A still tongue makes a wise head. –Traditional Proverb
Each one of us are given seven openings in our heads. Seven, in Scripture, denotes completeness. We have three pairs of openings: two eyes, two nostrils, two ears. The Creator made the seventh opening as one mouth. The mouth causes us more problems than all the other six together!
Psalm 34:11-13 NIV, “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.” The word ‘fear’ is used to mean reverence, awe, or respect with knees bent. The first area of life where the fear of the Lord begins, is with the tongue and lips.
Proverbs 13:3 NIV says, “He who guards his lips guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.” Your soul is your whole personality, the real you. This is the area where any weakness will be manifested first, and where the enemy will gain access first. To guard the soul, one must guard the lips.
Proverbs 21:23 NIV says, “He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself from calamity.” The mouth and tongue are vital areas in protecting the soul and your life.
Proverbs 15:4 KJV says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach of the spirit.” The more literal translation says ‘the healing of the tongue’. The healing of the tongue is a tree of life. Life and the correct use of the tongue goes together. Where there is perverseness, there is a ‘breach’ of the spirit. Perverseness means the wrong use of the tongue. The misuse of the tongue opens a ‘door’ to the enemy. Our tongue can ‘leak’ our blessings.
Proverbs 18:21 NAS says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Death or life are the choices, and both are in the tongue, both under our control. Sweet or bitter fruit from our tongue or from the tree of life. It will be a blessing or a curse to ourselves and to others.
A doctor always asks you to say ‘ah’ and stick out your tongue. He can tell a lot by the condition of your tongue. Our tongue shows God our spiritual condition. The state of our tongue is a good indication of our spiritual health.
Matthew 12:33-37 NAS says, “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree rotten, and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
Jesus refers to the heart as a tree and the words coming out of the heart, as fruit. The kind of words that come out of your heart will indicate the condition of your heart. When we see the kind of fruit, we know the nature of the tree. The state of the heart is equal to the state of the mouth. When you say that you are a good person, and these are the good deeds that you do, God says, “Stick out your tongue, then I will know the condition of your heart.”
James 3:2 NIV says, “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” James is saying, if you can control your tongue, you can control your whole life. He then gives some natural examples.
James 3:3-8 NIV says, “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal around. Or take ships as an example, although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants it to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
By putting a bit in a horse’s mouth, we can turn the whole animal around. The horse’s strength is brought into subjection with the control of its mouth. A ship is controlled by a rudder. The rudder determines the course of the ship, no matter if the weather is calm or stormy. A small spark can start a forest fire. The Forest Department says, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Many churches and businesses no longer exist because one tongue set a spark that burned the whole thing beyond restoration. James also says that the tongue is a source of lethal poison. A deadly element that can poison us by spreading infection through the whole system of our lives.
All of these examples show that one little member has great power to control a much larger body, horse, ship, or the human body. Then James goes on to point out the inconsistencies of religious people:
James 3:9-12 NIV says, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”
If you have a fig tree in your heart, you will get figs out of your mouth. If you have a vine in your heart, then you will never get figs out your mouth. If the water coming out of your mouth is fresh, the spring in your heart is fresh. If it is salty and brackish, then the spring in your heart is salty and brackish.
When Israel was going into the Promised Land, Moses sent twelve men ahead to spy out the land and to bring back a report. They came back after forty days saying that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey, ‘nevertheless’ the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the children of Anak, or giants live there. The word ‘nevertheless’ became a fatal word for ten of the spies.
Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, refused to go along with the negative report, saying that they should go up at once to possess the land, for they were well able to do so. The ten said, “We be not able.” The two said, “We are able.” Each group’s destiny was settled by their words.
“And Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to thy word; but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Yahweh. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me these ten times, and have not harkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land wherein he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Numbers 14:20-24 KJV
Verse 28 says, “Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith Yahweh, as ye have ‘SPOKEN’ in ‘mine ears’, so will I do to you:”
Four things stand out with these Scriptures; 1-the destiny of the spies were determined by the power of their words, 2-the tongue has eternal power of life or death, 3-the words spoken entered into the ‘spirit-world’, 4-the wrong use of the tongue causes a ‘breach’ or an opening for attack. Ecclesiastes 10:8 says, “He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who ‘breaks’ through a wall.” NASB
Islam is praying five times daily all around the world, confessing Allah, isn’t it time that Christians began to confess Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords?
Our words, (actions, behaviors, beliefs) are attracting the good kingdom or the bad kingdom. They also bring freedom or bondage, blessing or cursing, and life and death. I for one have made a new commitment to use words to bring spiritual understanding, to usher in the Kingdom of God, and to expose the deceptions of the kingdom of darkness. I pray that you will join me by surrendering your will to your Heavenly Father, and by telling the devil to remove all of his darkness from your life.
When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it. — Arabian Proverb
A broken bone can heal, but the wound a word opens can fester forever. –Jessamyn West (1902 – 1984) US author
Click here for The Tongue of Man-Part Two