Word Power
While there are many important things for us to learn about the Lord and His kingdom as we grow closer in our walk with Him and stand for the restoration of our marriages, the more I learn and understand personally, the more I realize just how important it is for us to truly understand the power of our words. This week Joyce Meyer has been teaching about self-control and discipline in her TV broadcast messages and today her message was titled Watch Your Mouth – Part I, and it’s an AWESOME message! There’s no way to listen to this message without finally comprehending the power our tongues have to literally determine the direction of our futures, so I very strongly encourage everyone to take the time to listen to it several times if that’s what it takes to get it!
The main Bible text Joyce uses in this message is James 3:1-12 (AMP), which says:
1 NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].
2 For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.
3 If we set bits in the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.
4 Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!
6 And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man’s nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna).
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).
8 But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness!
10 Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
11 Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.
Well, I don’t know anyone who could honestly deny being nailed by that first verse! I know I was, as well as on several points in Joyce’s message today. So, I decided to go ahead and listen to tomorrow’s message, which is Watch Your Mouth – Part II, and just as powerful!
It would be a good idea to have a notepad handy or your Bible in order to make note of the passages Joyce refers to in this message, but one powerful passage she uses is Ephesians 4:29-31 (AMP), which says:
29 Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).
31 Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
And the rest of that command is found in verse 32, which says And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.
If we’re honest, we’re probably all nailed again, because we’re all guilty of speaking words contrary to this command, and we should not forget that it IS a command. Joyce shares a personal experience in her ministry as she makes the point that there is a direct connection between the words we speak and the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to flow in our lives.
Ladies, I pray that we will all be a lot more mindful and thoughtful about the words we speak, because we WILL eat their fruit, for better or worse, for life or death, for restoration or permanent separation, and for the glory of the Lord or Satan.