The Power of Words 6 teaches that the God kind of faith is not begging God to act; it is declaring what He has already said and believing that what you say will come to pass. In this message, Dr. William P. Hohman shows from Mark 11, Luke 17 and the Roman centurion that faith is released through the mouth, and that consistent, faith filled speech is what turns God’s potential into power in everyday life. It continues directly from The Power of Words #5 Faith Filled Words.
Below you will find the full Power of Words 6 video, a structured summary of the sermon, each key Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline, and practical steps for putting the God kind of faith to work this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message runs about an hour and was preached at NTC Ministries in Merrill on a day that also included a water baptism. Pastor Hohman opens by admitting that teaching on words makes some people uncomfortable, because words are usually the last thing anyone thinks about unless something offensive is said. In a corrupt world, he says, it is easy to let corruption come out of our mouths.
He recaps the series so far: words are creative, what you say is what you get, watch your words, and faith filled words. This sixth part moves to the God kind of faith, the faith of God that every believer has received and must learn to exercise by speaking.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | The Power of Words (#6, The God Kind of Faith) |
| Main text | Mark 11:20–24 and Luke 17:5–10 |
| Key theme | Faith is released by consistently declaring what God has said |
| Length | About 60 minutes, ending with a prayer of repentance |
Faith Is Declaring, Not Begging
Pastor Hohman starts from creation. God spoke everything into existence systematically, saying “let there be” again and again, to show how people made in His image are meant to live. God says that if He has said something, He will perform it, because He cannot lie. Our words, made in His likeness, are creative too.
He then quotes the promise that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if He hears us, we have what we asked (1 John 5:14–15). Many Christians, he says, do not lack faith; they simply have not exercised it. They think faith is begging God and trying to get Him to do something. “That’s not faith at all,” he says. Faith declares: this is God’s will, it is mine, that’s it.
The church reads Proverbs 18:21 together: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Pastor Hohman’s application is pointed. A bad day is not created by your boss or the driver who cut in front of you; the fruit you eat comes from how you talk.
Bad things will still happen in a corrupted world, he adds, but they will not shake the person who controls their mouth. That person knows that all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), and that what the devil means for harm, God will turn around.
Words, he says, are a link between the natural world and the spiritual world. The church, he says, must wake up and use that link to give life to every situation.
Full of God or Living Hungry
Pastor Hohman ties careless speech to spiritual coldness. People say they used to be on fire for the Lord but no longer are, and do not know what happened. His answer: it is because of your words. Speaking God’s words and declaring what He says keeps you aware of His presence and full of Him.
He illustrates with hunger. In some countries he visits, people live hungry and have learned not to feel it. Spiritually, he says, people can grieve the Holy Spirit, miss some meals and slowly get used to starvation, telling themselves it is fine because they still go to church.
The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13 makes the point. Five kept oil in their lamps and five did not, and the foolish ones were shut out when the bridegroom came. He reads this as staying filled with the Holy Spirit, and he links it to how we talk, citing Ephesians 4:29–30: no corrupt word, only what builds up and gives grace, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
Getting back on fire takes time. He recalls a former attendee who said this teaching does not work because she had declared her healing several times the day before and saw no change. His reply was that it is not about what you said once or twice. You speak it until it becomes part of you, and then, as Jesus said in John 7:38, rivers of living water flow out of your heart.
He also points to Jesus, who like a lamb led to the slaughter opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Jesus is the Word through whom all things were made (John 1:1–3), and God declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). So believers speak the end, not every problem in between.
The Centurion and the Sower
In Matthew 8:5–13, a centurion asks Jesus to heal his tormented servant, but says he is not worthy for Jesus to come under his roof: “speak the word only and my servant will be healed.” The centurion watched Jesus, saw that everything He said happened, and recognised authority because he lived under it himself.
Jesus marvelled and said He had not found such great faith in Israel. Pastor Hohman explains that Israel had been given the Word and was supposed to declare it. That, he says, is why the first parable Jesus told was about the sower, the one who plants words. Some seed falls on hard ground, some on stony ground, some among thorns, but some lands on good soil and produces thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
His application: keep speaking life no matter where the words seem to land. Investors who lose money keep investing; believers should not stop declaring God’s Word because one confession fell on stony ground. Jesus told the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you,” and the servant was healed that same hour.
Pastor Hohman adds James 3:2–8: the one who controls his tongue is perfect, yet no man can tame it by natural means. That is why he speaks out God’s Word rather than his feelings or circumstances. With Psalm 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” he tells the church to say aloud that they have been redeemed from poverty, sickness and spiritual death.
He contrasts faith filled words with fear filled ones. When his wife Pam was travelling, a woman in an airport restroom began screaming for help over a wood tick, frightened by what she had heard. Some fear filled words seem innocent, he says, but they still shape lives. Proverbs 16:23 says the heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. “It’s your mouth that’s in school today,” he tells the church.
Power of Words 6: The God Kind of Faith
Jesus taught that words can remove obstacles: whatever stands between God’s promise and where you are, including lack. In Mark 11:12–14, Jesus found a fig tree with nothing but leaves and spoke to it: “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” Pastor Hohman admits he has been ridiculed for teaching people to speak to things, and says he does it all the time, even over parking places and good deals.
He reads the fig tree prophetically as Israel under the law, which would no longer bear fruit, because Jesus was bringing people into the dispensation of grace. The next morning, in Mark 11:20–24, the tree had dried up from the roots, and Jesus answered Peter, “Have faith in God.”
Pastor Hohman teaches that the original literally says “have the faith of God,” as Young’s Literal Translation renders it, and The Passion Translation reads “let the faith of God be in you.” This is the God kind of faith: whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt, but believes that those things he says will be done, will have whatever he says.
The kicker, he says, is consistency. People thank God for healing by the stripes of Jesus, then the next day say they guess they did not get healed. If you start getting a flippant attitude toward your words, he warns, you flush what you have been building. Whatever you ask when you pray, believe that you receive it. It may not happen overnight, but you keep declaring it.
“There’s no release of the God kind of faith without the proper words spoken by your mouth,” he says. What others say against you does not decide your life; your words do. Your inheritance, from Isaiah 54:17, is that no weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that rises in judgment you shall condemn, so you condemn those words in Jesus’ name instead of letting them gnaw at you.
The table below sets out the contrast he draws throughout this section between faith as begging and the God kind of faith.
| Situation | Faith as begging | The God kind of faith |
|---|---|---|
| Prayer | Pleading and trying to get God to act | Declaring what God’s Word says is His will |
| The next day | “I guess I didn’t get healed” | Keeps saying what God says until it comes |
| An obstacle | Asking God when He will remove it | Speaking to the mountain or tree directly |
| Words against you | Letting them gnaw and steal sleep | Condemning them in the name of Jesus |
| Measure of faith | “I need more faith” | Exercising the faith already given |
He grounds the last row in Romans 12:3, which says God has dealt to each one a measure of faith, and in 2 Peter 1:1, where Peter writes to those with like precious faith. Faith grows, he says, by reading the Word aloud so that both the inner and outer ear hear it.
Faith Like a Mustard Seed
Pastor Hohman returns to an image from the start of the series: water behind a dam has potential energy, but it becomes kinetic, producing energy only when it flows through a turbine. “Here’s your turbine right there, your mouth,” he says. When the Word of God comes through your mouth, God’s potential becomes power in your life. By the law of Genesis, everything produces after its kind (Genesis 1:24–25); if you want something different, you must speak something different.
In Luke 17:5–10, the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith. Jesus answers that with faith as a mustard seed they could say to a mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey. Pastor Hohman stresses that God does not say “ask Me and I’ll get it done”; He gives believers His words and authority, as in John 14:12, where those who believe do the works Jesus did, and greater.
Jesus continues with the servant who comes in from the field and still serves his master’s supper. Pastor Hohman explains “unprofitable servants” as servants who do not qualify for special praise because they are simply doing their duty. Our duty, he says, is to use right words and speak out the blessing and goodness of God. He links this to Deuteronomy 30:11–14: the word is in your mouth and in your heart.
He shares his own story. God told him to run a school before he had any training in education, and to build a radio station before he knew broadcasting. He now holds two doctorates and two masters, he says, but the learning always came after obeying. His confession was that the Lord strengthens him and works through him.
He also tells of a woman who had the school children confess every day, “Thank you, Father, we have a gymnasium.” The church now meets in that building, and she attended one service there before she passed away; she ate the fruit of her mouth. Both the building and the radio station took about seven years.
All Things That Pertain to Life
Pastor Hohman closes the teaching in 2 Peter 1:2–3. Grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge of God, and His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Note the tense: has given.
He then lists what pertains to life: health, finances, your home, your job, enjoyment, wisdom and understanding, and also godliness, holiness, peace, joy, faith, hope and love. He rejects the idea that believers must stay broke to stay spiritual. Like Paul, he says, he has learned to be content in every state (Philippians 4:11–12), but he will not refuse what God has given.
His home is his example. When the family first drove into Merrill in a pickup truck, having given away everything they owned, they were headed to live in an old motor home. Pam told him the Lord had given her a vision of a large house with a front deck and a back porch, and described it. They live in that house now, he says, and it came because they kept declaring what God had already given.
The final verse is 2 Samuel 22:33, which the church reads aloud: God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. Your mouth, he says, will deliver you and change you, because God has already declared it finished.
Putting the God Kind of Faith to Work
Pastor Hohman ends with a call to repent for careless words, invoking Romans 10:8–10 and a prayer echoing Psalm 141:3, asking God to set a watch over the mouth. Practical steps from Power of Words 6:
- Declare instead of plead. When a promise is God’s will in His Word, thank Him for it as yours rather than begging Him to act.
- Read Scripture out loud. Let your own ears hear the Word, because hearing it builds the faith you already have.
- Speak the end, not the middle. Like God, who declares the end from the beginning, describe the outcome He promised, not every problem along the way.
- Keep sowing in every soil. When a confession seems to fall on hard ground, keep speaking life instead of giving up on your words.
- Condemn words spoken against you. Use Isaiah 54:17 rather than replaying hurtful remarks until they steal your sleep.
- Stay in it for the long haul. His school gym and radio station each took about seven years of declaring, so measure in seasons, not days.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Why teaching on words is uncomfortable
- 1:00 God created everything with words
- 2:06 Series recap and the God kind of faith
- 3:11 Faith is not begging: Proverbs 18:21
- 5:13 Words link the natural and spiritual worlds
- 7:21 Living spiritually hungry
- 8:25 The ten virgins and their oil
- 9:27 “It doesn’t work”: speaking until it becomes part of you
- 12:44 Jesus the Word, who declares the end from the beginning
- 13:45 The centurion: speak the word only
- 15:55 The parable of the sower and planting words
- 18:06 Taming the tongue and Psalm 107:2
- 20:13 Faith filled or fear filled words
- 21:18 The heart of the wise teaches his mouth
- 23:20 Mark 11: speaking to the fig tree
- 25:26 Have the faith of God
- 27:33 Consistency and whatever you ask in prayer
- 28:33 No weapon formed against you
- 29:35 The measure of faith: Romans 12:3
- 33:52 Your mouth is the turbine
- 35:59 Luke 17: faith like a mustard seed
- 40:15 Unprofitable servants doing their duty
- 43:29 The school, the radio station and the gym
- 45:41 2 Peter 1:2–3: all things that pertain to life
- 47:49 Pam’s vision of the house
- 51:59 2 Samuel 22:33: He makes my way perfect
- 57:25 Repentance and closing prayer
The Power of Words Series
This message is part of a multi-part teaching on the words of your mouth at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:
- First message: Power of the word #2 Creative
- Previous: The Power of Words #5 Faith Filled Words
- You are here: The Power of Words 6 The God Kind of Faith
- Next: The Power of Words #7
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this teaching mean believers should want nothing natural from God?
No. Pastor Hohman says some religious people believe they must stay on the spiritual side only, stay poor and never desire what pertains to life. He disagrees, pointing out that 2 Peter 1:3 includes everything that pertains to life and godliness. He says he can trust God for spiritual and natural things at the same time, the way a person can walk and chew gum, and that the natural only corrupts those who will not teach their mouths.
Are our words gone once they are spoken?
Pastor Hohman teaches that words are eternal. He compares it to the many voices and pictures passing through a room at any moment: with the right receiver you could tune in to them. In the same way, he says, what you say goes out and stays out there, which is one more reason to repent for careless words and to fill your speech with what God has said.
What is “hung by the tongue”?
He mentions a book from the late 1970s, whose author he could not recall, titled Hung by the Tongue. Its idea, as he describes it, is that people build their own gallows and hang themselves with their mouths. He uses it to underline Proverbs 18:21: the words you love to speak are the fruit you will eat.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Mark 11:20–24 — have faith in God
- Luke 17:5–10 — faith as a mustard seed
- Matthew 8:5–13 — the centurion’s great faith
- Proverbs 18:21 — death and life in the power of the tongue
- Proverbs 16:23 — the heart of the wise teaches his mouth
- Romans 12:3 — the measure of faith
- Isaiah 54:17 — no weapon formed against you
- 2 Peter 1:2–3 — all things that pertain to life
- 2 Samuel 22:33 — He makes my way perfect
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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