Tag Archives: The Power of the tongue

In any branch of the military, and in all law enforcement training, there is a skill—a discipline—that, when practiced correctly, keeps us safer, more prepared, and better equipped to tackle and overcome any difficulty. The skill is called situational awareness.

Most of us have gone through spiritual battles unarmed and unaware, not because we lack weapons, but because we never learned how to use the one God placed in our mouths.

As Christians, we have very little situational awareness. We walk around clueless about the war raging around us and within us. We simply don’t understand that we are in a constant spiritual fight and the enemy is stealing our revelation, killing our confidence, and destroying our witness.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

The enemy is not intimidated by us simply because we own Bibles and attend church. But he is terrified when we know how to wield the sword of the Spirit. Devils don’t tremble at scriptures printed in a Bible. They tremble and flee when scripture becomes a sword in our mouths, and we understand our authority in Christ. This is why the devil is relentless in his attacks against understanding our Christian identity.

Because of his attacks, many of us struggle in this area. We read the Word. We honor the Word. Yet we do not understand how to use the Word in a fight. The Word of God is not only instruction; it is a weapon. It is not just a revelation of truth; it is power. When Paul described the armor of God in Ephesians 6, every piece was defensive except one: the sword of the Spirit, which is the spoken word of God.

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 

Some swords are worn for decoration. They are used for symbolism and ceremony. The sword of the Spirit is not for decoration; it is meant to be used, yet most of us never actually use it. We admire God’s Word, we reference it, we even quote it, but we do not wield it as a weapon. The Word spoken becomes a living thing. Many of us believe the Word is powerful on its own, which is true, but we never take the next step: God designed His Word to be powerful in our mouths.

This is a beautiful paradox. James teaches us clearly that our tongues did not get born again when we did.

James 3:6-9 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 

Notice, it doesn’t say, the tongue is LIKE a fire, it says IT IS a fire. IT IS an unruly evil.

If we don’t bridle our tongue and force it to do our will, Satan will control it. Once he controls our tongue, he controls us.

God. In His infinite wisdom, He provided a way for us to defeat the enemy with a part of our being that still has a carnal nature! That’s like snatching the devil’s pitchfork and slapping him with it.

A silent believer is a disarmed believer. The big question is, why do so many of us remain silent? Why do we speak about our circumstances and our feelings more than the truth? Why do we voice fear instead of the promises of our covenant identity? Because many of us have never been taught how spiritual warfare actually works.

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Resist doesn’t necessarily mean fight; resist means withstand, oppose, stand firm against with authority.

Authority is always enforced by words. Authority is vocal, expressed, and declared with confidence.

We cannot exercise authority silently. Jesus did not cast out devils with imagination or internal belief; he spoke, declared, and commanded. He said, “It is written,” and the enemy bowed to the Word spoken with conviction. When we stay silent, the enemy remains unchallenged. When we speak the Word, the enemy confronts the very authority that defeated him at Calvary.

Here’s the tragedy: We are equipped with a sword but trained like spectators. We treat the Word as something to reverence instead of something to execute. We think the Word is for quiet meditation, not aggressive confrontation. We forget that Jesus himself, in the wilderness, defeated the devil not with thoughts or emotions, but with scripture spoken with precision. Jesus said three times, “It is written”—three strikes of the sword, three declarations of truth, three blows that scattered the enemy.

But here is the deeper issue behind why so many of us never use the Word as a sword: we do not see ourselves as authorized to use it. We feel unworthy, unqualified, unsure. We are filled with doubt and think the Word works for spiritual giants, not ordinary believers.

A sword does not care about the one holding it,—it responds to the skill and authority behind the one who wields it.

Authority does not come from maturity; authority comes from identity.

The moment we were born again, we were placed in Christ. Our authority is his authority. We do not wield the sword in our own strength; we wield the sword from His victory. The Father honors the Word in the lips of his children as he honored the Word in the lips of Jesus. Let this truth sink into our spirits: God responds to His Word spoken by us the same way he responded to His Word spoken by Christ because we are in Christ, not because we earned the right, but because we inherited the right.

When we speak God’s Word, Heaven hears the voice of righteousness. This is why the enemy attacks our identity before he attacks anything else. If he can make us believe we are weak, we will never speak with authority. If he can make us believe we are unworthy, we will never feel qualified to swing the sword boldly. If he can make us believe the Word is powerful in someone else’s mouth but not ours, our sword remains sheathed. Many of us are defeated not because we lack knowledge of scripture, but because we lack confidence.

Spiritual warfare is not about shouting louder, praying longer, or fighting harder. It is about speaking the right word from the right position. We must know our authority. We must understand our righteousness. We must grasp our union with Christ. The Word is only a weapon when it is spoken from identity; we cannot wield a sword we do not believe we have the right to hold.

This is why we see the early church walking in power. They did not even have the scripture that we do; they simply believed what Christ said and accomplished. They knew who they were. They knew what belonged to them. They knew the authority that rested on the name of Jesus. They spoke the Word boldly because they understood the covenant backing it up.

The Word becomes effective when we speak it with the consciousness of our authority in Christ. The sword of the Spirit does not operate like a natural sword. A natural sword loses sharpness with each strike, but the sword of the Spirit grows sharper with use. The more we speak it, the more effective it becomes. The more we wield it, the more skillful we become. The more we declare it, the more it gets established as an unshakable truth in our hearts.   

Job 22:28b …You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.

Authority comes from identity. Skill comes from repeated use. Victory comes from consistency. Most of us never learn to use the Word as a sword because we never commit to speaking it daily, not speaking occasionally, not just when we feel pressured and desperate, but daily.  

Consistency trains our subconscious to respond instinctively with scripture. The enemy does not fear us when we can quote scripture mentally; he fears us when we have trained our mouths to respond with scripture instantly.

When Jesus was attacked in the wilderness, he did not pause to search for a verse. He did not hesitate, analyze, or contemplate. The sword was already in his mouth.  HE WAS THE WORD! Speaking is His nature.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

While commonly translated as “living soul,” or “living being,” ancient interpretations and scholars suggest that “speaking spirit” or “speaking being” captures the essence of Adam’s nature and purpose from the original text.

The Word is sharp because it is true, but it becomes sharper when we believe it. The sword of the Spirit is powerful because it is holy, but it becomes devastating when we understand it.  

When the Word becomes revelation in our hearts, our declarations carry a power that darkness cannot resist. The authority of the Word in our mouths is directly connected to the revelation of the Word in our hearts. Many of us speak scripture as information, not as revelation. We quote verses we have not yet absorbed. We declare truths we have not yet allowed to become part of our identity. And when the Word is spoken without revelation, it strikes but does not penetrate. It touches the surface but does not cut deep enough to change the outcome.

Revelation is what sharpens the sword. Revelation turns scripture from a verse into a weapon, from information into transformation, from doctrine to dominion. This is why, when truth becomes revelation, authority becomes natural. When scripture gets internalized to the point that we see it and visualize ourselves doing it, the spoken Word becomes extremely powerful. Revelation knowledge lifts us out of the realm of the physical senses into the realm of the Spirit. This is where the Word becomes unstoppable.

As long as we live in the realm of the 5 physical senses, the Word remains theological. But when we step into the realm of revelation, the Word becomes operational. Our senses say it looks impossible; revelation says, with God, all things are possible. Our senses say the symptoms remain; revelation says, by his stripes we are healed. Our senses say we feel weak; revelation says, the Lord is the strength of our lives. The sword of the Spirit is only as effective as our revelation of it—not because the Word changes, but because our cooperation with it changes.

When Jesus said, “It is written,” he did not speak as someone quoting scripture. He spoke as someone who embodied it. He spoke the Word with full revelation of his identity, his authority, and his Father’s will. The enemy cannot withstand a Word spoken from that place. The enemy is powerless against the execution of dominion by a fully persuaded believer.

This is why we must spend time with the Word before trying to wield the Word. Time in the Word does not only educate; it saturates. It molds our hearts. It strengthens our spirits. It chisels away unbelief. It aligns our inner selves with God’s voice. The sword becomes sharper as our hearts become anchored.  

Reactive vs. Proactive

Another reason many of us fail to use the Word effectively is that we use the Word reactively instead of proactively. We wait until the enemy attacks before we start speaking God’s Word. We wait until fear rises, then search for a promise, scrambling to find a verse. We wait until sickness appears, then begin to declare our covenant rights to healing. Swords are not sharpened in the midst of battle; they are sharpened before the battle. If we sharpen our swords only after the enemy appears, we are fighting at a disadvantage. If we wait until a crisis strikes to speak the Word, we are already behind.

Proactive confession builds spiritual momentum and anchors our faith firmly in Christ. It conditions our spirits to respond instinctively, not react emotionally. It trains our hearts to believe before the pressure comes. It builds an atmosphere where the enemy cannot easily plant seeds of fear or confusion.

When David faced Goliath, he did not suddenly find confidence. His confidence had been forged in battles of faith long before he stepped onto the battlefield with Goliath. He had spoken, prayed, worshiped, believed, and meditated on God until confession flowed naturally. The Word was already alive in him, so the sword was already sharp. Goliath didn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of defeating that young man. David spoke about his belief and confidence in God. He told Goliath exactly what he was going to do and then dropped him with a rock (prophetic implications intended), bringing him to the point of death. Then cuts his head off with Goliath’s own sword. (more prophetic implications)

Most of us do not struggle with using the Word because we lack preparation. We wait for warfare to train for warfare. We wait for pressure to strengthen faith. We wait for the attack to build our confession. And because we wait, we are not ready when the fight comes. And let me tell you the truth, ITS COMING. The Word of God was never meant to be our emergency equipment. It was meant to be continual nourishment, continual meditation, continual declaration. Joshua 1:8 reveals the principle plainly: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.”

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 

Notice how the Word in our mouths is tied to success in our lives. Speaking the Word is not optional for spiritual warfare; it is essential for Christian living.

The enemy is not trying to get us to deny scripture; most Christians would never fall for that. His goal is to keep it out of our mouths. He knows the moment we stop speaking the Word, the sword goes back into the sheath, and we are no longer a threat to his agenda. When the sword of the Spirit goes back into the sheath, we move from offensive to defensive. The moment we become defensive, we give the devil space and opportunity to attack us.

Perhaps the most overlooked reason we do not use the Word as a sword is that we have been taught to pray the Word instead of speaking it directly to the enemy. Many of us spend our prayer time describing our concerns to God rather than enforcing the solution God already provided. We pray as if God has not yet spoken, as if the covenant is incomplete, as if the cross has not purchased complete victory. We plead from weakness instead of speaking from identity.

Spiritual warfare is not praying to God about the problem. It is speaking to the problem. We need to stop asking God to move when He has already moved. We need to start declaring what God has already said. We must stop approaching God as defeated slaves and begin declaring every promise we have as redeemed sons and daughters. Authority does not beg, authority does not wonder, and authority does not negotiate. Authority commands, resists, declares, and enforces.

This is why Jesus did not pray lengthy prayers over demons or storms. He spoke. He commanded. He declared, “Peace, be still. Come out of him. Be healed. Rise up and walk.” Every one of these statements was a swing of the sword.

The Word spoken with authority brings the will of God into manifestation. This isn’t metaphysical manifestation mumbo-jumbo. Jesus did not speak to see if something would happen; he spoke because something must happen when the Word is declared from a place of identity.

The Word of God renews our minds, strengthens our spirits, and confronts darkness all at once. The moment we declare scripture, Heaven aligns, angels respond, the Spirit moves, and the enemy is confronted with Christ’s authority.

Jesus quoted specific scripture in the wilderness, not random scripture—he confronted every temptation with a targeted word. When the enemy struck identity, Jesus struck back with identity. When the enemy struck provision, Jesus struck back with provision. When the enemy struck purpose, Jesus struck back with purpose. Tactical precision wins battles.

We can’t speak scripture generally when the enemy attacks us with specifics. We can’t simply declare general truths instead of addressing the lies directly. If the enemy attacks our identity, we speak the Word about righteousness. If the enemy attacks our health, we speak the Word about healing. If the enemy attacks our peace, we speak the Word about the promise of peace. If the enemy attacks our calling, we speak the Word about our identity in Him. A is meant to strike intentionally.

The Word becomes most powerful when we speak it consistently, not occasionally. A single strike wounds; continuous strikes defeat. A single declaration brings light; continual declaration keeps darkness out. A single confession pushes back pressure; continual confession establishes an atmosphere where the enemy cannot regain ground.  

Continual declaration of God’s Word shapes environments, establishes spiritual climates, renews our minds, sharpens our discernment, strengthens our resolve, and awakens a spiritual sensitivity that can be attained no other way.

We speak the Word when we feel pressured, but we also need to speak it when life is peaceful and things are going well. The strongest among us are not those who speak scripture in panic, but those who speak scripture in rhythm.

We wield the sword as part of our lifestyle. We speak it in the morning, declare it throughout the day, and meditate on it at night. When the Word becomes the rhythm of our spirits, the sword never dulls. It remains sharp because our confession stays alive. It remains effective because our faith stays active and strengthened by the Word. It remains authoritative because our identity stays awakened.  

The Word was never meant to be studied without being spoken. It was never meant to be known without being used. It was never meant to be honored without being wielded. God placed a sword in our spirits—a weapon not forged by human hands but breathed by the Holy Ghost.  

So, back to my original thought, situational awareness. This teaching describes the situation that all believers face. Now that we are aware, what are we going to do about it?

JESUS IS COMING!

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