Power Of Words by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Words are for creation

To understand the power of confession, we first have to understand the power of words

A lot of people have not come to understand the power of words

Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:3

The first time God said something, it was not for communication. It was for creation

In hermeneutics there is the law of first mention. The first time a word or an event appears in scripture defines what it will mature to be through scripture

So primarily, words are for creation, not communication

Hebrews 11:3

If you understand what I'm teaching you, it can change everything about your life

The word for worlds there is "aions", it means destinies. In other words, words create things

You are framing your world with your words. Your future looks like what you are saying

"I'm tired. I'm a weak person. I can't do it. I can't make it." That is you framing your world

Words put people in trouble

People have said things and what they said put a bullet in their head. What killed them was not the knowledge, it was the way they vocalized the knowledge

The remote reasons for wars are things people say. Several factors are brewing, but the thing that triggers it is loose statements people make that they cannot take back

A man gave a speech in Italy and over 300 people went and killed themselves because of what somebody said

If people don't understand the power of words, they will be a victim in life

There is no nice way to put it. You have to understand what you are dealing with, the things coming out of your mouth

Isaac, Jacob and Esau

Genesis 27:33 to Genesis 27:35

Esau went to look for meat for his father so that his father could bless him. Rebecca helped Jacob, and Jacob took the meat to the father, who blessed him

Then Esau came back wanting a blessing

These two sons were fighting for statements. They were not fighting for a building or for cash. They were fighting for a pronouncement from a man's mouth

What Jacob did was wrong, he maneuvered to cheat his brother. But he thought the blessing was worth cheating for. He was not a profane person. He understood the power of words

Esau cried bitterly. This is because somebody said something. He asked his father to pronounce something on his life, and it was too late

This changed the trajectory of human history. It is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau, because of words

The course of the whole world was set in motion by this man's pronouncement. Don't joke with the power of words. Words literally determine people's eternal destination and destiny

Foretelling and forthtelling

Prophecy is in two dimensions. Foretelling is saying what you are seeing. Forthtelling is saying what you want to see

In forthtelling I say something and it manifests. I can be a depressed person because I say I'm a depressed person. I can be a heavy person because I say I'm a heavy person

Things can be hard for me because I say it. "When it's my turn it always gets hard." "People don't like me." You start picking that pattern

You are setting your destiny in motion. What you are saying is your future

Words and salvation

Romans 10:14

People get saved because people spoke. If somebody doesn't say something, belief cannot be put in your heart and you cannot be saved. Even salvation is in the premise of the power of words

Romans 10:8 to Romans 10:10

Anybody who needs salvation in any situation, it is with the confession of the mouth

A lot of people are in dark situations and are not being saved because they are not calling on the Lord. Why? Because they are speaking negative confessions

Anybody in trouble can talk their way out of it

Pessimism kills ideas

This is one of the things you have to learn in leadership. I don't stay around pessimistic people

People who make no effort to think through what you are saying, "we can't do it", are out of that team

There's a balance. I do well with feedback, I create an environment for people to give feedback

"Let's remove this part. Let's do it in increments. Let's do this step first." But "we can't do it" is different

Do not marry a pessimistic person. They will cut your wings

Their first thought is not the blessings attached to the idea but all the demerits

Illustration: Uber

You know how bad an idea Uber is? Two strangers meeting for the first time in a closed car, and this stranger knows your house because they picked you from your house

Run that idea through a pessimistic person and they steal it from you

Have you ever shared an idea and felt the person killed a baby? You were excited, and the person told you all the things that cannot work. That is the power of words

Create an environment around you where you hear positive things, and speak things consistent with what God has revealed about your life. If not, you are finished

A man was crying "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy" and people shouted at him to keep quiet. He shouted the more

If you don't use your words to call Jesus, he can give you eyes but he will pass

Out of the abundance of the heart

Matthew 12:31 to Matthew 12:37

People are also condemned by what they say

Anything I'm saying with my mouth is because of what I have taken in

Many times what you take in is what people spoke to you

A lot of people don't look like what they are saying. They look like what people said to them

In secondary school they used to write top five finest boys, top five finest girls. What about the others that were not mentioned? They have given you the impression that you are not fine

That can become insecurity, looking for validation, not being comfortable with people seeing you without makeup

All those things come from somewhere. We are all products of nurture, and nurture can destroy your self-esteem because of what was said

Romans 10:14

Every negative thing you believe about yourself, somebody preached it to you. Every self-sabotaging thing, somebody said something at a point that entered my subconscious and is causing me to talk and behave this way

Just as you were preached into negativity, you have to be preached into the will of God for your life

Listen to the right words. Take responsibility for your life. Preach to yourself. If it came by words, it is uprooted by words, and you can install new ones by words

Matthew 12:36 to Matthew 12:37

A Rhema student who said he would never see 40

A Rhema student was dying of a tumor, under 40 years old. Kenneth Hagin and Rhema students all prayed for him, but he ended up in a coma

Kenneth Hagin went to the Lord in prayer and asked what happened. God told him, "Spiritual laws have already been set in motion and cannot be reversed at this time." The man died

Kenneth Hagin did not know what the Lord meant until the funeral. The man's brother said he had said continually since he was a little boy, "I will never live to see 40"

By continually confessing that, he was setting spiritual laws in motion. He could have turned it around, but he came to a point where he was in a coma and could not speak

He set the laws in motion with his mouth, so he had to turn it around with his mouth. Others could not do it for him

There are things you say about yourself that make blessings and prophetic words not work in your life, because of the negative things you are saying

We are faith people. We don't say what we feel, we say what we want to say. Be very careful how you speak, even when counseling

God did what they said

Numbers 14:26 to Numbers 14:45

God is saying, I said I will give you the land, but because you said I cannot, I will do what you are saying

So even if God swears to do something for you, if your confession is not the same as what He is saying, what you are saying is what will happen

You despise God's blessings by what you say. They put their children in trouble

The children whom you said would be plunder, God will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised

Conspiring against God means you are not saying what God is saying

Numbers 13

God sent 12 spies for 40 days. Ten came back with an evil report. "We were like grasshoppers in our sight," and so we were in their sight. God was listening to them

Joshua and Caleb said, "Let's go at once. The word of God is with us"

The 10 men preached the whole generation into problem. People can preach you out of faith. People can talk you into failure, into sorrow, into despair, into condemnation

What kept Joshua and Caleb alive? Their confession, their report

Moses told the people it won't work, the Lord is not with you. How did they abandon the Lord? By their confession, by what they were saying

Avoid people who talk carelessly

Jonah 2:8

Don't allow people to present lying vanities before you. Don't be around somebody who just talks heavy talk

"I'm a failure." "Nigeria is hard." "Things are hard." "AI will take all our jobs, we are going to be broke." Don't say that around me

Psalm 16:6

Firstborns are always cursed? No. Christ is the firstborn Colossians 1:15

I'm a firstborn. I'm not cursed, I'm blessed beyond every curse Ephesians 1:21, Psalm 16:11

When it gets to my turn, my lot is grace, grace, grace Zechariah 4:7

You're not going to get me to curse myself because of how you feel. If you understand this, people will break up with you

You can never be a victim in life. These are things you have to convince yourself

I have said "I can never be a victim in any story" to a point where, before God, I believe it

I can never be the losing person in any story Romans 8:28

We always rise 2 Corinthians 4:8 to 2 Corinthians 4:9

What God was saying in Numbers 14 is, "I am signing what you are speaking." So what do you want God to authorize? Be speaking it

Words are like arrows

I was praying for somebody with stage 4 cancer. A senior man of God called me, and I called him back and told him I was praying for somebody with cancer

He said it in passing: what even kills people is not the cancer, it is the fear of cancer

Somebody can have cancer and be fine, and not know

Two days before, they went for a normal checkup and knew nothing. Then the doctor tells them, "You have cancer," and you can see them shrinking

They heard something from that doctor and that thing is an arrow. It entered their heart and the fear kicked in

Proverbs 18:20

Proverbs 13:3

Proverbs 21:23

Tammy's 5 practical steps

A friend of mine had cancer on campus. She is now cancer free, 6 years now, glory be to God. I asked what she did. These are the practical steps she told me:

1. She moved out of her mother's house and started living with her uncle, who is a popular pastor. A mother who loves you can fear for you. They can cry, be afraid and anxious, and translate from faith to fear because they care
2. Her uncle was a man of God who understood faith
3. She got word of faith books and started reading the word of God, depositing faith into her heart
4. People were not allowed to visit her. When people visit, they remind you that you are sick
5. She was doing everything she typically would do. Her uncle allowed her to wash plates and do laundry. She didn't sit on the bed like a sick person. She was not calling people to pray for her and touch her

This is a precise work of faith

Proverbs 4:23

The Holy Spirit guides your heart but you guard your heart. He didn't say He will guard it for you John 16:13

It is your responsibility to say enough is enough. You create an environment around you where strengthening words are coming into your heart

You are about to start a business. Once you hear pessimism from somebody, you separate from them

The Lord gave you a word, a promise, you shared it with somebody and they laughed

Matthew 9:21

The woman with the issue of blood said within herself

If you tell somebody, they will say, "Are we not touching? If you touch, nothing will happen." Sometimes you say it within yourself and go and do it

Prayer

• Thank you Father, in the name of Jesus. I thank you for all my friends.
• I ask that this word I have shared will bear massive fruits.
• Teach us to bridle our tongue, to not speak carelessly.
• Help us to make bold confessions of faith. We will eat from the flourishing that is coming from our hearts through our mouths, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.