Edition 416: May 8^th 2018

Watch your mouth!

Introduction:

“Words are cheap,” goes the old saying. Rubbish, I say, and so does God actually! Words will justify or condemn you for all eternity!

People say “You don’t know my heart.” I say hogwash! Yes I do – very clearly. All I have to do is listen to your words for a few minutes, and I will know exactly what’s in it!

Luke 6:45 “...Out of abundance of heart the mouth speaks.”

When I observe your heart as revealed by your words, I see and hear a lot more than a heart- beat.

Words reveal and show what is in your heart. Your words are words of life or death. And here’s a shocking statement for you right up front: Your words will last forever and ever amen!

Proverbs 12:19 “A truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”

Living, lasting words:

Your words will have eternal consequences. Like the ricochet of a deadly bullet, and the echoes of glory bouncing around the universe, so your words, both negative and positive, will endure.

As a believer, your words are eternal, priceless jewels cast in golden glory, justifying you and proclaiming you righteous, sin-free and exalted.

Words can have great, powerful, intrinsic value. Your words, as part of your works, determine your eternal reward state, and can affect the eternal state of others as well. Our words with our actions will cause eternal regret or eternal reward.

Here, in the verse below, we see that God’s word, which is truth itself, endures forever. Obviously then, the more our words line up with His, the more we are on the right track.

Psalm 119:160 (Amp) “The sum of Your word is truth. The total full meaning of all Your individual precepts, and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 “Our light affliction is working for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory...”

Yes your life now is a passing vapour. (James 4:14) You are a mist that appears for a short time and then vanishes. But that is talking of your life here and now on earth. It’s a vastly different story, the moment we step into eternity.

Words of heart-felt prayer, God-inspired emotion, as well as all tears are stored up forever.

Psalm 56:8-9 (Amp) “You number my wanderings (in Your path); put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book. Then all my enemies shall turn back in the day I cry out; this I know, for God is for me.”

Your words will have profound consequences for you at the judgement seat of our Lord and for others who were affected in one way or another by your words!

Matthew 12:36-37 “...For every idle word spoken, they will give an account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.”

Have you considered that some people may go to hell because of your words or lack of them? Have you considered that some might receive magnificent eternal rewards because of the influence of your words on them?

I wonder just how many people the mass-media today will be responsible for assisting in their ride to hell? (See the next edition: “Shut your mouth” for more on that.)

Luke 12:3 “Whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light...and what you have spoken in the inner rooms (secrets) will be proclaimed from the housetops.”

Lips, fingerprints, wells, wings, engravings, jewels of gold, apples and more:

Have you ever thought of your words and actions as an invisible, eternal fingerprint on other people’s lives? Do you know that sometimes people remember the godly words you spoke to them, even a long time ago?

Sometimes I forget what I did yesterday, but I remember with absolute clarity the exact words of some people I consider spiritual fathers, from way back in the 70s!

Proverbs 10:21 (Amp) “The lips of the uncompromisingly righteous feed and guide many; but fools die because of a lack of wise words and understanding!”

Proverbs 10:11 “The mouth (words) of the righteous is a well of life.”

Proverbs 25:11-12 “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprove to an obedient ear.”

Isaiah 49:16 “See I have inscribed (Amp – Indelibly engraved) you on the palms of My hands.”

Beloved brethren, your words are vitally important, but you are also an open book – believe it or not, and people are reading you, like it or not.

2 Corinthians 3:2 “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.”

And look what’s coming for Israel – very soon:

Zechariah 9:16 “The Lord their God will save them (Israel) in that day, as the flock of His people. They shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land.”

Zechariah 2:8 “The Lord of hosts has sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you (Israel); for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.”

It’s not just Israel that’s the “apple of God’s eye.” It’s you too – all true believers!

Psalm 17:8 “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings.”

Your words determine your path:

Job 22:21-30 “Now acquaint yourself with Him (Amp= Agree with God) and be at peace; thereby great good will come to you. Receive please instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from you...the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver...You will pray and He will hear you...You will declare a thing and it will be established for you; so God’s light will shine on your ways...He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent; yes he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”

This verse above is so incredibly powerful and full of God’s ways!

Very few people these days grow correctly in the Lord, because so few are sincere and serious with the things of God. You can hear it in their words! This is true for many in the ministry as well. They have very little of the Spirit of God in them and much emptiness.

We need deliverance from this evil world and its nature, not fun in its dark sun! Our job is not to change the world and make it a better place either. It is to come out of it – boots and all!

James 3:2 “We all stumble in many things; if anyone does not stumble in word he is a perfect man able also to bridle the whole body.”

James 3:6 “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity...it defiles the whole body...and is set on fire by hell.”

Your tongue guides you like the rudder of a ship, through the storms of life, which are intensifying.

I once read a book by Watchman Nee entitled “The set of the sail.” It was about how your words set the sail of you - the sailing boat. You can set the sail to move forward even into the wind and storms.

How can you go in the right direction if you don’t know your Bible well, particularly in these days?

Learn the art of proclamation.

Psalm 66:16 “Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul.”

Proclamation is not what has become known as positive confession in the church, which is materialism orientated to get things. The power of proclaiming God’s word aloud has a wonderful affect on you in that it entrenches your beliefs, and impacts the spiritual dimension all around us.

God’s blessing is upon His word, but it has another dimension when spoken out loud.

The Bible says we are to “write the vision”. (Habakkuk 2:2) Write down your proclamations and pray and speak them. Change or add to them often.

Here is a great verse to proclaim:

Job 23:10-12 (Amp) “He knows my ways. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold, pure and luminous. My foot has held fast to His steps, His ways have I kept and not turned aside...I have esteemed and treasured up the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

Yes – words are of great importance!

Proverbs 12:12 (Amp) “...The root of the uncompromisingly righteous yields much, rich fruit. The wicked is ensnared by the transgression of his lips.”

Proverbs 12:25 “Anxiety (Lit= fear, heaviness, dread, sorrow of soul) in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.”

The poignant words of a murderer – our brother:

Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

These were the most important words ever uttered by the thief and murderer on the cross next to our Lord. They are also the most meaningful words that many people facing immediate death will ever utter, if they are wise!

The three most important hell-shattering words from the second cross were: “Lord save me.” (Or “Lord, remember me in paradise”, as in some translations. (Luke 23:43) He was saved right there.

What were the last words of untold billions of people as they died, realising that were about to die? Perhaps the majority wasted their last breath with futile swear-words, or meaningless rubbish, as they condemned themselves to hell.

Think of all the people who saw death coming in one way or another and they wasted their last words. Personally, years ago, as a war photographer and correspondent, covering many wars around the world, I saw violent death right before me, far too many times for comfort.

I was always struck by the expressions of death on their faces. I don’t know what each one said as he died, but very few would have called out sincerely to the living God, like our forgiven, murderer, now brother on the second cross!

What of that criminal on the third cross? He had eternal Salvation right next to him. He would have heard the discourse from cross numbers one and two. He stared death in the face with Salvation next to him, and died salvation-less.

That is the tragic, irreversible story of far too many who went to the grave and hell beyond.

The biggest, lie in the world stands supreme on the graves of many unbelievers: RIP!

Regretful terror from beyond the grave:

From beyond the grave we have rare, shocking words, reverberating up from hell. The rich man in the story below had a lifetime of opportunities to make right with God. He squandered his entire life and paid eternally!

Luke 16:22-26 “The rich man died and was buried and being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Father Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame...There is a great gulf fixed, between us, that can’t be crossed.”

Psalm 10:4 “The wicked, in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.”

The murderer, now our brother on the second cross, cried out to be saved and was saved. The thief on the third cross died with his mouth shut. The rich man in the parable above also died, calling out from hell in regret, when it was too late. He was not saved.

Your words can be your greatest friends adding golden glory upon glory and even more to your eternal state. Your words can be your great peacemaker with God and the entire universe – forever.

Psalm 15:1-2 “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? It is he who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.”

Job 15:8 “Have you heard of the secret counsel of God? Or do you limit wisdom to yourself?”

Words and curses:

In many occurrences curses come about from the words and actions of the people themselves. There are instances where people have called down curses upon themselves. The most tragic, long - lasting example of this is the curse the Jews called down on themselves at the cross of Calvary.

Matthew 27:25 “The people answered and said, ‘His blood be upon us and on our children.”

That self-imposed curse is still working out. Thankfully, it’s about to be revoked by the mass repentance of Israel.

There are many other self-imposed curses that people, and sometimes entire ethnic nations get themselves into. One of the most amazing is the African, Tokoloshe curse.

This is a dwarf-like evil, demon spirit conjured up by hundreds of years of Zulu witchdoctors in Southern Africa and is now prevalent throughout Africa.

This demon is believed to cause sickness, poverty and early death. The way to keep it away, they believe, and according to the witchdoctors, is to put their bed on bricks! Untold millions, including so-called Christians, still put their beds on bricks to keep the Tokolshe away.

Some of these people want to be Christians too and participate in witchcraft at the same time. The result is generations of poverty, ignorance, early death, and all manner of curses. It is not freedom from demons. By their words, they are inviting demons into their lives.

Numerous other curses, as well as long-standing generational curses are invited into people’s lives by their words – intentional or not.

Yes they can get free in the Lord, but it’s generally difficult, because you’re dealing with things people can’t see, and most times they know nothing about deliverance.

“Satan comes to kill steel and destroy” He is also the “father of lies.” (John 8:44, John 10:10)

Satan makes you stupid, and then he makes you subservient to him and his demons.

Deceitful, pride - filled words of false teachers:

Words of truth are of God and come to pass. They are of the Spirit of truth. Words of error do not come to pass. They are of the spirit of error and Satan himself, especially when it comes to anything of a prophetic nature.

We need to flee from people who repeatedly say things that are biblically unsound and don’t come to pass. Right now they may seem small issues, but mark these words: They will soon become very big issues carrying the full weight of Satan’s deception.

If you have the Spirit of God actively at work in you, and you know the Bible, it’s easy to know the Spirit of truth and spirit of error. (1 John 4:6)

If you decide to follow a false teacher or the teaching of someone filled with pride, be very sure of this: You will come under that false spirit too. It may take some time, but like a lingering curse, you will be brought under the control of that spirit.

For you, the bell now tolls! There comes a point where you get hooked. You now need specific deliverance and some serious repentance to get unhooked. Generally, that doesn’t happen, because of the blinding, power that comes with it all.

We live in a spiritual environment, which is more real than the physical world. Don’t mess with these things that can do you immense harm. There is lot of it around growing fast and getting worse!

False teaching is a major characteristic of these end times.

Finally

These days, people are accountable only to themselves. They are their own measure of all things, including truth! Their “truth” is often no truth at all!

Beloved brethren, you need to watch your mouth. Let your words lead and guide you into the deep things of God. Guard your heart and set your heart to be radical for our Lord.

There is not much time left, but if you sincerely pray in desperation for our Lord to take you His way – He will. That’s a prayer He always answers!

Believers are destined for unimaginable glory. Satan has tried to mess things up, but with our Lord at the helm, your life can still be a beautiful ballad, a poem, and a sonnet to God. Your life itself proclaims and announces a great indictment on Satan and his world. We will soon awaken in supernatural majesty!

Even in the short time remaining, you can go through a metamorphosis, into a beautiful, glorious creation of the living God, arising out of the barren desert which is this world-system.

I took the background picture in the dunes of the Namib Desert, texturised the butterfly a bit and merged it into the overall image.

Shalom and grow in His Grace!