Words can also heal! You may recall things that were said to you as a child that encouraged you or helped you through a difficult time. I have heard testimony after testimony of those who have succeeded in ministry and life in part because someone significant spoke encouraging Truth into their lives. Scripture is full of encouraging Truth! We ought to find more opportunities to speak God's Word into our lives and into the lives of those we love. There is power in the words that we speak, so it behooves us to choose our words carefully.
One reason we speak is to be heard. When we speak, others hear us, but we also hear what we are saying. If we speak Truth, hearing the spoken Truth increases our faith.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Rom. 10:17 NKJV)
This is the cycle of faith: from heart, to mouth, from mouth to ear, from ear to heart, and then from heart to mouth and so on. Truth is spoken, we hear it, our faith increases, and 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.
“[Faith] 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 though it 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 yet happened.
“…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, things happen!! When we hear God speak and believe what He says, faith happens! Confession and faith are vitally important. So much so that they 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 Truth or, in effect, saying what God has already said. Confessing Truth builds faith! Doing so reminds us verbally that God has made a promise to us that we can know will ultimately come to pass.There is also a negative side to confession. Just as positive confessions based on Truth bolster our faith, negative confessions can have the opposite effect. When we speak negative and untrue words about ourselves or others, we are replacing Truth with lies. Spoken falsehoods undermine our faith. When we or others hear the same lies often enough, we tend to believe them. The more we believe lies, the more our faith is weakened. This is why it is important to always confess Truth.
Read 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)
The Pharisees' words came from their hearts, which evidently were full of corruption and evil. As a result, their words were corrupt and evil. It has been said, "what goes down in the well comes up in the bucket." We tend to speak what is in our hearts, good or bad. If we fill our hearts with lies and darkness, this is what spews from our mouths. Speaking Truth builds up, but speaking lies tears down. Negative words undermine our faith and negatively impact our faith, our attitudes, and ultimately our actions. This is what psychologists and others refer to as "self-fulfilling prophecy."
If we consider the “whole counsel” of God in the matter of confession and faith, we will discover that what we say matters greatly to us and to those around us.
“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).
James reminds us that it is the source that determines the quality of water that pours from a spring. I remember the taste of the sweet, pure water that poured from the mountain springs in the Shenandoah National Park. Its source was pure, and as the water worked its way up from the source deep within the earth, it was filtered by the roots of sassafras trees and other plants. The farther from the source the water traveled, however, the less pure it became.
James also compared the tongue to the rudder of a ship--a relatively small object, but with the power to change a huge ship's direction. Read what Jesus said about power of confession.
"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? We do that by speaking! Asking is speaking or confessing to God what we want, and as long as we want what God wants for us, He guarantees that we will receive whatever we ask. To receive what God has for us, we must confess in words our belief in His Word, and ask Him specifically for what we need.
"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)
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 power in praise.
Speaking Truth wields such power that in the Revelation, believers defeated the enemy through their testimonies.
"And [believers] have defeated [the devil] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of their testimony. And they were not afraid to die. ” (Rev. 12:11 NLT)
Faith and confession are directly proportionate. Your faith increases in proportion to the frequency of your 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 belief in and acceptance of God’s reality in our lives.
Be careful of what you speak!
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