We’ve been at debrief this past week in Nepal. So we haven’t made it to our ministry yet. That’s given me a lot of time to sit and listen to my Daddy’s voice. So here goes an attempt at sharing what I’m hearing.
I have a quiet voice.
Pretty much everyone I know knows this about me. I have never known the power of my voice or believed that I would be heard.
But I’ve realized what a lie that is. The past two years have been two big years of God showing me what power and authority I have and that I AM heard. There’s power in what I say.
I hate speaking in front of big groups of people. Small groups are my thing. It was the Holy Spirit who led my preaching this past month. But I’ve realized this week how much Satan has lied to me about my quiet voice.
The lie that there’s no point in saying anything because no one would hear me anyways.
This week, I started listening to God and not the father of lies. So here I am showing how God is speaking to me because maybe someone else needs to hear it. I want everyone to know the power they have in their voice and what they say.
A friend of mine gave me the verse James 3:4 the last week of India. “Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.” This was so encouraging to me.
To know that such a small thing could guide a huge ship.
But there’s also danger in that.
Yesterday, my teammate, without knowing about that note, told me that she sees me as a rudder who steers our team so well and represents steadfastness. I’m amazed at how God speaks to us every single day.
Because this reference was mentioned to me twice, I went into James 3 and started unpacking it and seeing what else God had to say.
James 3:5 goes onto say, “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.” This reference to the tongue made me think of my voice.
James then starts in on the dangerous side of the tongue. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. Gossiping and negativity come from the same tongue that blesses and praises the Lord. Conviction. Proverbs 18:21 also says that death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Righteousness and unrighteousness CANNOT come from the same mouth!
Just like a spring cannot produce both fresh water and salt water.
The tongue was not created for both. Not both life and death. Not both righteousness and unrighteousness.
It’s not just me who has a voice. It’s not just me who has power. It’s all of us. Will you choose to speak life with me?
God gave us our breath. He’s the reason we breathe. Let’s not waste our breath on anymore mean or judgmental words about others or to others. We only have so many breaths in this life.
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” Psalm 100:4
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” If you are speaking condemnation and destruction on another human being, you are not speaking on behalf of God. You are speaking on behalf of Satan. We are meant to speak truth and life and love. If you’re loving that person, build them up. Don’t tear them down.
Building them up is encouraging WHO they are, not what they do. It’s accepting them for who they are and not condemning who they aren’t. It’s calling them higher, not calling them out “in the name of Jesus.”
James 3:6 says, “The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” Another friend gave me a booklet on speaking the word out loud because speaking aloud causes our spirit man to hear and the first page was on James 3. Of course. The booklet says, as James 3:6 says, that we set on fire the course of nature by what we speak because hell acts on our words.
Do we actually get this? Truly, truly?
Hell can act only on our words, so every negative word we speak sets hell into activity.
When we speak evil of someone else, we are activating hell against them.
This is not meant to shame anyone or bring shame in anyway. The past is done. But as we run this race before us, are we going to be blessing or are we going to be cursing along the way?
In Matthew 26, when Jesus’ closest friends fell asleep on the eve of the hardest day of his life, he didn’t tear them apart. He called them higher. He fought for them. He believed in them. He saw who they were meant to be.
Can we do that for one another? Can we choose to see the unseen instead of the seen? To fight instead of give up? To speak life instead of death? To encourage and not condemn?
There’s nothing a single one of you can do that God’s grace and love will not reach. His majesty can coexist with our mess just as He told a friend of mine and just as he demonstrates in John 8 with the woman caught in adultery and just as he has demonstrated in my life.
No matter what anyone says and no matter anything you’ve done, you have a voice. You are heard.
And there’s power in it.
To speak literal life into someone or to speak literal death.
Do we want to activate hell or do we want to activate heaven?
I personally don’t think we can afford any longer to speak death. Let’s start putting out the fires together.
Join me in speaking life over Nepal this month.
