Can believers speak things into existence?

Have you ever heard someone say, while praying, "We're going to call those things that are not as though they were"?

It sounds biblical, and even full of faith, but it's actually not.

The wording used here comes from Romans 4:17, which I am citing here in various translations:

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. (KJV)

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. (NIV)

That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. (NLT)

Read that verse carefully again.

Note that it doesn't say anything about believers calling those things that are not as though they were.

Rather, it talks about Abraham believing in the God who gives life to the dead and calls things into being from nothingness.

There is no inherent creative power in our words that we speak. We, as human beings, cannot decree and declare things into or out of existence.

Rather, we humbly request that the Almighty Creator, who does have such power, respond to our pleas to Him to do what we cannot do.