Arming The Saints Blog

Did you know that our words can be fodder for the enemy to act on us? The enemy can’t read our minds or see into our hearts, but he can definitely hear the words that we speak out loud and can predict human behavior based on them.

We’ve spent a few weeks looking at the power of the tongue to call down blessings (life) and curses (death), but let’s think this week about how our words are used in spiritual warfare. As in blessing and curses generally, our words can help or hurt us in the war; through the right words, we can resist satan, knowing he has already lost and will leave us alone, but through the wrong words, satan can discern our hearts, fears, and insecurities and then go to work on us. Indeed, broken down, words are just soundwaves traveling through air or marks on a page, but the substance of those words can mean the difference between a life with or without struggle.

Ephesians 6 is the quintessential spiritual warfare passage in the Bible. Chapter 6, verse 12 states: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” This is what is really going on, and so things that seem to be our worldly (flesh and blood) struggles or grievances are really just a part of this larger, more consequential fight. In the natural world, we may think that we’ve merely uttered some clever slight to someone on Facebook, perhaps even brushing off any cares of worldly effects, but the enemy uses these words to give him authority over us, and that authority is all he needs to bring demonic torment to us or our families. Jesus called satan the prince of this world, but his actual affecting power comes first not from his own abilities, but from ours – through our actions and, most importantly, our words.

In my opinion, when people behave unlovely to you it is likely for one of two reasons.

1. They’re being used by satan to cause you to respond in the flesh in an equally unlovely manner to open the door for the enemy to then come after you. James writes, however, that if we resist the devil, he will flee. (James 4:7) Accordingly, by resisting the urge to respond to people in the natural, you’re resisting the devil himself. That, in turn, continues the supernatural block on any demonic attack. When you see people acting unlovely in the natural world, do not be angry at them – it’s likely not even their fault!

2. They are hurting in their own right. Hurting people hurt people, even without the help of any demons.

Either way, people who act unlovely to you need help, kind words, and prayer. Accordingly, even when we think it’s warranted, we should put aside our offense and try to meet the needs of the person before us. Offense is not from God. Offense is from satan, and it can be a mighty tool in his arsenal to get us to move toward hate.

Saints, always remember that as followers of Jesus, the enemy has NO AUTHORITY over us. None. Nada. Zilch. No authority to bug us, torment us, cause sickness, bring sadness, or anything else in this world — unless (and this is a big unless) we open the door for him. If we sin, then the door is open and that’s on us. Fortunately, we have the Holy Spirit to remind us of our sins, and so when we feel you’ve done wrong, we must immediately recognize it, repent, and pray for ourselves and others in the moment. If we sin through our words, we must STOP IMMEDIATELY and ask the Lord for forgiveness and to take back anything we’ve said that is not in alignment with who our God is and wants to see from us. Then we must announce – out loud – that we’re forgiven by the blood of Jesus at the cross.

The door may have opened, but that doesn’t mean we can’t slam that sucker shut before any real harm is done. Our ultimate authority over the demonic comes directly from Jesus, who died and defeated sin once and for all. That authority – and the perspective that comes from it – can and should lead to a life in the natural world with virtually no struggle, no despair, and no fear.

ACTION: Ask for forgiveness of any unconfessed sin and the closure of any door you may have inadvertently opened for the enemy to act. Ask for an extra measure of discernment to immediately identify when a door has been opened, especially through your words.

We’re still talking about words and the power of the tongue to produce life and death.

As I mentioned previously, this is an area in which the Lord is working with me, and I’ve found that I’ve had to do a lot of internal cleansing. While I don’t consider myself a hateful person, I sometimes forget the subtlety of what I say (or even don’t say) and the implications that can pollute my spirit and soul.

Today I want to talk about the spiritual growth aspect of speaking life and blessing to others, and specifically how refraining from negative words and, instead, speaking kind, encouraging, loving words to others can bring you wisdom.

Proverbs 11:12 says: “Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue.” Leave it to Proverbs to just say it. Proverbs itself is part of the Biblical genre of “Wisdom Literature,” and MacArthur’s Commentary refers to the second clause in the quote as the “silence of the wise,” and so it makes a lot of sense that silence is a trait of human wisdom. And yet, how often do people go off half-baked, making comments about something when they don’t have all the facts or when it’s really none of their business or concern? How often do people speak only to fill spaces in conversation? How often do public figures get into trouble, simply due to their perceived need to constantly comment on every little thing?

Proverbs 12:18 gives us an idea of what happens when we don’t heed Proverbs 11:12, and the benefits of using words – when necessary – to encourage and uplift. Verse 12:18 states: “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” There’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing going on here (do you hold your tongue because you are already wise, or does holding your tongue make you wise?), but it’s been my own experience that wisdom is not necessarily a trait of the young; instead, we all grow into it. Accordingly, if we spend as much time as possible listening and holding our tongues, we’ll gain wisdom. And wisdom, in turn, will allow us to use our words in the right way.

Whenever I’m thinking about wisdom, I naturally think about Solomon. When God said to Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you,” Solomon replied that what he wanted most of all was a discerning heart – the wisdom “to distinguish between right and wrong.” And God answered: “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.” (1 Kings 3:4-13) I believe that wisdom is an essential trait of God, and when we seek wisdom – and especially the wisdom to know God’s will and to do it – we come ever closer to the Christ-like creation that God intended to populate his Kingdom. Wisdom is holy and lovely to our Lord, and when we ask for such holy and lovely things, the Lord will bless us beyond what we seek. And the wisdom that illuminates God’s will can be the foundation for our lives; it helps us both in the natural and the supernatural realms.

Indeed, in the New Testament, James states: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5. Explaining this passage, MacArthur writes, “James’ Jewish audience recognized [wisdom] as the understanding and practical skill that was necessary to live life to God’s glory. It was not a wisdom of philosophical speculation, but the wisdom contained in the pure and peaceable absolutes of God’s will revealed in His Word and lived out.”

Together, these passages on wisdom teach us that God wants us to have it. Thus, we should ask for supernatural wisdom (for wisdom is a necessary trait of God) while we develop our natural wisdom by listening to others and watching our words. Using Jesus as our example, we can easily overcome the natural. And as followers of Jesus, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, who can help us with all things supernatural.

ACTION: Once again, ask for revelation and wisdom. Specifically, ask for wisdom to see and do God’s will, to perceive strongholds (areas with strong negative holds on us and our behavior) and to break these strongholds and cancel their grip on you. Ask the Lord for wisdom in how you use your words. Ask Him to help you see the words associated with any incorrect, polluted, and “religious” theology and to give you revelation into the Truth of Jesus Christ. Finally, thank the Lord for an open mind, heart, and spirit to hear new and refined wisdom.

When I went to seminary, there was a lot of talk about blessings and curses. In fact, I’m not sure you could ever teach the Old Testament without talking about blessings and curses – it’s just that prevalent. Now, the concept gets a bit complicated these days due to all the ways you can look at them. For example, some people want to focus on the specific OT blessings and curses listed in places like Deuteronomy 27 and 28. Others want to focus on historical accounts of specific blessings and curses of people, such as when the Israelites were forced to wonder the desert until nearly an entire generation had died, except for Joshua and Caleb, who had found favor with God (Numb. 12:13-14). Still others want to focus more on the single generational curse of sin stemming from the Fall, but with consequences that travel through generations of free will people, who then choose to carry the sin themselves. Finally, some people – perhaps most correctly – want focus on the temporal nature of curses versus the eternal blessings we have in Jesus.

Either way, the whole notion of blessings and curses can transcend even the Bible. Even secular/materialistic scientists have found that, based on our own choices and epigenetics, we can easily change the expression of our genes based on the choices we make that will be passed down through generations. In this sense, science confirms a biblical worldview, which can point to numerous scriptures indicating the stubbornness of sin upon families or other groups. Somewhat more charismatically or spirit-driven, we followers of Jesus also realize that when we make choices to sin, we partner with the demonic, which has a bias toward keeping us in the bondage of any particular curse. This makes it harder to break or reverse a curse or to acquire a blessing simply due to the demonic clouding of our minds to come up with untold numbers of excuses for maintaining the status quo.

But I want to focus on two main points this week. The first point – indeed, a point seemingly agreeable to everyone speaking or writing about the subject – is that words can cause blessings or curses, with consequences that travel (or have already traveled) through generations. It’s almost a direct offshoot of the spiritual law of reaping and sowing, but made much more confounding from its tendency to appear to affect one seemingly at random from the distant past, or to affect your children and grandchildren far in the future. Lest we forget the incredible power of the tongue to do damage, James wrote: “The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” James 3:6. Imagine that fire traveling through your family line. Of course, we can also think of numerous ways in which words can be used to uplift.

The second point is this: whatever curse you may think you have, for whatever reason (which can include idolatry to Anti-Semitism), from whatever source (which can include your parents, yourself, teachers, demons, soul ties, or even items found within your home), and, frankly, even if deep down you don’t believe in such things despite the bad things happening in your life, the answer is always the same, which is to take authority given to you by Jesus Christ over this world and use it to break it for your sake and for the sake of future generations.

Is it likely that some of the difficulties we are living with today are put in place by one/some of our ancestors’ words or actions? Absolutely – how about addiction, promiscuity, confidence, worthiness, health issues, etc.? All of these might be labeled in the “world” as inherited or genetic flaws. As followers of Jesus, though, when these types of things happen, we must consider supernatural reasons – in addition to purely natural ones – to account for our condition. On the other hand, can we reap the blessings of our ancestors, or, better yet, put in place the kinds of beliefs and positive words that literally change our brains so that the blessings travel far into the future? Yes, we can.

I believe we have the authority in this world to ask our Lord to reveal and cancel curses – not just for us, but for generations to come. You can literally break a curse of addiction off of your future grandchildren by canceling it through the authority given to you through Jesus Christ. I also believe that we have the authority to declare positive blessings over ourselves, which will carry far into the future to our world offspring as well as our spiritual children. So, again, I believe we can literally make future generations better simply through our choice of using words that speak power, light, and blessing.

Remember from last week that words combined with sowing and reaping can create a double-whammy effect on our lives, especially when we remember the incredible power of even a single word. This week, remember that the words and deeds of our ancestors likely affected us, and that our own words and deeds will most definitely affect future generations unless we break curses and foster blessings.

ACTION: Ask the Lord to reveal any generational curses and to cancel them back to the source and replace them with a blessing. Mention any that you know about, and thank the Lord for His cancellation and replacement with blessing. Ask for assistance in bridling your tongue to help you ONLY speak blessing (Life) on others. Deliberately speak in terms of blessings – use positive words, focus on love for others, and on building people up. Your actions today will last for generations!

Last week we looked at the powerful effects of positive (life) and negative (death) words, both on and in our lives, bodies, and spirit. Today I want to talk about the sowing and reaping aspect of our words.

As I mentioned last week, the Lord has placed on my heart to watch my words, but it’s really a much larger issue. I believe the Lord is calling us all to fortify our spiritual roots and clean our houses (body, soul, spirit), to refine our tuning into God and the Holy Spirit, and to prepare a clean environment for new giftings to manifest and be developed. We simply aren’t able to grow a healthy gifting in a polluted environment.

Do you know or understand the tremendous spiritual weapon you possess with your words? Did you know that your mouth is like a machine gun and that your words are like bullets that can pierce someone’s soul and spirit? Did you know that when you wish ill on others or speak ill of them you can actually be putting a curse in place that comes back on you? Yes, you can, and here’s how.

I think we’ve all heard of the notion of reaping and sowing. Non-Christians sometimes talk about Karma or a sort-of universal cause and effect. We followers of Jesus with a Biblical worldview say, in effect, that we reap what we sow; not just crops, but words, actions, thoughts, and influencing behaviors. If we’re sowing negative or curse-sending words, we’ll reap that (and worse) back on ourselves and our families – sometimes for generations.

In Job – the “poster book” for having troubles heaped upon people – Eliphaz the Temanite tries to justify Job’s predicament based on the seemingly commonsense notion of reaping and sowing, even though Job rejects this based on what he knows of his own life. And, indeed, the concept or reaping and sowing (like that of blessings and curses) weaves throughout the Old Testament, but not always as directly as when it is found in Proverbs with writings such as these: “The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward” (11:18); “He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.” (22:8); “The faithless will be fully paid for their ways, and the good man rewarded for his.” (14:14), Most relevant to our words, Proverbs 13:3 states: “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.”

The reaping/sowing notion continues into the New Testament. Second Corinthians speaks of the measure of sowing: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Cor. 9:6. Hosea, on the other hand, links sowing to positive benefits we can see in our daily lives: “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12).

Together, though, these two notions – the power of words (life and death) and the spiritual law of sowing and reaping – should give us great pause. For it is words, more than anything else, that can so quickly escape and become sown. Certainly, if we sow good or bad words generously versus sparingly, the Bible says we will reap accordingly. But the nature of words should remind us of the nearly impossible task of gauging what even a single negative word can do to a single person. That one bad word, spoken with malice by you or by me, might actually equal a lifetime of words spoken by someone else. In this case, given the power of words and the unmistakable surety of the law of sowing and reaping, I would treat how we speak to others in this world like one might treat philosophy of God through the lens of Pascal’s wager: do not bet your life on uttering a single bad word – whatever finite gain there may be (and I doubt there is any), it is simply crushed by the weight of potential infinite loss.

ACTION: Do you wonder why some people seem always to have difficulties and troubles? Look at what they have coming out of their mouths. Are they curses, slurs, or statements of unbelief? If you look closely, you may just be witnessing the double-whammy effect of the power of words and the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. This week make a conscious effort to speak blessings to and about people, even if you don’t agree with them. If you have done so in the past, make an effort to watch labels you have assigned to people like “stupid,” “ignorant,” etc., especially on semi-anonymous forums like social media. Give people a chance to know our God through your uplifting and positive speech that reaps unlimited benefits. Ask the Lord to reveal any unforgiveness on your part and ask for extra blessings on any people to whom you may have used any negative words. Finally, ask for those curses you have spoken on others to be recalled and canceled. Then thank God for helping you to improve this one really important part of your life!

Lately God has placed on my heart the need to guard my spirit and watch my words. We have all heard the scripture from Proverbs 18:21, which says that the tongue has the power of life and death. While we may not ascribe to a literal interpretation of these effects to our words, many of us likely believe that the thrust of this proverb is that the power of life and death means that we may certainly build people up (life) or tear them down (death) with our words. But now look at the verse in its entirety and in context with verse 20.

Proverbs 18:20-21
From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.
The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.

This indicates that the verse/wisdom is not intended to be one sided, affecting only the person to whom our words are directed. Indeed, as we speak “life” or “death,” we ingest those words as food into our bodies, thus significantly affecting us as well. It makes sense that when we speak kind, encouraging, loving words our spirit and our bodies are affected positively. Likewise, when we speak hateful, vengeful, cursing words to others we will take in that negativity and poison our spirits and our bodies, including our hearts. We eat the fruit of the words we speak, and we fill our stomach with that harvest. It creates a vicious cycle because what we take in fills the stomach and the heart, and then “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45

Saints, my heart is broken and my spirit is troubled by the ugliness of the words being spoken in our world today — especially by people claiming to be Christians. Please work to break this cycle and speak kindness, encouragement, and positivity out of love to everyone you meet. Resist the urge to join in the hate, and protect your spirit and body from the acid rain of ugly, hateful words. Remember that the words you choose not only affect you in this life. They also have ramifications for the life beyond. For Jesus said, “But I tell you that [persons] will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matt 12:37.

ACTION: This week take notice of your words and ask the Lord to reveal any ugliness in your heart so you can pull it out by the root. Ask Him to heal that area and plant His love and His word in that spot. Ask Him to remove any scales from your eyes and hearts so that you can begin to come back into alignment with His love for HIS people.