Work the Word Part 2:

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

August 9th, 2026

Psalm 107:20 (NKJV)

He sent His word and healed them,

And delivered them from their destructions.

Watch the full Sunday service: https://www.youtube.com/live/sSmj5PaT37k?si=F1G8i2QmdYNJr71C

Prayer:

We give You glory and praise today for Your Word. Let Your Word speak to us today. Let our lives be blessed. Let us, God, leave here better. We open our hearts that we might receive this Word today. We give You glory and praise, that somebody’s life will be changed forever in Jesus’ name.

I.               INTRODUCTION

 

We have to testify today that we live in a culture that seeks healing everywhere except where God placed it first. We trust prescriptions, we trust procedures and professionals — and thank God for all of them — but we often ignore the prescription that God has already sent. Many people discover relief without revelation, recovery without responsibility, and that’s a dangerous combination. Because what this verse is going to show us today is that before God changes our conditions, God always releases a communication, because He always speaks before heaven moves. Healing does not begin with a miracle. It begins with a message.

Therefore, it is important to understand this, because too often we pray for God to touch what God has already addressed. We often don’t realize that God has a pattern, and that pattern is clear: before God solves, God speaks. Before God strikes, God speaks. God is sending a word into your life, but more importantly, He is administering treatment to your situation. The tragedy is not that people are sick. The tragedy is that people refuse the prescription that God has sent to make them whole, because the Word of God is not supplemental — the Word of God is essential.

What if I told you that the breakthrough you’ve been believing God for is on the way? In one sentence — imagine that God can speak one sentence, one word, and your entire situation could be turned around. Because of distractions, apathy, sometimes you could miss what God is about to release in your life. Healing happens when you stop waiting on a sign and start receiving the word that God has already spoken.

Now, we don’t fully know the occasion Psalm 107 was written for — we are not certain of the exact backdrop — but this psalm helps us understand that this is bigger than physical healing. It is about God’s pattern of rescuing people who have wandered away from Him. What has caused this distance, this disconnection? There are underlying reasons why people disconnect in relationships, and particularly why they disconnect from God.

Think about it from a scientific or physiological perspective. Every single day your body is striving for homeostasis. Your body is fighting for equilibrium, for balance, every single day. Everything is moving in your body because your body is attempting to regulate itself and stay in balance. Whenever you do not eat properly, rest properly, or take care of your body, then your body does not move into a place of homeostasis, of balance, of equilibrium. Your body moves into a place of dysregulation. Your body is not at ease — it causes dis-ease.

The same is true spiritually. When you are not properly aligned with God — when you are not praying like you should, not reading His Word like you should, not obeying like you should — then you find yourself in a place of dysregulation. You’re not hearing from God. Things are not moving like you want them to. Why? Because now you are drifting, and the distance begins. Now you find your relationship with God not at ease, and you find yourself spiritually diseased in that moment.

God sends a word because He recognizes that the distance has come, and it’s His desire to bring you back to your rightful place. That’s what this sermon is about today — God wants to bring you back into a place where every promise over your life will come to pass. But it will not happen while there is misalignment. So God sends a word, and the psalm says He sent His word to heal them and to deliver them from destruction.

The people who first heard this text were recently on their way back from exile — they had been in Babylonian captivity, and now they’re coming back with this word. What happened to you was your own doing, don’t blame anybody else, you did it to yourself. This psalm opens up about the faithfulness of God, because Psalm 107 begins, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” The only reason you’re even here today — no, you haven’t done everything right, you haven’t crossed every T. It’s because of the mercy of God. If you have nothing else to give God glory for, you ought to thank God that mercy kept you, mercy sustained you.

So the psalm begins to give us classifications of various kinds of people who walk away from God, various ways people distance themselves from Him, and then it shows us how people find themselves in desperate situations because of life’s bad decisions and because of outright rebellion. In every story there was a pattern, and that pattern is the same: the people cry out in their distress, and God responds with mercy rather than condemnation.

Now, verse 20 describes them as fools, because their suffering was connected to their own foolish choices. Their physical affliction reflected a deeper spiritual problem. They had rejected God’s wisdom, and now they were experiencing the consequences of being disconnected from Him. So before God sends a miracle, before God sends an angel, God sends a word — and the text says God was so concerned about them that He sent the word to do something comprehensive: not just to heal them, but to deliver them from the very thing that caused them to be disconnected in the first place.

Can I tell you something, people of God — God’s Word carries both the diagnosis and the prescription. I need somebody to hear this today, because you’re not watching this by accident. God told me to tell somebody: whatever you brought here today, there is healing in this house. Whatever you’re dealing with today, there is healing in this house for you. If you brought fear, if you brought anxiety, if you brought grief, if you brought brokenness, if you brought disappointment, if you brought confusion, if you brought a weary spirit, if you brought a fractured family, if you brought financial strain, if you brought a sick body, if you brought a wound — whatever it is, I know you don’t understand it yet, but by the end of this message, God is not just going to heal it, you’re going to leave here whole today.

II.            GOD SENDS HIS WORD BEFORE HE SHOWS HIS POWER

 

A.   Healing begins when revelation is received, not when symptoms leave.

So let’s talk, because the first thing I want you to get clearly is: God sends His word before He shows His power. What do I mean by that? God does not waste power before His instructions are given. God wants to make sure you receive the word before He releases power. The text says He sent His word — which means healing travels on truth, and transformation is always carried by revelation before the symptom even changes. Understanding has to change first, because what you know determines how you live.

Think about it for a moment, people of God — nothing apart from His Word is going to move our situation while we ignore what God said about our situation. God’s power flows through His Word, not around His Word — which means you cannot bypass Scripture and expect a supernatural breakthrough in your life. Revelation precedes manifestation. The word positions you for the miracle that’s on the way. If God gave you the miracle before He gave you the message, you would celebrate the miracle, but you would miss the revelation wrapped up in the message.

Think about it — this is important to understand. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan tried to get Him to overcome everything by leaning on power. But Jesus did not lean in with power — He leaned in with the Word. Every time Satan tried to say, “If You have that much power, do this, do that,” Jesus said, “It is written, it is written, it is written.” Because He always begins with the Word.

He begins with the Word, because healing begins when revelation is received — not when your symptoms leave. Symptoms are often the last thing to change. Whenever God gives you a revelation, that doesn’t mean the healing has not begun, because God heals from the inside out. And if you’re not careful, you’ll start measuring your progress based on your pain threshold, not realizing that the moment you receive the word is the very moment God begins to heal your situation.

Some of you right now — it may not look like it’s changing in your family, it may not look like it’s changing in your finances, it may not look like it’s changing on your job — but the moment you get a word, you’ve got to believe God would not send that word if something wasn’t about to happen in your situation.

Too many of us miss this — Psalm 107 does not say that God sent a distraction; it says God sent a word. That’s important, because it speaks to the order of how God does what God does. Watch this: the phrase is significant because it implies that God’s word is intentional, dispatched with a specific assignment. God does not waste His word. When God sends His word, it is dispatched with a specific assignment attached to it. It was not a casual conversation or empty encouragement. God’s word is commissioned with purpose. God’s word will find you wherever you are in your situation. I don’t care if you’re in the lowest valley, His word will find you. I don’t care if you’re in the roughest storm, His word will find you. I don’t care if you run from Him, His word will still find you. And before healing ever arrives, God releases a word — and God will do it, because the Bible says His word does not return to Him void, but His word accomplishes what He sends it to do.

So He sent His word — the Bible says — to heal. Let’s break that down. In the Hebrew, “to heal” is Rapha. God sent His word to restore, to repair, to make whole. It reminds us that biblical healing is never limited to your body. God heals your mind. God can heal your disappointment. God can heal your soul. You have to understand — God isn’t just trying to heal one part of you, God is trying to heal every part of you.

And what’s important to understand, people of God, is that the Bible says He delivered them from their destruction. Notice the word is “delivered” — the psalm is showing us that God is not only healing the problem, but God is rescuing you from the patterns that have been shaping your life, because God is not just after your pain, God is trying to get to the source of your pain. God is trying to help you get to the root of what is causing all the trauma and stress in your life.

I want to talk to this generation for just a moment, because we’ve become experts in managing pain, but amateurs at healing it. We need something to get us through Monday, something to take the edge off on Tuesday, something to help us sleep on Wednesday, something to get us through Thursday, something to help us forget about it on Friday. For some of us it’s a substance, for others it’s a full bed at night for the wrong reasons, for someone else it’s a cigarette, for someone else it’s an edible you’ve got in your pocket right now — I’m not judging you — but for somebody else it’s just one glass of wine, except that glass becomes two, and three, and four every night. I’m not standing here in judgment, because all of us reach for something when life gets heavy. But the real, deeper question is: why have you become dependent on it? Because anything I reach for before I reach for God has become a malfunctioning savior.

B.    What God sends must be believed before it can be beneficial.

1. Believe the Word above how you feel.

Sometimes you don’t need another escape — you need an encounter with God. God isn’t saying, “Stop, because I’m angry.” He’s saying, “Come to Me, because I have something deeper than what your temporary comforts can give you.” A drink might numb you for the evening, alcohol might quiet you for the night, but only God’s Word can heal the war inside you, and only God can help you rest at night.

Who am I talking to? Because what God sends has to be believed before it can be beneficial. The word doesn’t mean anything unless you believe it. The word doesn’t mean anything unless you actually walk in agreement with it. Remember Israel and God’s promise concerning the Promised Land — their unbelief kept them wandering too long in the wilderness. You’ve got to get to a point where you say, “Lord, I believe what You say, I’m in agreement.” Because faith isn’t just a feeling — miracles flow through faith, your breakthrough flows through faith, which means you’ve got to believe God’s word above how you feel.

Some days you’ll feel like it, some days you won’t. Some days you’ll look at your situation and say, “I don’t feel like things are changing, I don’t feel like things are progressing.” But you’ve got to have something inside you that says God’s word is greater than how you feel. The facts of God’s word are always greater than your fluctuating emotions. And you’ve got to speak God’s word until you see God’s word — I told you last week, you’ve got to call those things that be not as though they were. I don’t care what it looks like — I’m not going to let my reality be determined by other people, because other people look at your situation and try to diagnose it or conclude what it is, but you don’t look at it the way other people do — you look at it through what God has promised.

• Speak the Word until you see the Word.

Let the weak say, “I am strong.” Let the poor say, “I am rich.” You’ve got to learn how to talk to yourself, and you’ve got to learn how to agree with what God says, and you’ve got to act on the word before you even see results.

• Act on the Word before you see the results.

I want to talk to you for just a moment, because it’s important to hear this. The priests stepped into the Jordan before the water parted — that’s what even parted the water. The blind man started walking before anything even happened to his eyes. The leper started walking before anything even happened to his leprosy. You cannot tell me you don’t know how to walk by faith and not by sight. You’ve got to know how to put yourself in position — fill out the application before you get the job, clean out the garage before you get the car. You’ve got to start walking on the property you’ve already been given.

Who am I talking to? That’s got some audacity in it, that’s some radical faith — I’m acting on what God told me to do.  I’m putting myself in position even before that thing comes to pass.

III.         THE WORD HEALS WHAT MEDICINE CANNOT REACH

• Science explains God’s creation.

Now watch this: the word heals what medicine cannot reach. I want you to hear this. Doctors treat your body, but God treats your being. God deals with every layer of who you are. Some pain has memory, history, and trauma attached to it, and no machine could ever fully measure that. And I want you to hear me clearly on this, church, because I don’t want anybody to misunderstand what I’m about to say — God is not against doctors, God is not against therapy, God is not against counseling, God is not against medication. In fact, every good and perfect gift comes from God, which means the wisdom to perform surgery, to discover antibiotics, to develop vaccines, to understand the brain and create treatment, is a gift from God. God has allowed humanity to discover that — it’s a gift from God. Science is not the enemy of faith. Science is not the enemy of faith. Science is not the enemy of faith — it’s just a way God allows us to understand the world He created.

• Medicine treats God’s creation.

As a matter of fact, Luke — the disciple who became an apostle, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles — was not only an evangelist, he was a physician by trade. Jesus never asked him to stop practicing medicine. He used his profession and his faith to serve the kingdom. So hear me well: I believe in doctors, I believe in medicine, I believe in therapy, I believe in taking care of your mental health, I believe in getting second opinions, I believe in counseling — because God can use all of those things. But Psalm 107 teaches us that there comes a place medicine cannot reach.

• The Word transforms God’s creation.

The surgeon can repair your heart, but only God can heal your heartache. The psychiatrist can prescribe medication, but cannot prescribe purpose. The therapist can help you process trauma, but cannot forgive you. The cardiologist can regulate your blood pressure, but cannot remove bitterness. The oncologist can help you fight cancer, but cannot restore your wholeness. Science can explain how the brain works, but only God can give you the perfect peace that comes from keeping your mind stayed on Him.

A.   Some wounds are internal, emotional, and spiritual.

Can somebody help me understand this — medicine treats God’s creation, but only God can transform His creation, because some wounds are internal, emotional, and spiritual. Some of the things we are dealing with are much deeper than they appear.

I’m going to say something today that may shake some things up, but it’s important to hear. I am a Bible teacher. I took my calling so seriously that I went to school to study the craft, to study Scripture, to read the Bible. Unfortunately, people love to say you don’t need training if you’ve got an anointing. They’ll counsel people out of culture, claim to have a doctorate they never earned, sending people off with a whole “doctor” title in front of their name. I’m not saying this to tear anybody down — I’m trying to help you understand that I took very seriously what God assigned me to do, because I recognized that the people I’m called to pastor don’t need shallow interpretations of Scripture. I recognized that the way I teach isn’t for everybody, because if you’re looking for “abracadabra, shazam” ministry, this isn’t your church — because the problem with abracadabra-shazam ministry is that it produces a high rate of relapse. Some of the people you pray for in the name of Jesus on Sunday are right back the same way the next Sunday, and the next, because nobody wants to address the deeper issues giving rise to the struggle. It’s easy to string Scriptures together and treat people at a surface level.

So here I am, thirty-four years into this — sitting in Starbucks the other day, minding my own business, staying in my lane, when two young people walked up to my table. I didn’t reveal who I was on purpose, and they started asking me about my relationship with God, going through all kinds of statements. I just sat there and listened, and it didn’t take me long — because I’ve been at this a long time — to realize I was in front of a cult recruiter. When I began to realize some of the questions and how they were looking at me, I began to realize: you’re the problem — somebody has deceived you, you’ve found comfort in a place that has actually harmed you, made you feel like you’re part of a family, and you’re coming to me with a shallow interpretation of the Bible. Then when I opened my mouth, one of them said, “I think my Uber is here.” And the other one just stood there in shock as I began to break down the Word of God in a way they had never heard before.

I began to realize how easy it is for so many people to be fooled by a shallow interpretation of Scripture — but it’s a lie. So I am unapologetic about how I teach, because when I wrote my book, I stayed rooted — this was my burden. My burden was to help people understand that Scripture must be understood in a holistic, spiritual space. Because the people receiving this word, the people who first heard this psalm, understood the body as all-encompassing. Old Testament believers never separated the physical from the spiritual from the mental. We do that; they never did.

That’s why you’ll see in the Old and New Testament, when someone came to Jesus with a sickness, sometimes there was a spiritual conversation attached to it. This might sound strange to us, but that’s how their mindset was, because they believed that if something was wrong physically, there was some disconnect between the person and God. It could be spiritual, it could be relational. They never separated any of it.

And the reason I brought that up is because some of the things people are dealing with, why they smile in church, is much deeper than what shows on the surface. And what you’ve got to stop asking is “what’s wrong with you” and start asking “what happened to you,” because if all you ever ask is “what’s wrong with you,” you’ll prescribe the wrong pill, you’ll prescribe the wrong word, and you’ll miss the deeper thing inside them. Some people you may look at and say, “What’s wrong with her, why does she act like that?” Well, maybe you ought to ask, “What happened to her?” Maybe she was a young girl whose father left the house, and a crazy uncle or the male figures in her life left a level of trauma. “What’s wrong with him” could be because he never had a model growing up. Until you deal with the root of the matter, you’ll never get to the right fruit that should come from that person.

People of God, I want you to hear this clearly — God wants to get to the root of it. Now, I’m from Louisiana, I’m from the South. Down there, when we used to get sick, my grandmother had a medicine cabinet with this stuff we dreaded because it was going to clean you out. She’d get this little bottle, and when she turned it over, it was thick and crusty — I don’t know if all of y’all know what I’m talking about, because you’re “hospital people” now — but it was called something like Cod Liver oil. It was so thick, when you poured it on the spoon it moved slow, like it was doing its own kind of therapy. It would make you sick just looking at it. But the moment it hit your tongue, everything in your body responded, and thirty seconds later, whatever needed to come out, came out.

B.    Refusing the Word delays deliverance you are praying for.

1. Receive the Word without debating it.
2. Apply the Word before you analyze it.
3. Remove what it competes with it.
4. Respond to it immediately.

Can I tell you something — that’s why it’s time to stop with these “cheesecake” sermons. God is trying to give you something that will clean you out. Look at your neighbor and say, “I need it all out.” Whatever it takes, Lord, give me a clean heart. God wants to give you a spiritual version of that same cleansing tonic, to get it all out — because if you refuse the word, then what you’re praying for takes longer, because you keep rejecting the word of God. You want to fix your marriage, but you won’t forgive. You want to fix your finances, but you keep buying things you don’t need — you’ve got a whole closet full of stuff and no money right now. What is wrong with you? Because what we want is for God to give us a word, but we want to control how it’s distributed in our lives.

The doctor tells you, “I’m going to put you on this blood pressure medicine because I don’t like what I see, and I want you to come back in six months.” And you know what you do? He tells you to take three pills, and you say, “Well, I don’t like how three pills make me feel, so I’m just going to take two.” You’re trying to control the method of how the word should be taken — like Naaman did in 2 Kings, when the prophet told him to dip in them muddy Jordan and his skin would be made clean. Naaman didn’t want to do it, because he wanted to control how God worked. Sometimes God tells you, “I want you to be alone.” But God, I can’t just have one date. God says, “Stay by yourself, fast, seek Me” — but you’d rather scroll social media, because you want to do what you want to do. But there comes a moment when you have to do exactly what God tells you to do. You’ve got to receive the word without debating it, apply the word without over-analyzing it, remove whatever competes with it, and respond to it immediately.

IV.         DELIVERANCE IS ACTIVATED BY RECEPTION

Let me close this out, because I’m about to bless you. Deliverance is only activated by reception. Deliverance will never happen if you don’t receive what God is trying to do. The Bible says He sent His word to heal them and to deliver them from destruction. Healing and deliverance are not the same thing. Healing removes the wound; deliverance breaks the cycle. Healing touches the wound; deliverance stops the pattern. God doesn’t just want to remove your pain — He wants to remove the pattern, because the pattern is what keeps producing the cycle that keeps holding you back. God’s goal is not simply to make you feel better for a moment. The goal is to make you free for a lifetime.

Can you imagine what that feels like — truly free? We just want a quick result. Your blood pressure needs to come down, you finally do everything right, you come back in six months and your numbers are perfect, and you get so excited you reach out and celebrate — and then your first meal afterward is fried pork chops, because you went right back to the habit that created the problem in the first place. You got the healing, but you went back to the cycle that caused it. Are y’all getting this? Medical science can help you cut across the field, but if you don’t change your mindset and your habits, you’ll go right back to your own baseline in six months.

Are y’all getting what I’m telling you? Receiving the word isn’t just about hearing it — it’s about embracing it, applying it, doing it. Can I tell you something — the reason some people never break a cycle is because once they hear the word, that’s all they do. They shout over the word, but they never want to do the heavy lifting. Deliverance requires doing the real work. As long as the pattern remains, the cycle will continue.

I’m talking to somebody right now who doesn’t understand that God wants to break the cycle in your life, and here’s how He does it. Let me break it down from John chapter 5 — Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda, and Jesus says, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” He was no longer lame, but Jesus said, “Take up your bed” — that’s your responsibility now. “I can heal you, but the deliverance is going to require your work.” You’ve got to take up the bed, you’ve got to walk it out. That’s what happens — many people just want somebody to say “it’s already done for you,” but you’ve got to do the real work. It takes work to build a marriage, it takes work to get through school, it takes work to accomplish the thing you’re called to do. Somebody’s got to put in the work, because without the work, the word only delivers you from destruction. It doesn’t develop you so you don’t return to it. You can have it for a moment, but the deliverance is maintained through continued reception of God’s word.

A.   The Word only works where it is welcomed.

You’ve got to receive the word — you’ve got to say, “Whatever it is You want to give me, I welcome it. Whatever You want to address in me, God, I’m ready. I’m not going to be angry, I’m not going to be frustrated — whatever You want for my life, I’m open.” Come with an open spirit, because an open spirit hears.

B.    You cannot be healed from what you refuse to confront.

Here is the word of God for your life. Are you ready for it? You cannot be healed of what you refuse to confront. I’m not going to be a Christian who only tells you what you want to hear — I’m going to tell you what God told me to tell you. One of the hardest things God will ever ask you to do is face the thing you have spent years trying to avoid. You cannot be healed of what you refuse to confront. Avoidance makes you feel better for a little while, but it never makes you better — it only preserves your pain. It keeps you living in the same cycle that God wants to break in your life.

Here’s the deal — God’s word is like a mirror. He’s helping you see yourself. He’s not trying to judge you, He’s inviting you to come to your day of reckoning. If you’re listening to me right now and you’re tired — tired of carrying this private thing around, tired of living a duality, looking put together in the spirit around everybody else, but then going home knowing there’s something broken in you — something you’ve wrestled with, some generational curse you’ve carried — how long will you keep resting like that? How long will you keep struggling like that?

Some of us have become experts at managing what God wants us to overcome. We manage our anger instead of letting God change it. We manage our loneliness by staying in the wrong relationships. We manage our anxiety by staying busy instead of learning to trust God. Let me help you understand — you can cover a wound, but if you never clean it, it will eventually become infected. What stays hidden will always be hurting.

Can I ask you a question — what if you’ve gotten comfortable carrying what God intended for you to let go of? Is it pride? Is it unforgiveness? Is it fear? Is it an addiction? Is it a secret, a habit nobody knows about? The place you were protecting may be the very place God is trying to heal. So if you don’t face it, God can’t fix it.

Think about what happens, people of God, when you stay in denial about what’s wrong. “I’m fine, everything’s good, praise the Lord” — hallelujah, all is well, because it’s easy to protect your image before people while your integrity is eroding before God. Your personality is who people think you are, but your integrity is who you really are. Some people come to church smiling while their household is breaking; some hold hands in the pew while being bitter toward the person next to them. It’s amazing how you can shout in the sanctuary and then get in the car and cuss each other out all the way home. And it’s amazing how you can keep doing that, because the devil doesn’t mind you coming to church, as long as you stay in the cycle.

But I’ve come today to tell you — God is about to break a cycle in your life. God is about to break a generational curse in your life. Somebody shout, “It’s about to break!” It’s about to break.

Let me tell you something — a man was diagnosed with high blood pressure. The doctor handed him a prescription and said, “If you take this every day, it will protect your heart, but if you ignore it, you may not notice the danger right away, but it will happen over time.” The man felt fine, so he went home and set the prescription aside. Months later, with no warning, he suffered a major stroke. When the doctor visited him in the hospital, the doctor didn’t say, “I wish I had written you a prescription.” The doctor simply said, “Why didn’t you take what I gave you?”

How long are you going to stay on the struggle bus? You’ve got a first-class ticket on that struggle bus, and you won’t take what He gave you. I know some of you have been sitting in church a long time, and some of you are here for the first time — but ultimately, it took you fifteen minutes to hear what you needed. God is your pharmacist, filling a prescription that the Great Physician already wrote for you. If you got a prescription from a stranger, you’d give them your birthday and go fill it — but God got you here today, God got you tuned in at just the right time, with a simple question: I see you struggling in your marriage — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you struggling with your mental health — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you going from one bad relationship to another — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you with your anger problem — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you with your jealousy — why won’t you take what I gave you?

I declare over this house today: every revelation is a prescription, every warning is a prescription, every promise is a prescription. I want to clear your life today — whatever you need, God says, “I’m ready to heal you from the root to the fruit.” Whatever it is, whatever you call it, there is healing in this house. I just want to know — who’s ready to receive today? Who’s ready to receive everything God has for your life?

Lord, heal my soul, heal my heart, heal my body, heal me — every area of my life. I’m not leaving here unless I know God has touched my life. The goal is not just healing — remember the woman with the issue of blood came looking for healing, but Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole,” because if He had only healed her flow of blood, she would have left still bitter about how people treated her when she was sick. So God is trying to heal your heart, God is trying to deliver you from your destruction, because He loves you so much, He put you in the right service at the right time to hear this word.

I didn’t know your situation, but God did — it’s not a headache but a foot-ache for somebody else, because pain shows up in different places for different people. How can we all sit in the same room and hear the same word, yet God meets us all differently, at different points in our lives, because He knows the specifics of the pain in each spirit sitting here. God knew exactly what you needed today.

I want to challenge you today. This is an invitation for you to come into a greater relationship — this word from Psalm 107 was about why we’ve disconnected. You can be present but still disconnected. I’m not talking about your title, I’m not talking about how people see you — I’m talking about you saying, “I want an authentic encounter with God, I want to feel His presence all over again.” Pastor’s not asking you to be perfect — none of us are. I just want you to want a deeper, authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.

Listen — the pharmacist can prepare the prescription, but you’ve got to take the medicine. So today I’m telling you, God has already given you what you need, but you’ve got to take it. You’ve got to say, “Lord, I’m not leaving here the same way I came.” Somebody shout, “Let go.”

Have a blessed new week with the Lord! ❤️

Work the Word

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Part of Weekend Series — August 2026 Sermon Series

August 2nd, 2026

Scripture: Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV)

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Prayer

Gracious Father, thank You for Your Word to be opened up in our hearts so we might receive what You have for us today. We know, God, that You’ve ordered our steps at this place, at this moment, to speak to us about destiny. So we pray, God, that at the end of this message, somebody’s life will be changed forever in this place, or even around the world. We thank You for the Word that You’ll give, and we thank You that it will come to pass, and we’ll give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I. INTRODUCTION

Watch the full Sunday service: https://www.youtube.com/@mtzionnashville

There are many people who are under the assumption that destiny is something we stumble into, but the reality is that destiny is something we speak into. We focus on our prayer, on fasting, rightfully soul-building our faith, but we overlook the daily declarations that quietly shape the direction of our lives. What you say consistently becomes what you see eventually — and too many of us are praying for a future that we are sabotaging in the present. Our words are verbally sabotaging what we are asking God to do.

God never intended your mouth to just be something that communicates your feelings. Your mouth was designed to carry weight, to carry blessing, to carry your destiny — and it is important to hear this, because the conversations you have in the kingdom should never be casual. Those conversations are creative. That’s why when you mature, you recognize that you do not have time to waste, and you do not have words to waste.

Understand this: this text reminds us that your tongue is not just an instrument of expression for your feelings — your tongue is an instrument of expectation. Whenever you speak something, there is intent in what you speak. What we call a “bad day” is actually unchecked language. God trusted language. God trusted the Word in the creation of the whole world — He entrusted the creation of the whole world to His Word — so we need to be mindful of how we steward our words as well.

Proverbs was given to us by Solomon. Proverbs finds itself in the context of the biblical genre called wisdom literature — imagine a father sitting down giving wisdom to a child, saying, “This is how you should live wisely.” Throughout Proverbs you see over a hundred references to words, to language, to the tongue. That’s important because what Solomon concludes — what I want you to understand — is that wisdom is not tied to your intellect; it is tied to how you govern your words. You and I both know a lot of very smart fools. Wisdom makes knowledge obedient. Realize this — this is why Solomon says death and life are in the power of your tongue.

Imagine the level of influence you have: you can either talk yourself to life, or you can talk yourself to death. You must understand that your tongue is that sensitive — your words have the ability to either build up or tear down. Your words have the ability to encourage or discourage, to heal or to create wounds, to shape the direction of your entire life.

The second half of this verse is incredibly important, because it also says that those who love it will eat its fruit. Solomon’s audience — he uses an agricultural reference the original hearers would understand. For example they knew what it means to sow a seed and reap a harvest. They understood that our words are like seeds, and when you sow a seed of a word, you’re going to reap a harvest. Understand this: the seed that is planted grows over time, and eventually that thing comes back — whether it’s a harvest that blesses you, or a harvest that brings you sorrow. So there are some words that will come back in your generation, and there are other words that will come back in the generations after you. But words form ideas — words matter. Please understand: every compliment, every criticism, every lie, every act of encouragement, every complaint, every blessing is being planted in the soil of our relationships and our lives, and eventually those things produce fruit — and the person who spoke those words is the one who must eat that harvest.

And Proverbs is not teaching us “name it and claim it” theology — no, that’s not what we’re talking about. This is not about presumptuous demanding. This is about understanding biblical alignment. It’s about understanding what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It’s about what James talks about in James 3:4, when he compares the tongue to a rudder — that small thing on a big ship that controls the direction of the whole vessel. Every single day of your life you have to realize that your words are giving direction to where you’re trying to go.

So let’s talk to the people of God, because I want you to hear this: your words shape your world.

II. YOUR WORDS SHAPE YOUR WORLD

Creatio Ex Nihilo

Here’s the first thing I want you to hear: your words don’t merely describe your reality — they shape your reality. From the very opening pages of Scripture, in Genesis, God establishes the defining principle that creation responds to proclamation. There’s a powerful word — “bara” — it’s that word that means “out of nothing.” God created. In other words, before there was light, God had His Word. Before there was land, there was the Word. Before there were stars, that was a Word. Before there was humanity, that was a Word. God stepped into nothing and God spoke something into being. That’s the creative power of God — God said “let there be,” and it was.

Watch this — John picks up that same thread. John chapter 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” All things that were made were made by that Word. So therefore Jesus — watch this — is the Word made flesh, and you and I are flesh made by the Word — which means that if the Word of God is in your life, and there is a promise on your life, you have the same authority to open up your mouth and speak into nothing, and it can become something.

Everything that is made in the image of God can create atmosphere and environment. Expectations and possibilities come out of what they speak. The same tongue that blesses is the same tongue that can create barriers. The same tongue that can declare faith is the same tongue that can declare fear. So when you continuously speak limitation, you frame your life to agree with what you just spoke. When you decree defeat, you strengthen the prison you’ve been praying for God to get you out of. But when you speak hope, when you speak God’s promises, you start lining your life up with heaven’s possibilities.

Proverbs  reminds us that the tongue carries authority, not merely volume. It’s not about how loud you speak, it’s about how you speak. Some people associate authority with loudness, but you and I both know loud people are not always wise people. Sometimes it is at the whisper that authority comes forward.

Can I help you understand this — your faith is only as close as your confession. There are many people who are asking God to reverse something, but they keep on rehearsing it. You pray for breakthrough while you speak defeat. You pray for healing while you speak sickness. You wake up every day always speaking about what’s wrong with you. But every time somebody asks how you’re doing, you say, “Oh, let me tell you about my pressure, let me tell you what I’ve got going on” — you keep on rehearsing what’s wrong. You’re declaring what you’re believing God for, you’re setting up to believe God for a new home, but then you’re always complaining about what you don’t have. Why don’t you start speaking to what you are going to have — let me see if I can make this make sense. You’ve got to get to a point where you recognize a lot of what you’re dealing with is not always conflict — sometimes it’s suffocation from the negative words you have spoken over your situation.

A. What you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see visibly.

See, your destiny is always moving in the direction of your declaration. I can’t tell you where you’re going by looking at what you have — I can tell you where you’re going by how you talk, because what you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see physically. Repetition, repetition — repeated statements turn into structures, structures turn into systems, systems turn into strongholds. You don’t need to fix your prayer life, you need to control your speech — because if you control your speech, what you speak will not speak you out of what you pray for. Repeated words strengthen your belief system, positively or negatively. So you’ve got to understand what David modeled — he did not just rehearse repeated confidence in God, his repetition built his resolve.

What you keep calling “this is just how I am” may actually be the verbal prison you have constructed with your own confession. When you have faith, you learn how to create an atmosphere around you that changes the situation. You cannot speak defeat all week and expect to get victory on Sunday morning, because God is consistent, not contradictory  The visible world follows the spoken word. So if you want a new picture, get new words. Everything that happens around you is shaped by the words you speak. Think about it — parents shape their children through repetition, leaders shape their teams through repetition. People are shaped by what you constantly speak.

B. Silence becomes agreement when truth needs a voice.

Can I go a little further, because I want you to hear this — this is going to bless somebody. Silence sometimes becomes the truth that needs a voice. Sometimes not saying something is saying something. Silence is not always humility — sometimes it’s a coward dressed up as maturity. There are moments when saying nothing is actually saying something, because refusing to speak the truth doesn’t make it disappear — it just allows it to go unchallenged. Evil has always benefited from the silence of good people. Watch this — silence becomes permission. Throughout Scripture, God always advanced His purpose through people who were willing to open up their mouths.

Moses had to open his mouth when he stood before Pharaoh — God said, “Let my people go.” David refused to let the giant’s insult go unanswered. He opened his mouth and spoke what he spoke. Esther risked her own life because she understood that influence without courage is a wasted opportunity. She opened her mouth. Nathan confronted David when everybody else was trying to protect the king. He opened his mouth. Elijah, alone on Mount Carmel, confronted an entire nation that had become comfortable with compromise — he opened his mouth. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, in wild places — he opened his mouth, declaring, “One is coming after me whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie.” On the day of Pentecost, Peter opened his mouth and declared that the Holy Spirit had come upon the world. Jesus Christ is called the Word, because the Word is the answer for a broken world.

History even reminds us that history needed voices willing to open their mouths — Rosa Parks opened her mouth, Dr. King opened his mouth, John Lewis called it “good trouble” because he understood that silence protects injustice. The gospel has never been called to comfort — the church has been called to confront. Whatever contradicts the heart of God, we cannot remain silent about — when image-bearers are treated as though their lives are disposable. We cannot remain silent when families are grieving lives. We cannot remain silent while an entire community carries the weight of injustice. We cannot ignore that thousands of women are losing their jobs and people are hurting while we sit back being quiet. The church needs to be cleared and delivered from prophetic laryngitis and open up its mouth and say something. If my brother is hurting, if my sister is hurting, I’ve got to say something — because if you say nothing, you are complicit.

I need to tell you something — people who have faith have a voice that speaks. Just to speak, love speaks. You don’t think love speaks? You’re always trying to get the person you’re in love with to tell you they love you. For example, “I do love you, look at everything I do for you” — but sometimes you just want to hear them say it, because love has a voice. Love has a voice. You’ve got to open up your mouth and learn how to start saying something.

Look, somebody else — you’ve got to say something. You’ve got to learn how to speak over your situation. You’ve got to speak over your diagnosis until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your situation until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your city until it comes into agreement with what God promised it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your children until they become who God says they are — they shall be who God says they are, not who people call them. You’ve got to speak over your walk, over your relationship with God — I will not let anything else speak to me, I will speak over it. I’ll tell you: some people need to open up their mouths and say something — that’s confession, and that’s why confession creates consequences.

III. CONFESSION CREATES CONSEQUENCES

• Homologeo
• Character
• Context
• Conviction
• Abraham
• David
• Joshua
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Confession creates consequences — the text doesn’t separate words from outcomes; they’re tied together with divine intentionality. So confession is not simply what you admit — it’s what you authorize. What you authorize determines what manifests. I know some of you are thinking about your confessions like, “I saw you, I saw your post, I know you were there, I know you were outside” — but biblically, confession is far more than that. Confession is far more than positive speech. The New Testament Greek word for confession is homologeō — I love that word, because homologeō means “to say the same thing” — to say it over and over. You have to keep saying the word. It’s like being told, “How many times have I told you to take the trash out” — you have to keep saying it, over and over. That’s what biblical confession is: agreeing with God until your life catches up with what God has already declared. God, You declared something over my life, and my life doesn’t look like that yet, but I will say it over and over again until my life catches up with what You say.

That’s why you’ve got to stop being hard on yourself, because I know sometimes you look at your life and you say, “I’m so far away from what You say I am” — but you’ve got to keep speaking it. “I will be. I shall. One day I will become.” Keep speaking it, even if people think you’re crazy. You’ve got to learn how to keep confessing it.

Can I tell somebody: every confession is a vote. Every time you speak, you’re either voting for faith or voting for fear. You’re either voting for God’s promises or voting for your problem. Your mouth speaks, and you just can’t stop speaking. Confession requires three things — I’m going to give them to you.

Confession requires character.

You can’t be out here confessing stuff without character. You can’t be out here declaring and confessing something but living a lie Ifyou don’t even speak kindly to people, how are you going to confess like that? If you’re being nasty, are you going to confess like that? You can’t be confessing while your heart is full of grief you won’t deal with. The Bible says in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” In other words, you cannot expect God to bless what your lifestyle continuously contradicts.

Next, context.

Your confession has to be rooted in proper context, because here’s the problem — you cannot confidently speak a word that you’re not correctly understanding. Too many of us take Scripture out of context and try to apply it to fit our own narrative and our own agenda. So what happens is we know the blessing, but we overlook the conditions attached to the blessing. We’re out here holding up Scripture out of context, trying to make it make sense, because we want it to fit what we want. That’s why I teach the way I teach — see, a text without context is a pretext. Can I talk to you, people of God? Confession is not grabbing a random verse to support what you want — it’s understanding what God originally meant when He said it. You cannot quote “all things work together for good” unless you’re willing to acknowledge the rest of the verse — “to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” You can’t be out here saying, “Ask whatever you will” without understanding “if you abide in Me and My words abide in you.” You can’t be out here saying, “I can do all things through Christ” without understanding the context — when Paul says this, it’s about contentment: “I’ve learned how to be content whether I have much or little, God, I’m at peace either way — now I can do all things through Christ.” You can’t take the parts you like and leave out the rest — that’s like a child whose mama said, “If you clean your room, I’ll give you a popsicle,” and the child only remembers “popsicle” and skips “clean your room.”

Conviction.

Conviction is — remember what I said earlier about homologeō — it is speaking something so much that you’ve believed it within your heart. I have rehearsed it in my spirit, trained my body, trained my mouth to say it, trained my energy and my spirit to start looking for it. All my energy is directed toward it. Every day I wake up, I’m reinforcing it. My convictions are so strong that when I say something, you’d better believe I believe what I say. I don’t say it out of fear — I say it because I confidently believe what I declare shall come to pass. I could be on my bed going into surgery and I will still be saying, “By His stripes I am healed.” I could be in a situation not knowing where my next meal is coming from, but I’ll declare, “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.” I could be going through the roughest season of my life and still declare, “You will keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind stayed on You.” I can have enemies all around me, but I can declare, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” Though my enemies come against me to eat up my flesh, they shall stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear — though war rise against me, in this I will be confident. I’ve learned how to trust conviction.

A. You cannot curse your future and expect God to bless it.

Can I tell you something — you cannot expect God to bless your future while you’re negatively speaking about it in the present. You can’t be out here watering your weeds while praying for flowers.

Confession, people of God — it’s so important that you come into agreement. You can’t curse what you’re expecting God to do. You’ve got to start speaking well over the things God is giving you. You’ve got to train yourself to be thankful — that’s what gratitude comes from. I may not have everything I want, but I’m thankful for what I have, because somebody would love to have what I have. Stop and learn to be grateful for where you are instead of always cursing where you are.

This also shows up in how we deal with other people, because your words matter in how you treat people. Most of us would never intentionally curse somebody outright — but what we do is we assassinate people’s character through gossip. We call it “discussing” but it’s criticism. We call it “being honest” but it’s venting, and we’re really spreading poison. We expose other people’s failures while hiding our own, and we repeat information God never assigned us to carry. We become more interested in being first to share a story than first to restore a person. You mask the gossip by saying “I could be wrong, but don’t tell anyone I told you this” — “just between me and you, be careful” — and then people tell others that same thing about you, because our words matter, and eventually if you keep speaking negative words, you create an environment around you. It’s almost like a negative algorithm. You start attracting more of the same.

Misery loves company — birds of a feather flock together. You’ve seen it: negative people always hang out together, and eventually the negativity rubs off on those around them — always critical about everything. And here you go trying to be nice, inviting them over, blessing them, and they walk in and say, “This is nice, but I don’t like the way you painted your walls” — always something negative to say. That’s not really about your walls — that’s a negative seed in them that hasn’t been dealt with. That’s what’s wrong — they don’t know how to celebrate somebody else without it threatening their own spirit. Celebrating with someone else in their blessing is worship. The reason your life feels stuck sometimes is because you keep tearing other people down.

B. Agreement with fear produces fruit you never intended to eat.

Crazy, negative people sitting around, always putting negative energy into the atmosphere. For example, there have been some people, referring to our new 5 services, who said, “ I don’t know why they are doing that? Who do you think they are? This is post-pandemic, nobody’s coming to church like that anymore”.

I wish you could’ve seen us that day, because we spoke this into existence . We went to Brentwood, you couldn’t get in there. We got back in at 8:15, we had 2,000 people sitting where you’re sitting right now. We went over to Jefferson Street and we were in overflow. We went to Antioch, and it was standing room only. We had a line to get into Children’s Ministry. Look around this place today — you can’t tell me what God speaks into your spirit, will not come to pass!

Let people call you crazy, let them think you’ve lost your mind — but you’ve got to learn how to keep speaking. I don’t want to be around people who aren’t speaking positive. I want to push people toward their purpose . Get the blessing, go get the house, go get the car, go get your degree. Stop sitting around negative, because your trauma is what’s allowing you to be negative.

My dear friend watching right now — this is Miss Oprah: She said she took a friend shopping one day, and the friend said, “You could use another black dress,” and she knew in that moment. There will always come a moment in your friendships where you know. That’s the moment when people show you who they are and when they do, believe them. You’ve got to believe that your real friends will celebrate your blessings even if they don’t benefit from them.

I want to talk to somebody else today. Touch your neighbor and say I want to see you blessed, I want to see you grow, I want to see God do everything He promised in your life. I want to see you go to the next level. No hater on this row. Go get whatever God has for you.

Listen to me. You can have a dream, but if it’s laced with fear, it’s not going to be what you thought. Faith and fear cannot coexist. Faith comes by hearing, but fear is a spirit. Faith comes by the Word, and fear is a spirit. Fear is not an emotion, it’s a spirit — so let me show you how it works.

Picture a movie scene of three teenage kids walking through a forest in the evening, as the sun sets, falling through the trees. Just that picture by itself — three teenage kids walking home through the forest as the sun sets, no music, nothing — and you’d just look at that and say, “Wow.”. However, the moment you add some scary music in the background, then the whole thing has changed, because at that moment you realize, fear has a sound.

Fear has a sound. Faith has a sound too. You wonder why some of us praise God the way we do. You wonder why some of us are quiet, while others make a lot of noise. It is because if fear has a sound, my faith has a greater sound. “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all He’s done for me, my soul cries hallelujah! I thank God, and praise His name.” Take your seat if you know what some of us have been believing God for. You understand this sound.

IV. FRUIT FOLLOWS YOUR FOCUSED SPEECH

Listen — fruit only comes after focused speech. Pay attention to this: fruit only comes after focused speech. It’s no coincidence that we’re reading Daniel Goleman’s book this month which is about focus, because your speech must remain focused. What the enemy will do is deputize people to offend you, so that you will react instead of responding. When you’re disciplined, you’re measured, you’re not easily provoked — but when you’re not disciplined, he hijacks your emotions. It happens all the time: somebody gets upset with you, they’re not disciplined, they say something hurtful, and a week or two later they come back and say, “I just want to apologize, I don’t know, I was in a bad place, I didn’t mean what I said.” But it’s hard to un-hear that — especially when what they said seemed to come from such a deep place, like they’d been carrying that about you for years. You realize they meant it from their soul; they’ve been feeling that way about you a long time — because that’s what happens with unmanaged emotion: you start reacting.

A. Loving your words means taking responsibility for your declarations.

That’s why you have to understand, in this season, be careful — because loving your Word means you’ve got to take responsibility for your declarations. I’ve got to take ownership of what I say. Watch this — the tone and the timing matter. I have a responsibility, because it’s not just what I say, it’s how I say it. It’s the difference between a glass of water and losing your mind. People who don’t have discipline about how they speak.

You get pulled over by police for a normal traffic stop and you get your license out. You have your stuff ready, you’re calm, and your tone is good. But somebody without discipline starts being difficult, escalating something, and ends causing you both to catch a case for it. Be quiet, because escalating gets you nowhere! People without discipline get themselves into situations, because they don’t know how to measure their tone — or worse, their timing. You have to know that you can say the right thing at the wrong time. So, Lord, help me have the wisdom to say the right thing at the right time.

B. If you do not like the harvest, change the language you are planting.

If you don’t like the harvest, change the language you’re planting. You don’t just need to see it, you need to feel it, because your environment reflects your expression. Change your thoughts with your confession. You’ve got to speak life until things begin to align.

I know some of you hearing this today might think this sounds quite mystical. It’s like I’m saying you just speak into the atmosphere and things happen. I hear that. But is it really some mystical kind of thing? Don’t you realize you do this all the time with Siri or Alexa? Who are you talking to? You’re talking to something programmed to respond to your voice, and you trust the information it gives you as truth. When you speak to it, you have confidence the information is accurate — you cook meals off it, you take directions off it, because you trust what it’s been programmed to say back to you is true. So if you have that much confidence in Alexa, I need you to have that much confidence in God’s Word. I’m not speaking my own word; I’m speaking God’s Word back to Him. “I am the head and not the tail. I shall be blessed going in and blessed coming out. Everywhere the sole of my foot treads on, God said he would give me,”. Are you hearing me? I want you to get to the point where you open up your mouth, because the enemy has always tried to muffle you.

The Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with the crowd around Jesus, because they were praising loudly — and they said to Jesus, “Can You please tell Your people to be quiet?” And Jesus said, “If they hold their peace, the very rocks will cry out.” Because what the enemy wants is for you to sit back and say nothing, but a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. I’ve come to tell you: learn how to open your mouth and speak what you need. Start declaring: “I am not broken, I am building. I am not stuck, I am striving. I am not defeated, I am developing. I am not delayed, I am directing. I am not empty, I am evolving. I am not overlooked,  I am not by myself, I am with myself.”

You have to get to a point in your life where you open your mouth and come into agreement with God. One more testimony: I asked Alexa a question, and you won’t believe what she did. She said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now.” I thought I was talking too fast like I often do, so I slowed down and said “Alexa” again — and she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now. She said, “There seems to be a problem with your connection. Go to your modem, disconnect it for 30 seconds, reconnect it, and try again.” And it hit me: there are some people who are talking to Heaven and getting the same response — “I’m sorry, there’s a problem with your connection, I can’t help you until you get reconnected. Try again.” But this time, because you’ve got the Word, God has reconnected you. Next time you open your mouth, I need you to believe that whatever you say to God shall come to pass.

I need somebody to open their mouth right now. I don’t need you to give God praise just to overshadow every negative word, every hateful word. Lift up your voice and declare the power of life. Give Him glory. Lay your hand on yourself, and declare: “I am blessed. I am God’s child. I am not perfect, but I am loved. I am becoming all that God said I will be. My declaration is moving me towards my destiny. From this day forward, my words will not speak death — they speak life. I speak it over my body, I speak it over my mind, I speak it over my family, I speak it over my business, I speak it over everything I come in contact with. Everything I come in contact with will be blessed. Every word I speak shall be a word of blessing.” Now give God glory one more time.

Have a blessed new week with the Lord! ❤️