Grace tidings: The power of words: Watch what you say or hear

By The Standard | Mar. 13, 2022

We use God’s reproving message to Israel through the prophets against the church instead of lifting the church and showing believers what they are in Christ so that they can become an overcoming body.

Doug Mamvura

The church has always taught sin-consciousness rather than righteousness-consciousness. We have been taught that we are weak, sinful, and unworthy until our prayers become, “God, oh God, have mercy upon my poor soul.” Most of us ministers of the gospel are guilt of spreading messages that promote sin consciousness instead of righteousness consciousness.

The whole thing is anti-Christ, and we don’t realise it, it is anti-redemption, and we don’t seem to appreciate that when a man becomes a child of God, he has God’s nature, God’s very life in him. That nature and life give him a standing with the Father. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). And Paul cried out, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” (Romans 8:33).

It is God who has declared you righteous and justified you. Preachers have done a vast injury to the cause of Christ, however unwittingly. Our greatest sermons are those that put men and women under condemnation, those that make them rush to the altar, crying for forgiveness even though they have walked with God for years. Instead, we should have shown them what they are in Christ.

We tear them out of their true places in the family of God and place them among the unregenerate. We use God’s reproving message to Israel through the prophets against the church instead of lifting the church and showing believers what they are in Christ so that they can become an overcoming body. We belabour them with invective and bitter criticism. It is like clubbing a sheep that has been kept in a desert place where there was no grass; we club it because it is poor, weak, and sickly.

Let the ministers open the word and feed believers on the food of the mighty, and they will become strong. We have thought that the confession of our sin was a proof of our goodness, and so we have confessed our shortcomings and our failings; every testimony of ours has been of our lack, of our want, and of our weakness. We have never said, “My God shall supply all [my] need” (Philippians 4:19) nor “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) nor “God is the strength of my heart” (Psalm 73:26) nor “It is God which worketh in [me] both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). If God hasn’t made provision whereby we can live without condemnation, then He has failed in redemption.

If the redemption does not take us out of Satan’s dominion and the new birth does not take the devil nature out of us, then God has failed, and it is not our fault. But He says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have a new nature, we have a new relationship, we are the children of God; we have a new Father, the Father God.

We stand complete in His completeness, and we are filled with His fullness; we are members of His very body. We are the sons and daughters of God Almighty. We have been recreated by Himself, through His own word, and we stand in His completeness.

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It is very important that we live in that reality. It is unfortunate that some believers hang themselves their our tongues. You will have what you say, hence you then fail to appropriate the benefits associated with the finished work of the Cross.

There are those who always say, “Well, I have no faith. I am a doubting Thomas. I am poor and weak.” What is the effect of those words upon yourself? If you are doubting, you will doubt the more. If you are weak, the words have made you weaker. If you have been useless before, you are even more useless now because the words have made it difficult for you to be anything other than what you have said.

In the final analysis, our words are a part of ourselves; they are ourselves. If your words are full of love and peace and fidelity, they are born out of your heart life. If your words are tinged with bitter venom and sarcasm, it is because there is a vat down inside of you that is filled with that kind of material. You create a mental condition with your words. Your words go out into the air to thrill and throb in the hearts of those that listen. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:20 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat the fruit thereof”. We have to be very careful about what we say.

Life is largely made up of words. We make love with words. We declare war with words. Divorces are made up of words. Children become what words make them. When I look at a child, I can feel the throb of the words that have seeped into his consciousness before he left home. The mother’s words of encouragement and comfort make the child what he is. I thank God for both my father and mother who always used to speak words of life over me. Some parents call their children all sorts of names and speak words of death over their children and as a result those children become exactly what their parents say about them.

I venture to say that the girls and boys who break down in school because of stress over study and work are the results of poor mental atmospheres in their homes.

These atmospheres are word atmospheres. Let us be careful about words. Let’s put the biggest, richest things into them. Let’s put big, rich words into the letters and articles that we write. Let’s fill our words with wonderful love, fresh from the heart of the Father.

Careless speech is a vicious habit. When one realises that his words are the coin of his kingdom and that his words can be either a cursing influence or a blessing, he will learn to value the gift of speech. Control your tongue, or it will control you.

You will often hear men say, “I speak my mind.” That is well if you have a good mind, but if your mind is poisoned, it is not good. An idle word spoken aloud may fall into the soil of someone’s heart and poison his entire life. What a blessing good conversation is and what a curse its opposite!

Make your tongue always a blessing, never a curse. A person is judged by his speech. Your words make you either a blessing or a curse. Your words may carry a fortune in them. Learn to be master of your conversation.

Don’t break me with words!” This was Job’s cry to his friends (Job 19:2.) They came as comforters. They stayed as tormentors. Words heal and words break; words destroy and words make life as we find it today.

Words heal us and words make us ill. Words bless us and words curse us. The words I just heard will linger throughout the day. How little a woman realises that a biting, stinging word in the morning will rob her husband of efficiency through an entire day. A loving, tender, beautiful word, a little prayer word, will fill him with music that will lead him on to victory. We need the music of faith that only our loved ones can give to us. How little we have appreciated the tremendous power of words, written words, spoken words, words set to music. A husband who always speaks ill of their wife will always destroy their confidence and they will never be able to value themselves as a woman of virtue.

Mothers, your home atmosphere is a product of words. Your son or daughter might have failed because wrong words were spoken and right words were not spoken. Why is it that some children grow up so clean and strong, fight their way through college, and go out in life’s fight and win? It is because the right kind of words were spoken in the home.