Ministering Deliverance

I want to talk about the power of words. Ephesians 4:29-30 says this: "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment. That it may give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God for whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." It says here, do not let any unwholesome words come out of your mouth except for what is for building up and encouraging people. This is a good principle to live by. It really is, because whenever you do, you give grace to people, you become an avenue of grace. And of course, there's an implication of that if verse 29 and verse 30 are connected that whenever you are doing unwholesome communication, you are grieving the Spirit of the Lord.

I've kind of spent a little extra time talking about this because we need to understand the power of words because we sometimes really discount the power that words have over people. First of all, the spoken word has substance. And this is what the Hebrew thought. The Hebrew thought that if you spoke a word, it was sent out with a purpose and would accomplish the purpose for which it was sent to do. The Hebrew believed that there was actual substance with those words.

An illustration would be in Genesis chapter 27. Here Jacob and Esau had this little competition to see who is going to get the birthright. And, of course, Jacob had his mamma on his side so he would be the one who would get it. Isaac sent Esau out and told him to go hunt something. "Fix it for me, fix the favorite stew, come on in and I'll give you the blessing. " Of course, while Esau was out hunting, Jacob and his mom fixed things so that Jacob went in and he got the blessing. Esau came in a little bit later and said, "OK, Dad, here's the stew. I'm ready for the blessing." And Isaac said, "Hold it, wait a minute. You were just in here and I gave it to you." Esau said, "No, no. No, it wasn't me. It must have been my brother." Isaac said, "Well, I gave it to your brother." Esau said, "Ah, that's OK. Just go ahead and give it to me now," and Isaac said, "I can't. I've already spoken it."

Isaac's problem was that he waited until he was really old before he did that. He couldn't tell them apart. His eyesight was really bad. But, here again, that's the biblical perspective of it. Once the blessing had been spoken, an empowerment had gone out and it could not be taken back and given to the other son.

But yet, in our culture we don't embrace the biblical perspective of the power of words. In our Western culture when somebody pronounces a curse or a blessing, we think it is not a big deal. We just demean and degrade each other. But, in reality, there is so much that is going on in the spirit realm.

So we dismiss things in Africa and other parts of the world as superstition, as if there is nothing to it and it has no substance. We act as if people don't really experience anything when somebody puts a curse on them. We call it superstition and assume that it is just a phony belief system. We do this because we're all cranial, we're intellectual, we think with our brains. When we don't understand spirit realm activity, we put that upon that culture and say, "Well, that can't be real, so therefore it is simply superstition on their part and they are just bound by this silly superstition."

I believe the devil has blinded us because there is great, great power with words that are spoken. Words have power to accomplish that which they were sent to do.

Another illustration would be found in the book of Numbers chapter 22, starting at verse 23. This is where King Balak, who wanted to curse Israel, hired Balaam to do it. "The king sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Viar, who was living in his native land of Pethar near the Euphrates River. He sent this message to request that Balaam come and help him. 'A vast hoard of people have arrived from Egypt and they cover the face of the earth and are threatening me. Please come and curse them for me because they are so numerous. Then, perhaps, I will be able to conquer them and drive them from the land. I know that blessings fall on the people you bless. I also know that the people you curse are doomed.' "

This was a very real reality that was being experienced. It is still a very real reality . Take a look at James chapter 3. Some of the verses talk about the power of words because there is nothing more powerful than the words that you speak. They become a great vehicle for either blessing or for cursing. Words have supernatural powers to accomplish that for which they were sent. Laughter happens to be invoked by words; weeping is caused by words; sadness is caused by words; emotions are stirred up by words. You can build up a person or tear a person down based upon the words that you speak.

Jesus said, "And I say to you that every careless word that men shall speak they shall render an account for in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned." Now, does that tell you how powerful words are? One day you're going to be standing before God and He's going to hold you accountable for the words that you speak.

Your tongue determines the direction of your life, James 3:2 says, "For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well." The word stumble there means, it's like a slippage. For example if you were to slip on a banana peel, that would be like the word that is used there. It is simply saying that if a person can control his tongue, he can control his passions. He can control his body. And, at that point he is very self-disciplined and self-controlled.

Now, perfect here doesn't mean that you are sinless; it is just talking about moving toward maturity. If you can bridle the tongue you can bridle the whole body as well, in verse 3. "You can control your tongue, you can control the direction that it takes. It's like breaking a horse there. The bit within a horse's mouth is able to determine the direction of the horse. The rudder on the ship is able to determine the direction of the ship. It is a very small piece, but it is able to determine the direction and that is the way your tongue is." It determines direction. "Behold the ships. They are so great and they're driven by strong winds. They are still directed by a very small rudder whenever the inclination of the pilot desires. Just a small portion of your body determines the direction of your life."

Now I'm not referring to what some call "positive confessionism." Some of you may not even know what that means. But positive confessionism means I simply confess it and that makes it so. Positive confessionism, what we call the "name-it-and-claim-it" crowd. I know a friend of mine who calls it "blab it and grab it." But I'm not talking about that.

There is a measure of truth to it, but it's a perverted truth. A friend of mine was in a car with a friend of his one time who was really into that. They were driving together and his friend looked at his gas gauge and said, "Oh, man. We've got to get some gas. I'm about to run out of gas." The guy says, "Don't say that. If you say it, we'll run out of gas." He said, "Well, it does say empty." Like, when you run out, you do run out. Now, I know God's not beyond and I've heard stories of how God filled gas tanks and keeps gas tanks going. I know God does that and He has done that and He will continue to do that kind of stuff. But usually God has given them a word that they're not going to run out of gas. That's the difference. Saying it and claiming it, if God hasn't spoken it, is powerless. But if God has said it, then you can stand on it and you can claim it.

Positive confessionism and its abuse would say, "Whatever you say and whatever you believe, God will bring it about. So think Cadillac, think, whatever you want to dream, just dream it and begin to put it out there." That is in its extreme and that is in its abuse. But in balance, when God begins to speak something to you, then you can begin to claim it and you can begin to speak it into being as God has spoken it to you. So there is power whenever you begin to come into an agreement verbally with what God has spoken to you in your spirit, not what you have conjured up on your own.

Do words have enough power to bring destruction? Yes, they do. Look at James 3:5. "So also the tongue is a very small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. Behold how great a force to set a flame by such a small fire." It's talking about the power that the tongue has and that when it gets out of control it begins to spread, you can't control it and you can't contain it. Let me read verse 6 from a different translation. We have been using the New American Standard. Let me switch to the New Living translation. It says, "And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction for it is set on fire by hell itself."

Your tongue can be an avenue of blessing or cursing and what happens is that whenever it becomes an avenue of cursing, you're the one who gets destroyed. You're the one who gets burned. You're the one who reaps the effects of that whenever you speak those words.