Faith, The Hearts Abundance
Proverbs 6:2 you are snared by the words of your own mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.
Proverbs 12:6 The words of the wicked are, "Lie in wait for blood,'' but the mouth of the upright will deliver them.
In both of these scriptures we see that words can make or break us. Proverbs 6:2 says, you are snared. Another way of saying this is you are trapped or entangled. Your words put you in a place of entrapment. We also see in Proverbs 12:6. that the mouth of the upright will deliver them. Your words have the power to entrap you and your words have the power to set you free, or liberate you. Words are not just sound waves traveling through the air. They are the spoken abundance of your heart. Lets look at the words of Jesus.
-- New American Standard
Matthew 12:34. 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."
Justification or condemnation, to be entangled or delivered, all with the exercise of our spoken words. This should be a wake up call to us. We should endeavor to line our words up with God's words.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Death and life our in our power, God has given us a free choice. We must choose to speak either life or death. God can not, nor will He do it for us. We will do the speaking that will cause life or death, and will be held accountable to God for our words.
There is a spiritual law in effect concerning what we say. You might say I’ve never heard of such a thing. We have seen so far, the rules God has established in his Word. These rules can not be broken or overridden. I like to listen to people, and really hear what they say. You can locate them by their words. You know what I mean by locate them? You can see where they are coming from, and I have learned you can see where they are going as a result of their words. As we just read there is life and death in the power of the tongue. And also, but the mouth of the upright will deliver them. Jesus talked about this spiritual law of saying in Marks Gospel.
Mark 11:23 "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.
- "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
- "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26 "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.''
You’ll notice Jesus said says 3 times and He only said to believe one time. I am convinced we have to believe God's Word to see things come to pass, yet the Word of God is not hap hazard in the way it says things. The fact that Jesus said to say something three times and believe something only once shows us an important truth. What we say is of very great importance, what we say will come to pass if it is what we believe. It is understood that what we say is what we believe. We already read out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What we say is the hearts abundance, therefore it is what we believe.
You will notice Jesus did not say, you shall have what you believe, but He said; he will have whatever he says. I’m not saying all of this to confuse any one, but to just make a point, it is in the saying that brings the having. If we don’t say it, we won’t have it. Another way of saying this is; we will never rise above our confession.
I encourage you to take stock of what you say and to start paying attention to your words.
If you start to listen to people, you will see this spiritual law at work. You will hear people say things like, if any body is going to get sick, it’s going to be me, I always get sick this time of year. Sure enough they do don’t they? Or I’m going to loose my job, I’m always one of the first that gets laid off, or I just know my hours are going to get cut. My children are out of control and there is nothing I can do about it. I’m not sure I’m going to make it this time. If you really start listening to people talk, you will hear their abundance. Remember what Jesus said; 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.
For out of the abundance your heart speaks, and out of that spoken abundance reality comes whether good or bad, negative or positive, life or death. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Jesus is calling this abundance good and evil. We have got to put a bridle on our mouth as James said.
James 1:26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.
As Jesus said in, Mk. 11: 24. but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Jesus said this, not Joe the druggist down the street, I hope I’m not offending any druggist named Joe, I’m making a point. If you believe something in your heart and speak it out of your mouth, it will come to pass, not, it might come to pass, it will. Jesus said so, and He is not a liar. His words are spirit and they are life. Jn. 6:63. What Jesus said is the Word of God. We should pay attention to it.
This spiritual law is what creates the new birth, Paul talked about it in the book of Romans.
Romans 10:8 But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach:
- that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
- For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
This law is always in effect, and will always bring the results of our lips. As we just read, eternal life starts this way.
We must come to understand this, why our words are so powerful, and why Satan wants to stop us and keep us blinded in this area, because if He can stop us here he can stop us from ever receiving the promises of God.
Simply understanding this basic truth will help us to walk in the reality of God's Word.
In the very beginning, in the first chapter of Genesis alone, we see the phrase; And God said, 9 times. It could have been all lumped together in one God said. No, but nine times, and I believe that this was for a reason. I don’t believe God does anything by accident, He is very specific and does things for a reason. God was showing us from the very beginning that there is creative power released in words. I believe He wanted us to see the vital part that words played in the creation. God released His faith when He spoke the words that created the heavens and the earth. The faith was already there wasn’t it? Yet there was no heavens and earth created until words were spoken. Out of the abundance of God's heart words were spoken that created. Out of the abundance of God's heart the universe was created, out of the abundance of God's heart we were created. He didn’t just think it He spoke it! You might say, well that was God, He can do what He wants. One of the things that God has given us that makes us like Him is the ability to choose. We have a free will, we can choose life or death, we can choose blessing or cursing. We were created in God's own image and likeness, and we have been given the authority to speak words of life, or to speak words of death. It’s our choice. The power is there, and is released when we speak. Our mouth produces those words, our hearts abundance produces what our mouth speaks, doesn’t it? Jesus said it does, and I believe Him.
Matthew 28: 18. Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
All authority was given to Jesus and He turned around immediately and gave it to us.
Man now has that authority to go, and teach, or speak the words that create life, the life giving words of the Gospel.
Satan on the other hand has no power of His own, Jesus has taken the keys of death and hell from him. (Rv:1:1. So if we have been given the authority of Christ, and Satan has no authority, why is he running rough shod over Christians? Part of that reason is that Christians don’t know what the Bible really teaches and are destroyed for a lack of it.
Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Another way Satan is running rough shod over Christians is he is taking the authority that has been given to us, and using it against us. Since Satan has no power of his own, he has to use our power against us. You might say I’ve never heard of such a thing. Many Christians die; and not knowing why, we say God how could You have let such a thing happen? As we just read in Hosea, God speaking, said, My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. That is a very sobering thought. Many children of God are destroyed because they don’t have the knowledge to walk in the victory that has been freely given to us through the death, burial, and resurrection, of our Lord Jesus Christ!
1. First of all we have to get knowledge.
To do that, we have to meditate in the Word of God until we gain the revelation of what God’s promises proclaim to be true.
God told Joshua after the death of Moses what to do in order to succeed. This was the first instruction given to Joshua before the beginning of his ministry.
Joshua 1:8. "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
You see there was a sequence to having good success. It doesn’t just happen automatically. We have an important part to play in our own success. We have to be obedient. Our Heavenly Father is giving us the instructions on how to be successful, and then tells us to follow those instructions, and when we do, we will be successful. He wouldn’t tell us to do it if it wasn’t His will for us to succeed would He? No He wouldn’t!
2. Secondly we have to take that knowledge and create life with it. God's Word always creates life, not death. When we have done our part, we will see good success. When we have done this, we won’t give Satan an open door to destroy us. We will walk in victory.
When we are not speaking life we are speaking death. There is no middle ground here.
When we speak death it is because we are not persuaded that God's Word is true, and we start a sequence of events in the spiritual realm that allows Satan to walk all over us.
We give Satan permission to destroy when we talk defeat, sickness, poverty, and lack. We basically are saying that God's Word is not true. God forbid!
Satan will try to manipulate you into talking doubt in order to kill, steal, and destroy. He has no authority over you unless you give it to him through your words. He doesn’t have the power to create with his own words, (he tried that once and it got him kicked out of heaven) he has to use ours. He has to persuade you through fear, doubt, deception, and intimidation, or just your own ignorance of God's Word, what ever he can use to push you off of your stand on God's Word, to cause you to fail.
When you meditate on fear you will speak out of that abundance that you have built up in your heart. Do you see how Satan works? He is a deceiver and a liar. We have got to resist him and keep our mind on God's Word. Then, as Jesus said: The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good. If you have a good treasure in your heart you can only bring forth what is good. If you have a bad treasure you can only bring forth what is bad.
James said a similar thing.
James 3:2. 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. 3. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4. 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. 5. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6. 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. 7. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12. Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring can yield both salt water and fresh.
Is your spring sending forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? It shouldn't!
You can't speak both, and have the blessing win out. The cursing will win by default. Doubt will negate your faith, and render your faith null and void, and rob you of the blessing.
What are blessings and cursings? A spoken blessing is prophetic in its very nature. A curse is not just cuss words. A curse is speaking the opposite of a blessing, and it is prophetic in its very nature as well. The spoken abundance of your heart will come to pass. This is a spiritual law that can't be negated. Lets wake up to the reality of this truth.
Hebrews 4:14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
The Word confession in the Greek literally means; let us hold fast to saying the same thing. We might say it like this, let us be consistent in saying the same thing. We have to consistently speak the truth and not give in to the temptation of what our natural senses are saying. We can't be double tongued and expect to see God's results. Let's let our abundance be fresh water and not salty.
Hebrews 3:1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
Jesus is the High Priest of our words. He is the High Priest of what we speak. His Word states that He watches over His Word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12)
In our present Covenant, our High Priest, Jesus, looks over the words that come out of our mouth. He can only perform life and healing, He can’t, and won't perform death and disease, however we have to give Him something to watch over to perform. Let's let our words be full of faith in our God and give Jesus our High Priest something to watch over to perform.
We are talking about spoken words being the abundance of the heart. They are spiritual, and they carry power. There is creative power released in our words. We build up faith in our hearts, whether negative or positive, and we release that faith when we speak. This is the spoken abundance of the heart. We have a tongue that can create, We are created in the image of God and we have the power to create life with it, or to destroys with it. The choice is ours.
Let's look at how Jesus used His words to defeat Satan.
Matthew 4:1-11. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, `Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written,
He will give His angels charge concerning You'; And On their hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a stone." Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, `You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, `You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'"
Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
We see here the example Jesus gave us to follow. Jesus defeated Satan using the Word of God, He didn’t say Satan I'm Jesus, you have to leave me alone, go away. NO, He said,
For it is written, Satan listened to those words, He listened to what was written, He had to.
God enforces His Word. God Looks after His Word to perform It.
Jeremiah 1:12. Then the Lord said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it."
God told us to choose life, but have you ever stopped to consider that Jesus had to choose life? He had a choice, He had to choose life just as we do. Jesus said my life is mine to lay down and its mine to take back up again. He was given a choice.
John 10:17. "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
- "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.''
Jesus didn’t have to die, He could have chosen to forget the whole thing, but He had us in mind. He had to make a decision to die. Luke tells of this account at the Mount of Olives.
Luke 22:41-44. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.'' Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
This had to be the toughest decision ever made, God in the flesh choosing to die. But it was His choice to make. I want to point out, He started the whole thing into motion by speaking, I lay it down of Myself. When He said that, He spoke the words that would eventually allow Him to die. BUT IT DIDN’T END THERE! He also said, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.'' He spoke the words that would eventually allow Him to be raised from the dead. He spoke God's words. Do you remember when Jesus stood before Pilate, he did not open His mouth to defend Himself.
John 19:8. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid,
- and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?'' But Jesus gave him no answer. 10. Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?''
- Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.
Acts 8:32. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so He opened not His mouth.
Why didn’t He open His mouth to speak? If He had spoken, He would have spoken Life, and He would have been delivered. He could not allow that to happen. He had to allow death to take it’s course, and that couldn’t happen till He got to the cross.
When Jesus got to the cross He said, My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?
Matthew 27:46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?'' that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?''
Jesus wasn’t saying this because He was confused. He was speaking this, to allow death to overtake Him. He knew why God was forsaking Him. He was the Only one on the planet that knew! This was the mystery Hidden in God from before the foundation of the world, and Jesus was fulfilling it. Jesus was speaking the 22nd Psalm.
Psalms 22:1. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
The words He was speaking, were bringing the reality of God's written Word into fruition. He was speaking death upon Himself, but He was also speaking life upon Himself. Read the rest of the 22nd psalm and you will see He fulfilled it all. He spoke the words that created eternal life! He went into hell itself speaking the Word of God. He was speaking the Word of God, up until the end. If you read John’s account of the crucification, you’ll see that Jesus said, it is finished. (John was the only disciple that hung around to the end to hear Him.)
John 19:30. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!'' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Jesus was still speaking the Word of God, right up to the end. He was speaking the words that would allow Him to rise again. In the amplified Bible, I see this reference to John. 19.30 at the very end of the 22nd Psalm, it is finished. Jesus was speaking the Word of God all the way through. He started on the Word of God and He finished on the Word of God. He defeated Satan the same way he always defeated him, with the Word of God.
Jesus brought death upon Himself by speaking words, and He brought life upon Himself by speaking words. This is the greatest example of the power of words in the Word of God that I can think of.
Proverbs 18:21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Matthew 12:37. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words
you shall be condemned.
Jesus had to speak death to fulfill God’s Word, but we don’t have to. Remember Jesus is the High priest of the words we speak. He watches over His Word to perform it. So line your words up with His Words. Amen.