Pt 2 - The Power of Words: The Coolest Force in the Universe

Please read Part I to enjoy this essay! Our first part shows how we can be able to unleash a creative power with our words so that we are able to bless with our words (others, ourselves), provided our words are aligned with our hearts, and in our hearts we follow Christ’s will and commandments. But there is a flip side to the creative power of our words.

Gemini 2.5 flash

Words unleashing the power of hell?

“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5–6)

The destructive power unleashed by our words doesn’t come from our mind or personality or our own heart, but could originate directly from a place called “hell.”

This claim makes Biblical faith radically different from any worldview based on modern post-Christian esoterism / New Age style wishful thinking.

The latter would identify spiritual creative power behind our words, but since the concepts of heaven or hell are absent, this power is, per se, neither good nor evil. It can be seen as coming solely from man or from some divine energy.

But for people genuinely coming from a worldview shaped by traditional animism (ancient religions without a Western-friendly rebranding for the post-Christian era), in my experience, there will be no taboos to mention the existence of an evil power (as above referred to as hell).

Power of word in an animist worldview (hey! we all originally come from here)

I remember when I was a first-year student in the university in France, one Christian friend shared his testimony. He was coming from a French island called La Réunion near Madagascar (Africa) and had become a Christian very recently.

As far as his religious background is concerned, He was raised in a nominally Catholic family that kept practicing animism. From a young age, He learned how to cast different spells on people and could get paid in exchange for cursing someone’s rival or enemy. The highest spell He could cast on someone was a very specific spell, and that spell was… a deadly spell. People would effectively die shortly after.

He was once asked to use that particular spell against someone. But that person did not die and didn’t seem even affected at all by the spell. That made him curious, and He finally asked the person He cursed about the reason behind. The person told him He was a Christian, and took him to an evangelical church.“I decided to be on the winner’s side, on Christ’s side” as to why He renounced witchcraft and became a Christian.

That story, among many other first-hand stories, convinced me that our words can have deep spiritual dimensions; they can be aligned either with serving the advancement of the reign of God (good, heaven…) or the reign of Satan (evil, hell…).

Over the years, I have befriended many Africans who were raised with an animist religion, and the reason that they turned to Christianity was that kind of deep experience that the name of Jesus was stronger than the different names they were accustomed to use as part of their animist practices. They were also very outspoken about the fact that their words could be opening the door to evil powers (and not some neutral divine force).

Side remark: I can’t remember anyone claiming they chose Christianity over animism because it was morally or culturally superior.

Power of words in our Western materialistic environment

Because of our Western upbringing, we may not be casting spells and using magic formulas, but still, we will have to cope with the consequences of our words and the spiritual power we are unleashing on ourselves or others through them.

No need to believe in the power of words, we can be the most materialistic person, it will work the same.

Even as a Christian myself, growing up in a kind of de facto materialistic environment where everything had to be explained by rational logic, it took me like the first 25 years of my life to realize that there could be a correlation between the words I speak or are spoken by others. And the events unfolding and the following 25 years to start proactively using the power of words in my life, as James wrote about the power of our tongue, and I am still learning.

“When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ” James 3:3–4

The last instance I can remember happened a few months ago, when an administrative clerk asked me to wire some money to pay for a registration fee and handed me the bank account number and told me sarcastically to get the bank account number right. I genuinely smiled at the idea of getting it wrong, since I had been working in a bank for a few years and had performed so many complex bank operations.

But guess what: I swapped digits in the lengthy number (Europe here: 24 numbers for European IBAN).

Somehow, I had known it was not just some joking comment but true sarcasm, I could like feel the weight of it, but I trusted my professional background so much. I should have prayed instead.

Do you pray when you meet these sarcastic, malevolent/ill-intended people in your everyday life?

From neighbors to colleagues, or worse case scenarios, your own family members? It does not require them to be aware that their misplaced words are de facto “curses” nor for you to be aware of them. The “curses” could still impact your real life.

A major topic of the Psalms and Proverbs is to ask God to deliver us from the evil words of the wicked ones, or even from a (former) close friend, and to punish them. Jesus takes us further and challenges us to actively forgive and bless those who cursed us. May God bless this administrative clerk abundantly.

What is true at an individual level also works at a collective one: cultures and communities can experience destruction whenever evil tongue prospers.

“Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.” Proverb 11:11

This connection between words and destruction has been extensively demonstrated for instance in genocide studies: for instance months before the genocide of Tutsis happened in 1994, a specific radio program had been launched (“Radio Collines”) among the Hutus (the majority tribe) which started to depict Tutsis (the minority tribe) as insects to be crushed etc. The radio’s staff was later condemned for crimes of genocide.

I don’t want to open the Pandora box about the currently ongoing ethnic cleansing operations, but the same correlations between destructive words and actual mass killings are currently being investigated by the International Court of Justice, either in Ukraine invasion or Gaza.

To add further complexity: Not all cursing is morally wrong (!!!???). Even Jesus cursed a fig tree! (join us for Part III).

© Caliméro77