The power of the word is creative: God made the world by speaking, and because we are made in His image and likeness, our words also shape the life we live. In this message from NTC Ministries, Dr. William P. Hohman continues his new series on the power of words and shows from Deuteronomy 30, Genesis 1, Romans 10 and Ezekiel 37 that life and death, blessing and cursing, are set before us in our own mouths.
He warns that this is a hard message to hear, much like a call to repentance, because careless talk becomes a hidden blockage in our minds and souls. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for speaking life this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This is the second message in a series on the power of words. Pastor Hohman explains that the previous week’s teaching was received so eagerly, like dogs at a new dish, that he chose to share the same message again, going further this time and spending less time on the opening material. He prays that the Word of God will be quick and powerful in the hearers and that they will choose to change as they hear truth.
His central claim is simple: God chose words not only to communicate but to build, bless and grow lives. Because we are in His likeness, we are meant to use words the way He does, calling order out of chaos instead of cursing what we see.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | The Power of Words (Power of the Word #2: Creative) |
| Main text | Deuteronomy 30:11–19 and Genesis 1 |
| Key theme | Words are creative: we speak life or death into our circumstances |
| Length | About 58 minutes, ending in a prayer of repentance |
Every Word Carries a Picture
Pastor Hohman opens by saying that no word stands alone. Every word has a rich forest of meaning around it, and the same word can look different to different people. A dictionary, he says, is not really a book of words but a book of pictures. When you hear the word snow, you do not see four letters; you see flakes falling, snow banks, people shoveling and ice fishing.
He adds that in Hebrew each letter carries its own meaning, so the letters combined tell a fuller story. In this world, though, corruption keeps distorting words. People use them carelessly, and a group can change what a word means to everyone who hears it. His warning is direct: if Satan can distort our words, he can change our lives.
That is why he calls himself “a word guy” and insists that Christians should be more conscientious about words than anyone in the world. God chose words as a way to communicate, but also as a way to build lives, bless lives and grow lives. Hebrews 11:3 says that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Everything we see was established by words, so words matter.
He illustrates this with two identical house plants. One is told every day that it is ugly and no good; the other is told it is beautiful and brings pleasure to the home. In his telling, the first withers no matter how it is watered, while the second flourishes, all because of words.
Life and Death Are in Your Mouth
The first main text is Deuteronomy 30:11–14, which Pastor Hohman reads from the New English Translation. God’s commandment is not too difficult or too remote. It is not up in heaven or across the sea, waiting for someone to fetch it. The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
He applies this to children. A child who keeps saying “I can’t do it” will not do it. In the school connected with the church, he says, the biggest problem with new students is often the parents, who tell their children that too much is expected of them. The children then repeat it and believe it is impossible.
When the Lord led the school to require high school students to memorize a book of the Bible, parents objected strongly. His daughter Sarah needed to do it, so the two of them memorized Proverbs together. She went on to memorize Proverbs, Psalms and the Gospel of John. Once other parents heard that it could be done, their attitude changed. Words, he says, give you the ability to do what God asks.
He continues into Deuteronomy 30:15–19, where God says, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” Speak words of life, he teaches, and you will find strength you never knew you had. Speak words of death and you will find weakness, deterrents and roadblocks stronger than your will.
He compares words to a timed-release cold capsule, with tiny beads going off one after another. Every word you speak keeps working, and only the power of God can stop the words that have cursed our lives. Some people only ever see roadblocks and heartache, he says, because they spoke that into existence instead of speaking the life God declared.
Idle Words and the Treasure of the Heart
Next Pastor Hohman turns to Matthew 12:33–37. A tree is known by its fruit, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 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. Jesus then says we will give account for every idle word, because by our words we will be justified and by our words we will be condemned.
Pastor Hohman notes that Jesus is not only talking about bad words. Words that curse, damn and hurt are, in his description, what witchcraft is; godliness is words that build. That is why Ephesians 4:29 tells us to let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths, but only what edifies and ministers grace to the hearers.
Idle words, he explains, come from the Greek word argos, meaning unemployed or careless words, filler with no intention of good or bad. He pictures a car in park with the engine running. It goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing, but it keeps burning gas. Idle words do the same: they eat up the energy and power in you that is supposed to carry you through life.
He adds that our words affect our descendants, not only ourselves. Children are a good gauge: if friends’ children react coldly to you, he suggests, you are probably being talked about badly at home. With humor he says a garage sale can reveal a marriage too, when the dresses are ten dollars and the bass boat is a quarter.
The Creative Power of the Word in Genesis 1
Words are God’s chosen way of communication, Pastor Hohman says, and one of the names of Jesus is the Word of God. John 1:1–4 teaches that in the beginning was the Word, all things were made through Him, and in Him was life. The Word is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).
He encourages reading the Bible out loud, because you believe yourself more than anyone else, and faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). But the Word lying in you can be dormant, like a full tank of gas in a parked vehicle. Science, he reminds the church, speaks of two kinds of energy.
| Kind of energy | His illustration | What it means for our words |
|---|---|---|
| Potential energy | Water sitting behind the dam in town | God’s Word is in us, full of power, but dormant |
| Kinetic energy | Water passing through the turbine, lighting the building and running the loudspeaker | The Word is spoken out, and its power starts producing change |
The turbine, he says, is your mouth. In Genesis 1:1–3 the earth was without form and void, chaotic and dark, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, yet nothing happened. Why? God had not spoken yet. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. A chaotic marriage or a hard job changes the same way, by speaking favor and blessing instead of cursing the boss.
He walks through the rest of the chapter: God said let there be a space to separate the waters, let dry land appear, let the earth grow grass and fruit trees, let there be lights in the sky, let the waters fill with living things. Each time it happened. He asks why Scripture repeats “God said” so often, and answers that God was about to make humans in His image and likeness and wanted them to know how to be like Him with words.
In Genesis 1:24–26 God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” and gives humanity dominion. Image, he explains, is our form; likeness is acting and working like Him. You cannot do that in your own strength. You speak out His word and let potential energy become kinetic power in your marriage, job, church and community.
Righteousness That Speaks: Romans 10
Pastor Hohman recalls Nicodemus, a ruler who came to Jesus by night and heard that he must be born again (John 3:3–8). The wind blows where it wills, and so is everyone born of the Spirit. It is not something we strain to produce, he says, but something we embrace and allow to happen, and we do it with our words.
In Romans 10:5–11, Paul quotes the same Deuteronomy 30 passage. The righteousness of faith speaks. Do not even say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. 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. Righteousness is a gift, he says, and our words activate it.
Jesus says the same in Matthew 10:32–33: whoever confesses Him before men, He will confess before the Father, and whoever denies Him, He will deny. Then James 1:18 says that of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. The Word of God is what makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
He tells how his in-laws once called it blasphemy to say he knew he was going to heaven. His answer was that if you do not know, you are not going, because only those born from heaven go there. Greater still, he says, we can have heaven here, if we choose to speak the things heaven wants to hear.
He also says believers need not fear people’s curses. Like the schoolyard rhyme about rubber and glue, no weapon formed against a blood-bought Christian will prosper, and every tongue that rises in judgment is condemned (Isaiah 54:17). We communicate verbally, by gestures, and most powerfully in the spirit, so he urges the church not even to allow cursing thoughts in the heart. In a side note about Constantine, he warns that faith can never be commanded by force; it can only be shared.
Declaring the End From the Beginning
In Isaiah 46:9–10 the Lord says He is God, “declaring the end from the beginning.” You may see chaos, Pastor Hohman says, but God declares light. If your dog wanders off, you do not stand on the porch announcing that he is never coming back; you call, “Here, boy, come here.” He asks why we do not speak to the rest of life with the same sense. God calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17), and we are in His likeness.
His main story is Ezekiel 37:1–14. The prophet stands in a valley of very dry bones, scattered and without form. Asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?” he answers that only the Lord knows. That, says Pastor Hohman, is how most Christians respond, not realizing God has given them authority. The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy, and as he speaks there is a rattling, bone comes to bone, and breath enters a vast army.
The house of Israel had been saying, “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost.” Pastor Hohman applies it personally: these bones may be your marriage, business, ministry, relationships, health, finances or dreams, because of how you talk. They can live, but you have to start saying something about them. He says he has written out Scripture promises for health, marriage, singles, students and spouses for the church to declare.
He shares his own testimony. Years of construction work had left his knees grinding and painful. While giving thanks over a meal with Pam, the Lord reminded him of the rest of Psalm 103:1–5: He satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. They began thanking God for renewed youth, and he reports the pain and grinding left. He did the same in seasons of financial pressure.
That is not hypocrisy, he insists. Refusing to speak God’s promises is closer to rebellion. Moses was 120 years old, his eyes not dim and his strength not abated (Deuteronomy 34:7), and he lived under the old covenant. Jesus came to give life more abundantly (John 10:10), and it is up to us to want it.
Speaking Life This Week
Pastor Hohman closes by pointing to communion as a picture of blessing. Paul calls it “the cup of blessing” in 1 Corinthians 10:16, and he teaches that the blood of Jesus is about blessing one another. He then leads the church in a prayer of repentance for every negative word ever spoken. Here are practical steps drawn from this message on the power of the word:
- Repent for negative words. Ask God to forgive the words that did not build, help or bless, and to break their effects in Jesus’ name.
- Read Scripture out loud. Let your own ears hear the Word, because faith comes by hearing and you believe your own voice.
- Retire your idle words. Notice the careless filler that burns energy and replace it with words that edify and give grace.
- Speak to the chaos. Instead of cursing a hard job or marriage, declare favor, love and goodness over it as God spoke light over darkness.
- Write out God’s promises. Find Scriptures for your health, family and finances and declare them daily, as he did with Psalm 103.
- Bless your children with your words. Tell them they can do what God asks, since your words shape what they believe is possible.
His final prayer asks God to help the church think of good things to say, words that cause prosperity, life, health and goodness at home, at work and in the community.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Continuing the series on the power of words
- 1:03 Opening prayer: the Word is quick and powerful
- 2:12 A dictionary is a book of pictures
- 4:22 God chose words to build lives: Hebrews 11:3
- 5:26 The two house plants and Deuteronomy 30
- 7:36 Memorizing books of the Bible at the school
- 9:47 Life and death, blessing and cursing
- 11:51 Words as timed-release capsules
- 12:58 Matthew 12: every idle word
- 16:05 Idle words as unemployed words
- 17:13 In the beginning was the Word: John 1
- 19:13 Potential and kinetic energy
- 20:25 Genesis 1: without form and void
- 23:38 And God said, and it happened
- 25:51 Made in His image and likeness
- 27:53 Nicodemus and Romans 10
- 31:09 Confess Me before men: Matthew 10
- 32:14 Born again by the word of truth: James 1:18
- 34:20 A side note on Constantine
- 38:32 No weapon formed against you will prosper
- 40:32 Declaring the end from the beginning: Isaiah 46
- 42:41 The valley of dry bones: Ezekiel 37
- 51:16 Testimony: renewed like the eagle
- 55:36 The cup of blessing and a prayer of repentance
The Power of Words Series
This message is part of a teaching series at NTC Ministries on the power of words. Continue with the next message:
- You are here: Power of the Word #2: Creative
- Next: The Power of Words #3 Watch Your Words
Frequently Asked Questions
Is speaking God’s promises the same as being a hypocrite?
Pastor Hohman says no. Many people refuse to declare health or provision because they do not yet see it and fear they would be lying. He defines a hypocrite as someone who claims to be doing what God wants while not doing it. Refusing to speak what God has already declared is closer to rebellion. Like God, who declares the end from the beginning, we speak His promises before we see them.
Can other people’s curses harm a believer?
He teaches that a born-again, blood-bought Christian is covered by the blood of Jesus, so no weapon formed against him will prosper and every tongue raised in judgment is condemned. He admits you can feel the oppression when people gang up against you, because the strongest communication is spiritual. His concern is less what others say about you and more what you allow in your own heart and mouth.
Does baptism or good behavior make someone born again?
He says water baptism is an important part of Christian life, and he mentions a baptism sign-up, but it is not what makes you new. James 1:18 says God brought us forth by the word of truth, and Romans 10 says that confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised Him from the dead brings salvation. Hoping to be good enough, he says, leaves people unsure of heaven.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Deuteronomy 30:11–14 and Deuteronomy 30:15–19 — the word is near you; choose life
- Genesis 1:1–3 and Genesis 1:24–26 — God speaks creation into being
- Matthew 12:33–37 — every idle word
- John 1:1–4 — in the beginning was the Word
- Romans 10:5–11 — the righteousness of faith speaks
- Isaiah 46:9–10 — declaring the end from the beginning
- Ezekiel 37:1–14 — the valley of dry bones
- Psalm 103:1–5 — youth renewed like the eagle’s
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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