Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 207
TRANSCRIPT
What if you had the opportunity to make one person’s day better? What if you could be a part of making a positive impact on the world you live in? What if you could bring a pre-believer in Jesus one step closer to entering into a relationship with Jesus simply by the way you treat them? If you had those opportunities, would you take them? In today’s podcast, we are going to talk about the Power of our Words because you already have those opportunities simply by the words you speak.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. There are many, many verses in the bible about the words we speak. Today’s theme verse is Colossians 4:6, which says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” My mom was a part-time preacher. Oh, she never stood in a pulpit, but she would preach these little sermons when she had the opportunity. Many of her sermons were addressed to my siblings and me. One of her favorite sermons was about the words we would speak to others. I have this phrase burned into my memory that was actually a quote from the character Thumper in the Disney movie Bambi: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Even though it is not a scripture, it is very biblical. It is good advice because our words are very powerful.
I do the grocery shopping for the Whitman household. I actually enjoy going to the grocery store because it is one of the places where I use my words to shift the atmosphere. I enjoy talking to the employees. I try to speak words of affirmation to someone every time I go shopping. It is really fun to watch them light up when I say something affirming to them. And in the process, they go out of their way to greet me when I come to do my shopping. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat it’s fruit.” I believe I am eating the fruit of my words when I am warmly greeted in the grocery store. We also have the power in our words to curse.
James 3:8-10 describes the tongue this way: “But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.” I tell stories not to build myself up, but to make a point. Recently we rented a U-Haul truck to move some furniture. I made the reservation online because it was very easy to schedule a pick-up and drop-off. I was scheduled to pick up the truck at the location they had listed online that was closest to our home. Good idea, right? Wrong! The place that I had chosen to pick up the truck was a parking lot with a lock box on a building not much bigger than an outhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Sorry if that is too graphic, but that’s what I experienced. When I arrived to get the truck and saw that there were no employees there to help me, I realized that I needed a code to get into the lock box on that I had not been given. I called the U-Haul 1-800 number and was told that they could not give me the code over the phone and since I was out in the middle of nowhere, I did not have Wi-Fi enough to receive an email. Plus, I was on a deadline to get back to my house because I had hired some people to help me load this truck with furniture. Frustrated? You bet. Did I let my frustration out on the lady on the phone from U-Haul? Thank you, Jesus, I did not. I allowed my speech with her to be seasoned with grace because this was not her fault. We eventually got the problem solved by transferring my reservation to another location. The bottom line of talking with her with grace was that she thanked me for being so reasonable with her on the phone. She said that in most of these problem phone calls she has to handle, she ends up getting berated by the unhappy customer when she had nothing to do with causing the problem. I was able to end my phone call with her by blessing her for her kindness in helping me. Blessing is so much better than cursing. And blessing is part of our native tongue as children of God.
One of the influences that has made our words more prominent is social media. Back before social media, you could voice an opinion and the only people who heard it were those close to you. In fact, most people realized that their opinion wasn’t going to affect that many others, so they kept their opinion to themselves. Since the introduction of social media, people believe that everyone needs to hear their opinion about every topic. And unfortunately, many of those opinions and the words spoken are negative. Many people have made a sport out of criticizing others. I am heartbroken that lately it has become a part of this sport to criticize and tear down Christian ministries, thus fulfilling the verse in James about blessing and cursing coming out of the same mouth. As my Momma taught me, “If you can say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” As the leaders of RTF, we receive criticism for some of the decisions we have made. As leaders, we are doing the best we can to follow what God is telling us to do with all of the information we have at the time. Some of the decisions we make are based on many factors that cannot be understood until you are put in this position of leadership. Are all of our decisions flawless? Absolutely not. Most leaders are making the best decisions possible, and then they have to trust God if criticism comes.
Let’s talk a bit about negative words that are spoken. You have no doubt heard the phrase, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” That is completely false. Sticks and stones can only break your bones, and those bones will heal. But names can hurt someone for a lifetime. Calling names is a type of word curse. Word curses are destructive declarations or negative words spoken over yourself or others that aim to limit, harm, or invoke evil. In RTF we divide word curses into several types. The first type are simply WORD CURSES. They are defined as: spoken words intended to convey something bad (misfortune, harm, injury,
punishment, doom, evil, etc.) on another person. Word curses can also be spoken or thought by the person about himself. Many word curses are spoken by others to a person. For example, we have heard some of these word curses when doing RTF ministry:
- You are too difficult. Who would want to marry you?
- You need to turn your brain on.
- You are not smart enough to go to college.
- You will never amount to anything.
- You will always be in second place.
Some of the most powerful word curses are those that are spoken or thought by the person about themselves. Examples of those are things like:
- I am stupid
- I am ugly
- I am a failure
- I will never amount to anything
Or many other words that limit how that person sees themselves.
The second type of word curses are VOWS. These are strong statements made by an individual that express a determination to do or not to do, to be or not to be, something in particular. The words “I will never…” or “I will always…” are often used in vows. A very common vow is “I will never be like my dad.” Other examples of vows are things like:
- I will never let anyone treat me like that.
- I will always be left out.
- I can never succeed.
The third type of word curses are JUDGMENTS. These are negative verdicts (like a judge passing down a sentence), decrees or conclusions against another person. Judgments can also be spoken/thought by a person about himself. Some examples of judgements are:
- All men are jerks.
- That church just wants my money. They don’t care about me.
- My wife (or husband) just wants everything their way.
When a person receives a word curse, vow, or judgment into their belief system, it will cause them to think or feel negatively about themselves, thereby empowering them to fail. Kenneth Copeland says that curses empower someone to fail, and blessings empower them to succeed. The good news is that as believers, we don’t have to accept these word curses. We have the authority and power in Christ to break the hold these curses have on our lives. And lest you think word curse just affects you, these words can continue in a family line from generation to generation. Isaiah 54:17 says, “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.” I love this verse because it puts the power in our hands to enforce what Jesus has done for us. The power comes from Colossians 2:14, which says, “He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, 14 having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” All of the decrees against us have already been nailed to the cross. We have the privilege of enforcing that truth when a word is spoken against us. We simply stand in our authority in Christ and say NO to the judgment made against us. Notice that the first part of this verse says that no weapon formed against you will prosper. Could it be that the weapon formed against you does not prosper because you don’t let it? You enforce the victory that Jesus had on the cross by condemning the judgments against you because those decrees have already been nailed to the cross, and by doing so, the weapon formed against you does not prosper. I love that! We are living in a time when there are so many negative words being released against us. Words against Christians. Words against men. Words against women. Words against us for standing for life. Words against us for standing for marriage between a man and a woman. Words against us for supporting Israel. The list can go on and on. The key is that we have the power to condemn those words against us so that the weapon does not prosper.
Let’s close this podcast by talking about blessing people. In my ministry of blessing the workers in my grocery store, Jesus comes up often. But there are many times I bless the people without mentioning Jesus. How can we bless people? By doing things like talking to them as people and not as simply a store employee. It is amazing how much people appreciate being looked in the face when you are talking to them. Or doing a simple thing like smiling when you talk to them. I got to know this one lady named Barbara who never smiled. She was what we would call a sourpuss. So, I made it my goal to get her to smile. I would go to her cash register when possible and ask her how she was doing. One of the ways I got through to her was by affirming her work. Over time, she really began to open up and yes, even smile when I came through her checkout. Even though I would talk to her about my Jesus, I am still not sure if she is open to Jesus or not. But I know I have made an impact on her and she knows I am a Christian and I value her.
Think about ways you can bless the people in your life. Ask God how you can bless the wait staff at your favorite restaurant. Ask Him how you can bless the lady at Walmart. Ask Him how you can bless your friends and family. I am convinced that as we bless others, we are going to brighten another person’s day, and we will make an impact on the world we live in.
PRAYER
Father God, would You help us to see people with Your eyes? Would you give us words to speak to those around us that will encourage and build them up? And Father God, would You help us not to speak negative words about others or even about ourselves. Help us speak words of life!
Thank you for joining us on this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. If you recognize that you need help with any of what we talked about in this podcast, please go to our website restoringthefoundations.org and click on the Get Ministry tab at the top to locate an RTF ministry team in your area.
