Last Sunday, I attended a worship service at a Southern Baptist Church where I Speak Jesus by Charity Gayle was performed by the worship team. I had never heard of the song or the artist but the title of the song itself made me wary. “This sounds Pentecostal or Word-Faith,” I thought to myself as the praise band began to perform the song. The lyrics to the song affirmed my suspicion. When I returned home I researched Gayle and discovered that, not only is she charismatic, but has roots in the heretical, non-trinitarian Oneness Pentecostal movement. Though she has made the song popular, Gayle is not the author of I Speak Jesus. The song was written by the music collective Here be Lions. This group, too, is overtly Pentecostal and even claims, as part of its mission, to write songs specifically for the purposes of healing listeners. To my knowledge, no one was miraculously healed during last Sunday’s worship service. No one in the room was likely aware of the rank heresy to which Gayle is linked or that the authors of I Speak Jesus claim that singing their songs can heal people. Many likely failed to make the connection between the song’s lyrics and the superstitious and biblically unfounded tenets of the Pentecostal movement. Nevertheless, the connection is there. Understanding the lyrics of I Speak Jesus in their Pentecostal context should make orthodox believers flat out unwilling to include the song in their worship services. Let’s examine them:
I just want to speak the name of Jesus
Musixmatch
Over every heart and every mind
‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence
I speak Jesus
I just want to speak the name of Jesus
‘Til every dark addiction starts to break
Declaring there is hope and there is freedom
I speak Jesus
‘Cause Your Name is power
Your Name is healing
Your Name is life
Break every stronghold
Shine through the shadows
Burn like a fire
I just want to speak the Name of Jesus
Over fear and all anxiety
To every soul held captive by depression
I speak Jesus
Your Name is power
Your Name is healing
Your Name is life
Break every stronghold
Shine through the shadows
Burn like the fire
Shout Jesus from the mountains
Jesus in the street
Jesus in the darkness over every enemy
Jesus for my family
I speak the Holy Name
‘Jesus’
Shout Jesus from the mountains
Jesus in the street
Jesus in the darkness over every enemy
Jesus for my family
I speak the Holy Name
‘Jesus’
Shout Jesus from the mountains
And Jesus in the street
Jesus in the darkness over every enemy
Jesus for my family
I speak the Holy Name
‘Jesus’
Your Name is power
Your Name is healing
Your Name is life
Break every stronghold
Shine through the shadows
Burn like a fire
Your Name is power
Your Name is healing
Your Name is life
Break every stronghold
Shine through the shadows
Burn like a fire
I just want to speak the name of Jesus
Over every heart and every mind
‘Cause I know there is peace within His presence
I speak Jesus
Jesus was so-named because He was to be a savior of His people. His name literally means “Yahweh saves.” It is a name with which his fellow first-century Jews would have been familiar. It was shared by Moses’ successor Joshua, one of the heroes of the Old Testament, and was a very common name at the time. Like Joshua of the Old Testament, Jesus was a savior of his people. However, instead of leading them out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land through military victories, Jesus saved His people from their sins by dying on the cross. Jesus’s name is very significant but it is not, as the song asserts “power, healing, and life.” The Bible does teach that all power is given to Jesus. The Bible does teach that He is the way, the truth, and the life. However, nowhere in scripture is it proclaimed that simply speaking Christ’s name will result in power, life, or miraculous healings. For years, Pentecostals have falsely applied Isaiah 53:5 to claim that physical healing is provided for in the atonement. I Speak Jesus builds upon this false claim by asserting that Jesus’ name is “healing”. The Bible simply does not say that.
In addition to making misleading extrabiblical claims about the name of Christ, I Speak Jesus engages in the superstitious Pentecostal practice of speaking words “over” things to break strongholds”. In Pentecostal thought, “strongholds” are thought to be areas of sin or illness in believer’s life in which a demonic power or principality has been given a foothold. Demonic powers and principalities (which can be geographic or even relate to specific maladies) must therefore be overthrown to break these strongholds. However, there is nothing biblical about this belief. It stems from a faulty application of 2 Corinthians 10, which is truly about using spiritual wisdom to refute false ideas. While the song sounds nice, even exciting, shouting “Jesus” at our problems as if it were the magic incantation “abracadabra” isn’t a biblical practice. The truth is, we often cannot, in our weakness, even formulate the words we need to pray. The Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 8 that when we do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit (not Jesus but sent to us by Jesus) intercedes for us with “groanings too deep for words.” This is a great comfort. However, spiritual truths like it are not taught by I Speak Jesus. Learning and proclaiming biblical truth is replaced by chanting an anthem.
A thorough analysis of I Speak Jesus does not stop with examining the specious lyrics. The music itself must be examined. Gayle’s rendition uses an intro of slow piano chords to bring worshipers to a point of calm attentiveness before whipping them into a state of excitement that typifies charismatic “worship experiences”. It’s more emotion than doctrine, arguably spirit without truth. The next time the praise band at your church starts into I Speak Jesus, I encourage you to put down your praise hands and raise your eyebrow. Songs like this one and from artists like Charity Gayle and Here Be Lions have no place in Christ’s church. If a so-called “worship pastor” insists on exposing the church to them, it’s time to reconsider his qualifications and employment. These songs may have broad appeal to charismatic visitors and undiscerning church members but the ultimate standard is honoring God. I can’t see how five minutes of charismatic superstition fits that bill. Replace I Speak Jesus in your worship service with one that proclaims biblical truth and glories God in spirit and truth.
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
