Unleashing Your Prophetic Voice

Our words carry prophetic power that can either build relationships or destroy them, making our voice one of the most potent tools we possess for spiritual impact.

• The tongue is the smallest part of our body but can create the biggest impact
• James 3 compares our tongue to a small rudder that controls a massive ship
• We're audio-created beings—God spoke us into existence, giving our words creative power
• Bitterness in our hearts inevitably comes out through our speech
• No human can tame their tongue without divine intervention
• Every person we meet is made in God's image, deserving respectful speech
• Reading Scripture aloud helps reprogram our speaking patterns
• We're never more like God than when we bless others with our words
• Speaking life to those who've hurt us breaks the cycle of bitterness
• Parents' words profoundly shape their children's identity and future

Speak life to someone this week and watch what God will do through your words. Visit www.thefatherdifference.com/links for a free book download and information about personal coaching.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Prophetic Power
• 9:30 The Small Tongue's Mighty Impact
• 17:52 James on Taming the Tongue
• 28:27 Speaking Life Instead of Death
• 34:41 Using Your Voice for Blessing
• 39:01 Prayer and Closing Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Thank you Well welcome. It's good to be with you again. Hi, I'm your host, ed Tanney-McGlasson, and we are go live here broadcasting to you from Southern California and just been an exciting time here with all the comments and different things that's coming up. Tonight we're going to talk about the prophetic power of your voice, or, as you saw before, the prophetic power of a man's voice, and why that's so important, why that's so important for you, why that's so important for your family, and the better you get at speaking life and speaking truth from your own mouth, the more you talk to people, the more impact you're going to have. I'd love to hear from you comments. Put them there in the. Send me some comments. We'd love to respond to you and see you there in the chat from the different places that you're showing up from, see you there on the chat from the different places that you're showing up from. So how's your family doing and how are you using your voice to make a difference in the life of your children, your romance with your honey, so important as we learn how to use this voice to bless other people, and when you use it in a wrong way, how painful that is for our children for other people, and so it's a powerful thing when you learn how to use your voice in a way that will change the life of your children. All that to say, welcome to the Father.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Difference, as we're going to talk tonight about really the prophetic power that we have in our voice. What I mean by prophetic power is that you know, first of all, when God made man and woman, he created us with His mouth, he created us with His Word, and our words have incredible power in speaking life to people. Or we can use our words to speak the opposite of life. Where we end up speaking death, we end up cursing somebody. And how quickly this little thing, that's the smallest part of our body, can create the biggest, can create the biggest forest fires in our life.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Now we've been looking at learning how to get rid of bitterness, and you know watch out for bitterness, that no bitterness takes root among you, for it springs up and causes deep trouble, hurting many in their spiritual lives. Bitterness not only just hurts your relationship with other people, bitterness will actually destroy your own life and you've probably been hurt by people or, you know, maybe you learned that in your own model growing up that bitterness was kind of the way you kept people away. The only problem with that is that it only gets worse and you end up pushing other people away from you, from you, and so part of what we've been learning about bitterness is that it's a bad deal all the way around if we are, you know, making it about ourselves. I love what—we're going to look at a section in the book of James that's incredibly powerful, and if you've got your Bible, you can turn to James 3. I'll give you the Scripture on the screen, but we're going to begin talking through this and talking about really the power that we have when we understand this little thing that we use to taste food. Such an extraordinary little thing that we use to taste food Such an extraordinary little thing. You know, the Bible says it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of his mouth.

Speaker 1: 5:16

So look what James says here. He says that you know not many of you should be teachers. You know not many of you should be teachers, and you know, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. So you've probably been. You know you might have heard some crazy teaching through the days, and you know and guess what that's a word for people like me and people who teach God's Word online. We need to be very careful what we say, because we're going to be judged with greater strictness. So, in my own heart, I want to make sure that I handle God's Word with as much integrity and much understanding and honor that it deserves. And you know, one of the reasons why that is is because God spoke those words and they're written down. That's His audible testimony of the words and the stories that he spoke into the heart of the writers, that he spoke into the heart of the writers, and so it's a very powerful thing that God did, you know, through all these books 66 books of the Bible and over all these years, and it's one of the reasons why the Bible is really the infallible Word of God and there's no real you know crazy, you know discrepancies in God's Word.

Speaker 1: 6:46

There are people who would argue about that, because the same guy has been speaking his Word for a long, long long time, from the beginning, when Christ said let there be light, and there was light, and so it is so important that you're in that place his life, and so it is so important that you're in that place. Now look what the Scripture goes on and says, for we all stumble in many ways. Anybody want to say amen, yes, we all stumble in many ways, but look what it says. But if anyone does not stumble in what he says, what does it say here? He is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. What a powerful picture it is that God is saying that when we control what we say, then we have the impact that our life is meant to have. How many of you have said things in being cross? You know to your children and you know, and you just want to get those words back in your mouth. You know they learn it even from the littlest age of the power of this tongue.

Speaker 1: 8:17

The other day, my grandson well, one of my grandsons, my youngest one, well, one of my grandsons, my youngest one, callan he didn't want to do something that I asked him to do. Can you imagine me being such a good grandpa that my grandson wouldn't want to do what I wanted him to do, wouldn't want to do what I wanted him to do? And he looks at me with all seriousness and says, papa, you don't love me anymore. And I was just like what? Because I said no and I said Papa, papa loves you. No, papa, you don't love me anymore. You know, I would just, even at the youngest. You know, as perfect as your grandkids might be or your children might be, it's amazing what can come out of their mouths at all, and we won't go into all that. There's some hysterical stories in our own family about that.

Speaker 1: 9:31

And so the Bible. He goes on. You know, he says, you know, not many of you should be teachers. He goes on and he says if we put a bit into the mouth of horses, so they obey us. So James is talking about that. And notice that James is writing about an issue that he had to overcome in his own life. Can you imagine being related to the guy who died on the cross? And so here he is. He says you know, if we put bits in the mouths of horses, so they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. So when your tongue's under control, then what you say and what you do will be under control. Look at the ships also. He talks about the ships, who are so large, driven by strong winds, guided by a very small rudder. Can you imagine just that your tongue is really a picture of what it's like. A rudder in your relationships, right and so, lord, driving by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So he's making this picture about just the power of what that rudder can do. On a gigantic ship. You got the engines or the sails, and everything's determined by where that little rudder goes in the back of that ship. Powerful thing. So also.

Speaker 1: 11:18

The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things, isn't that true? It's the smallest part of our body, yet it boasts of great things. And so it also not only boasts of great things. He talks about the tongue also. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire Boy. Have you done that in your life? Yours truly has. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. It's amazing what comes out of your mouth sometimes when you're frustrated or pushed into a corner I call it sometimes a gift of automatic mouth where you're offended by somebody and all of a sudden, boom, you just kind of blow. We're going to talk about how you change that in a moment For us to really understand that, even when we're speaking negatively, because we were made by God speaking into us. We're an audio-created human being, we're voice-driven. That's why God's Word to us is such a powerful thing in our life, thing in our life. But our tongue is the same way and whatever fuels it determines the impact. The tongue is set among all of its members, staying the whole body, staying on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. Wow. You can tell that James wrestled with all of these things in his own life. He wrestled with them because you can imagine that when this little thing got, a tongue is out of control.

Speaker 1: 13:20

How much damage Now, how many of you have caused damage you know in your own families and where you know, all of a sudden it's a thing that you say can just destroy your relationship with your kids. I remember you know in the early days of being a dad and and even kind of, you know being passive-aggressive. You know what that is right, where you're sort of teasing but you're really poking fun at somebody because you're frustrated many times and how much I was hurting my children by my words and that was devastating for my kids and you know I hurt them and you can tell when you're speaking life into one of your children and you can tell when you've just set a fire between you and them. And yet, how many of you have relationships with family members that have ended because of things that were said, things that were said at the family table, things that were said at the family table? I coach and meet people you know every week, who you know, somebody set on fire something from their mouth towards somebody else and see part of the reason I titled you know tonight, the prophetic power of a man's voice, or your voice, is that it is a profound thing. When you begin to learn how powerful your voice can be, you probably thought it's like no big deal. Well, if you've been created by God and he's, you know, filled your voice, you know, with His Word, look how powerful that can be, but also how critical and how negative that voice can be to a family member that you're hurting with what you say.

Speaker 1: 15:47

I remember years ago watching this in the National Football League and we had a player that was on defense and I was always playing against him. I won't mention his name, but he was getting great joy and fun and making fun of me. And so we come in a locker room and you can imagine we have all the players on either side of the locker room, kind of around a gigantic circle, either side of the locker room, kind of around a gigantic circle. And when somebody walked in it was sort of you know, fair game to make fun of that person before he got to his designated stool at his locker. So if he had like a zit on his face, I mean, they would talk about that until it would feel like the zit was this big. I mean people were making fun of or a joke, and they would all kind of end with just kidding man and boy, it was Ed, you know, they were sort of prophesying what my future was going to be, and so he was just constantly, just you know, making fun. And boy, there were times where I just gave it back to him and you know, and everybody's laughing and so who's going to be on top of who?

Speaker 1: 17:25

Here in the little gamesmanship it's kind of what we do. We sort of make fun and joke with one another when we don't know how to really be intimate, how to connect to somebody, how to speak life to somebody, how to really build a friend, speak life to somebody, how to really build a friend. You know you're not going to. You know my best friends are not the ones who are criticizing me and pointing out all the things that are broken in my life. My deepest friends are people that are who speak life into me when I don't have it or don't recognize it. How about you? Those are powerful, powerful things that happen.

Speaker 1: 18:10

So James goes on and look at what else he says here. He says that not only does it set the entire course of life, you know, for every bird of the beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, he goes on, but no human being can tame the tongue. So in other words, your tongue and the ability for it to have great power or prophetic, when God is using it to bless somebody's life. It's a powerful thing, but we can't tame it. Look what it says. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. But just stop there for a second. Look what that says there. Whether we bless our Lord and Father right, we praise Him, we thank God, in that same breath we can curse people who are also made in the likeness of God. Likeness of God and I don't want to miss this because it's such a profound point that James is making is that every person you speak to is also made in the likeness of God, even those who you think are enemies to you.

Speaker 1: 19:40

That's something that is easiest for us to get in these crazy. You know political times Everything's become political or racist. You know times where the fuel of the day is bitterness Online in the news service. Well, how does God correct that Change in news services? Nah, they don't have much hope, quite honestly. There's only one way those things get changed is when His people, his sons and daughters, you and me, learn to hear from Him and speak to others the way he speaks to us. That's what changes your heart.

Speaker 1: 20:32

So often, when we're in battle mode with you know somebody, it's because we're fighting for something that we think is ours, or we're demanding something, or we're hurt, or we're reactionary. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to go to a family gathering and not have all this of you kind of going oh great, I gotta be around this person in my family again, and how devastating that is To the family. I mean, you're kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop all the time You're not present there to love them, to speak life into them. Because it only takes a shift between, you know, using your tongue for evil or cursing somebody, or using your tongue to speak life, or cursing somebody, or using your tongue to speak live. And so I promise you, well, how do you change the way you speak? Well, here's the number one way is that you've got to, you know, we've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 1: 22:16

Number one thing we've got to understand that we've got to get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander as well all types of malicious behavior, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven. You See, when you realize and what James said earlier that every person that we talk to, every person that we meet, is also creating God's image. So there's nobody that you will meet, on either side of the political aisle or in any other country, that's not made in God's image. The only difference is there are some who don't understand who they are and how much God loves them, so their whole life is wrapped up in their own personal identity, their own personal safe space, their own power, their own reputation. And when that happens in us, we get ugly because we're not blessing with our tongues, we're protecting ourselves, we make boundaries around ourselves that are unhealthy and we attack people without understanding that. That's the opposite of what God wants for you and wants for me. Once for you and once for me. See, we're never more like God.

Speaker 1: 23:46

When we learn to use you know our tongues, you know in a way, to bless somebody and we can actually speak healing into their life, life into their heart. We can connect them to Jesus, which is the ultimate source, not connecting them to us. It's a profound thing that happens for a mom, for a dad. When you begin to measure your words, I want you to think you know over the last couple of weeks if you're a mom or you're a dad, or if you're a friend of somebody, how much of your conversation has been corrective and how much of your conversation have you shared the hope that God has for that person? Because, man, that's where the power is, in you and me, when you speak life into somebody who's suffering.

Speaker 1: 25:15

And I had just one of the most beautiful, amazing gifts On Sunday I got to pray and, you know, bless my Aunt Barbara you might be watching Aunt Barbara. It's an honor of my life just to be able to pray with you and I know that you're not far from heaven, but it was such an honor to be there. I've had the gift of last moments with people, so we had a wonderful prayer time and just blessed her and cried, we prayed, we loved, and I'm far away. I wasn't able to connect, able to connect. And then I got a message back the next day that she you know it seems like she was at death's door, which is the door to heaven for her. But then she was up the next day in her walker, somehow in the midst of our time and speaking and all the prayers of the people around her. She's still there.

Speaker 1: 26:30

It's amazing how we can sustain somebody that we love by what comes out of our mouth, because you never know how much time you're going to have with somebody. Maybe you're a mom, or you're a grandma, or you're a dad or you're a grandma, and it's been years since you've blessed, maybe your husband, if you're married, or your children, or you've spoken life into them, or you've spoken life into them, and so when you see them, there's this ache that we have as parents when we're pushing them back, or a friend that you love and you carry words that you said to them and you get separated. And then the years go by and you haven't talked to them because of an awkward moment where something came out of your mouth that pushed them away. That pushed them away. Well, the promise of what that Scripture was saying to us today is that when we learned how to hear God, the Father, through Son Jesus and His Word, when we fill our hearts with God's Word.

Speaker 1: 28:04

That's why one of the most powerful things you do is to read the Bible every day, not just so you get education, so that you build up your hearing to be able to hear when God is speaking to you. And the more you fill your heart with God's Word, the more impact His voice over you. And one of the practices that I do that's incredibly helpful for me is that when I read my Bible, I read it out loud, and when you read it out loud, it kind of echoes off the wall in front of you and comes back into your ears. You know the Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing God's Word. And so something happens in us when we're speaking God's Words over us, and it can be one of the hardest times of your life and you feel like you're stuck in a moment and you're being attacked and the enemy wants you to just repeat what he's saying to you. But when you grab God's Word and begin to speak those promises out loud over yourself so that you hear them, they come out of you and they ricochet off the wall, it can change your life. And see, the more you do that as a beloved son or daughter, the more you learn to receive from God His voice over you.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Guess what happens to your own voice and your own tongue? God will use you in moments where, when you're speaking, you know it's not just you speaking, that he's backing those words up with great power. There's nothing like that. It's one of the gifts of being a follower of Jesus is that it's not just he just saved us, he's invited us and included us into His amazing mission of loving people. And that's what he wants for you. That's what he wants for you, that's what he wants for me. And so, as we're talking tonight about the prophetic power of your voice is number one we talked about. You don't want to ever discount how powerful the words are that come out of your mouth in a negative way or a powerful way, so you measure those words we talked about, thinking about your key relationships and who you're blessing.

Speaker 1: 30:52

You know you could be in a place where you and your spouse are at odds right now and the tendency is to fight for your right to be heard and the tendency is to fight for your right to be heard. When's the last time you wrote your wife guys a love letter and told her what you loved about her? We just had Mother's Day where we celebrated moms, and I had an amazing mom and my mother was an extraordinary human being, you know, in that she—everything was possible with her. It didn't matter what she had to go through and all the craziness of her family. She had a sister she adored and she loved her Barb. They were raised during World War II and the craziness of all that stuff. Their dad was an admiral in the Navy and had to go through all those things. But she came away from that where nothing's impossible. And how did she learn that? Well, she had to bury my dad. He was killed in action and, boy, that was tough.

Speaker 1: 32:09

But something happened to her when, in the very you know beginning moments of my own life, she was pregnant with me. How did a big guy come to a little girl? Well, anyway, and she was. The doctor told her that you know that there was, might be something wrong with your baby, because they couldn't find the fetal heartbeat. And she was. She was at you know more than weeks, and that the strain of losing the love of her life might have damaged the child. And it woke her up. She went on a walk. Might have been with her sister Barb and her mom, but on that walk she prayed a prayer and said if you'll save my son, I'll give him back to you. She looked at me one day and said it wasn't more than a few steps in that walk that my water broke and you were born. And so God answered her and her son, me, you know, responding to what God said to her.

Speaker 1: 33:27

In just one of the greatest times of despair as you can imagine in life, losing the love of your life God will meet you even there. Maybe that's your situation now. You're just overwhelmed with life, you're overwhelmed with family. You feel alone, you feel isolated. Well, god wants to speak life into you today, so you can do the ultimate thing and speak life to those you love, because the truth of the matter, beloved we're never more like God than when we bless one another like he blesses us. May that just kind of sink in to you tonight as we talk about this, because one of the ways you combat bitterness is you do the opposite, by blessing somebody who is attacking you. It's a powerful thing. We'll talk more about that next week.

Speaker 1: 34:39

This will be kind of a part one, part two. We're going to go through some examples, but I want to pray Before I do. I have something to tell you about at the very end, so don't go, but I want to pray for you. If you feel stuck right now in a relationship where you're just really angry, you're hurt and you're waiting for the other person to go first, well, the way we get rid of those kind of things is that we have to be the one that takes the first step. Maybe you're a mom with a child, maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your wife, or your grandfather or grandmother, and if you measure what's come out of your mouth when you think about that person that's hurt you.

Speaker 1: 35:38

You can just hear what you say, maybe even politically. You know, we have so much craziness in politics today. It's like who can, as quickly as possible, with as much vitriol as they can muster, demonize the other person first. Well, that's not God's way, because who of us could be anything different than what God can make us to be? We can't change our stripes, we can't tame our own tongue. We've got to have Christ come into our life, and so I just I want to pray with you right now, and whatever that prayer need, you can send it to me or email me, and I would love to connect with you. I'll give you that information at the end.

Speaker 1: 36:45

But if you're in a place right now where you're saying, ed, I want to use my voice every single day. I want to use my tongue to begin to bless people more than I've ever blessed anyone before. Just open your hands and I want to pray for you. Father, I thank you for my friend that's watching. I thank you, lord, that you've drawn him here tonight to speak something deep into them. So, father, I pray that you would open their heart to learn how to hear from you, so that they can spend their life blessing other people and that they could see the miracle power that happens when you do that. Father, I ask you to bless them. I ask you to heal their relationships. Father, I ask you to bless them. I ask you to heal their relationships.

Speaker 1: 37:43

I have a number of single moms in my heart right now. You might be watching your single mom and you feel really isolated, marginalized, overwhelmed and you're just not sure how to move forward with all the craziness of your own life. Father, I pray you would meet that single mom and all those mothers that we celebrated Mother's Day and all the sacrifices they've made where they had a special day, lord, but they need to know that you're with them in a profound, profound way. So, father, I pray you'd bless them. I pray you would heal relationships of people watching, heal families that are watching right now. In the name of Jesus, I pray you would do that, lord. I pray you would change their circumstances and to fill them with your words, first for them, so that they can use those words to bless other people. In the name of Jesus, amen, amen.

Speaker 1: 38:55

I am just so honored to be with you tonight to share with you, and I have a couple of things I promised you earlier is on Thursday. We got a special show that we're going to do and to go more in depth but to really unlock the difference a mother makes, the power of your words and different than tonight. But there's something, gals if you know a gal, you should say you got to be with that at 12 pm, pacific Standard Time, may the 16th the power of your words. You can either make your husband feel like King Kong or Pee Wee Herman by what comes out of your mouth. Guys know exactly what I'm saying, so do you, gals? We also have something else that's exciting coming up.

Speaker 1: 39:53

If you're in Southern California, we have a live event called the Superpower of Dads, and that's all about just imagine for a moment, guys, being able to be a father in such a profound way, whether you're still married or not, but to be—if you're a single dad, or you're distant with your children, or you're married and you're in the home with your kids. God has given you a superpower to really make an incredible difference in the life of your sons, in the life of your daughters. You don't want to miss this event. And guess what? It's a free breakfast. It's on the weekend of Father's Day, on Saturday, and we're going to be sending you info so you can register, and it'd be an exciting time. It's about a month away. It's a month away from the 14th, so it's the 14th, so I can't wait to see you there.

Speaker 1: 41:03

And also, if you're tuning in for the first time, we get a free book. If you go to my website, thefatherdifferencecom. Thefatherdifferencecom, you can get access and get a free copy of the Difference a Father Makes. Now, if you have dads that you know and you email me, I will send you a free link that you can send to every single dad that you know, and I'm praying Right now. We've had the incredible gift of having you know, being able to really make a difference with men and all over the world, and right now that book is in 124 countries being downloaded.

Speaker 1: 41:55

Just blows my mind, and so would you help me get it out on Father's Day? And so would you help me get it out on Father's Day to every single dad you know. If you go to the difference a father makes, you can get it there or to my website. You'll see the link on our website and it's a free book and our goal is to you know. We're well over 400 and some thousand books out. I'd be honored to send a million out for free. That would be an awesome thing. So if that blesses you, would you do that as well? And, last but not least, thank you for your support. A number of you have been supporting our ministry financially and praying for us. The more you support, the more men we can reach, because we live in a time where men are being marginalized and demonized, and that should not be so, and so we're just lifting their arms up and helping them discover the difference they can make as a father, and the same goes for you. So, lord, bless you.

Speaker 1: 43:11

Thank you for being here tonight. Make sure you reach out to our team at thefatherdifferentcom. We're here for you, to resource you and help you, and almost forgot. If you're, you can. Also.

Speaker 1: 43:30

I have a series called how to Become the Husband and Father your Family Needs, and guess what? We're giving that away for free. It's probably a limited time Now you got to get it before it runs out and it's a video series to help the man of your life, and guess what? It works just the same way for gals, and so make sure that you check that out. You can scan this for free access. If you got a phone and you're looking on a computer right now, you can scan this and have access to this, and that's our gift for you as well. Boy, there's a—you know. So, anyway, there's a lot of stuff coming your way. I want to bless you, thank you for being here tonight, and remember it's never too late for God to do a profound difference in you and your family. Use your mouth as a gift, use this tongue this week as a gift, and find somebody and speak life to them and watch what God will do. In the name of Jesus, god bless you.