The Power of the Spoken Word
The Power of the Spoken Word
by Charles Capps
Word Power
Most people don’t understand the power of words. Do you realize that the things you are speaking out of your mouth are setting the cornerstone of your life? Some words deceive. Some words transmit faith. Think about it. The words you speak can transmit faith or fear. So when we are talking about your spoken words, we are talking about things that are powerful enough to change lives for the better or worse.
Genesis 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Notice the Spirit of God was hovering over the water. The water was there, the darkness was there and the Spirit of God was there. But nothing happened until words were spoken. God spoke and said, Light. When God spoke, it came into existence. His words were His creative power.
So many people today think of words as being unimportant. You have heard people make statements like, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Nothing is further from the truth. Words can kill you. If you don’t know what you are doing with words, they can destroy you.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11:3, “The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.” Perverseness is crooked and contrary speech. Proverbs has a lot to say about perverse lips – crooked and contrary speech, or speaking things that are contrary to what we actually believe.
Many people speak perversely. They don’t know why they do it, but they do. Often, they speak the very opposite of what they mean. For instance, you’ve probably heard people say things like, “Oh, isn’t that a big dog!” when, in fact, it’s a little, bitty Chihuahua.
That is what the Bible calls perverse speech. It’s crooked or contrary. You are speaking contrary to what you actually mean or believe.
God created man in His own image and in His likeness. God’s Word is His will for man. When I say man, I mean mankind. Man was created in the image of God. Man’s words – your words – should be your will toward God. You really shouldn’t speak anything you don’t desire to come to pass or that is not your will.
Power of the Tongue
You may have also heard someone say, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Well, the truth is, what you don’t know may be what is killing you. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”
God’s Word conceived in the heart, then formed with the tongue and spoken out of the mouth becomes a spiritual force releasing the ability of God. These are words you conceive in the human spirit. Then you form them with your tongue. Have you ever noticed your words, or syllables, are separated by the tongue when you speak?
The Word of God conceived in the human spirit, then formed with the tongue and spoken out of the mouth releases the ability of God. This is how God intended for you to receive His Word.
You can also receive and speak other words. For instance, if it’s the devil you are quoting, you are releasing the ability of the devil.
Many people have failed to understand why there is so much teaching on confession. Some criticize confession and teaching on the power of God’s Word in the mouth.
Actually, what we are teaching is simple Bible truth. We are simply showing you how to operate in the principles of God’s Word.
God’s Principles
God’s principles are involved in confession of the principles of faith. The Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It doesn’t say that’s the only way we can get faith.
Faith in God’s Word comes by hearing the Word of God. By the same token, you could say that faith in the devil could come by hearing the words of the devil.
So we shouldn’t take a truth and try to make the truth out of it.
Hearing the Word of God causes faith in God and in His Word to come to you. This spiritual force is also released out of your mouth when you speak God’s Word. It actually releases God’s ability on your behalf. I believe that is one of the reasons Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) He understood the Word conceived inside him and spoken out of his mouth actually set the cornerstone of his life.
God’s Method Works
Why is creative power released inside you when you speak God’s Word? This is essentially what God told Joshua back under the Old Covenant when He said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
Do you want to make your way prosperous? Do you want to know the key of being successful in life? It is to do what God told Joshua to do – keep the Word of God in your mouth.
Jesus Had Great Faith
Have you ever wondered why Jesus had such great faith? Jesus had great faith because He spoke only that which He heard His Father say. When He did, it caused faith to come. Faith that is in God’s Word gets into your spirit when you speak it.
The Bible does not say faith comes by reading. No, it says faith comes by hearing. In order to hear something, it must be spoken. It’s more powerful when you hear it spoken out of your mouth because you receive what you say more readily than you receive what someone else says. The words you speak affect you more than anyone else. You may get some faith by hearing me speak the Word of God. But faith will come to you more quickly if you speak it out of your mouth. That’s why God told Joshua to keep His words in his mouth day and night. In other words Joshua was to keep saying what God said regardless of the circumstances he faced.
When satan came against Jesus, tempting Him in the wilderness, Jesus responded by speaking only what His Father said. He said, “It is written…” (See Matthew 4:4, 7 and 10). This will cause you to be highly developed in the God kind of faith.
Planting the Seed of God’s Word
Speaking what God says does several things. When you speak the Word out of your mouth, you are planting a seed. And not only that, but “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) The more you speak the Word, the more you believe it. The more you believe the Word, the more you speak it.
In 2 Corinthians 4:13 Paul said, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.”
Paul was quoting Psalm 116:10 which says in part, “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” Then he said, “We also believe, and therefore speak.” In other words, what you believe, you will speak. But even if you don’t believe the Word, if you speak it long enough, you will eventually believe it, and then you’ll be bold to speak it. It is God’s cycle for producing faith as well as planting seed for harvest.
This is the way you get the process going. It’s in your mouth, then it’s in your heart. When it’s in your heart in abundance, it will stay in your mouth. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You can usually locate people and tell where they are spiritually by the words they speak. Just hang around them a few minutes, and that which is abundantly in their heart always shows up in their mouth.
Sometimes they don’t like what’s in their mouth. I remember a man who was working for me on the farm many years ago. One day he came out with some curse words. Then he slapped his hand over his mouth and said, “Oh, I don’t talk that way.” What he meant was that he didn’t intend to talk that way around me. But what was in his heart got in his mouth.
Whatever is in your heart will always tell on you. If you are in doubt, fear or unbelief, you will talk about it. If you are in faith, you will talk faith.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is “as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” (Mark 4:26) You need to understand that God is not sowing your seed for you. It’s not going to manifest for you just because it’s in the Bible and you happened to read it.
When you speak the word of promise out of your mouth, it is picked up by the inner ear and planted into the heart.
The Heart is a Garden
In Eden, Adam had a garden which God gave him to keep. It was called the Garden of Eden. It supplied everything Adam needed. But Adam failed to protect and keep it. He allowed Satan access and he polluted it. But Jesus came and restored the garden. Now it abides within believers. Jesus said the kingdom is within you. And now the born-again human spirit which is in you is like a garden which will produce everything you need in this life.
Your spirit is capable of leading you to anything you need. It has the wisdom to lead you, for your spirit is in contact with God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit knows all about God. The Apostle Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 2:11-12, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
Paul is saying that you don’t know all about you, but your spirit does. The human spirit knows all about you. No man knows all about me, but my spirit does. No man knows all about God, but the Holy Spirit does. And if you can get those two spirits together, you tap the source of all knowledge. Your spirit will search the avenues of God’s wisdom and find a way to cause the Word of God to come to pass in your life.
So many today have not understood the power of their words. God’s words are the most powerful force in the universe and you have the ability to give voice to His words. John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made by him (Word); and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
We have the authority to speak God’s words after Him. There is no authority exercised without words. And God has given us authority over the devil. Hardly anything can be done without words.
It is time we give more thought to the words we speak. We should do as David did, and ask God to set a watch over our mouths and keep the door of our lips. (Psalm 141:3)
We must realize that God knew what He was talking about. If we will do what He said, we will have what He said we could have. Don’t be a hearer only, but also a doer of God’s Word. The Word of God is good news. It is the gospel, and it is the power of God unto deliverance, preservation, healing and soundness.
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- Charles Capps