“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs 18:21).
Understanding the mouth, or more accurately, understanding our mouth is a matter of life and death. Our physical mouth is an organ primarily associated with the digestive system of our body. When we eat, our body uses this system to digest food so our cells can use it to make energy.
By observing the natural, we can understand the parallel in the spirit ream (I Cor. 15:46). As the food you choose to eat naturally affects every part of your physical body, so every word you choose to speak from your mouth affects every part of your life and the lives of those you touch. The greatest benefit of God’s Word comes from “digesting” it, much the same way we digest natural food. Just as our physical mouth must chew our food carefully and completely for proper and healthy digestion, so too must we ruminate spiritual food in order for it to improve our lives. Solomon teaches us that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it shall eat the fruit of it” (Prov. 18:21).
Yeshua tells us that every idle word we speak will have to be accounted for (Matt. 12:36). The word “idle” in the Greek language means to be “unemployed,” and “inactive.” This makes you an employer of your words. Your words become the employee. You have authority to speak words that go to work for you. When we speak words of life (the Word), God’s perfect plans benefit us. When we speak words of death, God’s great plans for us are delayed, become inactive or are even lost to us. His plans for us can be thwarted by our negative words, that otherwise positively spoken, would have improved our lives and sealed our destiny in Him. Ultimately, we will be judged as either a good or bad employer (of words). We will be justified or condemned by what comes out of our own mouths (Matt. 12:37).
KEEP YOUR MOUTH AND LIVE
The Word of God is filled with hundreds of scriptures pertaining to our mouths. James teaches us that “We bless God, even the Father with our mouth, and we curse men who have come into being according to the image of God” (James 3:9). “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:10). If we are not trained by the Holy Spirit, we ignorantly talk out of “both sides of our mouths. Prov. 4:24. “Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies and gossip” (The Message). James also teaches us that “no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). A carelessly placed word can wreck ministries, marriages, relationships and even cause wars. Every war can almost always be traced to words.
To understand the importance and the proper use of divine communication and dialogue, we must be trained. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to initiate this process. Our responsibility is to yield. He brings revelation knowledge to us and correctly interprets the Word of God. Once you yield your mouth to the Holy Spirit, your words become powerful and life changing.
To further understand the importance of our mouths, we look to Moses. Moses was appointed by God to be His mouthpiece. He was a prophet who foreshadowed Yeshua, THE PROPHET (Deut. 18:15). In Exod. 4:12 God told Moses to “Go” and I will be/exist with YOUR mouth. In Hebrew, “Go” is the word halacha°meaning to walk with Him. The word “halacha” comes from the root word “halak”, to walk. “1. to go along side°(a) to go through or over a place°(b) to go with some person°(c )to follow someone, etc.” (pg. 224 Gesenius Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon). Think of it. God wants to walk (talk) with your mouth.
Walking with God is an educational process which requires us to become “students.” We know from scripture that Moses became a student, because he walked in the wilderness for 40 years before God released him. Wilderness (midbar) means “the place where God speaks.” Before he was trained by God, Moses killed a single Egyptian (Exod. 2:12). After he was trained, he could “speak” God’s Words (Exod. 14:15); stretch out his arm (Exod.14:21) and the whole Egyptian army was destroyed (Exod. 14:27).
MOSES AND THE HEBREW LETTER PE (MOUTH)
God invited Moses to walk with Him and told him, He would be/exist with his mouth (his words). His life and the lives of the Israelites would literally be determined by what he spoke. If God is given authority and control of YOUR mouth, you are no longer speaking your words. Like Moses, you will never have to originate anything. Yeshua said he did nothing of himself, but as his Father taught him, he only spoke THOSE things (John 8:28). Yeshua was the student of the Father. Like Yeshua, God was alive to Moses and to the people through the mouth of Moses. God not only taught him what to say, He showed him where and when to go and taught him how to build the Tabernacle/house.
The 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is called the Pe. It represents the “mouth” and has a numerical value of 80. Interestingly, Moses was 80 years old when he was released to go forward as the mouthpiece of God.
The letter Pe has one form when used in the beginning or middle of a word, and another form when used as the final letter of a word. Focusing on the first form, you can see something intriguing in the letter Pei. Hidden within the interior of the spelling of Pei is the second letter in the Alphabet called the “beth” (representing “house” in Hebrew). The Tabernacle of God is the Beth. I have heard Hebrew teachers say, that if you can see the Beth and the Pei at the same time, then you can learn to strengthen your focus and think twice before you speak.
“Therefore, thus saith the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as MY MOUTH: let them return unto me, but return not you unto them” (Jer. 15:19). God wants us to use words accurately and in truth. We are to be the influencers for God, and not influenced by the world. We can never change the Word to suit a situation or any person’s preferences. Lam. 3:38 “Doesn’t the High God speak everything, good things and hard things alike, into being?”
Our mouths are the revealer of our hearts/mindsets (Matt. 12:34). Fresh fire is available from the throne to purge and cleanse our mouths. Isaiah wrote of a live coal being placed upon his mouth (Isa. 6:6-7), and afterwards he became the author of the greatest Messianic prophecies in the Bible.
I sincerely pray that any damage in your life that has been caused by wrong words, be turned around by the mercy of the living God as you focus on using correct words.
