Encouragement

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SPEAKING BLESSING OR CURSING:
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Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” And also Proverbs 14:3, “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve him.” Remember that Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.”

Broken down, this means, we’re to hate evil as God does and love what God loves It means to reverence God and honor Him in thoughts, speech, and actions. A ‘rod’ used in this Scripture, from the Hebrew and Greek text means, to strike with a stick, or to beat. Have you ever experienced being under the downpour of someone’s angry and pride-filled words to you?

It’s like the ‘rod’ spoken of in Proverbs 14:3, we just read. You’re being whipped and beaten by the person’s words as if they did so with a rod. And as this barrage of hurtful words come, you crouch lower and lower to get away from the rod of their mouth. Anybody ever been here before? Satan wants to keep God’s people beaten down and worn out. He wants to wear you out and cause you to grow weary of the battle so you will be depleted of spiritual strength---faith.

And instead of picking up our shield of faith again to press on forward toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we just drop it right where we stand. But can I tell you that no matter how many places you drop your shield of faith, which is a vital piece of the armor, God will always bring you back to that exact place again and say, “you left your shield of faith laying here. Pick it up and hold it high.”
You see, you can’t forge ahead into your tomorrow until you finish your yesterday because you’re always going to be looking over your shoulder at it to take just one more look. This is what happened when Lot’s wife looked over her shoulder to have one more look at Sodom and Gomorrah, symbolic of her yesterday. She got stuck in her yesterday of the past. Instead of dealing with your yesterday’s, a lot of God’s people are content to keep them hanging around so they can glance over their shoulder and have just one more look.

Many of God’s people don’t realize they’ve become stuck in the past. But I encourage you today, if you’re one of them, finish whatever business you have left undone there. Pick up your shield of faith, set your face like flint toward fulfilling your destiny in God, and say, “Yesterday, I’m finished with you now. I don’t need to look at you anymore. You’re under the blood of Jesus. You’re dead to me from this moment on, and I look ahead of me through the eyes of my faith unto my tomorrow with God. I’m pressing on forward.”

But this Scripture in Proverbs 14:3 said, “In the mouth of the FOOLISH...” In the Hebrew text, the word for foolish in this particular Scripture is ‘eviyl (ev-eel’). Actually, the meaning is a combination of two words, the one I just listed and ‘eviliy (ev-ee-lee’). And the meaning is, ‘silly, foolish, impious, a pious fraud, and folly.’ Now what does it mean to be IMPIOUS? It means to lack reverence, evil, profane, and sacrilegious.

To be PIOUS means, to be devout, reverently observant of religion (Christianity), commendable, worthy, saintly. I believe that as God is calling His people to righteousness, purity and holiness today---within that calling is a call to reverential fear of the Lord again. And to come into obedience to this call is the beginning of wisdom. To resist it is to remain foolish and continue to speak foolish things.

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BITTER AND SWEET WORDS:
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Can we control the tongue? James 3:8-11 says, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is unruly evil, full of DEADLY POISON. 9-Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10-Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11-Does a fountain send forth at the same place (opening) sweet water and bitter?” The tongue is unruly---it’s a rebellious member of the body. And the word “Tame” means, ‘something wild that's brought into gentleness and under control, easily managed, easily taught.’ Anything that’s wild is out of control.

Some years ago, when I lived in North Carolina, I had bought a nine-month-old Tennessee Walking Horse colt. Of course, he was way too young to be broke to the saddle and since he wasn’t, you could consider that he was wild. He resisted having to do what he didn’t want to do, just like Christian’s do when the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us something that is for our good. Something that will bless us. We want to be as my young colt and act like “Wildfire.”

In fact, that's what I named this long-legged baby---‘Wildfire.’ He didn’t want a bridle on him or a bit in his mouth when the time came for him to begin taming down and become useful. ‘Wildfire’ Christian’s in the Body of Christ can cause havoc and hinder other’s from coming into the Kingdom of God They often run head long into things without waiting for proper instructions from the Holy Spirit and end up in a tangled mess. We ALL want to avoid acting this way.

We want to avoid going around stirring up the dust and the dirt of other people‘s lives that are none of our business. We all need to stop spitting out the bit of the Holy Spirit so that only words of blessing and grace can’t come out of our mouths to the family of God, and to all people. Lets don’t be too busy being like ‘Wildfire’ going our own way, leaving a trail of things broken and damaged behind us as we do. Are you hearing what I’m saying?

And there is not a one of us who is not guilty of spewing out poisoned words toward another member of the Body of Christ. We are ALL guilty of this at some time or other. But we don’t have to stay here in this place of spewing out both blessing and cursing. We can simply make a choice of our will and by our faith to speak grace and blessing to other people. Will you or I get it done perfectly all the time? No, we won’t.

Is that an easy excuse for any of us not to keep pressing on toward speaking more blessing than we do cursing? We have NO excuse. None. Zero. But we have choice, and the God-given freedom to choose between speaking more grace and blessing to the hearer than cursing and death. My young horse fought against the saddle and having a rider on his back. He fought against the reins that were there to keep him on the right track and guide him into ALL good ways.

It wasn’t there to hurt him but to help him. This is a crude illustration perhaps but I think you see the point I’m trying to make here. This is the way we do when the Holy Spirit comes and wants us to relinquish control of our lives and allow Him to have control, leading us into ALL truth, according to what He hears Jesus saying that's good for us.

We pull and yank against the Holy Spirit’s reins on us and the bit in our mouths that is there to control the tongue. Oh, and the saddle on our backs. We resist taking on the yoke of Jesus, which He said is easy and becoming one with Him through the Spirit. We protest loudly and strain and rear up in rebellion against the narrowness we feel, the restriction of movement (we think). But within that yielding to the Spirit, allowing Him control of our life and destiny, is the greatest freedom we will ever know. Why? Because where the Spirit is, there is liberty (freedom). God doesn’t want to restrict us and hold us bound as if we’re in a prison of ‘do not’s’ and can’t do’s.’

God wants to take us BEYOND what we can think, imagine, desire or dream. He wants you and me to take the limits OFF the Holy Spirit so He can begin guiding us into our promised land (family, health, marriage, finances, ministry, children, business, church, the nations as a heritage, etc.) We need to cease being ‘Wildfire’ and allow the Holy Spirit to have rule and rein in every aspect of our lives, which breaks down to, thoughts, speech, and actions. Everything we do in life is contained in these three areas. And this means, allowing the Holy Spirit to have control of our ‘Tongue.’

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SET A GUARD OVER MY MOUTH:
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Even David realized how deadly the tongue can be and how important having control of it is when in Psalms 141:3 he prayed this, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” I’m going to make this plain as day in our everyday language. David said, “Lord, even though people are saying ugly things about me because the devil has filled their hearts with evil intent, hear my prayer and ’shut my mouth---zip my lips tight so I cannot utter one poisonous word to anyone.” I have prayed this prayer several times and on several occasions, I have sensed, as it were, a hand over my mouth.

I can recall in those particular times, wanting to say something so bad, but I couldn’t. Could you SEE a hand over my mouth? Not in the natural but if you could see it in the spiritual, I have no doubts that you would have seen an angel with his hand clamped over my mouth. Praise the Lord, anyway! I can say I’m glad He did so because my unkind words would have been a hindrance to the Holy Spirit being free to work God’s will in the other’s person’s life. You’ve heard of having ‘gun control.’ We need to institute “Mouth Control” for all Christians because the poisonous words we speak to other’s are just as lethal and can kill just as deadly (spiritually) as bullets fired from a real gun. Amen, it’s the truth.

I want to say this again, anything that's wild is out of control. As is our tongue when we get into conversations about this person or that person and here we go, “Yeah, tell me all the dirt. Oh, you don’t say.” Our flesh get’s so excited and our tongue’s start wagging out of control before you know it. Then, you end up saying nothing that has any worth, but rather, you’ve spoken words of cursing and death into the other person’s life. This is serious business, folks, for ALL of us to stop a minute and reflect on, examining ourselves and asking God to reveal our true hearts to us.

When you choose to speak words of death and cursing into other people’s lives, whatever the situation may be, or who the people may be that you’re speaking to---all you will have done is cut the other person to pieces with your razor sharp words. And in the end, when the conversation is over and you’re alone, ask yourself this question, how good do I feel now? Ask yourself if you feel uplifted and joyful and encouraged? Your answer will have to be, no.

Instead of feeling uplifted, your own soul is cast down and you feel no joy and no peace. Why is this so? Because you’re hearing the same thing they are. Those words of death and cursing is going into your spirit as well as theirs. How do I know these things? Because I’ve been there and been called on the carpet, if you will, for my wrong speaking as the Holy Spirit made me aware of it and brought conviction to my heart.

My excuse was, “But God, that's not fair! They deserved it!” God loves me, yes, I know, but do you think He let me get by with that? No, He sure didn’t. He asked me a question instead one time that pierced through my heart and made me ashamed for my outburst. He said, “Do you think it was fair for Jesus to go to the cross to pay for your sins? He went because of My love and grace toward all mankind. I too had a choice, and I made My choice before the foundation of the world, and I swore to it in the blood of My only Son, Jesus. All My judgments are righteous and fair, because I am a righteous God. I love righteousness, and I hate evil doing.”

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BRING NO DISHONOR TO THE BLOOD:
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The Lord was serious here, and I deserved this strong rebuke and correction. Why do I say that? Because first of all, I’m not God, and neither are you when you if you‘ve been here in this place. It is to operate from out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Judging that this is good, he/she is bad or evil, etc. And when we do this, listen to me now, when we do this, not only do we dishonor God, our heavenly Father, but we dishonor the blood of Jesus.

We judge the blood of Jesus and put it on trial, questioning it’s power to cleanse and make righteous that which is unrighteous. We judge its power as to whether it can heal our families, keep us unto that final day of deliverance. We examine and cross-examine its power to save, not only our souls but also the souls of our lost children, husbands, wives and all the lost souls of the world. We judge whether the blood of Jesus has the power in it to deliver us from evil and protect us from harm, protect our homes and families, etc.

And a lot of times, we bring in the verdict ourselves and declare that Satan is more powerful than the blood of Jesus. Somebody says, “Well, that's certainly not me. I know the blood of Jesus is more powerful than the devil.” On the one hand, we do know this. But listen now, we’re talking about the precious blood of Jesus that's powerful enough to save you and keep you until the return of Jesus, where you’ll be caught up to meet Him in the air and be with Him forever throughout eternity. Now, THAT'S powerful. And where is the devil spending eternity? In the “Lake Of Fire.” Hallelujah!

Plain As Day Ministries

Shirley Williams

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