Today as I was driving home from a church I visited this morning, I received so much encouragement and insight from the Lord. It was beautiful and worthy of sharing...
This morning the sermon was about the power of words and the power of the tongue. One of the main points that Pastor Wickham kept coming back to is that our words can either bring life or death. One thing he said in his message was, "A person will eat richly of the consequences they have spoken; whether bad or good. The fruit of a person's mouth satisfies their life." The more I read over my notes, the more the reality of this truth sets in...What kind of life am I going to live? Pastor Wickham said that we have a lack of victory over things in our life because we are constantly speaking of what we are not, when we should be speaking of what we are, even if it does not feel in that moment that it is what we are (keyword: feel).
As I was driving home in the pouring down rain and praying, God was speaking to my heart that I am speaking death and defeat over myself when I tell myself that being single is hard, when I am telling myself that I just can't do it or that I am lonely. I speak death over myself when I tell myself or others that it is so hard to be pure and that I need that other person to feel love. And then He [the Lord] took it a step further in saying it is not just my words, but it comes in my thoughts as well. It's not just words that have the power of life and death, but the thoughts that we dwell on have the power of life and death. Praise the Lord we do NOT have to settle for death.
I felt the Lord speaking to my heart that the reason it is so hard because I make it hard for myself, because I speak death over myself, because I speak death over being single. The Lord began to show me things that I watch and listen to and people I hang out with that feed that death - there are things that I put into my heart that make it hard. And why? What for? The more I listened to the voice of the Lord, the more I realized how not worth it those things are, it is not worth the consequences or the pain of putting those things into my heart.
Pastor Wickham started this 21-Day Campaign last week (I believe) with his congregation to go 21 days without complaining. To help remind them, he had bracelets made (the Live Strong type) and the purpose of the bracelet was to remind you not to complain, but if you did happen to complain (in that we are human) you would switch the bracelet to your other wrist to signify that you are acknowledging that you complained and you are starting off fresh.
I am not a huge fan of the Live Strong bracelets, the width is just to thick for me, but the Lord gave me the idea to use a hair gummy and instead of using it to remind me not to complain, using it to remind me that I need to be speaking life over myself, especially in the area of singleness. And when I do speak something or say something that is not life giving or watch or listen to something that is not producing life inside of me, to switch the hair gummy to my other wrist to acknowledge my actions/words/thoughts and in that moment repent and ask the Lord for His strength and that He would lead me into the glorious harvest of speaking life.
Pastor Wickham closed out his message with the following words: "Our words not only impact the life of others, but it impacts our lives as well. Our tongues carry the power of life and death. Because we are created in the image of God who spoke with creative power, our words can have power in them for life. Start speaking life to yourself, your family, to your marriage, to your children, to your jobs, etc. and being to enjoy the harvest!"
We have a choice. We can no loner by into the lies of the enemy and believe what he says about us. Speak life. Breath life. Proclaim life. Pursue life. That's beautiful.
Oswald Chambers once said "The great test of a man's character is his tongue."
(The scriptures from the message: Proverbs 18:20-21; James 3:2; James 3:3; James 3:4-5; James 3:5-6; Romans 10:9-10.)
