Published by admin on 26 Oct 2012 at 01:49 pm
ARE YOUR WORDS YOUR WORST ENEMY?
Are you one of those “doom and gloom” prophets? First off, do you even know what it means to prophesy? And, do you know that every day you prophesy over your own life? According to the dictionary, to prophesy means to forecast, to say that a specific thing will happen in the future. It can also mean to speak by divine inspiration by the Spirit of the LORD.
I often hear people prophesying bad things over their lives and those of their family. Just the other day a friend told me nothing ever goes right for him, no matter what he does it comes out wrong. Do you know what? He has a proven track record of being right according to what I’ve seen. This is one person I’d for sure love to say is a false prophet. But you see, he speaks out of the abundance of his heart, and believes what he says is true, and just like it says in Mark 11:23, and what he says happens. So, does that mean bad things are God’s will for him? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! However, God’s Word cannot be broken, and it goes to show how powerful our words are, not only over our own lives, but others.
Now, what if he turned around his words and spoke only good over his life? Would everything just change overnight? Maybe not, but they would change over time to be sure. Imagine you’re standing on the edge of a pond and you throw a rock out in the very center. What happens? You would see ripples going toward the shore in all direction. Notice I said “ripples”, not “ripple”. You might think the effect of throwing one rock would make one ripple, and then it would be over until you threw another rock in, but that isn’t the way it works. No, one rock makes MANY ripples, and it isn’t over even after the last ripple makes it to shore. In case you hadn’t noticed, when each ripple makes it to shore, it starts going back toward where it started, interacting with the next ripple heading toward shore. Now, think of each ripple as a word you’ve spoken over your life, for example, “I just can’t seem to get ahead”. That word you just threw into the pond of life heads out in every direction, affecting the whole pond, not just ONE ripple, but many. Once they hit shore, they head back to the place that was the source, and this just keeps repeating the process over and over until finally the pond is calm again, but that takes a while.
Now, imagine you just keep throwing rocks in the pond, before the water is calmed down, you will see hundreds of ripples going to and fro in the pond. Those are your words, and they are affecting the whole pond, meaning your WHOLE LIFE. What happens if you keep speaking stuff like, “I just can’t get ahead”, “I can’t get over this ______” (you fill in the blank), “my family disrespects me”, “nothing ever goes right for me”. Well, you have not ripples in your pond, friend, you have a tsunami at work, and again, Mark 11:23 will definitely work for you, or in this case, against you.
If you start right now speaking only God’s Word over your life and that of your family, while you still have the ripples of past words to deal with, those words of God that you are speaking which are making ripples of their own will start changing your life. When I started speaking God’s Word over the melanomas and liver cancer I had in 1993, it didn’t’ just change overnight. Everything didn’t get better in five seconds, because I not only had a mind change to make, but I had a heart change and a word change to make as well. Fortunately, I didn’t put it off, but got right on it and STAYED on it, even though for a while it didn’t look like I was doing any good. In fact, I continued to get sicker, and the devil and everyone else was trying to convince me that all this Word of God stuff was a waste of time. Well it wasn’t. I said it WASN’T a waste of time. Nineteen years later I’m still here and perfectly healthy. Yes indeed, Mark 11:23 DOES work. HOW it works depends on what you believe in your heart and speak with your mouth, but know this, it DOES work. Mark 11:23 can be your best friend or your worst nightmare, and it’s up to YOU which.
Take fire, for example; it can heat your home and cook your food, or it can burn you to death. Fire is fire, but how you USE it determines if it is a blessing or your destruction. Your words are EXACTLY like that, and when Christ Jesus spoke Mark 11:23, He gave us the secrets of the universe, and yet it’s like nobody is paying attention. If we REALLY believed what Jesus said in that verse, we would act like it, and we would be living a much more blessed life, I said IF we REALLY believed it. I’m just a simple country boy, not a rocket scientist, and yet even I know that God cannot lie. While there are conditions to every one of His promises, if I do what MY part is, there’s no doubt in my mind that HE will do His part and make it come to pass.
Maybe you’ve never taken the time to see yourself as God sees you. That alone can cause you major problems. Do you seriously think He wants to see you destroyed after investing the life and blood of His Son Christ Jesus in order that you might be saved? Go look in the mirror. There you will see one that Jesus suffered beyond your wildest imagination to save from destruction. You will see the one whom God loves and wants to be blessed. You will also see the one to whom the Holy Spirit is available to dwell in, to guide you into all of God’s best. If you will read God’s Word, you will soon find God has a great deal invested in you, and He has given you everything you need to live in the blessing, including a mouth to speak His Word from. God didn’t give you a mouth just to shove pie into, He gave you this promise in Mark 11:23, For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Now, like I said, your words can be your best friend or your worst enemy. What Jesus said there tells you how to exceedingly blessed, or exceedingly miserable. Your words WILL affect your life for either good or evil, and knowing this, how will YOU speak from now on?
Pro 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Lorie Leahy on 27 Oct 2012 at 9:05 am #
Jerry, thanks! You and the Holy Spirit know my recent challenges. A favorite song of mine for awhile now is by Casting Crowns, “I am my own worst enemy’. I love that song because it speaks to my heart in the same way you are saying. Just before reading this I watched a Beth Moore 20 minute challenge to Listen to God for 10 days to see where my heart is deceiving myself. She used Jer. 17:7 – 10. Deceiving could mean what we are doing wrong but also acknowledging how much God is involved in our life and we are doing what he ask rather how he is working.
Thank-you again for your ministry and I know what God is wanting me to focus on.
Lorie
Rena on 29 Oct 2012 at 12:39 am #
It’s a great sermon!
Robyne on 29 Oct 2012 at 6:25 am #
Well Done Pastor Jerry