May 17: The Power of the Tongue – The Word Of Faith – We Preach
Sticks and Stones, may break my bones.
But Words will never hurt me! (Anonymous)
From personal experience, as a point I have made very clear in my book about my life, thus far, I can personally attest to the dirty lie that this little rhyme really is. Anyone who doesn’t believe that words are containers of power is really fooling themselves.
Proverbs 6:2 reminds us that we are snared by the words of our mouth and taken captive by the words we speak. Proverbs 4:20-24
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my words. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them and medicine to all their flesh. Above all else, guard thy heart; for out of it flows the issues of life. Put away from thee the perversion of the mouth, and the deviation of the lips put far from thee. (Jubilee 2000 Version)
The writer here relays the ability of words to be like medicine, or have a medicinal effect upon your flesh.
You only have to think back earlier in the day, or, for that matter, yesterday to remember a time when something that someone said to you, you overtheard, or you listened to, from the radio or the television where you experienced some level of discomfort, at the least. Or, outright offended, or hurt. Remember, these words may not have even been spoken directly to, or at you, yet you still experienced their effect. This is a very simplistic, yet poignant example of the affect of words on you.
They have an even greater effect and affect you in a much more painful, or gratifying way, when they are directed at you. This effect is increased, or decreased accordingly, the closer, or the higher in esteme, that person is to you, the greater the effect will be. For the most part this is actually a spiritual response and not just an emotional or intilectual response.
Words have spiritual nature about them. As we have found they have the potential to Bless, or to Curse; they caqn bring Life, or Death. Yet, in Deuteronomy 30:19 God gives Moses and Joshua the clue to the decision put before them when he adds “Therefore, choose Life!” I must admit, that I can almost imagine God sitting there with a bit of a smirk on his face giving them a bit of a hurrah, c’mon guys, the clue to this quandary is in the Right hand box; go on “Choose Life!“
The power of the spoken word and its ability to create Life, or Death, is a common theme throughout the Old and the New Testament. From Genesis chapter 1 right through to the Book of Revelation including Rev 12:11; where the saints have overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb AND the Word of their Testimony (their profession of what God has done, is doing and Will do, in and on their behalf; because He is their God and their Father).
Our very salvation is dependent upon first of all Hearing, then Speaking and Taking the promised outcome of the Words of the Gospel that is preached Romans 10:8- end of the chapter. In fact, as Jesus pointed out on more than one occassion these are the principles that govern the ability to receive anything by Faith; one of the most classic examples being Mark 11:22-25:
1 Have the God kind of (quality of) Faith
2 Believe in your Heart (Spirit)
3 Speak that Faith
4 Do Not Doubt
5 Take it by Faith maintaining your confessionof Faith until it manifests
6 Praise and Thank God for it as it is already in your posession/tangible
Mark 11:24 is where most people stop readiing this passage of scripture. In fact the most essential element of the whole process is given to us in the very next thing Jesus teaches about this application of Faith. In the English language the word “AND” is referred to as a conjunctive. It is a word that connects two points, or two statements in such a way as to make them co-dependent; in other words, the first statement will not work without the application of the second and vice versa.
Mark 11:25 begins with the word ‘AND’
7 When you are in the process of applying your FAITH you MUST ensure that you are not holding any UNFORGIVENESS. The key point is to ensure that you have forgiven ANYONE who has harmed you in any way. Without that FORGIVENESS you can essentailly forget the rest of your prayer.
This is borne out by the passage in scripture where the disciples ask Jesus to teach them How to Pray. Sadly, the church has taken this passage and created ‘A’ prayer, when in fact Jesus was teaching a METHOD of prayer, in Luke 11:2-4. Jesus taught that we could ask the Father for the things we need and that if we asked for forgiveness for our sins and only be forgiven to the degree that we have forgiven others (Now that’s food for thought).
“As we forgive those who have sinned against us.” those two words are so important. “As We” means In direct proportion to. We are in fact asking God to Forgive us in direct proportion to the level that we have forgiven others. This is a direct connectio to the Love walk.
We can only truly love others to the level that we have released unforgivemness in our own hearts. This is not a matter of saying that God is holding back. On the contrary, God HAS ALREADY given ALL that wee need. But, it is as if unforgiveness in our hearts takes up the very room that the Grace and the Love of God wish to and NEED to take up.
That purging of our very souls that can only occour as we allow the washing of the water of the Word of God Ephesians 5:26 to renew our minds Romans 12:2. The level to which we submit ourselves to becoming the embodiment of the Love of God in this world.
If nothing else, the whole prospect of being able to use your Faith effectively, is about being the most effective witness, to the world, of what God can do, in our lives.
The reason being our purpose of drawing those, in the world, to Christ. We need to to be witnesses to ALL that Christ can and wants to do in our lives. We need to ensure that we have a testimony, of what God can and has done, for us. WE need to have a genuine reason for people to come to Christ.
We need to ensure that we are looking for the times that God has worked amazing acts in our lives; not taking the things of God for granted. Our words govern us, in so many ways. We need to be able to account for every idle word. Yet, we also need to be real.
Remember: “Your Faith will NEVER Rise above the level of your Confession/Profession.”
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