Lynne Little Ministries - Higher Realm

The Power of Speech - Part 2 - How Intentional Speech Shapes Faith, Identity, And Healing

• Lynne Little

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Words don’t just describe our lives; they steer them. We dig into the power of intentional speech, drawing from Jesus’ example and the fig tree moment in Mark 11 to show how saying, believing, and receiving are linked in both spiritual formation and daily practice. If you’ve ever felt stuck in loops of complaint, fear, or self-criticism, this conversation gives you a clear path to trade unhelpful phrases for language that aligns with God’s promises and reprograms the brain toward hope-filled action.

We break down why words matter biologically and spiritually, how the brain builds habits from repeated statements, and why “venting” often cements the very patterns we want to escape. With honesty about our limits, we look to Romans 7 to name the struggle and then move toward partnership with the Holy Spirit. You’ll learn a five-step process: express your desire to change, ask the Spirit to reveal troublesome speech, focus on specific Scriptures that renew your thinking, heed the inner check before speaking, and practice intentional, outcome-focused words that match your prayers.

From finances to self-image to health, we offer concrete examples of the “great replacement” in action. Instead of rehearsing scarcity, we speak provision with wisdom. Instead of wearing old labels, we embrace our identity as saints made righteous in Christ. Instead of narrating sickness as destiny, we describe reality accurately while choosing words that invite healing, resilience, and disciplined care. It’s not denial; it’s alignment with truth that bears fruit over time.

Ready to shift your inner soundtrack and watch your habits follow? Listen now, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for next week’s conversation on speech in spiritual warfare.

Lynne:

You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights biblical strategies for moving through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynne is the founder and president of Lynne Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Griefs, and Finding God in Death and Life, A Passage Through Grief. Now, here's Lynne. Hello and welcome. Today we're going to continue our discussion on the subject of the power of speech. Last week we learned about the importance of the brain in speech and the need to be intentional in the things that we say. We discussed God's view of productive and non-productive speech and named the types of audiences who listen to what we say. We also pointed to the reality of judgment for ill-spoken words, judgment by God, but also the consequences that follow the continuous use of negatively charged words. Today we will discuss reasons to watch our words and offer practical advice on how to liberate our speech from non-working or detrimental habits. The many scriptures quoted in last week's episode underscore the irrefutable fact that words matter to God. But we need to know how word choices are relevant to us. We find our answer by studying the words of Jesus. As he often stated, Jesus' mission was to do the will of the Father. During his life, he fully controlled his speech, using only the words that came from the Father. Whether commanding, rebuking, exhorting, and even in moments of studied silence, he modeled perfectly the judicious use of language. An account found in Mark 11: 22 and 23 underscores the significance of words that work. Jesus was walking with his disciples and he came to a fig tree to get figs. Because the tree had leaves, Jesus expected that it would also have fruit. When he discovered that it didn't, Jesus said, "No man will eat fruit of you forever after." The next day, when they passed by the tree, the disciples were astonished to notice that the fig tree had completely dried up, withered from the roots. At that moment, Jesus spoke these words. "For assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says." Notice the three mentions of the word "says" in these verses. Whoever says to the mountain believes the things that he says will be done, he will have what he says. The point is clear. This leads us to question whether we really want to have what we're saying. Are we expecting that the things we continually say will come true? Our brains would like to weigh in. Recall that the information we program into our brains remains. There, patterning develops and habits are born. We can talk ourselves into life or death, good or evil, negative or positive every day. Change begins when we understand and believe that words really matter. Words create a disproportionate impact. They seem irrelevant, and they are not. As long as we think they don't matter, we give ourselves a pass. This is a mistake. Our actions should align with God's perspective, and He requires a disciplined mouth. Let's use curse words as an example. The words only have the meaning that we attribute to them, but the meanings of this type of speech are clearly understood. We may curse inanimate objects, or the driver up ahead who can't hear us, and consequently believe that our speech connotes a harmless venting. Yet recall the other audiences who can hear us. The spirit world is listening, and so is our soul. Why this matters, we'll address shortly. So there comes a time when we have to make a decision. If God's word tells us that we can control our speech, it puts the kibosh on our insistence that we can't help ourselves, doesn't it? Because God never asks us to do what we cannot do. He would be unjust if that were the case. Human beings typically don't change until they think they must. And in this matter, we must. But because we are human and fallible, God has already made provision to help us in this matter. The Apostle Paul states our dilemma in Romans chapter 7, verse 19. "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep doing." As a volatile person, it took years for me to finally admit that my words were out of control. Try as I might, I could not seem to be able to stop speaking negatively. I was Paul in verse 21. "So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death. Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord." And there lies the promise. Once we make the choice to change, God does not expect us to do it alone. He waits for us to admit defeat and then ask him to step in. So we've established two things. One, that what we say matters, two, that we can decide to change our speech. And three, is receiving God's help to do so. God will teach us through his word to evaluate our speech and identify areas that require improvement. We'll soon realize how much time we've wasted on meaningless talk. Complaints, gossip, self-deprecating words, and words of fear, doubt, and unbelief top the list. And it's all nonsense. The last phase is the great replacement. God helps us to begin to substitute our words with His. And in this, our friend the Holy Spirit, is of enormous assistance. The process unfolds something like this. First, we express our desire for change. Next, we ask the Spirit to reveal troublesome language. Third, specific scriptures are quickened to us that change our thinking. And fourth, we begin to feel a check in our spirits regarding our word choices. And fifth, intentional speech soon follows. This focus becomes a purposeful exercise in reprogramming our brain through our spirits. Now, if we're going to change the way we speak, then what words can we use to replace our non-working ones? The quick answer is to use God's words, specifically words found in Scripture that cover our case. It is, of course, unrealistic to expect people to walk around speaking, in the case of the King James at least, Elizabethan English. But there are certainly ways to reframe speech in the context of what we discover in Scripture, subject by subject, if necessary. Let's take, for example, a financial need. The conversation typically revolves around some form of lack, worry, or scarcity. Perhaps we rehearse again and again sayings such as, "I can't afford it, or we never have enough money. Or, what if I get laid off? I bet we're not going to get bonuses this year. Or I don't know how we're going to make our house payment," and so on. To state and restate our present reality, creates patterns that only add to our confusion, anxiety, and uncertainty. How is that helpful? Now recall the words of Jesus. "You can have what you say." Typically, rather than stating the desired outcome, we are instead saying what we already have. I repeat, rather than having what we say, we are saying what we have. Notice the difference? Instead of rehearsing the outcome that we are believing for, which incidentally we're supposed to start having faith for the moment we pray, we rehearse the what-ifs or any statement that reflects our present reality. Friends, speaking this way is the opposite of what Jesus teaches us. If we can have what we say, why not start speaking the desired outcome? At this point, it would be helpful to remind ourselves that we are programming our brain to think differently about our desired outcomes. So, in the financial needs scenario, the great replacement would sound something like this. "No matter what my situation tells me, I believe that God supplies every one of my needs according to his riches in glory. Or, as I have given, it is given to me, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Or, no good thing with He ever withhold from those who walk uprightly." We could also rehearse proofs of the multiple stories of provision in the word. For instance, Jesus providing for Peter to pay taxes by sending a fish with a coin in its mouth. Whatever we personally discover that the Spirit of God reveals to us through our study of Scripture is what we need to use. Understand that this is so much more than simply exercising mind over matter. We are speaking the language of God's kingdom. We are using the speech given to us by our Heavenly Father, the speech which always and forever carries with it spiritual connotations. We're shutting down the voice of evil and opening ourselves to the supernatural provisions of God. The word is referred to as the incorruptible seed. It never changes, it never fails and, as is the way of seeds, it is specifically designed to produce fruit. We plant the seed in our hearts and we water it with our mouths. Or we use our mouths to dig up the seed. So let's take another example, one which typically has great implications in the reprogramming of the brain and our subconscious. How many times have we looked in the mirror and disliked what we saw? Recall the many examples of our own negative self-talk or even sometimes heartbreaking words spoken over us by others. How do we pry those patterns out of our subconscious and reprogram our brains according to the truth? A great man of God once said, "The key to changing our self-image is to find out what the Word of God has to say about us." He suggested that believers search the scriptures, especially the New Testament, and locate words that tell us what belongs to us and who we are in Christ. How he actually views us, how much he loves us, including dying for us when we were still in our sins. Much of the time such promises are prefaced by words such as in him, with him, by him, or through him. God has made many definitive statements about us that we would do well to pattern our speech after. For instance, one troubling phrase often repeated asserts that we are sinners saved by grace. Yes, we do sin. And yes, we are saved by grace alone. But the ord of God does not refer to believers as sinners. The word states our true identities in 2 Corinthians 5: 21. The Amplified version puts it beautifully. "For our sake, he made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in and through him we might become endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of the righteousness of God, what we ought to be, approved and acceptable, and in right relationship with Him by His goodness." Viewing ourselves continually as sinners makes us more likely to go to the level of it. It's like referring to a child as a bad kid. In fact, rather than as sinners, the word refers to us as saints. The Apostle Paul frequently addresses his letters to the saints in various churches in a number of books, including Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, and Philippians, indicating that all Christians are considered by God to be saints. God's view of us should be the benchmark. And this is not a matter of mere semantics. Rather, we're choosing to learn about, believe in, and speak the authentic God's eye view of us. In doing so, we set ourselves in agreement with God's assertion in Proverbs 8:21. "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Finally, we must change the way we speak about our bodies and illnesses, both physical and mental. Our bodies are subjected to every manner of assault via the five physical senses. We live in a natural world, and genetics, the environment, disease, and aging are all forces to be reckoned with. Sickness, bodily functions in general, our emotions dominate many conversations. Yet studies are now taking place that regard how we are literally talking ourselves to death. Destructive words are signaling our brain, our nerve endings, our blood pressure. The scriptures refer to this preoccupation with our bodies and our feelings as being flesh-ruled and make it clear that we are to work to gain ascendancy over our bodies through the Spirit. Our bodies don't have the right to dictate to us what we can or cannot do. Neither do our emotions have that right. Some individuals are expert at allowing such speech to dominate them. Phrases such as, "oh, it's flu season and I just know I'm going to get sick," or, "well, I can't help how I feel," or "I'm so depressed." And the ubiquitous, "I'm just sick and tired." Why would we speak this way when we have the choice not to? Let's instead make the effort to see God's word concerning our situations and change our minds about the way we speak. Speaking of a change of mind, have you prayed to make Jesus the Lord of your life? Pray with me right now repeating these words and meaning it with your heart. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross and take the punishment for my sins. Jesus, I invite you to come into my life, forgive my sins, and make me brand new. I receive you as the Lord of my life. Amen. Now next week we will continue our discussion of speech regarding speech in spiritual warfare. God bless you. Thank you so much for listening. Lynne Little Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace, and restoration. For books, resources, or to make a tax deductible donation, go to lynnelittle.org.