“For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.” (Matt. 12:37 – Ampc)
Our tongue is a muscular organ in our body that enables us to eat and to have speech. Though this is a relatively small member of our body, we can boast of great things and even kindle fires with it. (James 3:5-6) The tongue IS a fire, a world of iniquity. A world of iniquity means, a world of injustice and moral wrongfulness of character. The apostle James says the tongue can set on fire the course of nature. But, what does course of nature mean? (James 3:6).
“Course of nature” means: The wheel (cycle) of genesis. Our tongues reveal our true nature from the beginning (genesis). Without the Spirit of the Lord, our natures are destructive . Without the Spirit of the LORD, our tongues are powerfully evil. No man can tame the tongue. James says it is full of deadly poison. (James 3:8).
The tongue is so powerful that Prov.18:21 says we can create either death or life by WHAT WE ARE SAYING. Every spoken word is a seed that produces a harvest. Everything that happens in our life is a product, actually a harvest of our spoken words and of other’s words about us with which we have agreed. “Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7).
The tongue can spread false reports. (Exodus 23:1) The tongue can curse those the Lord has not cursed, as written in the story of Balaam. (Numbers 23:8) We can crush people with our words. (Job 19:2).
The tongue is a dangerous instrument when used recklessly or with evil intent. But, here is the GOOD NEWS! Today, we can yield our tongues to the LORD as Isaiah did, and receive the fire of God that touches our lips and purges us of wrong words. (Isaiah 6:7) As a minister, I talk to people every day. I recognize that many circumstances in peoples’ lives, good or bad, are due to the words they have spoken or are now speaking.
Death and life are in the POWER of the tongue. When God created the world, He spoke. If we learn to use our tongue wisely, that is aligning it with God’s Word, we will discover a key. This key is the key to LIFE. Study the life of Joshua, and see how he learned from Moses, largely through verbal instruction. He discovered the key to success in the beginning of his ministry and prospered throughout his tenure. (Jos. 1:8) As Joshua stayed close to Moses, so we should stay close to God’s Word and to people who are speaking Biblical life words. We need to remove from our lives all murmurers, complainers, gossips, slanderers and mockers of the Word of God and seek those who encourage and stimulate us to a closer relationship with our Lord. If any have missed the opportunity, we can begin to re-build a God directed foundational support system today, right now. We can never succeed alone! Without the spirit of an obedient child of God and close fellowship with Him, all is lost.
Remember that two spies came back with the confession that they and the Hebrew people had the ability to overcome the giants. (Numbers 13:30) Remember the widow of Zarephath . Elijah was able to bolster her ability to expect the miraculous through his God-inspired words. She received a supernatural harvest that very day. (I Kings 17).
Let today be the day that your life changes for the good and forever – SPEAK LIFE.
