THE POWER OF THE TONGUE

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 (HCSB)

This is a favorite Scripture of many proponents of Word of Faith and it is a Scripture that is foundational for a lot of false doctrine because it is rather weakly translated into English and that weakness of translation allows many to incorrectly exegete or handle this Scripture.

Many believe they have the power of life and death by speaking, declaring and decreeing things into existence. The word translated here as "power" is not exousia as in, "all power has been given me in heaven and earth...," or dunamis like in, " Jesus answered them, “You are deceived, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God." Matthew 22:29 (HCSB) or dunamis again in, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Matthew 24:30 (HCSB)

Exousia is that authority and rulership in power and dunamis is that divine miraculous super natural creative power of God whereas power as expressed in Pro 18:21 is yad in Hb meaning hand, more literally translated ...."Life and death are in the hand of the tongue." The idea here is one of natural consequences for what you speak.

To illustrate natural consequences we could say that the company you keep whether good or evil can be life and death to you. Natural consequences as opposed to divine supernatural creative power.

Should any of this not be clear to you just submit a question or comment below.