The prophets of Israel often misunderstood God's attitude to violence. When reading about the prophets, we tend to assume that prophets always behaved correctly, but there is no reason that that should be true. We should not accept their actions uncritically, but test their behaviour against God's standards. We will find that they often acted wrongly. We will find that God sometimes honoured their gifts, even when they were using them wrongly.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29).

The Old Testament prophets frequently misused their powers. One example is Elisha and the cheeky children.

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"

He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. (1 Kings 2:23-24).

This incident demonstrates the power of prophetic words, but there is nothing in this passage to suggest that God approved Elisha's actions. They seemed to be out of proportion with the actions of the children.

When James and John wanted to put a similar curse on a Samaritan village that rejected them, Jesus challenged them.

And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of" (Luke 9:54-55).
James and John wanted to bring down violence against a village that opposed to them. Jesus clarified that were not invoking the Holy Spirit. He was explaining that when followers of Jesus call down violence, they give the spiritual powers of evil power to act.

Jesus warned them they would be giving the spiritual powers of evil authority to destroy the village, if they called down a curse on it.

The same thing happened to Elisha. When he spoke a curse against the children, he gave the spiritual powers of evil authority to destroy the children. The powers of evil stirred up the bears and they mauled them.

Elisha's actions did not bring glory to God. Christians should be careful about how they speak. Our words of violence can give the spiritual powers of evil authority to be violent and wreak destruction.

Putting these two passages together, we can conclude two things. Words are powerful and curses have consequences. Prophets must be careful about the way they speak, because their words can produce both good and evil.