The Power Of Words

Tatjana Mayer – 18 November 2007

The Power of Words

When Edgar and I were in our first parish, there was a lady whose dad was very ill. I hadn’t seen her at church in a while and when I saw her again, I asked her how her dad was doing. She looked at me a little stunned, which I didn’t understand until later when I found out that Edgar had failed to mention to me that the lady’s dad had died and that Edgar had presided over the funeral some weeks earlier. I felt terrible. But why would I? It was just an innocent question, not ill meant. And yet, those few words had the power to stir up grief over her dad’s death and also to influence our relationship.

1. Words Shape Us

How can words do that? We all have heard the saying: “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me?” Do we believe that?

Hitler used his words to trick an entire nation into believing that they were superior to every other race, that it was ok to eliminate those who were different from them, and even that they could achieve world domination. Words influence us. Words shape our thinking and what we do.

Margaret Court, a tennis player who dominated the game in the sixties and early seventies, gives a personal testimony of how words influenced her: “It wasn’t just the negative words of the press that caused me such problems at Wimbledon. It was the fact that too often I secretly echoed those words myself. If we are told often enough that we are useless, hopeless, stupid or good for nothing we will eventually start to say the same things about ourselves. The more we say, the more we will believe those soul destroying words. And when we believe them, we will fulfil them to the letter. Even in tennis my battlefield was often not the court but my own mind. When I believed I could win and said as such I usually did. But when I believed I couldn’t and said as such, I always lost.” [1]

I think that all of us can tell a similar story about words that were said to us and what effect these words had on our lives. For me personally these words were: ‘As a women you can’t speak in the Lutheran Church, you can’t serve, you have nothing to offer for the church – you are only a woman.’ You are only a woman. Not all was said in exactly those words, though some of it was, but after it had been said often enough, the words became the truth in my life for almost twenty years.

I am sure it is not hard for you to bring to mind the most hurtful words that were said to you or about you. And unfortunately sometimes we don’t manage to rise above the limitations put on us by other people’s words. For you that may have been the words of a parent or a sibling or a spouse, the nasty remark of your boss or a teacher. The things others say to us are powerful, and even more powerful is what we say about ourselves.

Now the question I have for us is this: Why do words have such an impact on us to a point where they can shape our reality? Research debates whether language shapes our perception of reality or whether reality shapes our thinking and language, but it is widely accepted that there is a close connection between language and reality.

The Bible indicates that connection of word and reality in the first chapter of Genesis.

2. God’s Word Creates Reality

God’s word creates reality. Gen 1: 3 says: “And God said “Let there be light,” and there was light…”.

Louie Giglio described it like this: God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and light burst forth out of his mouth at the speed of 299,792,458 ms per second (or approximately 300,000 kms per sec) which is light travelling 7 times around the earth in 1 second.

God speaks and light shoots out and his word creates a universe of amazing proportion.

Did you know: There are more stars in the universe than all the grains of sand on the earth. And yet the stars and all matter contained in the universe are nothing compared to how vast the universe is. Imagine this, if the universe was a building that is 20 miles long, 20 miles wide and 20 miles high, all matter would be like one grain of sand in this building. With his word God created something that is so amazing that it goes beyond anything we can imagine.

In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, the expression for ‘word’ is dabar. The word ‘dabar’ means word or statement, but at the same time it means thing or matter. It describes the spoken word but it also means the physical thing, the real thing in itself. The theological dictionary describes it like this: “The word is understood as an almost objective entity that has its own power… word of God… as an event.” [2] And, “The word is described like a subject who has been sent out by his master to accomplish a mission.”[3] Just as it says in Isaiah 56:11: “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Do you know what that means? That means that the word of God is not just noise or a string of letters but it is the thing itself; it is what it describes. God’s word comes with the power to generate what it says.

The first time the word ‘dabar’ appears in the Bible, is in Genesis 15:1, 4 where God for the first time introduces a covenant into his relationship with Abraham and promises him a son: “Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘A son coming from your body will be your heir…Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.’” And if you have watched Louie Giglio’s ‘Indescribable’ you will know that in our galaxy alone we have approximately 400 billion stars, so I think God’s statement, his challenge to count the stars is somewhat rhetorical. And do you know what happens? God’s word to Abraham generates what it says. The promise of an heir becomes fact, the word becomes the thing, though it may not happen straight away.

When God speaks to us and gives us a promise, his words have the power to generate reality. When God speaks, his word is already generating in the spiritual realm what may become manifest in the natural realm only at a later stage, as it did with Abraham.

Margaret Court explains: “Spiritual things are more real than physical things. Any change in our lives must first take place in the spiritual realm before it will manifest in the natural realm. Faith is simply the connection between the natural realm and the spiritual realm.”[4] The spiritual is more real than the physical. Do we agree with that? To us real is what we see with our eyes, like the world around us, the person can touch, the pain we feel when our finger gets caught in the car door, that is real to us. And yet, we also experience how words of rejection, not getting the job, not being accepted by people, can cause us pain. The words are real to us, though we can’t see them, the pain is real to us. There is a reality beyond what we can see and touch.

What Margaret Court is saying is that unless God creates something in the spiritual realm, it can’t exist in the physical. So, when God speaks to us we know that his word is already accomplished in the spiritual realm. The physical reflects what has happened in the spiritual realm and faith is the connection between the two.

Hebrews11:1 says: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Greek word that is used here for substance, upostasis, means ‘certainty’ as well as ‘essence’, ‘actual being’. One NT commentator explains that Paul is saying that through faith things become “a reality piece by piece in the contemporary world… faith brings about things which are not yet there.”[5]

After God promises Abraham offspring, did you realise how Genesis continues (15:6)?: “Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

Abraham knows with a certainty that God’s promises will become reality. He has faith. That means, our faith is the connection between promise and fulfilment. When we trust that God does what he says, his promises are fulfilled our lives.

Romans 8:16 states: “Therefore, the promise comes by faith.” As I began trusting that God wanted me in ministry and could use me for ministry despite the limitations imposed by the church, opportunities began to open up for me and gradually more areas of ministry became available for me. Faith is our response to God’s word. By faith God’s promises for us become reality piece by piece.

For you that might the faith that God wants more for you than there is at the moment, a more fulfilled spiritual life, a more fulfilled natural life, a spiritual encounter with God like the one Abraham had. Or maybe the faith that God has a purpose for placing you in your present work place or place of responsibility.

That’s all good but how can we have such faith? What do words have to do with it?

3. Human Words Shape Reality

Remember the story at the start, where Margaret Court says: “When I believed I could win and said as such I usually did. But when I believed I couldn’t and said as such, I always lost.” Her words created the faith that she could win or that she would lose. Her words shaped her thinking and reality.

The understanding that a word is more than just a couple of letters strung together is not specific to a Christian understanding.

The philosopher Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language indicate the limits of my world. “ (1966) We limit the world with what we say about it.

Describing the glass as half-full or half-empty demonstrates our perception of what we see and how we see things, what is possible and what is needed. A half-full glass is sufficient, we can drink it and it fulfils our need. A half-empty glass does not fulfil our needs, it needs filling.

How do we describe the things in our life? Maybe you describe your job as a teacher, builder or mum fulfilling and enjoyable and so you believe it fulfils you, it is the right thing for you, it fills your needs. You may call the same job tiring, demanding, unthankful and so you perceive it to be a stone around your necks, something that drags you down.

I know that sometimes I can describe the same situation or tasks in my life, for instance counselling or mentoring, as something that I love to do, I tell myself that it is rewarding, I wouldn’t want to do anything else, I am meant to do it. And that is how I then approach the counselling or mentoring: I love doing it. But there are also times, when I feel run down and when I start believing that it is just too hard, draining, unrewarding. And that’s how I view it, as a task that is too hard and not worthwhile doing and that I have to drag myself to do it.

Ask yourselves, what words do you use to describe your situation and how does it influence you how feel about your situation, what you see possible or where you put limits on yourself? Words influence how we perceive the world, and they set limits to it. Like God’s word, our words also have generative power. Words create belief about what we can or can’t do and about what can happen.

In the movie Eragon’ the teacher, the dragon rider, says to his student: “The thing is the word. Know the word and you can show the thing.” Later in the movie Eragon learns that speaking the word already contains the action and makes it happen. Of course this is a movie and I think we all are aware that just thinking about a thing doesn’t make it appear. Wishing you had an ice cold glass of lemonade on a hot day doesn’t make it appear in your hand, unless you have an obliging husband or wife, and wishing you had a better job or life doesn’t magically transport you to another place or time.

And yet, God’s word has creative power, is the word and the thing itself and we who are created in his image, somehow tap into this creative power of words.

I found this statement about Einstein’s Quantum theory on the internet: “Everything we see on any given day is made up of not just cells or atoms but of pure energy… called Quanta (plural for Quantum). ..Scientists say that Quanta ….are a probability that exists in any given point in time. So when a person focuses on .. a thing, it exists… Your mind and the minds of others create and co-create everything through influencing Quanta. This creation process is not just thought. It is both thought and work.” I am not a physicist and I am not sure how accurate this explanation is but it expresses in scientific terms what the word dabar states on a theological level: Thought or word and action are linked, they are one thing. If you find the Quantum theory hard to swallow, listen to the testimony of a doctor.

Yonggi Cho relates an incidence when he met one of Korea’s leading Neuro-surgeons over breakfast. Cho relates that the surgeon told him that “… according to our recent findings in neurology, the speech center in the brain has total dominion over all the other nerves… . He said that the speech nerve center had such power over all of the body that simply speaking can give one control over his body, to manipulate it in the way he wishes. He said, ‘If someone keeps on saying, I am going to become weak, then right away all the nerves receive the message and they say, ‘Oh let’s prepare to become weak, for we’ve received instructions from our central communication that we should become weak. They then in natural sequence adjust their physical attitudes to weakness’”.[6]

When we tell ourselves that we become weak, we become weak. Our words create reality. They have an influence on us and on the world around us. When we believe the negative or positive words that are spoken to us by others, they shape our reality. If there is a lot of negative input into the mind, it is very likely that we will have a negative perception of ourselves. Margaret Court believed the words that she was shy, fearful, timid and so allowed the words to become reality for her for many years. Wishing for a better job may not magically transport us to a different one but the words we choose may change our situation at work and the opportunities we have.

We can shape our thinking from unbelief to faith and we can shape reality and it begins with our words. When we want to respond to God in faith, as Abraham did, and to what he has for us, we need to speak words of faith. Our language needs to change to match God’s word to us. Abraham responded with words of faith and released God’s words in his life. But remember also when God told Moses to speak before Pharaoh and promised that he himself would help Moses speak, Moses responded with unbelief. He said: “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” (Ex. 4:13) And this is what happened. Aaron did the speaking instead. So Moses did not allow for this specific promise to be released in his life,

What does that mean practically for us?

Firstly, God’s most amazing word and most powerful word to us is Jesus. By responding to Jesus in faith we enter into a relationship with God just like Abraham did and release God’s promises in our lives, the promise that we are forgiven, that we are God’s child and with him in eternity but even more than that. God is now Lord over our life and as Hebrews 8:32 says, as he gave up Jesus for us, how would he not along with him graciously give us all things and make us conquerors through him (8:37). Respond to Jesus in faith.

Secondly, God may speak to you and tell you for instance that he is with you in your present circumstances and that he will help you conquer the pharaohs in our life, the challenging job, the rocky marriage, the depression, and that he has prepared a way through, that he has fresh plans for your future. He may ask us to let go of the things that hold us back from moving where God is leading us, the critical self-image, or the glum outlook on life or the judgemental words from others or past hurts. When God speaks these things to us, we may focus on ourselves and doubt ourselves and say, “I can’t do it … nothing good is going to happen in my life…. I don’t think I am ready…. …It is not the right time.” Or we can focus on Jesus, who as Hebrews 12:2 states, is the author and perfecter of our faith and so we can respond with faith and trust that God is moving us to a new place. Focus on Jesus.

Thirdly, Yonggi Cho suggests that we can learn a language of faith as we “Read the Bible … acquire the Bible’s language, …. Then you will be conditioned to meet your environment and circumstances…”[7] Knowing the word of God conditions us to meet life.

Read and know the word of God.

Fourthly, Margaret Court suggests that, when we speak God’s word out aloud, it strengthens our faith.[8] For instance we may speak words of encouragement in hardship, Romans 8:18: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness…” Or words of provision for a satisfying life: “God …richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Tim 6:21) or words of healing “But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” (Mal 4:2).

Speak God’s word out aloud.

God’s word is powerful. It has generative power, it does what it says. It is word and thing. I encourage us all to review the words we speak to others and what we say about ourselves. Let us have a new openness and a new desire to allow God and his Word teach us how to speak. Let the words we speak reflect faith in God’s words to us and allow him to release the promises he has for our lives.

Amen

[1] Court, M. (1999). Winning Words. Victoria: Strand Publishing. P.24

[2] Botterweck, G.J.& Ringren, H. (eds) (1978). Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Stuttgart: Verlad W. Kohlhammer GmbH. P.113.

[5] Brown, C. (Ed.). (1975). The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol 1. Michigan: Zondervan. P. 714

[6] Yonggi Cho, D. (2001). The fourth dimension. Vol 1. Gainsville: Bridge-Logos Publishers.