God wants you to build a good life with your words, and He wants you to use the same words to bless the community around you. In this closing message of The Power of Words series, Dr. William P. Hohman teaches that we are co-laborers with God, that the main way we work with Him is with our mouths and then our actions, and that words which edify literally build. It continues from The Power of Words #7.
He moves from Psalm 107 and the call to let the redeemed say so, through David facing Goliath, to Proverbs, Matthew 12 and Ephesians 4, and ends with the story of Abigail and Nabal. Below you will find the video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version, a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.
Sermon at a Glance
Pastor Hohman opens by saying he believes this will be the last message in the series, and he admits he never realized how many Scriptures speak about our words. He encourages listeners to read Proverbs and the third chapter of James for themselves, because there are dozens of verses on the mouth he never had time to share. He wants the Lord to give each person revelation beyond the sermon.
His theme is simple: there are two things God wants us to build with our words. The first is our own life: God wants us to build a good life by what we say. The second is the city, the community we live in. He calls both a mandate from God, and the rest of the message shows how each one works.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | The Power of Words (#8, which he calls the final part) |
| Main text | Ephesians 4:29–30 and 1 Samuel 25 |
| Key theme | Using right words to build your own life and bless your city |
| Length | About 62 minutes, ending with a prayer of salvation |
Co-Laborers With God: Words First, Then Actions
Pastor Hohman begins with Paul’s two letters to Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 we are fellow workers with God, and in 2 Corinthians 6:1 we are workers together with Him. The greatest way we work with God, he says, is with our mouths, and then with our actions, because faith without corresponding action is dead. Right words come first, and right actions follow.
He describes how this looks in his own prayer life. When the Lord shows him what He wants for him, he begins confessing it again and again. As he does, he starts to hear God say, now do this, now do this. He follows those steps, and he sees it come to pass. Words and actions work together.
The first place to speak is thanksgiving. Psalm 107:1–2 tells us to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and then says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so.” That, he explains, is why testimonies matter. Whether you were blind and now see, or never knew the love of God and are now drenched in it, you need to keep declaring it, or your heart grows cold and the testimony loses its impact.
He tells of working on a paper mill roof more than 200 feet up, setting concrete planks with a crew. He shared his testimony with a quiet, burly biker and talked the whole way down in the man cage, then apologized for going on so long. The man answered that he had been thinking: if God did that for you, He can do it for me. He gave his life to Jesus and began telling others what God had done for him.
Silencing the Negative Voice and Speaking Like God
In life, Pastor Hohman says, there are always two voices in your head. One says you are a loser, you will never make it, you will always be sick, always be broke. He calls that a demonic voice, not reality, and says it must be cast down, along with every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5).
When that voice kept him awake for days, he learned to ask the Lord what He thinks of him. The answers were faith words: you are the apple of My eye, above only and not beneath, the head and not the tail, blessed and highly favored, chosen personally. Those were the right words he had to start declaring out of his own mouth.
Bad thoughts left alone, he warns, build up until they come out of your mouth, and once spoken they have possibilities. Life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). We are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), and God built creation by speaking: light, waters, plants, creatures. He did not describe the darkness; He declared what He desired.
God did the same with Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–10). The bones lay scattered in chaos, and the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy to them. The bones came together, then muscle and skin, and finally breath filled an army. “That’s us,” Pastor Hohman says.
He adds the testimony of a minister he knew whose wife suffered a brain aneurysm while he was preaching. In the hospital he let no one speak a negative word around her, and he declared the promises of God over her every day. The Lord told him to speak to her body. He commanded her eyes to open, and after about a week they did; then one arm moved, then the other, then her legs.
I Believe, Therefore I Speak: Facing Your Giants
Next comes David, a young shepherd of about thirteen or fourteen, bringing food to his brothers at the battle line (1 Samuel 17). Goliath taunted Israel every morning, and even King Saul, a head taller than anyone in Israel, hid in his tent. When Goliath mocked him, David did not insult the cowards around him. He said, “How dare you defy the armies of the living God.”
David declared that he would take Goliath’s head that day and that everyone would know there is a God in Israel, and that is exactly what happened. Pastor Hohman says we have to face our giants the same way. Instead of floating downstream like a dead fish, say: I am alive, I am a coworker with God, and I will still accomplish things for Him, whatever my age.
Paul made the same connection: “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak (2 Corinthians 4:13). Pastor Hohman then turns to the personal blessing of right words in Proverbs 12:13–14. Trouble comes to everyone, but the wicked are snared by the transgression of their lips, while the righteous come through it. A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth.
When words fill your head saying you are not good enough, ask God what He thinks of you and start saying it: I am precious, I am the apple of God’s eye, I am the head and not the tail, whatever I put my hands to prospers. Nobody is denying that sickness and problems come, he says. What we deny are the words that would support them. Right words are how you build a good life in the middle of trouble.
He shares his own testimony of a season with cancer, when he writhed in pain but refused to let it come out of his mouth, thanking God instead that he was healed by the stripes of Jesus. He testifies that the pain and the cancer left. He is careful to say he is not recommending his personal choices to anybody. His point is that when you speak blessings, your eyes open to opportunities you would otherwise miss.
Bless Your City: The Corporate Blessing of Right Words
The second mandate of the power of words is the community. Proverbs 11:11 says that by the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. If you complain about your town all the time, Pastor Hohman says, that is the mouth of the wicked, and you cannot agree with it and expect change. You have to start blessing it.
When he first came to town, attacks on the church in the news were relentless. So he went to pray for the city council. He blessed every member, praying that God would keep them healthy, destroy their debt and multiply prosperity so they could think clearly and make good decisions for the community. Afterward council members came up and thanked him for the prayer.
Jesus explains where words come from in Matthew 12:35–37. A good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of evil treasure. Pastor Hohman pictures a footlocker: if it is full of dirty socks, what comes out of your mouth will stink. If it holds good things, good things come out.
Jesus also warns that we will give account for every idle word. Pastor Hohman compares an idle word to a vehicle left running outside a hardware store on a hot day: it goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing, it only burns energy. He includes hyperbole, the deliberate exaggeration of saying you walked a thousand miles yesterday. Words that accomplish nothing are words not valued; right words always build something.
Words That Build a Good Life: Edify Means Build
The center of the message is Ephesians 4:29–30: let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Pastor Hohman points out that edify means to build, like an edifice. The church members put thousands of hours of their own labor into their building, and it was satisfying to say, look what we built.
That, he says, is what God wants you to be able to say about your life: look what we built, Lord, laboring together. That is how you build a good life. Use your words to build your life, your family, your church, your city and the job you are on. He warns that vulgarity and swearing pollute the soul, twist it and dull discernment until you begin to settle and lose conviction.
He illustrates with a job he once took at a garbage truck company while ministering on the road. The shop was dark and the crew barely spoke to each other, so he came in early to clean the lights. Then he began prophesying over the boss: God will bless this business, you will run three shifts and have five years of back orders. Years later the owner called to say every word came to pass. He and his wife were later saved.
Grieve simply means to make sad, Pastor Hohman explains. The Holy Spirit wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed, and negative words against God’s goodness grieve Him. From James 4:4–6 he shows that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and humility is bowing to His will: I will say what You tell me to say.
He compares it to parents telling a toddler, use your words. Our Father says the same thing to us: use right words, and it will go well with you. David declared in Psalm 118:15–17 that the right hand of the Lord does valiantly and that he would not die but live and declare the works of the Lord, not the works of corruption.
Abigail and Nabal: How Right Words Build a Good Life
To set the stage, Pastor Hohman recalls how Saul turned on David after the people sang that David had slain his ten thousands. David fled to the caves of En Gedi with his men and, when Saul entered one of those caves, refused to harm him, cutting only the corner of his robe (1 Samuel 24). David would not speak or act against the Lord’s anointed.
Then he reads the story of 1 Samuel 25. Nabal was very wealthy, with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, but harsh and mean in his dealings. His wife Abigail was intelligent and beautiful. Pastor Hohman notes that names matter, because a name is what a child is called the rest of their life, and these two names point in opposite directions.
| Person | Name meaning as taught | Words spoken | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nabal | Vile, stupid, wicked, a fool | Insulted David’s men and refused even a little help | His heart failed, and about ten days later the Lord struck him |
| Abigail | Exceeding joyful, exceeding good, exceeding glad | Took the blame, spoke blessing and a lasting house over David | David blessed her judgment and later asked her to become his wife |
David had protected Nabal’s shepherds like a wall, and he only asked for whatever Nabal could spare at shearing time. Nabal answered with contempt: who is this David? David armed about 400 men to wipe out his household. One of the servants warned Abigail, and she lost no time, loading donkeys with bread, wine, dressed sheep, roasted grain, raisins and figs.
She met David on the mountain, bowed to the ground and spoke (1 Samuel 25:23–31). She declared that the Lord would make him a lasting house because he fights the Lord’s battles, and she kept him from avenging himself with his own hand. “What’s she doing,” Pastor Hohman asks, “speaking out blessings.” No corrupt word came from her mouth; her words edified.
David blessed the Lord for sending her and blessed her good judgment (1 Samuel 25:32–35). When Nabal died, David sent for Abigail to become his wife (1 Samuel 25:39–42). Pastor Hohman’s conclusion: as we use our mouths to build and bless ourselves, other people and our cities, God raises us up, because He shows no favoritism. Abigail shows the power of words at work in a single conversation.
Living It Out This Week
Pastor Hohman ends by recalling David’s prayer for the Lord to set a guard over his mouth (Psalm 141:3) and Job’s words, “How forceful are right words!” (Job 6:25). Here are practical steps from this message on how to build a good life with your words:
- Say so. Share your testimony at work and in your neighborhood; it keeps your own fire hot and may reach someone quiet who is listening.
- Ask God what He thinks of you. When the negative voice comes, replace it with His words and say them out loud.
- Bless your city. Pray blessings over local leaders instead of complaining about them, following Proverbs 11:11.
- Stop idling. Watch for exaggerations, complaints and careless words that burn energy and build nothing.
- Build at work. Ask what you are building on your job, and speak blessing over the business you serve.
- Speak like Abigail. In a tense moment, choose words that edify, impart grace and turn someone away from harm.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:01 The final part of the series; co-laborers with God
- 1:02 Words, then actions: working to build a good life
- 2:07 Two things to build: yourself and the city
- 3:10 Psalm 107: let the redeemed say so
- 5:24 The biker on the paper mill roof
- 7:27 Two voices in your head
- 9:31 Life and death in the tongue; God creates by speaking
- 10:33 Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones
- 11:34 Speaking to a body in a coma
- 14:46 David and Goliath
- 18:54 Proverbs 12: the personal blessing of right words
- 23:06 Proverbs 11:11: the corporate blessing
- 24:11 Praying for the city council
- 25:11 Matthew 12: the treasure of the heart
- 27:21 Hyperbole and idle words
- 32:37 Ephesians 4:29: edify means build
- 34:44 Prophesying over a garbage truck company
- 39:04 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
- 40:08 James 4: grace to the humble
- 43:20 David spares Saul in the cave
- 46:30 1 Samuel 25: Nabal and Abigail
- 53:48 Abigail’s words keep David from bloodshed
- 57:00 Words that build raise us up
- 59:09 Romans 10 and the prayer of salvation
The Power of Words Series
This message closes a teaching series at NTC Ministries on what our words do. Start from the beginning or go back one message:
- First message: Power of the word #2 Creative
- Previous: The Power of Words #7
- You are here: The Power of Words #8: Working to Build a Good Life
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this just the power of positive thinking?
No. Pastor Hohman says plainly that refusing negative words is not the power of positivity. It is prophesying. God calls the end from the beginning and declares things that are not as though they are, and because we are created in His image and likeness, we should do what He does rather than the opposite. He says he does not want to rebel against God; he wants everything God has for him.
Does being condemned by my words mean losing salvation?
Pastor Hohman says no. If you are born again, Matthew 12:37 does not mean going to hell. He reads it as a question of what you are receiving from the kingdom: how much of the goodness of God you are actually taking hold of. Justifying words open the way to receive; condemning words close it. His encouragement is simply to live a justified life.
How does someone begin a relationship with God?
He points to Romans 10:9–10: if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Salvation, he says, is not going to church but living in an intimate relationship with the one who created you. He closes by leading listeners in a prayer asking Jesus to forgive them and to teach them to use right words.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Ephesians 4:29–30 — words for necessary edification
- 1 Samuel 25 — Nabal and Abigail
- Psalm 107:1–2 — let the redeemed of the Lord say so
- Proverbs 12:13–14 — satisfied with good by the fruit of the mouth
- Proverbs 11:11 — the city exalted by blessing
- Matthew 12:35–37 — the treasure of the heart and idle words
- Ezekiel 37:1–10 — prophesying to dry bones
- 2 Corinthians 4:13 — I believed, therefore I spoke
- Job 6:25 — how forceful are right words
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message helped you see your words differently, there are many more teachings from NTC Ministries to strengthen your faith. Browse the full sermon archive and keep building with right words.
