There is power in the words we speak! I will never forget the first time I had a deep understanding of this. I was in a Christian conference, and the speaker was teaching about the demonic and word curses. He was instructing that we shouldn’t say slang phrases such as:
- You’re going to kill me for this.
- You’re making me sick.
- They are sick, and I’ll catch it next.
- I’m going to kill myself for doing that.
- The flu is going around, so I’ll probably get it too.
I remember clearly as he was instructing that he broke the word-curses spoken over ourselves, and as he did and cast out the spirits associated with those curses, I felt three demonic spirits of death leave my body. I had been one of those people who would jokingly say, “You’re going to kill me for this.” It was an open door to the demonic world, and the forces of evil had infiltrated me with three demonic spirits of death in my soul.
The Bible talks about self-invited curses and how they can have an effect on us and the generations to follow.
In Genesis 27, we see an example of a self-invited curse. Rebekah was persuading her son Jacob to deceive Isaac, his father, now blind, in order to obtain his blessing (which Isaac intended to pronounce on his other son, Esau). Jacob was eager for the blessing but fearful of the consequences if Isaac should discover his deception. “Perhaps my father will feel me,” he said, “and I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing” (v. 12). Rebekah responded immediately, “Let your curse be upon me, my son” (v. 13a). And the curse was on Rebekah, and she lost the privilege of being with her son.
In Matthew 27, against his own judgment, the Roman governor, Pilate, consents to release to the crowd a murderer named Barabbas and to impose the death sentence on Jesus instead. In order to disassociate himself from this act, however, Pilate washes his hands in front of the crowd and says, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous Man” (v. 24c).
To this, the crowd responds, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (v. 25b). Here there is a self-imposed curse on themselves and a relational curse on their descendants. Since that time, bloodshed and tragedy has been interwoven in the destiny of the Jewish people.
The Bible clearly instructs us on the power of our words:
- “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Prov. 18:21).
- “For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23).
- “Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from trouble” (Prov. 21:23).
- “We all err in many ways. But if any man does not err in word, he is a perfect man and able also to control the whole body. See how we put bits in the mouths of horses that they may obey us, and we control their whole bodies. And observe ships. Though they are so great and are driven by fierce winds, yet they are directed with a very small rudder wherever the captain pleases. Even so, the tongue is a little part of the body and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. The tongue is among the parts of the body, defiling the whole body, and setting the course of nature on fire, and it is set on fire by hell. All kinds of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea are tamed or have been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so (James 3:2-10).
That which we speak out of our mouth can defile our soul. “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile the man” (Matt. 15:18). A demon cannot infiltrate your spirit man; that is where the Holy Spirit resides, but a demonic entity can infiltrate your soul, your mind, will, emotions and body.
We need to clean up the words we are speaking and even more so renew our mind of false expectations. Just because a person is sick around us does not mean we will get sick. We have been redeemed from the curse. We need to be speaking out and declaring out positive proclamations over our lives and not negativity and idle words for which we will give account and that can have a negative effect on us. In my book Powerful Prophetic Proclamations, I have listed over 50 prophetic declarations that the Holy Spirit inspired me to write, so we are speaking out positive into the spiritual atmosphere.
We must get hold of our tongues and renew our minds to speak out and declare out according to scripture. We must tighten up our word choices, and if it isn’t positive and doesn’t produce good spiritual results, we must be careful to not speak it out into the spiritual atmosphere. How many times have you received what you have spoken in a negative sense? Things we speak out such as:
- My car is going to break down.
- I’m going to get fired from my job.
- This food is making me sick.
- This bag of groceries is going to rip.
- That object is going to fall on me.
We need to transition to thinking it instead of speaking it until we can renew our mind not even to think it. There is power in what we speak out; that is why people can be healed, delivered and miracles can happen. However, we also need to know our speech can have a direct result in the negative too. Therefore, before you speak out next time, be slow to speak, and remember, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21a). {eoa}
Kathy’s book Speak Out by Creation House teaches more about the power of the words we speak.
Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic spiritual warfare strategist releasing the love and power of God, to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and Be Love Outreach. She is the author of several books, including Speak Out, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, Identity Invasion, Who is Speaking? and Warfare Declarations. You can connect with Kathy on Facebook facebook.com/kathydegraw or visit degrawministries.org.
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