Speak the Word

Life and death, the Scriptures tell us, are in the power of the tongue. We must therefore fill our lives and the environment with words of faith. We must understand that the power of faith is released by words. The third verse of the faith chapter in the book of Hebrews, discussed previously, tells us that the world was brought into existence by the Word of God. God spoke and they were created. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God’s Word has creative ability in it. And because we’re born of God, the words we speak, if they are God’s, will also have creative ability.

Life and Death are in the Power of the Tongue

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mk 11:22,23).

What we believe in our hearts is important, but equally important in this walk of faith is what we say. God wants us to change our vocabulary from words of defeat to words of faith because what we say affects our situation. Be careful what you say, therefore, because you might have it. We must discipline ourselves and speak words becoming to believers: words that our Lord Jesus can support and present to the Father, for Jesus is the high priest of our profession and our confession.

If you say, “I am healed, I am whole,” the Lord Jesus can support and present that to the Father, for He himself “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Pet 2:24). If when you feel weak you say, “I am strong, for the Lord is the strength of my life,” the Lord your High Priest will affirm the same before the Father and make it good. If when you feel defeated, you say, “I am more than a conqueror through Christ,” the Lord confirms the affirmation at the right hand of God, where He is seated for you after overcoming principalities and powers for your benefit. There He’s confirming what you’ve said and reminding you that you’re seated in Him, in the heavenly places, over and above all principalities and powers.

But if you confess defeat and weakness and sickness, He cannot be the high priest of those. Those are not in the promises of God and are not “yea” and are not “Amen.” In addition, you must be careful what you say, because there is power in the words coming out of your mouth, especially if you believe them. And the enemy is also camping next to your mouth to catch those words and use them to defeat you.

In the passage above, the Lord said that if you say to the obstacle before you, “Be removed and cast into the sea,” and you don’t doubt in your heart, but believe what you have said will come to pass, then you will have what you said. You must therefore learn not to be quiet. When there is a mountain standing in your way and blocking your progress, speak to it. Speak to the mountain. Tell it to move. Don’t keep quiet: take the Word with you and speak. Your miracle is in your mouth.

The Scriptures tell us of a woman with an issue of blood who, through thick and thin, shame and ridicule, pushed through the crowd and came to the Lord. The Bible tells us that this little woman said, “If I but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be whole” (Mat 9:21). She really believed this and she said it. Speak words of faith about your situation and take a corresponding action. Speak the Word to yourself. Speak it for yourself to hear and to shame the devil. As you speak it and you listen, if you did not believe it before, it will eventually enter into your heart and become faith; and then, as you speak in faith, the power of God will explode into your situation and blow the mountain away. Speak the Word.

Which word should I speak, you ask? How should I prepare to speak it? Where should I go in order to speak? The Spirit of God already answered these questions in the opening passage:

“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.” It is not far from you. It is your heart. Feed on the Word of God. Store it in your heart and then speak it out. This is the Word of faith that brings salvation, healing, provision, protection, and security. Watch what you speak, guard it with all diligence, and confess only what God says about you.

Sooner or later, we become what we confess. Of course, there is the confession of our hearts and the confession of our lips. At first, these two might be different. We might be confessing what we hope with our mouths while our hearts are saying a different thing. It’s on our lips, but we really don’t believe it. When the confession of our lips harmonizes with the confession of our hearts, and these two confirm God’s Word, we become strong in faith and mighty in prayer.

Speak the Word of God continually. Confess what God has said about you. Don’t confess fear; don’t confess sickness; don’t confess weakness. Some well-meaning people, thinking they are being honest or humble, get in the habit of confessing their weakness, and their confession makes them weaker. They confess their lack of faith and their doubt grows. They confess their fear and they become more fearful. They confess their lack and become poorer. They confess their fear of disease and sickness and their sickness grows worse and worse.

Many of us are not saying what the Scriptures say about us. We should be saying what God has said: “for he hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb 13:5,6). Instead, some of us are going around asking for prayers and saying, “Pray for me, I am having a terrible time. I am tired of fighting, I don’t know if I can make it, and I feel the Lord has forsaken me.” Many people are boldly confessing defeat. But that’s not what God has said.

Only a few of us, perhaps, realize that our confession imprisons us. Wrong believing, wrong thinking, and wrong confession will defeat and imprison you. The devil cannot defeat you without your help or consent, because he has already been defeated by our Lord Jesus. The Lord has defeated the devil for you and me. But you can defeat yourself by what you say with your mouth.

The Scriptures have been given to us to guide us into believing what God says about us. If our belief is right, our thinking will be right. If our believing and thinking are right, our confession will be right also. 

Furthermore, it is important for us to know that what we believe can be affected by what we confess. Our words, our conversation, can build power or weakness into us. What we confess dominates our inner being. We speak and we hear ourselves, and that eventually influences our belief, which in turn will affect our thinking, and what we think about will affect what we say next. But it’s the words we speak that set our worlds on fire. It’s our words that snare us and hold us in captivity. 

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (Jam 3:7-9). 

It is amazing how much faith people have in negative things and how much they talk about them. It is normal to hear people talk about the variety of illnesses attacking their families and what seasonal attacks they are expecting next. They believe disease is coming; they think about it and make plans for its arrival; then they confess it, and surely as the sun rises, it comes.

They so firmly believe in cancer, ulcers, pneumonia, and the dominion of these diseases that they cannot see the Word of God. Their faith in the power of these diseases is so great that the Word of God has no place. They, therefore, confess their fear, and they become more fearful. They confess the power of the diseases, and the diseases grow under their confession. They confess their lack, and their lack gains supremacy over their lives. 

We must realize that as we speak, we are sowing seeds of words, and just as the Lord Jesus said in the parable of the sower, each seed will bring forth after its kind. Let us, therefore, sow the right seed of the Word of God. Let us sow it in good soil. Let us water the seed, and it will bring forth a hundredfold harvest for us. If we sow the Word of God in the soil of our hearts and water it, it will bring forth faith, and by this, we will overcome the word. For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. 

As we study the Word of God and act upon it, as we live in it and allow it to live in us, it slowly becomes a living reality in us. This process may be slow, but it is sure to materialize. We, therefore, need to avail ourselves of the opportunity to hear the Word of God and meditate on the precious promises that He’s made for us in Scripture, for He has given us all we need to be victorious in this life.  

“According as his divine power hath given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Pet 1:3-4). 

We should constantly declare that we are partakers of His Divine nature and that we have become joint heirs with Christ Jesus. We were buried with Him in baptism, we died with Him, and God quickened us and raised us up together with Christ. Now God Almighty has seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 

He has made us new creations in Him, and therefore old things have passed away and all things are brand new. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor 5:17). 

Confess God’s Word to Build Faith

Confession of God’s Word builds and increases faith. Our confession should include what Christ has done for us in the great plan of redemption, what we are in Christ as a result of the new birth, and what God is doing in us now. It should include what the Scripture says God the Father has made available to us as His children, what He has done in us through His Word, what He is doing in us today, and what He can accomplish through us. These are the things we should think about and say with our mouths. We should believe them, think them, and then speak them.

 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 

Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:3-5). 

We are no longer subject to the dominating power of Satan, and none of his weapons can overpower us anymore. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD” (Isa 54:17). 

He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Lord has therefore sent us into the world to preach the gospel and proclaim His power, and demonstrate His conquest over Satan. 

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. 

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” (Mk 16:16,17). 

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). 

He has redeemed us and made us eligible for the blessings of Abraham. As it is written, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13,14). 

The Father Himself loves us. His eyes are watching over us all the time. We are the apple of His eyes, and no one can touch us. “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zec 2:8). 

You are graven upon the palms of His hands, His eyes are continually upon you, and He can never forget you. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. 

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” (Isa 49:15-16) 

When you’re weak and feel defenseless, confess these Scriptures: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psa 27:1). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psa 46:1). 

When in need and exhausted because of the walk of faith, I meditate on His Word, which says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philp 4:19) and on the song of David saying, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psa 23). Therefore I shall not lack any good thing and the Lord will continually restore my soul and lead me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

I declare that I am in Him, seated and abiding in Him eternally. He is the Vine and I am part of the branches. I am a member of His body. The Name of Jesus belongs to me, and whatever I ask in His Name, He will do it. Whatever I ask the Father in His Name, He will grant it. 

Yes, the Son of God has made me free and I am free indeed. Free from sin, free from sickness, and free from any form of bondage whatsoever. For “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed” (Isa 53:3). 

Dear fellow believer, let these words encourage and admonish you to diligently search the Scriptures and store His precious promises in your hearts and minds; then meditate on them until they mix with faith in your heart. Continue to confess these promises, for the Word is nigh thee.

The Seed Is the Word of God

 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).

When the disciples asked the Lord the meaning of the parable of the sower, He told them, “The seed is the word of God.”  God’s Word is the incorruptible seed. Peter, referring to this in his first Epistle, wrote, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (I Pet 1:23). 

Just as the sower sows the seed in the soil, the seed of the Word can be sown in our hearts. The word of faith is the seed and our hearts are the soil. When we read, hear, and confess the Word, the seed is being sown in our hearts. As we meditate on it, we’re watering the seed and giving it a good opportunity to grow and bring forth fruit. 

Others may be sowing the wrong seeds of fear and of unbelief, but we should be sowing the Word of God. We should sow the pure undiluted seed of the Word. It should not be mingled with the philosophy of men or our own ideas. We should speak and do exactly what the Word says. Confess the Word, say it the way God has said it, and don’t tamper with the seed. 

The seed is sown in the soil by the farmer. Buried in the earth, it first dies and then God raises it up to life by His resurrection power. The seed has the inherent nature of God in it, and the seed-faith will produce after its kind. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so” (Gen 1:11-13). 

A sower sows for the purpose of reaping. When you sow your seed, therefore, you must tend the seed, nurture it, and wait patiently and expectantly for your seed to pass through the blade stage, through the ear stage, and unto fruition. 

Do not terminate your seed at the blade or ear stage or dig it out before it germinates. When you sow a seed, whether it be a seed of the “word of faith” in your heart, a seed to bring forth healing in your body, a financial seed to bring forth healing in your finances, a spoken word to change some situation in your ministry, or a seed of the Word to bring forth eternal life in someone else, you need to be patient. Watch over your seed, pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send His rains on your seed, and keep expecting and looking for your seed to spring forth from the good soil. Don’t doubt and dig it up. Believe the Lord of the Harvest and keep speaking His words, for:

 “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa 55:11). 

Hold on to these words from the Lord of the Harvest, and don’t let go. His Word will not return to Him void. Eschew every form of anxiety, doubt, and fear, for these are enemies of your faith. They are the weeds and the thorns whose goal is to choke the life out of your seed, preventing it from coming to fruition. Learn the difference between waiting eagerly for your harvest and being anxious about it. Flee anxiety as from a plague. Zealously pursue faith and nurture the Word of God that has gone forth.

Don’t be like the farmer that sowed his good seeds and then left town, leaving his seeds unattended. Don’t be overtaken by apathy or presumption. Be active and expectant of your harvest. Be eager, not anxious, for a sower has a right to his harvest just as a “laborer is worthy of his wages.” Stay with your seed, tend the garden, meditate on the word of the Lord of the Harvest, and keep Him in remembrance of His promises. 

Don’t give up or become discouraged when you don’t see the manifestation as quickly as you thought; keep holding on and you will reap in due season. Therefore, “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal 6:9).

Speak the word of faith and keep speaking. The Word is in your mouth and the mighty power of God is within you. The power is not in heaven; all that you need is in you. The Scriptures say God is able to “do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph 3:20).

Did you hear that? God is able to do above all you ask or think according to the power that is at work—where? In you. The power in you is more than enough. Greater is He that is in you than all that is in the world. Blessed be God.

(Scriptures to meditate on include: Rom 10:8-10; Acts 11: 13,14; Act 14:7-10; Ps 119:89; Prov 4:20-22;  Heb 11:6; Rom 10:13-17;  2 Cor 5:17; Eph 1:7,8; I Pet 2:24; Isa 53; Is 54:17; Gal 3:13-14; Deut 28:1-8,11,12; Mk 11:23; Mk 16:15-20; Isa 41:10; Gen15:1, 26:24; Ps 119:28; Rom 8:31)