These notes are from some teaching on faith by Charles Capps that I have gleaned from YouTube. I’ve also added some of my thoughts.
Something I believe the Church has lost today is understanding the power of words. Because of this we have also lost our authority when confronting problems in life. Mountains are not being removed because we don’t believe the way we should. The bible shows us that words are powerful; they are a living substance. When you realise this truth your words will be few, but when you do speak them they will mean something to you.
There is no life in some people’s words, because there is no faith there. It’s faith that causes the word to live. God released faith in ‘His’ words and His words are alive to Him. Unless you release some faith in His words when you speak them, then it’s a dead book as far as you are concerned, if you don’t believe what God said concerning you.The Prophet Hosea said:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” Hosea 4:6
Notice that it doesn’t say that God’s people are destroyed because the Devil is so powerful that he can just run all over us and we can’t do anything about it. It’s failure to have knowledge that destroys you.
Because of a lack of knowledge there are some things that we do and say that we haven’t thought that much about. For instance, when we were in primary school we used to say things like. “Sticks and stones shall break my bones but words shall never hurt me.” That couldn’t be any further from the truth. Words will kill you, especially if you don’t know how to operate in the spiritual law concerning the word of God and the use of your words.
Your own words will destroy you quicker than someone else’s words. Other people’s words can work against you and cause you problems in life if you don’t know how to combat that. People say things like “He’s going to fail, he’s not going to make it, just watch and see.” “You are useless.” If you get 50 or 100 people talking against you like that you’ll wonder where all the problems are coming from in your life. Christian people can be very dangerous with their mouth's because they have more faith in their words than worldly people. They can release faith in a negative force.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
The word of God is ‘quick.’ In Greek it’s not the same as we think today. It means ‘alive.’ One translation says that it is a ‘living substance.’ It’s a ’living force,’ it’s a ‘vital force.’ It’s filled with faith. Not just anybody’s faith, it’s God’s faith. It’s powerful and sharper than any 2 edged sword.
The 2 edged sword referred to here is the tongue. God’s word is more powerful than any word spoken against you. God’s word is alive.
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63
God says that His words are life. Proverbs says that the Word of God is life and health.
”... life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:22
God’s word is alive, it’s a living substance, it’s the life of God. The anointing and life of God is in those words. Some Christians don’t understand the power of their words and can end up speaking curses on people. Jesus believed in the power of the tongue to speak curses. He put a curse on the fig tree and He did it with words spoken. He released words from His mouth in a negative fashion. He spoke negative words against a fig tree and it withered up and died.
How do we deal with words spoken against us? You can stop it from being effective by taking God’s word, those words God has said about you and proclaiming them often. God’s word is sharper than any other tongue. God’s life force is in His word. It is the word of faith. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 10:8
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;”
God’s word is the divine energy of God. Faith is the divine energy of God and is released into His word. The promises of God in the New Testament are for us. They are not yes on some things and not on others. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says all the promises are ours.
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20
God has already said ‘yes’ to all the promises. He doesn’t say that He will meet all our needs by Christ Jesus – ‘but’ or ‘if.’ Some things do have conditions though. What we need to establish in the beginning is that God’s word is His will. If there is a promise concerning finances or healing in the New Testament, then that word is released to us. God’s word conveys His will. With man this is not always so. Some speak lies, deceit and hypocrisy. God’s not like this. God’s word is His will for you. “God’s word is His will for man and God intends for man’s word to be His will towards God.” It should be your will whenever and whatever you speak. Words that are spoken that are not your will are idle words, crooked speech, and perverseness of lips. These things work against you. God releases faith in His words to cause the manifestation of what He says. That’s if people will believe it and act on it. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you because you read the verse in the bible, because there is a part we have to play in it. That is, we must take God’s word, we must believe God’s word and we must speak God’s word and then faith will come. Paul said after he had spoken these verses about the word of faith. He said the word is nigh thee even in the mouth and then it gets into thy heart.
“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” Romans 10:8
The word of God has to first be in your mouth and then it gets in your heart. This is not the physical heart of man. It’s into your spirit. When it gets into your heart then it will get back into your mouth. Then spoken out it gets into your heart. It makes a complete circle. To get God’s word into your heart it first needs to get it into your mouth.
There are 2 different segments of confessing, speaking, and quoting what God says, and they do different things. One of the problems of most people is that they have never gone past the 1st phase to got into the 2nd phase. You need to speak God’s word to get it into your heart so as to become part of you. It won’t just happen because it says it in the bible. Paul says.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17
For the word to come alive in you then you must speak it until faith comes. Paul didn’t say that faith comes by having heard the word of God. If that were true, then all of us who heard the word of God would have all the faith we need and not need any more of the word. He says it comes by hearing. It’s in a continual sense by hearing God’s word.
In another sense then faith in the Devil, and sickness comes by hearing the words of the Devil. You wouldn’t think that Christians would speak the words of the Devil but they do. Not knowingly anyway they wouldn’t, but God prophesied that His people were destroyed by a lack of knowledge not knowing this truth. You can’t live in health and speak sickness at the same time. It’s an impossibility because what you talk is what you are going to believe and what you believe is what you are going to talk. When it gets in your mouth it will get into your heart, and when it gets into your heart it will get into your mouth and it soon consumes you. Day in and day out you think sickness, you talk sickness; you believe sickness and you are sick. It started with words. It may have been a symptom but it will worsen when you talk about it. Your problems will multiply when you zero in on the problem and talk the problem. Because there is life in your words. There is life in words or there is death in words. You can speak life or you can speak death out of the same mouth.
James talks about the tongue being full of unruly evil and full of deadly poison. He is talking about the unregenerate, untamed tongue. He said no man can tame it, but thanks to God the Holy Spirit can.
If you are ever going to be effective in your work for Jesus or in business there must be a discipline in your life in the words you speak. There are times when you just feel like throwing up your hands and saying all kinds of things, but that is not the time to do it. It’s the time to gird up the loins of your mind with the word of God and begin to proclaim what God has said. This is where you find most people add to their failure and problems by getting down on themselves and beginning to talk against themselves.
The Devil knows what Jesus said in Mark 11:23. “Whosoever shall say to the mountain – the problem – the situation - to the financial situation - to the physical situation – to the social situation – to the marriage situation – Whosoever shall say be removed and cast into the sea, depart, be gone to the problem area and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe those things which he says shall come to pass he shall have it. (He doesn’t have it then, the completeness of it) But shall have whatsoever he says.”
Now it’s not just because he said it. There’s more to it than just saying it. You add life to your words when you say them. When you first say it, it’s doing little more than causing faith to come. Faith cometh by hearing God’s words. When you speak God’s word it’s the 1st phase of it. It causes faith to get inside you. God has already released the faith in His word. His word contains the faith.
It’s not that you are trying to talk God into doing something, or forcing God into doing something that He doesn’t want to do. We are tapping into something that God has already given us. The faith is there, God’s will is there. It’s His will for the promise to be fulfilled in you in this life and not just when you get to heaven. We are talking about the blessings of Abraham that have come to the body of Christ and is ours now.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:13-14
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Ephesians 1:3
He will supply all our need in Christ Jesus as we activate, give life to those words. The 1st phase is doing little more than causing faith to come. There is not a lot of power in confessing God’s word at the beginning stage as its causing faith to come every time you say that particular promise. As you speak it over and over you’ll begin to believe it stronger and you are renewing your mind to the word of God. Actually you are having to unlearn some things like unbelief. You don’t just say one day that you are going to quit this unbelief. You spent 20 years training yourself to doubt and it’s a process to get out of it. You picked up ideas through life, like thinking God was against you, or if you could be good enough then God would finally answer your prayers. That’s not it at all. You thought you could talk God into something. No - God has already said yes to the promises in His word. This type of thinking all needs to be undone.
God’s word is alive. It’s a living promise. In the pages of the bible it will not do a thing for you as long as it stays in the pages of the book. You could take the bible to a hospital and open it to some great healing scripture and lay in on a sick person, but they won’t get healed. It’s powerful but it must be activated by our voice or the individual, that’s the way you release faith. You have to breathe life into it. God’s word is the life force. It’s quick, its powerful and sharper than any 2 edged swords.
As we line our words up with God’s word then we have a link that brings back together that which was in the beginning. Adam’s tongue was hooked up to his spirit. He spoke spirit words, he communicated with God. When he sinned he lost that fellowship with God and his tongue became hooked up to his head. When we get filled with the spirit we can hook up again to our spirits and speak a spirit language again. We have a problem disciplining the tongue. Paul said to present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice. Your tongue is part of your body. It’s the last member we are to give up.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
God’s word in book form is dormant. It’s alive but is living like a seed in a packet. While there it’s not really performing anything. When you get it inside you and begin to speak it into your heart, things happen.
“But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou may do it.” Deuteronomy 30:14
When God’s word was first spoken it was powerful and it still hasn’t lost any of its power. God’s word has not lost its power and it’s not void of power but God’s people are void of speech. When Gods word promises health or prosperity it’s not limited to bring that about, but God’s people are limited in their speech. They speak as the world speaks - with doubt and unbelief, speaking the words of the enemy instead of proclaiming what God says. There is creative power in God’s word that comes forth as you speak it to cause the manifestation of that promise in your life. There is an evil power present in the words of the enemy to afflict and oppress everyone who speaks them. The Devil gets His power out of your mouth. He knows the power of the tongue and convinces us to use it in reverse.
Paul tells us to think on and speak good things.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8
Words are really thoughts spoke, and when you think on good things you are going to speak good things. That’s the reason you can’t speak sickness and disease and then live in health. You can’t speak poverty and defeat and be successful because you are releasing forces out of your mouth that either work for you or against you.
When God stood there in the beginning and looked out over the earth there was darkness. It was void and the spirit of God hovered over the waters. God’s Spirit was there but nothing happened until God spoke. This is where we begin to see the power of words. God said “Let light be” and it was.
Some say I know that’s true but that was God. Notice next that God said “let us make man in our image and let them have dominion.” How were they going to have dominion? The same way that God had dominion. When God saw darkness He said “let there be light”. He released His Words. He released faith in His word. He used His words as containers to carry His words out there into the darkness. He used words to transport faith. Whether you realise it or not that’s what your words are doing daily. They are transporting what you believe.
You can stay around people a little bit and soon locate where they are at because when they talk they are going to talk what they believe and the more they talk what they believe the more they believe what they talk. … their believing gets stronger. No matter what, he is going to eventually have what he’s saying.
You plant seeds by speaking. That is the way you sow in the kingdom of God. Everything produces after its own kind. If you speak darkness you produce more darkness. You speak light and you produce more light. You won’t have the quick manifestation of it like God had, as you are not developed in it as He was. In fact, until you discipline yourself you probably won’t be developed in it at all because you don’t believe anything you say will happen. Because we are so programmed to negative or wrong thinking we have dissolved or deluded ourselves and have no faith in our own words at all. You can see this when you listen to people talk sometimes. God spoke what He meant and meant what He said.
Jesus said I only speak what I hear my father says. Wouldn’t it be good if we had a Church that only spoke what God said? Not letting the bad news come out of their mouths. Some say that it’s just ignoring the problem or its mind over matter. No it’s not that it’s God’s word over all matter. We are not talking about the mind at all, we are talking about the heart of man. What he believes in his heart and says out of his mouth, that can change nations and worlds. It can really change the world you live in. If you look around and don’t like the harvest you are receiving, check up on the seed you have been planting. You can’t sow weeds and expect to reap wheat. Our words are like seeds. God used it in the beginning to create the universe. Ten times in Genesis 1 it says “God said,” “God said.” In fact it seems to get monotonous. God’s trying to get over to us what caused the creation. It wasn’t a big bang, it was God speaking things into existence. It was the creative power of God. He spoke it and released His power.
God said let us make man in our likeness in our image and let them have dominion over all the earth. God gave authority to man to do this. The traditional Church can tell us that we are just worms, sinners with no authority etc. But you have dominion over everything in this life. You need to come to the place where we operate in God’s word system. The word system is that we’ll have whatsoever we say if we believe and don’t doubt in our hearts.
As already said the word spoken doesn’t bring the manifestation straight away. It’s a phase started in our seeds that are sown. There is life in a seed and it won’t produce unless you plant it. So as you plant God’s word and speak God’s word after Him, you develop yourself into the faith of God. The God kind of faith where you release faith in every word, where your words become powerful. Now it may take weeks or months or even years on some things, to develop yourself to where you believe these things will come to pass. It’s a matter of activating what God has already promised. Adam was a duplication of God’s kind in that God was a spirit and God created Adam as a spirit being and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The bible says he became a living soul. It says ‘the spirit of life’ in the amplified bible. This life of God was the same life that was in God. Man was capable of operating on the same level of faith as God. Jesus himself said, “As you have believed so be it unto you.” He says in another place “that all things are possible to God,” and in another place “all things are possible to him that believes.” That seems to indicate to me that we are capable of operating on the same level of faith as God does. We are capable of it. The reborn human spirit is capable of believing like God, but you need to train yourself in it.