The Power of Spoken Words

Have you contemplated the real power of spoken words? We've all heard the saying, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." What nonsense! Words have the power to hurt deeply. Verbal abuse, particularly when perpetrated upon children is one of the most insidious forms of abuse there is. But words can also heal! Suffice it to say, there is power in our words, so it behooves us to choose them wisely.

I'd like to draw a correlation between what we say (and what we hear being said to us) and our level of genuine faith.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17 NKJV).

This is the cycle of faith, as I see it, from mouth, to ear, to heart, and then out of the mouth again. Truth is spoken, we hear it, our faith increases, we speak truth with more conviction. The New Testament in particular is replete with examples of how hearing and faith go hand-in-glove.

"I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?...So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?" (Gal. 3:2,5 HCSB)

To understand faith's role in the hearing process, we must understand what faith actually is.

“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see (Heb. 11:1 NLT).

Faith is reality for the believer, even when that reality is not yet visible! God is the Source of all reality, so when God speaks into our lives, we can accept what He says as being already true, even if it has not happened yet.

“…That is what the Scriptures mean when God told [Abraham], ‘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 brings into existence what didn't exist before” (Rom. 4:17 NLT).

God spoke light into existence when there was no light. He spoke space into being between the waters of heaven and the waters of earth. He spoke and grass sprung up and trees bore fruit. When God speaks, stuff happens!! When we hear God speak and believe what He says, faith happens! Confession and faith are the two primary criteria for salvation.

“If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved" (Rom. 10:9,10 GNT).

Confession to the believer is speaking the truth, or, in effect, saying what God has already said! Confessing the truth builds your faith. It allows you to remind yourself verbally that God has made a promise to you that you KNOW will ultimately come true.

There is a negative side to confession, however, that also needs to be addressed. Positive confessions have positive power, but negative confessions can be devastating. What you are doing when you speak negative and untrue words to yourself is, in effect, bolstering your belief in what’s not true about you. Hearing (and believing) negative things that others (including the devil) say about you has the same effect. That is why it is important to confess truth; so that you fill your heart with that truth.

Listen to what Jesus said to the Pharisees.

“You snakes—how can you say good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matt. 12:34 GNT).

Their words came from their hearts, which evidently were full of corruption and evil. It's the Biblical version of "what goes down in the well comes up in the bucket." We tend to speak what's in our hearts, good or bad. What's good builds up, but what's bad tears down.

If you consider the “whole counsel” of God in the matter of confession and faith, you’ll discover that what you say matters greatly to you and to those around you.

“Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My friends, this should not happen! No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water” (Jas. 3:10-12 GNT).

Whatever you speak the most is what ultimately fills your heart. If you continually speak negative and doubtful statements, your faith will wane and you will begin to believe lies. This is what psychologists and others refer to as "self-fulfilling prophecy." If you say the same thing enough times, you will eventually come to believe it. Do you see, then, why it’s important to be careful what you say? There is power in the words we speak.

James compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship--a relatively small object, but with the power to change a huge ship's direction. Let’s look at the power of confession from Jesus’ perspective.

"I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, 'Go from here to there!' and it will go. You could do anything!" (Matt. 17:20b)

Jesus answered, "I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, 'Get up and throw yourself in the sea,' and it will. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt. 21:21,22 GNT).

“For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. And when you stand and pray, forgive anything you may have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done” (Mark 11:24,25 GNT).

“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 7:7).

These verses are all are about making our requests known to God. And how do we do that? By asking! Asking is speaking or confessing what we want, and as long as what we want is what God wants for us, He guarantees that we will receive whatever we ask for. But we first have to ask.

"You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it" (Jas. 4:2 GNT).

Consider the following reasons why speaking God's Word is important. God’s Word… 

• always produces fruit, accomplishes all He wants it to, and prospers everywhere He sends it. (Isa. 55:11)
• is pure. (Proverbs 30:5)
• nourishes the spirit. (Luke 4:4)
• always bears fruit. (Luke 8:15)
• blesses those who hear it and keep it. (Luke 11:28)
• cannot be broken. (John 10:38)
• grows and multiplies, (Acts 12:24)
• it works in those who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
• is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12a)
• is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12b)
• framed the worlds. (Hebrews 11:13)
• is JESUS! (Revelation 19:13)

I have participated in many "testimony" services where believers share how God saved them and/or how He is working in their lives each day. Even though I was always encouraged by such meetings, I also wondered how they got started. According to tradition (and the record of Scripture), such meetings are to increase the faith of believers and to set an example for unbelievers. The testimonies of others encourage us in our own walk and spur us toward godliness.

Paul stated in his letter to the church in Colossae,

“Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts” (Col. 3:16 NLT).

Speaking, teaching, and even singing are all forms of confessing or speaking the truth. Praise is a very powerful form of confession in which we speak or sing back to God the truth He has revealed to us about Himself. We can do this corporately (as a group) or individually. Either way, there is also power in praise.

Speaking the truth is so powerful that in the Revelation, believers…

“… won the victory over [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed;…” (Rev. 12:11a GNT).

Faith and confession are directly proportionate. Your faith will only increase as does the frequency of your confession. Confession is to faith what thrust is to an airplane. Thrust is the amount of lift applied to an aircraft’s wings determined by the forward speed of the aircraft. The faster the aircraft travels in a forward direction, the more lift it produces on its wings.

So it is with confession. The more you confess God’s Word (out loud), the more your faith increases. And since faith is reality for believers, increasing our faith increases our acceptance of God’s reality in our lives.