Week 2 – The Power of Words by Pastor Mark Cowart
When I was working as a meat cutter many years ago, I felt the Lord impress upon me to listen to the words that were coming out of the mouths of my customers throughout an entire day. I was taken aback to realize that people were primarily using these three things to express themselves:
Poverty – Sickness – Death
These are the exact things in the curse of the Law that Jesus redeemed us from. (Deuteronomy 28)
Isn’t it interesting that we use statements along these lines to describe our lives:
- “That just makes me sick.”
- “I’m dying to go”
- “That makes me want to throw up”
- “I’m so tired of this”
You may write that off and treat it as no big deal. However, this is meant to challenge your thinking on the power of your words. Let me remind you that the Word of God says: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21 (KJV)
This is not my opinion. This is God’s instruction to us!
I like to call Joshua 1:8 (NKJV) the master key to success:
Guard Your Mouth
Guard What You Meditate On
Guard Your Actions
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.
Who is going to make your way prosperous? Who is going to give you good success?
Our redemption is purchased, but we have to receive it. It is not forced on us.
Spiritual MMA
Watch what comes out of your mouth:
The Word of God – “This book of the law”
What words are coming out of your mouth? Is it His Word or your toxic thoughts and opinions.
Watch what you meditate on:
What are you continually thinking about? Are you thinking about what the Word of God instructs us to think about?
Philippians 4:8 - And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Watch how you act:
Your actions will ultimately be dictated by what you are meditating on, and the words that you are allowing to come out of your mouth. Many people are victims of their own mouth. When God created you, He intended that your tongue would be used to build up and not tear down.
Ephesians 4:29 (NLT) - Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 (NKJV)
Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter.
We have to be careful about the meditations of our heart. It is interesting that this principle is bi-directional. Something that we say can end up in our hearts, as well as something that originates as a thought, although never spoken but meditated on in our hearts, can then come out of our mouths.
Have you ever experienced a moment where you thought, “How did I get here?” It can often be traced back to a seed that was planted in you through your thoughts or your words. Both of these very powerful elements set things in motion. Not all thoughts originate with you. It is important that you know this. Do not receive the fiery darts of the evil one.
This is why God’s Word instructs us to “take every thought captive.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Let’s explore the passage of scripture in Mark 11:23-24 (NKJV)
For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
This verse is ripe with instruction from Jesus about what we are to “say.” What we speak is emphasized in this verse even over believing. I used to struggle with the portion of this verse that says “shall not doubt in his heart.” I thought, well, I’m surely disqualified by that.
Then the Holy Spirit led me to dig a bit deeper. One of the translations of heart in Greek is Kardia. That is where we get the word cardiac. The heart in the New Testament is the Spirit and the Soul together.
When I studied the word “doubt” in this passage a bit more, I found that it actually means “to withdraw.” We see this play out in our lives when we start to speak and believe God for something; the enemy takes notice and begins pounding our minds and our thoughts, trying to get our words to agree with unbelief.
The key to mountain-moving faith is
DO NOT WITHDRAW
Do not withdraw your belief.
Do not withdraw your faith.
Do not withdraw your faith-filled thoughts and words.
Read: Mark 4 – The Parable of the Sower
When we study this parable, we see that what Jesus is teaching us here centers around the Word of God (the seed).
He also said, “If you don’t get this parable, you will not understand anything else I tell you.” (Mark 4:13)
We see in this parable that three out of the four times the enemy is able to steal the seed (the Word of God) out of our lives if we do not pay attention to the conditions or the environment.
Our words can shut down our faith. Fear and faith both have a vocabulary. They both will call things that are not as though they were. Nothing happens until you speak. If you want life, speak life. If you want to flourish, speak the Word of God over your situation. If you want to move mountains, speak to them and do not doubt.
Pray this prayer over your life:
Lord, you have shed light in my heart through this message. Help me to control my tongue. I repent for the words of death that I have spoken. I thank you that you anoint me; as I get into your Word, it will get into me and change the very meditations of my heart. I want to partner with you, Holy Spirit, and I invite you to begin to change the way I think and speak. Thank you, Lord. I pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen!
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS, SIGN UP FOR MY
