop rehearsing what we don't want and start talking what we do want.

Second, we need to start filling our mouths with the Word of God. Psalm 91:2-3 says, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee." In other words, the Psalmist was saying, "When I say it, it's a sure thing!"

Satan has instilled certain habits, including words and sayings, into this world, many of which have spilled over into the Church. As a result, our words have been stout against God, keeping Him from doing all that He is anointed to do on our behalf.

The challenge for us is to break out of those habits by changing from negative words - words that are seeds of sin and death - to positive words of truth, words of life. And we do that by keeping the Word of God going into our hearts, and our ears and coming out of our mouths, until it eventually begins overflowing in our lives.

If our words can be stout against God and bring the very power that created all of heaven and earth to a standstill, just imagine what stout words for God can do.

Start creating a better world for yourself, today. Start by speaking strong and hard words that are for God, not against Him. Speak words that your High Priest can honor and then bring to pass.

As you do, I guarantee you it won't be long before you'll stick out in a world full of sore thumbs.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries