Death and Life
Are in the Power of the Tongue
As part of your sanctification
process with the Lord in 2013, expect God the Father to come after three main areas in
your walk with Him. Therefore in this New Year, you must be careful of what you
are “saying to yourself, about yourself
and upon yourself.” Your words carry power, hence guard jealously what you
say in year 2013. God bless you as you dwell on this teaching in Jesus name.
The first area will be with your "thought
life" - which is the area of your unspoken words. We already have
another article in our site specifically dealing with this area. The title of
this article is "You are What You Think." In this article, I give you all of the Scripture
verses that have to deal with the Lord wanting to impart a right type of
thinking into your thought process.
The second area God will be
targeting will be your "word life" - which has to do with the
words that are being released out of your mouth to other people.
The third area God will be coming
after will be your "action life" - which will be how you act
and behave towards others. Your actions and behaviors toward others has to line
with up with your sanctified thinking and your sanctified speech. The Bible
says we have to be "doers" of the Word, not just hearers.
This article will be dealing with
the second area - which will be your word life towards others. You can have a
certain amount of your thinking and thought life cleaned up to some degree in
the Lord with the sanctifying help of the Holy Spirit, but if you can't make
the next step and transmit the right kinds of words to others in your own
personal dealings with them, then all of the sanctification that you went
through to get your thinking and thought life cleaned up will have all been for
naught.
In this article, I am going to give
you several powerful key verses from the Bible on this topic. When you string
all of these verses together like I will do in this article, you will really be
able to see exactly what it is God wants to do with you in this area. These
verses are once again giving all of us some profound and powerful revelation
from the Lord in just this one area alone.
Your "word life" with others
will make or break you in your own personal relationships with other people in
this life. If you don't learn how to speak to other people in a positive and
godly manner, then sooner or later no one will want to have anything to do with
you, and you will eventually find yourself being totally isolated and alone.
I simply can't stress enough the
power that is on these particular verses - and that each and every Christian do
the best they can to clean up their speech and the way they express themselves
to other people in this life.
The very first verse I will list
below will give us perfect revelation from the Lord on this issue. This one
verse is so powerful from the Lord, that I have decided to name the title of
this article just after this one verse.
This one verse is telling us that "death
and life are in the power of the tongue." Just stop and think for a
minute what the Lord is trying to convey to us with these specific words. There
are two things to pick up from this verse.
The first thing that God is trying
to tell all of us is that we have a certain amount of "power" in our
tongues. Our tongue is referring to the verbal words that we speak out of our
mouths to other people.
When God is using the word
"power," He is telling us that every single one of us has a certain
amount of power residing in our mouth and in our tongues with the words that we
can release to other people.
And with this kind of power residing
in our ability to release spoken words to other people - God then tells us what
can happen with this kind of power. This power can either be used to bring life
or death to the person that we are speaking to. Think of the responsibility and
ramifications of this revelation - that our spoken words to other people can
either bring them life or bring them death!
You can either choose to learn how
to speak and release positive words of love, encouragement and edification to
other people in your own personal dealings with them, or you can choose to
release negative words of condemnation, criticism, coldness and harshness. The
choice is yours!
God the Father makes it very clear
with the way that He has worded all of these Scripture verses which way He
wants us to take with the power that we already have residing in our tongues.
Every single one of us can stop and
think how good we have felt when someone has released and spoken words of love,
encouragement and edification to us. Words can cut right through you like a
knife, and when those words are positive and constructive, they can have an
incredible way of building up your own sense of self-esteem, self-worth and
self-confidence.
One of the verses I will list below
says that good words can literally be health to our bones. In other words, good
and positive types of words can give you better physical health as a result of
the boost your immune system will receive.
However, just the reverse is also
possible. If all a child ever hears from his parents as they are growing up are
stern and abusive words of condemnation, criticism and negativity - then that
child's self-esteem and self-worth can be severely affected if it is not
counter-balanced by other people in his life who will speak the right kinds of
words of love and encouragement to him.
If a child does not get properly
watered with words of love and encouragement from his own flesh and blood
parents during his early growing years in the family, then sooner or later he
will end up believing in all of the lies of his parents as a result of their
constant bombardments - and he will then end up growing up thinking that he
will never be good enough to amount to anything worthwhile.
There are many grown adults who
never end up accomplishing everything that God would've had in store for them
in this life as result of not being able to pull out of all the negativity and
pessimism that their parents had heaped on them during their earlier growing
years in the family. And all of their possible growth in the Lord in this
lifetime ends up getting stunted as a result of the death that was brought upon
them by the negative and abusive words spoken to them by their own natural
parents.
This is why the Lord is telling us
in this verse that some kind of death can literally be brought about as a
result of speaking out the wrong kinds of words to someone - especially words spoken
between parents and their own children.
This same type of "death"
can also occur in marriages between husbands and their wives. Many married
women have had all of their healthy sense of self-respect, self-worth and
self-confidence beat right out of them as a result of all the verbal abuse they
have had to put up with from their verbally abusive husbands.
As Christians, we should all work
very closely with the Holy Spirit in allowing Him to help us clean up our word
life and how we verbally express ourselves to other people in this life.
If we can learn how to get this part
of our life properly cleaned up and sanctified under His direction and
guidance, then not only we will become more pleasing to the Lord, but we will
also dramatically increase the quality of our own personal relationships that
we can have with other people in this life.
For the Holy Spirit to really be
able to start to work with you in this area, you will need the knowledge that
the following Scripture verses will give you. I will once again break these
verses down under their appropriate captions so that you can fully grasp the
revelation that the Lord is trying to convey to you.
The Scripture Verses
If you can grasp what the Lord is trying
to tell you with the knowledge and revelation that is in these verses, and then
start to work with the Holy Spirit in trying to learn how to change, control
and curb some of your bad speech habits - you can change the way you talk and
express yourself to other people, with all of it being for the better.
I have personally seen the Lord take
several people who used to cuss like sailors, and who were very demeaning and
abusive in the way they would talk to other people, and completely change and
transform them into sanctified saints who no longer cuss and who now treat
their spouses, their children and their good personal friends in the godly way
and manner that He would like all of us to do.
I will now break these individual
verses down under 5 specific captions.
1.
Death and Life Are in the Power of the Tongue
The very first verse I will list
below is the one that will tell us that death and life are in the power of the
tongue. The rest of the verses will further extend off of this revelation with
some very interesting verbiage being used by the Lord to try and drive home the
point of how powerful our words really are - and how they can either be used to
bring life, love, edification and encouragement into a person's life - or bring
death, destruction, negativity and torment.
I will list each one of the verses
one right after the other, and then point out and highlight some of the key
phrases that are in some of these verses so you can really see the powerful
revelation that is in these verses.
- "Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit." (Proverbs 18:21)
- "There is one who speaks like the piercings of a
sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. The truthful lip shall
be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment."
(Proverbs 12:18)
- "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from
speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue
it." (Psalm 34:13)
- "A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit
of his mouth, and from the produce of his lips he shall be filled."
(Proverbs 18:20)
- "The Lord God has given me the tongue of the
learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is
weary." (Isaiah 50:4)
- "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside,
redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with
salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."
(Colossians 4:5)
- "The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but
violence covers the mouth of the wicked." (Proverbs 10:11)
- "The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the
wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook." (Proverbs 18:4)
- "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but
perverseness in it breaks the spirit." (Proverbs 15:4)
- "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to
the soul and health to the bones." (Proverbs 16:24)
- "Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression,
but a good word makes it glad." (Proverbs 12:25)
- "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word
stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the
mouth of fools pours forth foolishness." (Proverbs 15:1)
- "He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but
he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction." (Proverbs 13:3)
- "Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his
soul from troubles." (Proverbs 21:23)
- "The heart of the righteous studies how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil." (Proverbs 15:28)
- "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch
over the door of my lips." (Psalm 141:3)
If you will notice, some of the
verses have two sides to them. On the one side are the positive benefits and
blessings one can receive as the result of learning how to speak properly to
others. On the other side are the negative things that can occur as a result of
not properly expressing yourself to others - either in the specific words that
you choose to say to a person or in the way or manner in which you say these
words to a person.
So that you can fully grasp both
sides of this coin, I will first bullet point all of the positive things that
are in the above verses and then I will bullet point all of the negative
things. Here is the positive side of the coin:
- The tongue of the wise promotes health
- The truthful lip shall be established forever
- A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of
his mouth
- Let your speech always be with grace and seasoned with
salt
- The mouth of the righteous is a well of life
- The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook
- A wholesome tongue is a tree of life
- Pleasant words are sweetness to the soul and health to
the bones
- A good word can make someone's heart glad
- A soft answer turns away wrath
- The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly
- He who guards his mouth preserves his life
- He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from trouble
When you read all of these key
phrases one right after the other, you can really start to see how powerful of
a thing it really is if you can learn how to properly express yourself to other
people in this life. Notice in 3 of the middle bullet points - that someone who
can speak to others in a righteous and godly manner will be like a well of
life, a flowing brook and a tree of life to that person.
Pleasant words, good and uplifting
type words, and a wholesome tongue can also help serve to lift a person's
spirit up, help make their hearts glad and happy, be able to turn away possible
wrath and anger, and also help to guard and preserve your own personal life.
One wrong word to the wrong person at the wrong time could lead you to having
an early departure from this life.
If more people would learn how to
walk and abide in the revelation and knowledge that is in these verses, and
learn how to express themselves in a more positive and godly manner to others -
we would have less tensions and conflicts in our marriages, in our families, in
our personal friendships and in the workplace.
Now here is the negative side of
this same coin:
- Keep your tongue from evil and speaking guile
- Violence will cover the mouth of the wicked
- A perverse tongue will break the spirit
- A harsh word stirs up anger
- He who opens wide his lips shall have destruction
- The mouth of the wicked pours forth evil
Jesus has already told us that those
who will live by the sword will also die by the sword. The second bullet point
above tells us that violence can chase after and literally come upon someone if
their speech to others is wicked and evil.
These key phrases are telling us
that those with big mouths, and those who like to speak harsh words to others
can bring sudden destruction down on them and possibly those that may be close
to them. Flip off and cuss out the wrong guy on the highway, and he may be the
last person you will ever see alive again.
Put both sides of this coin right
next to one another and you can see very clearly how the Lord wants us to
express ourselves to other people in this life.
2.
Rebuking the Wicked
Though the Lord wants us to be able
to talk with others in a civil, loving and uplifting way and manner - this does
not mean we have to become submissive doormats and be too afraid to engage with
the wicked and evil people in this life if we are forced to.
Jesus Himself did not mince any
words when attacking some of the high ranking Jewish leaders of His day. He
also did not hold back when throwing out the money changers who were trying to
do business in His house of worship.
The next set of verses are very
interesting, especially in the day and age we now live in where everyone is
trying to be politically correct and are to afraid to verbally engage with
someone for fear of offending them.
Here are 5 very good verses telling
us not to be afraid to engage when we have to - and be willing to take a stand
and tell the truth even if it means initially hurting or offending someone.
- "But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight,
and a good blessing will come upon them. He who gives a right answer
kisses the lips." (Proverbs 24:25)
- "Open rebuke is better than love carefully
concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful." (Proverbs 27:5)
- "He who rebukes a man will find more favor
afterward than he who flatters with the tongue." (Proverbs 28:23)
- "Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes
the inner depths of the heart." (Proverbs 20:30)
- "Therefore, putting away lying, each one speak
truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another ... let no
corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for
necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."
(Ephesians 4:25,29)
As I have stated in my article on
"The Sin of Abortion," many pastors across this country are afraid to call
out this abomination for the sin that it really is for fear of offending those
who may be pro-choice in their congregations. As all of the above verses are
trying to tell you, anyone who is to afraid to call out these types of obvious
sins are failing to make an attempt to clean away an evil sin and abomination.
Notice that several of these verses
are telling you that if you would be willing to take a strong stand and express
the Lord's opinion on these kinds of hot issues and topics, that you initially
may hurt and offend a few people, but afterwards you will end up finding much
more favor with others, will help impart grace and knowledge to these people,
and then possibly end up receiving a good blessing from the Lord for being
willing to do this.
This same principle applies between
parents and their children. Nip in the bud any bad and inappropriate behavior
as soon as you start to see it surface and manifest, and you just may save your
son or daughter years of possible trouble down the road.
3.
Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor
In the very litigious claims
conscious society we now live in, many people are filing unscrupulous lawsuits.
And in some of these lawsuits, the plaintiffs are bearing some type of false
witness against either an employer, a co-worker, a company or corporation, or a
total stranger. In other words, they are flat out lying against a defendant,
all in an effort to try and make some type of financial gain either against an
individual or a particular company.
As you will see in the verses I will
list below, when God the Father has it set up as one of His 10 commandments
that you should not be bearing any type of false witness against your neighbor,
and then tops it off by saying that this type of lying will be considered an
abomination in His sight - any Christian will get himself into major trouble
with the Lord if they try and do this to either unjustly hurt the person they
have targeted as a matter of trying to get some type of personal revenge
against them or if they are doing it to try and make some kind of financial
gain.
You will have the vengeance and
wrath of God Almighty Himself come down on you and your life if you ever try to
hurt anyone else with any type of false accusation or false charge. Let these
verses be a major warning to any Christian who is thinking about doing this for
either personal revenge or any type of monetary gain.
- "Do not be a witness against your neighbor without
cause, for would you deceive with your lips? Do not say, "I will do
to him just as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to
his work." (Proverbs 24:28)
- "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he
who speaks lies will not escape." (Proverbs 19:5)
- "Do not speak evil of one another, brethren."
(James 4:11)
- "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but
those who deal truthfully are His delight." (Proverbs 12:22)
- "Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the
fleeting fantasy of those who seek death." (Proverbs 21:6)
Notice the second verse says that
anyone who bears a false witness will not go unpunished. The first verse tells
us that we cannot even try to bear false witness against someone even as a
matter of personal revenge. The Bible tells us that any type of vengeance or
payback always belongs to the Lord. It does not belong to you or to any of your
friends who would like to try and get even for you.
The last verse perfectly describes
what people are doing when filing unjust lawsuits based upon trumped-up, false
allegations. Trying to obtain treasures and financial wealth by way of a lying
tongue is a fleeting fantasy, and eventually judgment will be rendered against
you at the hands of God Himself.
As a Christian, do not ever tempt
your hand or your fate with the Lord by crossing over into this kind of
forbidden territory with Him.
4.
Shun Profane and Vain Babblings
In addition to never, ever,
considering bearing any type of false witness against anyone, these next set of
verses will tell us to learn how to shun profane and vain babblings.
The word "babblings"
means "foolishness and meaningless type of talk." In other
words, try to keep unnecessary and foolish type of gossiping and talk to a bare
minimum. I know in the work place where many people are huddled very close
together, this is a real hard one to try and keep on top of.
But as you will see in several of
the verses listed below, if the one you are gossiping and talking about
eventually finds out that you have been doing this behind their back, you will
lose a good friend if that person was your friend to begin with, or you will
end up making an enemy if that person was not a close friend.
One verse below says that "a
brother offended is harder to win than a strong city." Two other
verses say that "a whisperer" and one who "repeats a
matter" will "separate the best of friends."
Many people have lost some of their
best friends as a result of getting caught talking behind their backs or
spreading personal information about them. Once that personal trust has been
violated to any significant degree in a good friendship, it will be very hard
to get them to ever be able to trust you again.
These next 6 verses are a true word
to the wise.
- "But shun profane and vain babblings, for they
will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like
cancer." (2 Timothy 2:16)
- "In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter
leads only to poverty." (Proverbs 14:23)
- "A talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a
faithful spirit conceals a matter." (Proverbs 11:13)
- "A brother offended is harder to win than a strong
city ..." (Proverbs 18:19)
- "A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer
separates the best of friends." (Proverbs 16:28)
- "... but he who repeats a matter separates the
best of friends." (Proverbs 17:9)
I also believe that cussing, cursing
and swearing can also be included in what the Bible calls "profane
babblings." There are many Christians who still like to cuss out of
their flesh, even as they continue to grow in the Lord.
However, sooner or later what you
will find out as you start to draw closer to the Lord in your own personal
relationship and walk with Him, is that your desire to want to keep on cussing
will start to wane. Not only will you be receiving the conviction of the Holy
Spirit Himself when you do start to cuss, but you will also find your own
natural desire to want to keep on cussing will start to wane and lessen.
The reason for this is because you
will find yourself wanting to become more pleasing to the Lord in your actions,
in your thoughts and in your spoken words. Your desire to want to please God
will increase and once it does, you will start to lose all desire to want to
cuss anymore because you will sense how displeasing it is to Him and that He
really does find it offensive.
If you really stop and examine all
of the cuss and curse words we use, most of them are either attacks directly
against God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or they have to do with some vile and
nasty bodily functions. Many people cuss out of habit and never really stop and
think of the actual words they are using when they are cussing.
Just remember, God the Father is
watching your every movement, your every thought and your every action. He sees
and hears every thought and every word that comes out of your mouth. If we
really love our one and only Lord, then we will lose all desire to want to
cuss, curse or swear in His sight. It's not only offensive to Him, but it's
also offensive to anyone else who may be around you when you start spouting
off.
5.
God Will Judge You By Your Words
I will end these Scripture verses
with one very strong and powerful verse direct from Jesus Himself. In this
verse, Jesus tells us that we will have to give a direct account to Him for "every
idle word" that we may speak in this life. He says that we will either
be "justified" by the good words we have spoken in our lives
or be "condemned" by any of the bad words we may have spoken.
In other words, not only does God
the Father want us to get our speech in order in how we relate to other people,
but He is also going to be holding every single one us personally accountable
with how we have spoken and expressed ourselves to other people in this life.
This is a very serious warning being
given to us by our Lord - and how we talk and express ourselves to other people
in this life should never, ever be taken for granted.
As the first verse has told us, God
has given each and everyone us a certain amount of power with the words that we
can speak out to other people - and those words can either bring life or death
to the person we are speaking to.
Here is this most solemn verse:
"But I say to you that for
every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of
judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will
be condemned." (Matthew 12:36)
Not only will the kinds of words you
speak out to others in this life determine how many good friends you may end up
making or how good those personal friendships will end up being, but your words
are also going to be appropriately judged by the Lord Himself on your day of
judgment with Him.
Conclusion
The Golden Rule will really apply to
this part of our walk with the Lord. The Golden Rule says that we should treat
others like we would want them to treat us. If you apply this rule to this
particular topic - you could then say that we should "speak to others
in the way that we would want them to speak to us."
As I said at the top of this
article, every single one of us can flashback and recall all of the times that
good words spoken to us in a positive, loving and edifying manner have made us
feel really good and have helped us to build up our own levels of self-esteem
and self-confidence.
However, we can also recall all of
the times that words spoken to us in a hateful, condescending and critical
manner have made us feel as low as we could possibly go.
When those kinds of negative words
start cutting right through you like a knife, they can penetrate deep into your
heart and soul and cause damage to the emotions and psyche of a person -
especially if that person is not old or mature enough to be able to consider
the negative source from where they are coming from, and then realize that his
self-worth as a person is not based upon what other people may think about him,
but only what God thinks about him.
With the way the Lord has worded all
of the above verses, you can really tell that this is one area that He wants
every single one of us to get a good and solid grip on.
There is simply no excuse,
especially for Christians, for anyone to be talking to other people in
demeaning, critical and condescending ways. If we are all equal in the eyes of
God, then we should all be looking at everyone else in this life as an equal -
not as someone who may be better or lesser than us.
If you really study the specific
wording in all of the above verses, you will have more than enough knowledge
and revelation from the Lord on how to clean up your speech and how to properly
express yourself to other people in this life.
This is one area where the Holy
Spirit will move in on very strongly in order to give you a helping hand. You
will literally sense and sometimes actually feel Him guiding some of your words
and how you should be expressing yourself to other people depending on the
nature and the intensity of the conversation that is taking place.
Just learn to be sensitive to His
leadings and His guidance as to what to say and how to say it. You can learn
how to flow with Him in this area if you really have the desire to want to
improve yourself in this area.
Remember - God the Father has given
you a powerful gift with the power that He has allowed you to have residing in
your own tongue. You have the power of life and death in your tongue. Use that
power wisely. Use that power to bring life, love, encouragement and edification
into other people's lives.
If you do, then not only will God be
highly rewarding you once you enter into heaven, but you will also be receiving
golden treasures down here on this earth - which will be all the good personal
relationships you will be able to make and establish with the other people in
your life - and all of those good personal relationships will be permanent and
eternal treasures that you will be able to carry over with you into the next
life.
Nothing will draw people to you
quicker and easier than being able to talk and express yourself to other people
in the exact same way that Jesus would do if He was still walking down here on
this earth. Let Jesus be your perfect role model. Study how Jesus expressed
Himself when He was walking down here on this earth. Learn to pattern your own speech
after the way He talked and expressed Himself to other people.
God the Father's ultimate and
highest aim for every single one of us is to transform, shape and mold us into
the express image of His Son Jesus Christ - and part of this sanctification process
will be the Holy Spirit coming after our word and speech life.
Let the Holy Spirit dig and get into
your word life with how you talk and express yourself to other people, and I
guarantee you that He will make some astounding changes in this area if you are
willing to work with Him in the specific areas that He will want to target for
improvement.
See u at the top
Pastor Mike
