Our Words Have Power
God’s Word is powerful, and ours are powerful, too. We are required to use it responsibly.
Throughout the Bible, we see how the words we speak have an insane amount of power. Much more power than many of us realize.
Our Words Have the Power to Bless
In Genesis 27, we see the power of a father’s blessing and how once spoken, the words can’t be changed. Jacob took his father’s blessing that was intended for Esau and there was no going back. Jacob got Esau’s blessing and Jacob was claimed by his father to be Lord over his brothers. Esau had no choice but to submit to his father’s words.
God has endowed people to have power in their words. He has appointed leaders and whether we agree with them or not, God has confirmed that He is the one who puts them in their place of leadership. He is the one who established them as the authority and, in as much as possible, we should respect them. Although we can have a difficult time with leaders at times, we Believers know that ultimately we can trust the Lord to be our ultimate authority.
The authority that God gives to parents gives us the power to bless our children. The authority that God gave Believers gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to speak words of life that are rooted in God’s word and God’s truth.
The power to bless others should be established in love. Since the greatest commandment is to Love God and Love others, at any moment, we have that authority to bless, uplift, and encourage others.
Our Words Declare the Gospel
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
People get so nervous about sharing the gospel with people. I have been nervous, too, but a conversation that happened a few months ago shocked me.
One of my good friends is not a Believer, but she is very curious. She asks amazing questions and we always have amazing conversations. Now I’ve never been trained in preaching the gospel, but my 20ish years as a Believer taught me more than I thought.
When she asked me questions, responses, verses, and explanations came out of my mouth that I had no idea was there. I was able to give her a breakdown of the entire bible in about 25 minutes and show her how Jesus was reflected throughout the entire story. Of course, if you did a detailed version of this, it could last years, but I was able to show her how all of the old testament laws and judgments lead up to Jesus being able to fulfill the law.
If you have been a Believer for a while, you might be surprised at what you do know. The words that you read and have heard tons of times do get in your brain and are able to come out when you least expect them. But having boldness and confidence to start is vital.
But above all, the Spirit will speak through you and fall onto hearts that are ready to hear the truth.
God’s Word Convicts
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
I was listening to a broadcast interview by Sent as One Ministries and it rocked my world. If you are interested in the Prophetic Ministry or calling, please watch it. But it said one thing that really resonated. It talked about how in the modern church we want to make God out to be all lovey and accepting, where we forget that He’s a warrior, and He doesn’t tread lightly on sin. He asked what we see in Revelations: We see a God that’s, to be honest, really scary (my words). I know that I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving side of that wrath!!
When God’s word is present, it should hit us like the coal touching Isaiah’s lips in Isaiah 6. We should have a reaction when the Word of God is read and heard. It saddens me to see how people take the Bible for granted and lose the respect that we should have for it.
Last year, a guest speaker decided to read an entire chapter of a book in the Bible to our church. In the middle of it, he looked out in the crowd and told us disappointedly, “Speakers can come up here and interpret the Bible for you, tell you amazing stories, but once the word of God is read, your eyes gloss over.” That made us refocus our attention pretty quickly.
It is not about condemnation, it’s about refocusing our energy not on interpretations or on people’s prophetic words to us, it’s about digging into our own relationship with the Lord and into His Word.
The Word of God should convict us. It should make us change. It should affect us emotionally or physically. It has power to change everything.
All Teaching Should Be Rooted in the Word
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16–17
If we know that God’s Word is powerful, why don’t we use it more? I love John MacAuthor’s explanation of expository preaching. I wanted to summarize what he said, but I can’t say it any better than this:
All right, principle number one: the Word of God is a holy and sacred thing.
Treat it with awe and respect, protect its purity, and never knowingly violate its sanctity. Of course, I think we’re all aware of this. But it is something we need to be reminded about that the Bible is the Word of God.
It emanates from the holiness of God.
It reflects the mind and the heart and the will of God. And as such, it must be treated with a tremendous amount of respect.
The Bible is not to be dealt with flippantly, it is not to be dealt with lack of diligence, it is not to be dealt with in a cursory manner.
It is to be dealt with with tremendous commitment.
Read or listen to the whole sermon HERE.
All sermons and all teaching should be rooted in the word. The Word is powerful, so our words of interpretation have no choice but to veer away from the meaning. It is not bad to interpret, but it is when we steer away from it so long that it becomes different than the original intent is when it gets bad.
So many people try to add to the Word through fancy stories, analogies, fancy sets, videos and more, but God’s word doesn’t need anything else. It is powerful in itself and if each and every sermon was simply us getting together and reading the word aloud, then that is enough.
Our Words have no Power outside of Christ
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
Another great example from the video by Sent as One Ministries is when they discuss how the woman with a spirit of deviation in Acts 16 actually had a prophetic gift. She was able to be accurate in her readings and made the men who owned her lots of money. But the truth is that God’s truth was stronger… much stronger.
Her gift was not rooted in Christ. Similarly to many prophetic moments and people with prophetic gifts even in the Christian ministry. People might have a gift of prophecy (seeing the future, giving words of knowledge, etc.), but just because they have an ability doesn’t mean that they are rooted in Christ.
Our gifts, whether they are prophetic, evangelistic, teaching, serving, loving, must be rooted in Christ. We must always be asking the Lord what to say, how to say it, and asking Him to speak through us. When we start to step away from Him and rely on our own strength, even for a moment, we begin to use words of our own with our human weaknesses filtering out the Power and intention behind the words.
It is so easy for us to find success and start to have a ravenous desire for more. We can constantly pretend that we are doing it for him when we are actually using words, using the gifts he gave us for our glory.
Rooted In Christ
As we continue on this journey for more of the Lord, more of His truth, and more impact on the world for His sake, it is a constant cycle of falling back into His word, His strength, and His guidance.
Our words have power, but God’s Word is the constant authority. As we move towards more of Him, let’s continue the journey rooted in Christ.
This conversation isn’t over. If you’d like to follow our journey of digging deeper into Biblical truth, intimacy with God, and stepping forward on the journey for more, follow me for updates.
Are you ready to identify and pursue your God-given calling? CLICK HERE to download our 5-Day Journal.
