“Loose lips sink ships,” are you sinking your own ship?This phrase, which originated during World War II, was a direct warning against unguarded conversations by members of the United States military. At the time, the enemy was looking to target vessels coming across the Atlantic with troops or weapons. If they could learn the schedule of the ships, the enemy’s U-boats would be waiting for them and sink them.
Where did the intel come from? Our very own soldiers. Enemy spies would hang around the ports and listen to the servicemen talk. Quite often, they’d get enough information to relay back to the enemy which ship was going where, when it was leaving, and whether it was carrying troops or weapons. Time and again, the words that were carelessly spoken gave them everything they needed to target the ships and sink them.
You have an enemy targeting you! He wants to hit you at the right place at the right time. He’s hanging around at your port, listening to your words to use against you. Like in war, you need a strategy for this war.
The Strategy of Silence
“If only you could be silent! That’s the wisest thing you could do.” –Job 13:5
Your words can be life-threatening or life-altering, you must be on high alert when it comes to releasing them out of your mouth. Until you can learn how to speak faith you need to learn the language of silence.
It’s advice Kenneth gives often. Jerry Savelle shares about what Kenneth said to him when he was first learning to walk by faith.
“Before God transformed my life, I was the biggest quitter you ever met. Nothing was working in my life. My wife, Carolyn, and I were in debt, discouraged, and our marriage was barely hanging on. I was new to The WORD of God and was struggling to walk by faith. So, I asked Kenneth Copeland why things weren’t working in my life, and he said, ‘Jerry, your problem is your big mouth. You need to learn the vocabulary of silence.’ And then he said, ‘If you can’t talk The WORD, then shut up.’ That’s not what I wanted to hear, but he was right! Once I learned how to “bridle my tongue” (James 3:1-9), things began to change in my life!”
You may already know about the importance of your words, but are you walking in the light you have? Until you become fluent in faith, learn the language of silence and ask God to help you the way Psalm 141:3 puts it: “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips” (NIV).
The Strategy of Listening
“Faith comes by hearing…the Word of God.” –Romans 10:17 (NKJV)
The main reason you have to give your words a makeover is that you’ve spent so much time listening to wrong word choices. Television, music, friends, family—they are an endless thesaurus of negative word choices that have logged neatly in the Rolodex™ of your mind.
Now it’s time to flip the switch.
In the marketing profession, it is quite common to keep what is called a “Swipe File.” Whenever a marketer hears, reads or watches an advertisement that has a word choice or phrasing that catches their attention, they will “swipe” the idea and keep it on file. While they cannot copy it verbatim, they end up with a log of ideas that will inspire them in some way down the line.
You can create a faith speak “swipe file” of your own. As you listen to powerful faith teachers like Kenneth Copeland, Keith Moore, Bill Winston, Kenneth Hagin or Norvel Hayes, for example, whenever they share a declaration or confession with you, swipe it! Write it down in a journal and start collecting ammo to use against your enemy. It will boost your confidence and help you become fluent in faith.
Keep listening to faith teachers. Get into total immersion with the Word of God. Listen to faith speak until you get it right. Before you know it, people will be swiping declarations from you!
The Strategy of Faith
“People will give account for every careless word they speak.” –Matthew 12:36 (ESV)
You’ve carved out the time, ejected the negative and imported the positive. In the meantime, for total victory, focus on finding your faith voice. You learn a language by practicing out loud. When you first start speaking another language, you don’t necessarily feel confident in what you’re saying, and you may fumble around a bit. You’ll even have to stop and think or check the translation book before speaking.
The same is true while you’re finding your faith voice.
In a total immersion language school, you would not be allowed to speak English. Zero. All day long. You would only speak the language you were learning. So, as you are in total immersion for learning the language of faith, you will only speak faith—no doubt, fear, negativity or anything else outside of the confines of faith is allowed. Ever.
Within four to six weeks, people find themselves fluent in the language they’re learning. If you can do it with a foreign language, you can do it with the language of faith. If you don’t know what to speak—say nothing until you can get to the Word of God and find out what you should be saying.
Talk faith all week long, all 30 days long. Talk prosperity, healing, deliverance, joy and peace. In doing so, you’ll find that total immersion will draw you very quickly out of your intellect and over into your spirit. When the 30 days are over, you’ll respond quickly and more powerfully than you ever have to in any and every situation—no matter how severe. You’ll be a faith giant who wins victory every time!
