I woke up this morning with an impression in my spirit of a person whispering into another’s ear. As he whispered, I watched the different effects of the conversation on the listener through his facial expressions. First there was amazement, then sorrow, then anger which grew into fury. I lay there amazed how something so small as a whisper could affect a person so greatly. Then I remembered this scripture in Isaiah 54:17…
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn.”
The bible calls the tongue a weapon; a small weapon, yet a very dangerous one. In trying to develop a deeper realm of fellowship with The Lord, the thing I found that I had to do, in order to become more attractive to Him, was to harness my tongue.
In studying relationships with The Lord, I discovered that out of the seventy He had the twelve; out of the twelve He had the three; and out of the three He had the one. As I considered the life of Peter, one of the three, I found that he displayed the greatest love towards The Lord; yet the one that laid his head in His bosom was John, and the one to whom He entrusted His mother at the cross, was John. It was not Peter’s commitment that separated him from intimacy with The Lord; it was his tongue!
There are very few people that have ever wounded me greatly; the sad thing is they’ve always been the ones that I trusted enough to speak my heart with. As I’ve enhanced my relationship with The Lord, He’s been teaching me one thing: to guard my mouth! And I have developed a rule which I try to live by: “Never say something behind someone’s back that you have not said to their face.” You will soon find out who your true friends are, and to whom you can entrust your life. Rule your tongue and who you listen to; your life will be a lot less complicated!
Scripture reading:
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For 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. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
James 3:1-12
See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.