Your Words Have Power

The Power of the Tongue: Speak Life, Not Death

In this episode, we discuss the incredible power of the tongue and the words we speak over our lives. The Bible tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18), and today, we're breaking down what that truly means.

What are you speaking over yourself, your family, your circumstances? Are your words aligning with God’s promises, or are you unknowingly cursing your own blessings? Erika-Michelle shares personal testimonies, biblical wisdom, and a powerful reminder that our words shape our reality.

Learn why it's crucial to speak life, reject negative declarations, and stand firm in faith—because what we profess with our mouths carries weight in the spiritual realm. If you're feeling stuck, discouraged, or under attack, this episode is for you. It’s time to start prophesying over your circumstances with the authority given you by the Holy Spirit!

🎧 Tune in now and let’s start speaking victory!

Audible FREE TRIAL!
Get your FREE Trial and first book on us

Chapters

• 7:33 Speaking Life and Death
• 15:04 The Authority of Words
• 22:20 Faith and Healing

Transcript

Today we're going to talk about the power of the tongue and what you speak.

We all know the function of our body. The major function of the tongue is what enables us speech and vocalizing in other animals. And I don't think it's a coincidence that though it's small, it's the part of the body that has significant power. It's used as one of the gifts of the spirit, and it's the hardest thing to tame.

I've told this story plenty of times and one of the things God worked with me on first was my mouth and the first thing he asked me was give me control of your tongue and I'll change your life.

Did you know your tongue also helps keep your airway open so you can breathe properly? We know how important breath is spiritually. Anyone that knows me knows how serious I am about what we speak over ourselves. If you are a friend of mine,

You have heard me say at least once, don't speak that over yourself. don't say that, don't claim that, Some people laugh at me and they're like, I'm just joking, I'm just, but you're not. Because especially when you are a Christian, your mouth has authority behind it. So what you speak comes to fruition. So you have to be careful what it is that

we are speaking out of our mouths. Anybody knows, you make any negative claims over me, my family, my life, I'm gonna tell you real quick, please don't do that. I don't need that kind of help in my life. Thank you. James Three lets us know that it is unnatural to speak out of both sides of the mouth. I mean, some people speak out of other areas of their body, but we're not gonna talk about that today. James says, words are like fire.

You can neither control nor reverse the damage they do. So once those words fly out of your mouth, there's not much you can do to reverse the damage of those. A few idioms I'm sure we've all heard of. To bite one's tongue is a phrase that you're holding back, right? How many times you gotta bite your tongue? Like know I gotta do it all the time. There some days I look at my children like, don't...

A slip of the tongue refers to those when you accidentally say something that maybe you shouldn't have. The gift of tongues is a spiritual gift that we receive from the Holy Spirit. And today we're going to talk about the power of the tongue, which is what we all have. And the Spirit sent me to share a few things on the importance of what you speak. Proverbs 18 tells us that there is power.

of life and death, you can speak life or death over somebody just with what you speak. Y'all cursing in the Bible,

I mean, I'm not gonna pretend to know exactly what they meant back in the AD times, but cursing is more than just four-letter bad words, right? I do believe that the cursing they're referring to in the Bible is when you're damning someone to hell, when you are wishing bad on their life, when you are speaking things over them, and sometimes people are speaking things over you that you don't even know. They're in the background wishing you all sorts of ill You can truly...

Speak life or death with the power of the tongue. Our words have power.

You can bless or curse out of the same mouth. You can use your mouth to uplift or tear down. And some of us don't even realize how much we're tearing ourselves down.

You'll never hear me claim to be broke. I could be financially unstable all day long, but you'll never hear me utter the words I'm broke because I won't speak that over myself. You will never hear me claim to have an illness. I could have sores all over my, let me tell you something. There's a little story. There's a little story. There's a little story. The doctors told me what it was.

They told me what it was. They told me what it was. I refused to claim it. I refused to accept it and I refused to speak it because God kept telling me, there's something better. So while they were saying she's gonna die, I was saying, no, she's not. You got medicine, I got Jesus. So we don't have to claim.

It it looks questionable, it looks painful. You don't have to claim it, you don't have to speak it. Because you don't know what it is you don't know what it is because sometimes it's packaged up in ugliness.

I always believed in God, always. It was never a question, but I didn't always live for God. She saved my life and helped me live for God because he helped me see through that ugliness, through that time of uncertainty and obscurity and what's gonna happen. He worked on me through that situation, so even though sometimes it's delivered in an ugly package, it's a beautiful thing.

And you have to be careful what you're speaking because you can start claiming something over yourself and over your life not realizing that you are interrupting and disrupting your own blessing.

You can not have a job, not have a car, not have a house, but you don't have to call yourself homeless because you can always go to church and find a home.

So as again as Christians, have to be very careful what we speak and I'm so particular about this. My husband even knows if something goes wrong with me medically y'all, there's only like four people that can know. There's only like four people he's allowed to tell. Because see people will be in the background going, ooh, I don't know if she's gonna make it through that. I don't need those kind of people in my life or in the situation, right? There's sometimes in the background ooh, I hope they don't lose their house. Like there will be people back there speaking and worrying outside of you while you sit in there trying to pray and hold on and stand strong and they're in the background.

people my husband can tell because if you're gonna worry he can't tell you he can't tell you if God forbid something ever happened and it was like well we don't know what's gonna happen like look Michael only tell the four people and this is what they'll do they'll pray for me they'll speak nothing but positivity over the situation and they won't make any kind of negative claims because anybody that knows me knows please don't speak anything negative over my life and it could be literally right there in my face I still ain't gonna claim it

See what happens when you don't claim what's right.

shows up into a situation and the doctors are telling you I don't know what else we can do for you guess what he can do it and not only can he do it but he will do it but don't disrupt your blessing with your mouth

Jesus tells us in Matthew 16, he says, will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loose in heaven. Y'all, you do this with your words. You do this with your words. There are times where I know that our family is under attack and I'm like, Lord, I've.

Jesus gave us a-

with our mouth and some of us need to remember that. Some of us need to remember that it's high time you start standing up speaking out and saying get thee behind me Satan because you're not welcome here and you can do that just with your mouth just with your tongue.

saw a video of someone explaining this. wish I could take credit for it, don't know who it was. I was listening to something. And he was explaining how the enemy is not omnipresent, right? The enemy doesn't know what you're thinking, doesn't know what you're praying. The enemy doesn't know you have a problem until you speak it.

So he doesn't even know what he can mess with you with until you open your mouth and speak it. So if you got a fear over something, until you say, man, I'm so, I have no idea how my kids gonna turn out. Lord, hopefully he don't end up in jail. Like once you start, the devil then has a foothold, So even the enemy knows how powerful your mouth is. And at the moment he can attack with what you're spitting out of your mouth. So be careful what you're speaking.

This is also why it's important to profess I am loved I am whole I am healed I am saved I am delivered I am healthy I am happy my marriage is strong my children are saved because it confuses the enemy Her whole world is falling apart and she's saying thank you Jesus like what I don't do I mess with her do I not mess with the enemy don't know what to do with that Job

I bet the enemy was so confused with Joe because he kept claiming it. Some of y'all have blessings and holding because the Lord is waiting on you to speak up and speak out. Look, life can get gloomy, but don't lay down and accept it, y'all. We gotta keep standing up and fighting. And it gets hard and sometimes you don't even know where you have the fight at.

show up to church. Because when you can't fight, you got a whole room of people that I help fight with you. What's that saying? When you get too tired to stand, Neil, y'all, may sound cheesy, but it's factual. Sometimes you ain't supposed to stand when you go through some stuff. Get down, get so humble. I remember when we were praying for Nala and when I was pregnant Michael would lay down on the ground because he wanted to humble himself so much. It's OK to get down on the ground when you can't.

Stand any longer when you are so tired and you're tired of fighting and you don't know what's going on

Just start praying. Get yourself around some people who will fight with you and for you even when you can't.

I'm here to encourage somebody to start prophesying over your circumstances and with the authority of the Spirit. What are you speaking over your life today? What are you speaking over your kids, over your relationships, over your marriages, over your friendships? What are you speaking? I think we've been living in the hashtag the struggle is real so long that we forgot to pay attention to the healing that happened. It's time we start living and the healing is real because people need to see while yes,

where God delivered you so they can have hope from somewhere.

are some stories you gotta work through. are some situations you gotta work through. And I'm not saying be fake at all. Please do not twist my words. What I am saying though is, is after the deliverance, start sharing that testimony. Because until you share that testimony, somebody who's got a wound is looking for your scar and they need to know you made it. They need to know he saved you. They need to know you were delivered. They need to know you are free.

We've just been claiming wounds so long that we've just got gaping, open sores, spreading infection throughout our body and our heart, and then we become victim to our circumstance, and it's time we show we are victors. And while we don't have the strength to uplift us out of it, he does. He does, and that's where we need to bring people to, what Jesus can do in your life and for...

is lost. When I tell you they said the baby was gonna die up until the day she was born they said she was gonna die. She's 14. She's 14. So tell me again what? I'm so thankful for Western medicine in a lot of ways because they did help save her life. So thankful but I'm also thankful at the times they're wrong because they don't have the final say. He does. He has the final say.

And I need y'all to remember that and start professing this over your life and your situation. And as much as we can pray for you, as much as we can uplift you, sometimes God needs you. He needs you to stand up. He needs you to get desperate.

He needs you to ask for help. It's okay to show up broken, damaged, desperate. Just make sure you walk out healed, renewed, and redeemed.

My biggest breakthrough came during a time when I laid all of my desperation at the altar. I didn't care who was watching. And it wasn't pretty. I'm gonna be very honest. I literally had snot and spit coming out of my mouth as I was screaming and they're wiping my face for me with tissue. Those are type of people you need in your life, by the way. Nobody cared. It was ugly.

But I was so desperate, I didn't care anymore. I didn't care who was watching. I didn't care what your opinion of what my face looked like was. I didn't care what my clothes looked like. All I cared was I needed help.

can't do this by myself because he knows you can't do it by yourself. You're not weak for admitting that. You're not weak for admitting you cannot carry it yourself. We're not supposed to. If we could carry it ourselves, guess what? You wouldn't need him.

And sometimes that is what God is waiting on. He's waiting on you to show up in your brokenness so he can do a work in you so then you can glorify and magnify him so that more people will want to go. And what happened to her? She looks so different. What is it? It's that light. It's that spirit. And you can only get it through the spirit. You can't get no plastic surgery. You can't wear no makeup. You can't put on no designer clothes.

There's only a light that comes from the spirit and people need to see it. They need to see you walking around healthy, home, delivered, free, So then they come to the doors, I want what she got. It's like when you walk into the retail stores and they got the mannequin all dressed up, cute, I want that outfit. People need to be able to look at us and say, I want that. I want

I want that peace. want that joy. want that. I know what she going through in life. Why is she so happy? That's what people need to see.

Again, I'm not saying there aren't situations and times where there's stuff we need to work on it You need to break down and you call a friend on the phone and say I need help come lift me up I'm not saying there are not those moments But what I am saying is once you're over that moment, make sure you go tell somebody about it Make sure you go share it. Don't stop professing it over your life. Don't stop claiming it over your life Don't start don't stop thanking Jesus for how he's delivered you. Okay, That's what I'm saying

So I know I keep talking a lot about my situations and what God has done for me. But there's a reason why.

Because there are moments in your life where you don't even feel like God can save you. Maybe you're so full of shame that you feel like you don't deserve it. Maybe you are so unhappy that you don't even know what it would look like to have joy and you don't feel like you deserve it. Maybe you've messed up and screwed up so bad.

that you don't think you deserve the love of anybody else or of Jesus. And I'm here to tell you it's not true. Had I given up long ago from all the things I did, and it was a lot, I wouldn't be here today. I never spoke over myself, your ruined, your trash, your...

an addict, whatever those words are, you could fit into your situation.

even in dealing with situations right now today where sometimes it can get really confusing because you put more value in man's opinion than in God's opinion. You have to stop and remember God gives you your worth. God gives you your value. Not man. somebody needs to hear what I'm saying right now.

I don't know who has spoken things over you that have damaged you, that have caused you hurt, that have caused you pain, but I'm here to tell you, God can fix that. God can deliver you from that. And if you start changing and stop convincing yourself that they were right and start telling yourself, I am the victor, I am saved, I am healed, Jesus is the one, he is the way, if you start...

Speaking that over your life, you can reverse the damage man has caused. And whether that's from church hurt, whether that's from relational hurt, whether that's from spouses or work or friendships or whatever it is, Jesus can reverse that. And just you can, you have the authority and the power with your own tongue to help reverse some of that.

In Luke 19, Luke was talking to a crowd. Jesus was going to the Mount of Olives. He told them to go get the colt. And they went and got the colt, came back, And as he's going down and approaching, they're throwing down their garments and everything, and they're shouting glory to the king, and so on and so forth. And the Pharisees were telling him to rebuke them, that what they were saying was,

improper. Jesus said if they kept quiet, the stones would cry out, the stones would shout,

I don't know about y'all, but I don't need stones crying out for me. I'm a crowd for myself and I'm gonna get mine. You have got to shout and praise and claim and don't let the naysayers convince you that what you're doing is not right or you shouldn't be doing those things. No, shout out. That is what the Lord needs. He needs you to shout out. He needs you to lay it on the line. I'm here to tell you it is life changing.

It is life-changing. There's a reason why the Bible says, cast your cares.

Can you imagine your praising Jesus and religious people are telling Jesus to rebuke you for praising Jesus? That would have been a weird time to live in,

I don't know what's going on in your life or if you have a need, but I'm gonna encourage you to cast that today and to lay that need down before God today. And ask for freedom of that situation, whatever it is, whatever is holding you, whatever is binding you,

I can only share with you what I know.

And what I can tell you is...

This is what I did and it's my job to share it with you.

the first thing I did was I started repenting. And I don't know, again, what has gone on in your life or what you struggle with or areas where you may be doing things you shouldn't be doing But I know the first step is to repent of your sins. And it could be something small or something big because to God, is

And we're just gonna ask God for forgiveness for whatever that thing is. You know in your heart what it is.

And we're just gonna thank him for the forgiveness. See, even in prayers, I don't a lot of times ask for it to be done. I just start thanking him that it's done. Sometimes I don't ask for healing. I just thank him. Thank you for the healing Lord, because I already know what he's gonna do. So just thank him for the forgiveness, because he will forgive you the moment you ask.

And just go ahead and begin to just confess. You can do this internally. You can do this externally. You can do this at your seat. Whatever makes you comfortable to where you can have.

spirit today.

And after you're done...

and repenting of your sins. We're gonna thank him for what he's already done in our lives. Who here today can give thanks for healing, for deliverance, for freedom, for saving?

God done something in your life that if it weren't for him you wouldn't be here today. Start thanking him for that thing. Start thanking him for the relationships and the friendships that you have in your

gonna give praise.

we're not gonna let the stones cry out today.

And after we're done thanking him for what he's done in our lives.

just begin to glorify.

to him.

Even if you're not sure, he's gonna give you that healing.

The spirit washed over me.

to show up for me and I just need somebody to beg and plead for the Lord.

is your moment to just lay it all on the line. don't care if you feel guilty. I don't care if you're battling depression. I don't care if you have anxiety. I don't care if you have stomach issues. I don't care if you have health issues. I don't care if you have heart issues. This is your opportunity to lay it on the line.

This is your opportunity to have a moment so you can have a testimony. Because only God can turn your test into a testimony, your mess into a message. And He's just waiting on you.

to say deliver me like only you can Lord

If you're dealing with something with your children, with your spouse, with your siblings, with your parents, the Lord can heal every single one of those, but it's time you start professing it with your mouth, with the authority of the Spirit, and doing it in a way that it confuses the enemy and you don't have a choice but to be delivered and healed. We can't let the stones cry out. We have got to start glorifying and magnifying in His high time.

stop letting the world shut us up and shut us out. They don't get to do that anymore. Stand up and speak out. Ask God to come into your heart today. This is your moment. This is your time. Even if it's something good, because sometimes we can ask the Lord for things that are

with the resources and having the strength to handle all that he's blessing you with. Because the Lord is ready to bless you, but sometimes you have to accept what he has for you. He wants to know that you want it. And once you do, you then have to ask him for the strength to accept it and to handle it. So sometimes it's even something positive.

I don't know what you need the Lord to do in your life today But I'm here to tell you that he is prepared to do it for you right now

right now.

Just wail out. Even if you don't have words, just wail out to the Lord. He knows the moanings and grumblings of your heart even when the speech does not follow. The Lord knows what you need from him.

If you need help, this is the place to get it.

Even through your prayers.

The power

your prayers, through your moanings and grumblings and the gift of the Spirit.

you so let the stones cry out for me!

still able. Now while I still have breath in my lungs. Now while I still have the ability.

Some people say when you get those chills, when your face floods with tears.

Spirit all over you and if you just submit to it, just submit to it. The Spirit can make a move in your life.

Praise and praise.

I believe

He's for you.