Cursing

P 3220 Let’s watch what we do with our keys.

/ DVH

“Now may the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father God, Who loved us and in His wonderful grace gave us eternal comfort and a beautiful hope that cannot fail, encourage your hearts and inspire you with strength to always do and speak what is good and beautiful in His eyes.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Watching what we say is an incredibly important key to walking with the Holy Spirit and living in the kingdom of God. I’m not talking about being fake, or using flattery, or saying stuff that is not true – that stuff feels hollow. I’m talking about coming into agreement with the Lord and how He sees things. Now there’s a good thing to do just because He said to do it. However He didn’t say we would always enjoy it. I find the fun comes after the faith step!  

Doing what it says, even if we do it badly. and not always with the best of attitudes, certainly alleviates this problem. Jesus is not legalistic and He knows we are trying to obey our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Watching our words is a ‘key’ part of walking with the Holy Spirit. I’ve said dumb stuff and afterwards I sat about thinking – “Did I really just say that?” Instead of joining into a conversation that downgrades, or bad mouths someone else, it’s best to say nothing, inwardly pray and head for the exit! 

The thing that grabs us and traps us into opening our mouths, is that what is said is often true in some way or another. None of us are perfect, so somebody can often find something or other to criticise someone else about. Our negative comments will not help! At the same we don’t have any idea how this gossiped-about person arrived wherever it is they landed. 

We have been given, at great Personal cost by the GIVER, the power of agreement. Jesus gave that to us. So when we agree that so and so is a pain in the neck — we are thoughtlessly adding our powerful agreement to a bad thing. And then we wander about wondering why that person never changes! It’s because we aren’t helping with our opinions. So here’s something to chew over: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:23. That’s an enormous responsibility!

We can be so consumed by the momentary gratification of flapping our gums, we forget we are doing untold damage to someone else. The enemy lies to us that we will feel better if we talk about this slight or that incident. Sadly, we can easily forget about what that person may have done for us in the past — what was good, what was right what was profitable. We must get rid of the idea that our opinions are more important than someone else’s reputation and spiritual welfare.

What we say needs to build other people up — and in the heat of awkward moments, we desperately need to say things that are true, right and profitable, or … … say nothing. However, when we actively dislike someone, or we are mad at them – those precious positive things can be hard to locate. I ask Him to please help me and spend time with Him working on forgiveness, because that’s the only way through it..

This world we currently live in has a me-centred focus, so we can easily have a consumer mentality … which means that other people are like chess pieces, we move them around a board in our minds to help us to win.  I can’t find that in His book! Winning that way means everybody loses. We immediately begin to negate our gifts in the body, and eliminate or minimise someone else’s ...all at the same time. 

Guilt, blame, and shame render everyone powerless!  If we want to see change, then we need to approach difficult situations or people, His Way. At the same time I think we need to pray far more for our leaders, they meet most of our bad attitudes head on. In moments of temptation I am learning to lean hard on forgiveness and to rebuke spite in me. In the past if someone had a problem with gossiping etc. they were either ostracised, or everyone simply joined in. Neither of those things will help us follow Him. 

When I say something stupid, it can be so much easier to try to justify what I just said, than it is to own my mistake and apologise. But that is the only true way to deal with the problem. James 3:10 says:“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].” 

This is the major reason why we should avoid gossip, or even continually chewing over someone else’s faults! We may dislike that person who is being slowly dissected in front of us, but that is not the real point. We need to remain silent because we love and respect the Lord more than our own opinion. When we disrespect others, we are disrespecting Him. I don’t want to make a law out of this, however, I am simply stating a truth.  When our God says don’t do it – don’t do it!

Jesus has given us the joy of speaking life to other people and that privilege is powerful. “I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”” Matthew 16:19. We can easily lose or misplace our God-given keys, and this is why we need to watch what we do with them! Bye. ✋

P 2995 Controlling our mouths …

/ DVH

…is actually the biggest part of our daily battle … because speaking well of people is essential for our new language of love, so we all need to learn it. After all, the spirit of self-control needs to set its fruit somewhere … why not our tongues?

“Do not LET any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29. Here’s something I’ve learnt about myself that may benefit someone else. Sometimes the best response to something negative someone else says to you, is to smile — remember to include your eyes —and say nothing. Listening is a fantastic skill. Humility listens. Most angry people will de-escalate if we are prepared to give them a hearing. While I am listening, or trying to, I am inwardly praying: “Please help ME Holy Spirit, my feelings are out of control.”  

As we seek to truly love one another, reconciliation must never be far away from our minds. We cannot afford to make any argument a competition about who wins and who loses. If we start keeping score it adds to the anger. One of the participants in the problem is going to have to put their grievance – their sword– down. The best way to do that, is to start with an apology.

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1. So it is good to say neutral things like: “I’m sorry you feel like that, and I have obviously hurt your feelings. I apologise.Please forgive me.” And then continue to say nothing. While we are busy defending ourselves, we aren’t loving that other person – we are empowering our flesh.

Loving each other is the secret ingredient to watching whatever we say. People who fall in love with someone else, watch their speech. The thing is, it is not good for our personal spiritual well-being to be a hypocrite, and love some people and not others simply because: “Love covers a multitude of sins …” It covered OURS!

Please understand that when we act in faith, with a spirit of reconciliation, we are not necessarily validating what the other person is saying – we are simply choosing to obey scripture: “First take the LOG out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see the splinter.” Matthew 7:3-5. None of us are blameless. What does it matter if we are falsely accused? What does it matter if we lose an argument? We might win the war by appearing to lose. The walls of Jericho came down because of a long silence, and one well-placed shout of victory!

Very few people walk up to someone else and punch them in the face FIRST! Arguments usually start with words, and then things grow exponentially as we use more and more words, and move on into hurling spiteful responses at each other and bringing up the other person’s past misdeeds. That’s the time we need to remember that we cannot control another person’s actions or reactions, we have to start with ourselves first. Maybe His Grace in our lives – which we get from spending time with Jesus in the secret place – has been diminished by the troubles and cares of this life.

“LET your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6. One of my favourite preachers from the Brownsville Revival used to say – “this thing right here … (and he would point to his tongue) – that’s the thing we all need to be aware of.” “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be so.” James 3:10. But it obviously IS so, because God Himself tells us through James …that it should not be so! This is where our personal test of obedience kicks in.

The next verse is the secret to overcoming all that. We cannot afford to live this life forgetting, for even a second, WHO we belong to now. “Little children, you can be certain that you belong to God and have conquered them, for the One who is living in you is far greater than the one who is in the world.”1 John 4:4 TPT. You see our confidence is not in our ability to conform, or even perform – our confidence is in Him. It is not in me or you … it’s IN HIMI We believe and have faith in His ability to conquer whatever situation we find ourselves in — after all He conquered DEATH! Therefore my big mouth is not a problem to Him. 

All this is possible because we belong to Him and He lives in us. We have a God Who saves us, and Who lives in us! He has already saved us from the sin we will perpetrate against someone else by what we’ve said. Because of the Lord Jesus we have the deposit of self-control within us, by His Grace. All we need to do is to release it, using our faith. Controlling our mouths is the biggest part of our daily battle. Bye 👋.

P 2677 Looking for the good.

/ DVH

“Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.”1 Corinthians 13:7TPT. I highly recommend speaking life into whatever you can see that is good, and of God in other people. It is God-honouring to tell the people we know, what’s good about them. So today, I wanted to follow up yesterdays’ blog with something positive we can hopefully all do.

I am not talking about flattery. I believe we need speak real things, positive things, things that will help others feel encouraged and loved. You can be used by God to create a safe verbal shelter for the people you care about — and who doesn’t need that?! Flattery is also deceitful. It can’t build anything because it has a rotten foundation. Often the motivation behind flattery is to gain advantage over someone else.

I love this verse from Song of Songs 4:7: “You are altogether beautiful, my darling;  there is no flaw in you.” Oh, the things the Lord says! This whole book is about a love story and worth reading just from that POV. The bride/beloved in it, is not flawless, the Shepherd is talking about the way he sees her. On the other hand, unfortunately, the Shulamite woman can see her flaws clearly. Some of them are even physical, but the Shepherd sees so much more than she can see. When we look through LOVE we can see so much more. It is interesting to note that if we have a physical flaw, sometimes we cannot see beyond it.

The Lord rebuked me recently about the way I view myself and He said something that was so accurate I laughed out loud. It seems I avoid mirrors. If there is one in the room I look away from it, or even down. Apparently, I am ashamed of the way I look … so … I don’t look at me unless I have to! This attitude shows me a place inside, where I need His loving, caring touch. I know I need to let His Love into my mind and heart, or I will just pass that shame on to someone else in my own speech. 

The way the Shepherd in this book speaks to his bride, as well as about her, is a wonderful example of love building the other person up! Song of Songs is a fantastic illustration of the power of words to transform a life and develop LOVE. The Shepherd’s love spoken out, freely deposits that quality into the Shulamite’s life, and she does the same for him. That love transforms everything it touches.

This principle, prompted by the Holy Spirit, and activated in our own lives, can empower someone else to be bigger and more positive than they are. The other person discovers life is not about outward looks, or talents, it is about loving and being loved. In my opinion, there is a whole other person inside most of us, just waiting to come out. But we’ve learnt early on in our lives that freely expressing ourselves, and being ourselves, led to disapproval – so we quit.

Christians have the capacity and the power to speak life – Jesus died to give that to us. His truth was always tempered with mercy and hope. Everything He said contained within it the power to bring about transformation and security in love. BTW, I’m not talking about being fake, rather, ask the Lord to show you accurate things to say that encourage other people to see themselves through your eyes. This involves taking note of things that are often not easily seen. We glorify God when we notice His Ways in others.

The amazing thing is, you and I don’t have to be perfectly healed and totally whole to live this way. And the even greater bonus is that speaking out life actually increases our own faith. It takes faith to speak out kindness and love when what you are receiving from that person is anger, apathy or indifference. People don’t have to yell at you for you to know they are suspicious of you and your motivations – you can kind of guess….

Lastly I would like to include a short word of warning from 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” If I use my words to destroy you and I don’t repent for what I’ve done, I am actively cursing you. I am destroying God’s house! Not to mention the harmony that is meant to exist within that house!  Words matter. They are more than a means to communicate, they are the building blocks that open a way to build a place for God Himself to live in!

I exhort you to start praying the Lord will show something good, upright and beautiful about someone who inhabits your world. At home, at work, in your church. Let’s begin to look for the good in others and tell them. Bye. 👋