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. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:29-30

When we think of unwholesome talk we typically think of vulgar expressions, sexual innuendo, coarse talk, and so on. The word in the original language is sapros. Greek scholars say that the word relates to anything causing decay or rot. It can be used to denote the ravaging and disgusting effects of disease on a human body. Leprosy comes to mind. It can also speak of an adverse fate or future. All in all, it connects unwholesome words to expressions that cause decay, weakness, illness or that lead to a negative future.

Instead of unwholesome words, we are to speak words that build up and benefit. The idea of building up is to strengthen or to draw out the potential in someone. The word translated as benefit carries with it the flavor of a gift given out of love or a grace given to someone as God gives to us out of his grace.

An amplified translation of Ephesians 4:29-30 might read, “Let no words come out of your mouth that impart weakness or decay that leads to death. Do not speak words that diminish another or that rob him or her of a full future. Rather speak words over others that build them up, that develop their potential, and that impart strength. Speak out of love. Let your words be life-giving gifts, given out of grace rather than because someone has earned the words or merits your encouragement.”

If you think about it, Paul’s words line up well with Proverbs 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” The implication of the Ephesians passage is that words spoken to injure or diminish someone do actually damage the recipient. That loveless action on our part grieves the Holy Spirit. Lovelessness on our part is always sin because it violates the very nature of God, who is love. We sin when we wound by our actions or our words.

We live in a world so saturated with words that we barely pay attention to what we say or even what others say. Yet, God pays attention. One of the most sobering passages in the New Testament comes from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus said, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt.12:36-37).

Words have power. The words of God created a universe out of nothing. We are made in his image. At some level, our words have power to create as well – for good or for evil. We need to measure our words and govern them. I know people who say whatever comes to mind and take pride in their frankness and openness. But in many ways they are like someone firing a gun randomly into a crowd and then denying responsibility for those injured because they “didn’t mean any harm.”

As the people of God, we are to always be sources of life and blessing. The Holy Spirit should flow out of us like living waters into the world around us. We are to be constant sources of blessing – speaking wholesome worlds that build up, encourage, heal, and that draw out the potential for goodness and greatness in people. If our style is to criticize, find fault, or belittle others, we need to repent. God has placed the potential for good in every human being. Our words need to draw that out, reinforce the potential, and create in the other person an identity of goodness and greatness. Our words should always bless and never curse.

The world needs a good word. There is something in nearly every person that responds to encouragement, someone believing in us, and a call to greatness. Our words can either kindle that response or quench it. Choose to be a source of life to everyone you encounter today. See what a difference it makes for them and even for your own heart. Blessings in Him.

We often talk about the power of words. God spoke and his very words carried the power to create a universe – something out of nothing. He also declares that when his words go forth they always fulfill his purpose. We are made in his image and although that image has been diminished by sin our words still have power. “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (Prov.18:21)

Jesus challenges us. He came as a man, not as God, and by his words the lame walked, the blind gained their sight, the deaf heard, the mute spoke, the dead were raised, and demons were dismissed. Jesus spoke and heaven empowered his words – usually blessings but at least one fig tree felt the sting of a curse and died. Then Jesus said that those who believed in him would do the things that he had done and, in fact, would do even greater things. Our words also carry authority and direct power in the spiritual realm.

In one sense, we have no power and authority other than that which comes from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Some would say that our words have no power or authority at all unless Jesus agrees with what we say each time we say it. If we command demons then it is really Jesus who is standing next to us and commanding. That picture is like a little boy who sees a bully suddenly run away thinking that he has intimidated the bully when, in fact, big brother had just walked up behind him and the bully was actually afraid of him not the little brother.   There is some truth in that view. We operate in the authority of Jesus not our own, but we carry His authority to be exercised at our discretion.

Just before healing the lame man, Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6). Notice that Peter did not say, “I’ll pray and ask Jesus to see whether he will choose to heal you or not.” He said. “What I have, I give you.” What he had or possessed was power and authority to heal. It was delegated by Jesus and empowered by heaven but that power was released at Peter’s discretion. The words of a believer have power because we have delegated authority and are released at our discretion. Sometimes we get a direct word from the Lord to speak something but most of the time we are using our own discretion.

Because of that, James warns that our mouths should be sources of blessings and not curses because our words matter. Jesus tells us to bless even our enemies and Paul commands the church to bless those who persecute us…bless and not curse. God’s people should be constant sources of blessings because blessings release good into the world and the world certainly needs more good.

Think about it. By your words today, you can release health, peace, prosperity, life and healing into a world of darkness. You can direct the very blessings of heaven by your words and at your discretion. I like what John Ortberg has to say about blessing as he quotes
Dallas Willard. “ There are two great words in the Bible…that describe the postures of our soul toward other people. One is to bless. The other is to curse. We are people with wills and in every encounter with other people we will what is good for them or we fail to do so: we will what is bad. We cannot help ourselves. Blessing is not just a word. Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. We must think it, and feel it, and will it” (Ortberg, Soul Keeping, p.153).

Ortberg goes on to say that true blessing is done by the soul. True blessing that carries weight and authority is not a phrase thrown out when someone sneezes – God bless you! It is something that comes from deep within us with heart and conviction. Then we release the power of heaven for blessing. The power to bless is to be stewarded like the King’s money. It is to be used for the good of people with intentionality not just tossed around in the streets for anyone to pickup. True blessing is an expression of God’s grace which every soul on earth craves.

Blessing can be conveyed not just with words but even with actions and gestures. You know when you have been loved and you know when you have been rejected. You know when you have been affirmed and you know when you have been disrespected. In other words, you know when you have been blessed and cursed by someone else’s soul. Dallas Willard said that we are so sensitive to words and actions because our souls were made to be blessed and cannot survive without it. Broken people reflect broken souls and broken hearts. Jesus made us vessels of blessing to facilitate the healing of both. Lets remember who we are today and what one of our primary directives for living is…bless and not curse. Make a decision today to speak some kind of blessing today into the life of every person you meet and when you say it, mean it. And for starters, let me bless you….

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. “ ‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. (Isa.38:1-8)

This is the final blog in this series on Hezekiah. He is another man in scripture who begins well but then slips toward the end of his life. From the text above, you see that the favor of the Lord was still with him. Again, severe trouble had come to Hezekiah in the form of illness and it seems that his appointed time to die had come from the Lord. When a notable prophet comes to you and says, “Get your house in order, you are going to die,” it is usually time to get your house in order. But Hezekiah cried out and God changed the very word he had sent through the prophet. If Hezekiah had simply accepted his death and not cried out to God, there would have been no extension. Prayer matters even when it seems that something is inevitable.

Can we change the mind of God even when a prophet has declared set times and events? Apparently we can. We never change God’s purposes or his character but we can change his timetable because God has all the time in the world. He owns time. If Hezekiah had not prayed I’m certain he would have died within days or weeks of the prophets announcement but he did pray and God shifted his timetable by 15 years. Not only did he shift the timetable but he also gave Hezekiah a miraculous sign to confirm the words of Isaiah.

What a blessing! But after that blessing a shift occurred. “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah” (2 Chr. 32:24-36, emphasis added).

The blessings of God can be a reminder of how amazing He is or a stumbling block when we believe that the blessings are evidence of how amazing we are. If you search the accounts of Hezekiah in Isaiah 39 and 2 Kings 20, you will see that envoys from Babylon came to see Hezekiah. These were ambassadors from a powerful nation and a powerful king. Hezekiah was flattered and took them on a tour of his palace. He eagerly displayed all of his riches to them. He didn’t take them on a tour to demonstrate God’s greatness but his own greatness and his own pride became a snare.

God rebuked him for that pride and he repented. However, his pride had set something in motion that would impact his children. Not only were the Babylonians impressed with his riches but they were also impressed with how much they would like to have those riches in their own vaults. In time, Nebuchadnezzar would come and take not only the king’s riches from Jerusalem but also every valuable item from the Temple as well. The sins of the father were certainly visited on the children (Ex.20). Hezekiah lived the final years of his life with that hanging over him but the smallness of his heart was revealed when he expressed gladness that the troubles he released would come on his children rather than on himself.

In all things, we must guard out hearts. The accumulation of God’s goodness and blessings in our lives can lead to pride if we loose perspective. As we evaluate our lives we should always take inventory of what God has done for us rather than taking inventory of what we think we have accomplished in our own strength and with our own amazing abilities. Of course, young men can fall into the same trap but those who have displayed humility and wisdom in their past seem vulnerable in their later years. Solomon succumbed to idolatry. David succumbed to lust. Hezekiah was overtaken by pride. Satan never took his crosshairs off these men and as they became careless in their later years, the enemy pulled the trigger.

In the great days of the Roman Empire, generals who had won great victories were given a “triumph” or a parade in their honor. As the generals rode through the streets of Rome in their lavish chariots, we are told that a lowly, unnamed slave was appointed to ride with them and whisper repeatedly in the ear of the celebrated general that he was only a lowly mortal and not a god.

In our own lives, we need people around us who will remind us that what we have has come from the goodness of God and not because we are so awesome. We need people around us who love God enough and us enough to tell us the truth and we should always invite that truth. We cannot guard our hearts alone. Our hearts are too prone to deception.

Those of us who are wise will invite a few trusted people who are spiritual to speak to us when they sense that something is amiss. The more powerful you are or the more successful you are, people will be less likely to tell you the truth so you must insist on it and when it comes, receive it. The wise man says, “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you” (Prov.9:8). If you don’t have those people in your life ask God to provide some. Be blessed.

Enough about curses. In this last segment on words, let’s move on to the empowering and encouraging aspect of our words. God has placed us on this planet and called us into his kingdom to rule on his behalf. In order to do that, he has given us authority and authority is expressed through words.

Jesus came as a man. His most used self-descriptor in the gospels was Son of Man. One of the reasons he came as a man was to demonstrate the life that each of us can have as we walk in fellowship with the Father. What Jesus did, we can do. Jesus lived a life as a representative of the Father expressing his authority and directing the power of heaven through his words.

Through words he commanded men to be healed, demons to depart, the dead to come forth, storms to cease, lepers to be cleansed, blind eyes to see, and lame men to leap. His words released the power of heaven into situations on earth. His words were powerful because he was declaring the Father’s will over individuals and circumstances. Jesus said, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (Jn.12:49). Remember God’s word to Isaiah. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa.55:11). When God’s word goes forth it will accomplish his purposes whether from the lips of the Father, his Son, or those who represent him – his sons and daughter’s on the earth.

If it is a specific word and a fresh word from the Lord it is powerful. If it is a declaration, a prayer, or a command that expresses his will as revealed in scripture it is also powerful. Our words release God to fulfill his intentions on the earth. We do not control God but God, in his own sovereignty, has determined to rule in partnership with his people and, in many cases, he waits on us to declare his word over circumstances he wishes to change before he acts. Most of us understand that concept when it comes to healing or deliverance or provision. But what about the process of shaping the lives of people?

God’s word is compared to a seed in numerous places in the scripture. It goes forth carrying an innate power to produce life. In the right environment it will grow and bear abundant fruit. Many prophetic words are words that God is broadcasting with the potential to produce what has been declared if they are accompanied by faith and obedience. Sometimes the faith is in the one who receives the word. Sometimes the faith is in the one who declares the word.

Speaking life over people is simply declaring God’s will and God’s truth over a person. Like watering a seed, we are calling out the potential for good and greatness that God has placed in every person. We are calling out their destiny in Christ. Our words, because we have authority, impart power to that potential. When we encourage one another, build up one another, or bless one another we are imparting power to the potential God has placed in each of his children. When we call out gifts, faith, leadership, salvation, success, or godliness in others we are releasing the work of the Spirit in those individuals to produce what we are calling out. That is speaking life over others (or ourselves) rather than death. That is blessing rather than cursing. We are doing more than expressing sentiment; we are releasing the power of heaven because we represent heaven. This is especially true as we declare life and destiny over children.

So…measure your words. Be intentional. Be life-giving. Words matter because they have power. Recognize the power God has placed in your mouth and use it to administer God’s grace in every life and every situation – including your own and be blessed!

Words Matter (Part 5) – More About Curses

Biblically, there are two sources of curses. One is the result of persistent and unrepented sin on the part of a person, a family, or a nation. The other source is a spoken curse established by our own words or the words of another. If you read through Deuteronomy 28, you will see that God established certain consequences for obedience and disobedience to the covenant he established with his people. Obedience brought an array of blessings while disobedience triggered an array of curses. Those curses manifested in the form of crop failures, financial woes, oppression by others, health issues, problems with pregnancies, drought, defeat, mental illnesses, and so forth. God also established a principle that the children would experience the punishment of their Father’s sins to the third and fourth generation (see Ex. 20:5).

These consequences are called curses and some of those curses may be attached to families for generations. I do not believe that God is the source of these evils since by nature he is good and he is light and in him is no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5). Since Adam turned his dominion, planet earth, over to Satan, God’s people have lived behind enemy lines. Satan is always poised to kill, steal, and destroy anything or anyone that God loves. There are times when our persistent sins, our rebellion, and our pride force God to lift his hand of protection that has restrained Satan because our actions have given Satan a legal right to come after us. We experience Satan’s attacks as curses. Paul expressed that reality in his letter to the Galatians. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.         The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal.6:7-8). Consequences operate in the spiritual realm as well as in the natural realm. God warns us and even pleads with us not to open ourselves up to curses. The biblical pattern for breaking these sin curses is to acknowledge our sin or the sins of our Fathers, repent of our sins, renounce the sins that have brought the curse, and then to nullify those curses in the name of Jesus who became a curse for us that we might be blessed. There is an entire chapter on curses and vows in my book Born to Be Free if you want more detail on that.

In addition to sin curses are word curses. In a sense, the words of man have creative power. God spoke the universe into existence with words. Man is made in his image and although that image has been diminished by sin, remnants of his nature are still reflected in all men. Our words can create by setting forces in motion that establish the very things we spoke. We pray and we declare God’s word over situations and people with faith that he will establish what we prayed or declared when our words express his will. That is true because God has given his people authority. But Satan can also give authority to those who walk with him. In my last blog, I mentioned Balaam who had the capacity to inflict curses on others. We are told in Joshua 13:22 that Balaam practiced sorcery or divination. In other words, he called on demonic powers to enforce his curses.

We have no need to fear curses. The bible tells, “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” (Prov.26:2). In other words, curses spoken by others don’t have the power to affect us if we walk with the Father and keep our hearts and words aligned with Him. However, most of us have seasons where our walk is more of a stagger and in those seasons we may be open to a curse spoken by others. Since we have authority, our own words may act as curses when we pronounce judgments and negative outcomes over ourselves. If we have opened ourselves up then repentance, renouncing the sin or the words, and the blood and authority of Christ is sufficient to nullify any curses. Each time Israel fell under a season of cursing because of disobedience, repentance and renouncing broke the curses and opened up a season of God’s blessings again. As our hearts turn to the Father, he is able to place his hand of protection and blessing over us again.

What we need to remember, however, is that we can be aligned with God in 90% of our lives but if we have reserved 10% for the flesh, secret addictions, unforgiveness, etc. that 10% makes us vulnerable to curses spoken by others. Our own words always have authority to establish curses. Again…I don’t believe that a single utterance will open us up to a curse but if we persist in sin or negative words we may find ourselves being oppressed and afflicted by the enemy. Words matter and so we want to speak only as Jesus would speak and always speak life over others and ourselves. Be blessed!

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. James 3:10

When we speak of cursing today we usually think of swearing or cussing or simply saying hateful things to someone with whom we are angry. In our minds we limit the damage to hurt feelings or broken relationships. The Bible views curses as much more serious because they have a spiritual dimension to them.

In Numbers 22, we find an interesting account. Israel had moved into the region of Moab. Balak, the king of Moab, felt threatened by their presence. He went to a man named Balaam and declared, “Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed” (Num.22:6) But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed” (Num.22:12).

Balak had seen the power of Balaam’s words over people and situations. Those over whom he spoke blessings seemed to be blessed and those over whom he had spoken curses seemed to be cursed. The interesting thing is that God took him seriously and instructed him to speak a curse over those whom God had blessed. How do we make sense of that in our world?

It is not that words have power in themselves but they have authority to set things in motion in the spiritual realm. A curse releases forces in the spiritual realm to come against a man, a family, or a nation to work for negative outcomes in the natural realm. Before you write that notion off, think of a curse as a kind of prayer. We pray to God and ask him to set forces in motion to bring blessings and positive outcomes to ourselves, our families, and people we care about. We pray for health, provision, protection, direction and all kinds of things and expect God to mobilize his angels or to work through his Spirit to create positive outcomes for those we bless.

A curse is a kind of a prayer than mobilizes forces in the spiritual realm to hinder blessings and bring about negative outcomes in the life of the individual over which it has been spoken and Satan is very eager to take the curse as his authority to come against those who have been cursed. Satan is always poised to kill, steal and destroy and he is simply looking for the legal right to do so. A curse may give him that right.

If you are reading this blog, you probably already believe in the God-given authority of believers to command, declare, and pray for kingdom outcomes in lives, situations and nations. If our words have authority, how much more should we guard our words so that we do not release a curse over others either purposely or carelessly. We should always speak blessings because our words can set demonic forces in motion to enforce any curse we speak over others. As I have already said in this series, we may not take our words seriously but the spiritual realm does.

Our words don’t have to be formal curses. They can simply be expressions of ill will or judgments over others: Your worthless! You’ll never amount to anything! I wish you were dead! You’re going to end up in prison just like your worthless father! Etc. We can even speak curse over ourselves in the same tone. I don’t believe every careless word is enforced as a curse by demons but I do believe that if we say it often enough or with enough venom, the demonic realm may answer. I also know that there are man and women today who do pronounce formal curses over God’s work and God’s people. Maybe someone has even spoken a curse over you or your family even in past generations. I will discuss that in our next blog. Until then, be a constant source of blessing even toward your enemies (see Luke 6:27-28).

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. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:29-31

If we were to take a survey at any church and ask the members what they considered to be “unwholesome talk” they would most likely identify unwholesome as coarse or sexual language. In his statement to the church at Ephesus, however, the apostle Paul seems to include a much wider range of spoken things than that. From the scripture above, we might conclude that Paul thought of unwholesome talk as anything that tore down or diminished a person rather than building him or her up.

That view seems to be confirmed by the list of things Paul commands us to jettison from our lives…bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander, and every form of malice. Malice means to hold ill-will or spitefulness toward another person. So, things we might blurt out in anger or words we might share over coffee that slandered another person’s reputation or character (gossip) would fall under the umbrella of unwholesome words. Put-downs, constant criticism, or sarcasm would also find their way into this category of words that tear down rather than building up.

The gist of the command is that we should be a people whose words constantly build up the people around us and that call out the best in them. To do less grieves the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Unwholesome words grieve the Spirit because they are contrary to his character and his nature. In a world of hurt, our words should always be a source of healing. The wise man said, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Prov. 12:18). James said it this way, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” (Ja.3:9-11). Salt water kills living plants and humans while fresh water brings life. Our words should impart life because our God is a God of life.

Words matter because they have the power to build up or tear down. The heart of God is to build up and the to call out the destiny and greatness he has placed inside every human being. Whatever your emotional or relational struggles are in life they usually relate to early experiences of rejection, constant criticism, abuse, or fear. Most of that came in the form of words. Words can wound or words can heal. God calls on us to be encouragers, healers, comforters, and those who build up the people that the world has torn down. Anything short of that falls in the category of unwholesome and honestly constitutes sin. David declared, “I have resolved that my mouth will not sin” (Ps. 17:3). We should resolve the same.

If you want to change the world around you or even want to change yourself, you may want to start with your own words. Examine your words. In one sense, our heart determines our words but in another sense our words affect our hearts. It is a two-way street. The things we speak consistently eventually are written on our hearts. Speak as God would have you speak and you will become more like God in your heart. Speak life not death; encouragement rather than criticism; greatness rather than failure; and words that always build up rather than tearing down. Your words have impact for good or for evil. You choose the fruit that your words produce.

(Thoughts on blessing and cursing in Friday’s blog.)

I am very concerned about our nation. I’m sure you are as well.  I’m not just concerned about the teetering economy, the decline in morality, or the continuing holocaust of abortions in America. I’m not just concerned about God being pushed out of our schools or a culture that is calling evil good and good evil. I’m not just concerned about the blatant corruption in government and lack of truth telling at all levels. If we had to live in the midst of that it would be difficult enough.  What I am most concerned about are the curses that these behaviors and attitudes are about to unleash on America.

A strong thread runs through scripture that is summarized in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia.  “Do not be deceived.  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal.6:7-8).  In the Old Testament there are huge sections on “blessing and cursing.”  In Deuteronomy 28, God gives an extensive list of blessings that will come upon Israel if they faithfully serve God and an extensive list of curses that will be released if they reject God.  Nations reap what they sow as well as individuals.

Those curses listed in Deuteronomy include economic disaster, sickly children and blighted crops. They include failure in everything they attempt, diseases that ravage the nation, drought or destructive weather patterns, defeat from enemies, confusion, a man’s hard work being harvested by strangers, oppression of all kinds, and aliens in the land rising up and ruling over native born citizens. These curses sound like the six o’clock news.

In the book of Job, Satan complained to God that he had put a hedge around Job so that Satan could not get at him (Job 1:9). What we see in that chapter is Satan wanting to destroy Job and his family.  God, however, in his goodness and mercy had been restraining the devil because Job was faithful.  When men or nations sow to the flesh long enough, God is compelled by his holiness and our free will (which also chooses our consequences) to turn these men or nations over to their own choices.  When that point is reached, God lifts the restraints and Satan has access to individuals or nations because they have aligned themselves with the enemy.

When curses flood into a person’s life or over a nation, these curses are not something God has conjured up but they are simply what Satan has been wanting to release on that nation, family, or person all along.  Because of God’s love for all men, he restrains the enemy and these disasters until man has sown so much destruction that it must be harvested.  The law of sowing and reaping then kicks in. Here is the sobering part.  The harvest is always greater than the planting.  An acorn produces much more than itself.  A kernel of corn produces dozens of ears of corn.  A man gets back even more than he put in.

That’s good news if you are sowing to the Spirit for God will give you more good things than you sowed.  But if you have been sowing to the flesh, the destruction will far outweigh the evil you have planted.  Many times the destructive results will affect generations.  Children will reap what their fathers sowed. The biblical principle is that the consequences of the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the third and fourth generations of children (Ex. 20:5).

Our nation is mocking God and sowing to the flesh in abundance.  Jesus said, “To whom much is given much is required” (Luke 12:48).  God has given much to America over the last 300 years.  America has not been ignorant of God, his Word, and his ways.  He has blessed us abundantly in our faithfulness but will discipline us abundantly in our rejection of him, his Word, and his ways.

Our hope is in the grace of God and his willingness to forgive and restore when godly sorrow and sincere repentance come from the heart of a man or a nation. But rather than righteousness and repentance flowing out of the church in America I am seeing compromise, going along to get along, a desire to be more acceptable to man in a perverse culture than to God in his holiness.  A few are declaring God’s truth and absorbing the ridicule and accusations of culture but more are being silent.

God’s judgment, which is the release of the enemy to have his way with men who have partnered with Satan, usually comes first in a slow stream giving men the opportunity to recognize what is happening and turn again to God.  Then the stream widens – disasters are greater and more frequent, and then if no repentance comes, God is forced by our own decisions to open the floodgate and let the enemy come in without restraint.  History is full of such lessons.  Curses are not vicious acts by a vengeful God, but rather the harvest of what we have insisted on planting year after year. God takes no pleasure in judging nations or men. His heart for us is to repent so that he can bless us again.  But it is still our choice.

Our sincere and constant intercession for our nation, its leaders, its people, and the church is still our hope and can be a powerful weapon to push back the enemy.  The authority of believers needs to be exercised on behalf of a nation and our nation evangelized by the love and power of God once again.   Even this struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are in a state of war and we have been promised the victory – but only if we stand, only if we fight. My prayer is that more than ever before believers in America will rise and fight against the enemy and drive him out of this nation so that the goodness and blessing of God can flourish here again. I hope you will make a decision to go to war today against the dominion of darkness and not stop until the victory is secure. Be blessed today knowing that God goes before those who go in his name.

I’ve just finished teaching a short series on the supernatural power of words in the life of a believer.  I need to teach on the power of our words from time to time because I need to be reminded.  As believers, we need to continually guard our hearts and minds so that we are not hijacked by our culture.

Right now, every time I turn on the news or a talk show, my blood pressure goes up almost instantaneously.  The constant war of words on the airways is irritating.  Solomon said, “Where there are many words, sin is not absent” (Prov.10:19).  That must be more true today that at any time in history.  Culturally, truth seems to have been put on the top shelf of the closet to be brought out only on very rare occasions.

It seems that everyone has become a “spin doctor”.  Everyone claims that the words they spoke clearly last week do not mean what you thought they meant.  In fact, they mean just the opposite even though the videotape contradicts the claim. It seems that the most responsibility anyone will take for the hugely inaccurate things spoken a week ago is that they were not as clear as they should have been. That’s like me telling you  (Col.3:9) that I want you to paint my living room “sage green” and after you do so, I tell you that what I said was “canary yellow” and I expect you to repaint it.  After you protest, I simply say that you misunderstood or, perhaps, I wasn’t as clear as I should have been but you still need to absorb the time and cost because you should have understood “sage green” to mean “canary yellow.”  That kind of communication makes us all crazy.

In a culture that decided decades ago that all truth is relative and that everyone has his or her own truth, this kind of double talk should probably be expected.  My concern is that we, as believers, might be infected with the same mind set that words really don’t matter and that we should never be held accountable for what we say.  But, as Christians, we don’t live in a kingdom where “truth is relative.”  We live in a kingdom where truth is absolute and unchanging. We live in a kingdom where we are to speak the truth in love (Eph.4:15),  put away all lying (Col.3:9), and let our “Yes” be “Yes” and our “No” be “No” (Mt.5:37).

Words are extremely important.  In fact, Jesus tells us that on the Day of Judgment we will have to give account for every careless word (Mt.12:36).  We are ambassadors of Christ on an alien planet.  We should always reflect the culture of heaven and the character of our King in everything we say. In fact, in every circumstance we should try to sense what our King would say, if he were present, and speak only as he would speak.  Words have power.   As a believer, a priest, a king, and an ambassador of Christ in the earth, your words have authority and power. Jesus spoke, not as the Son of God but as the Son of Man and see what power his words carried.

Our words have amazing potential to create good or evil both in the natural and spiritual realms. God is very clear that he wants our lips to be a source of life not death to every person and every circumstance.  He is clear that fresh, life-giving water is to come forth from our hearts rather than salt water which brings death when given to often to living things. We are to be a constant source of blessing, rather than cursing, and we should speak clearly with integrity as a people who do what we say because our Father always does what he says.  May our words be pleasing to God (Ps.19:14) and may our speech be unique in our culture.  Peter called on us to speak as if we are speaking the very words of God (1 Pet. 4:11). In doing so we will be set apart from the world around us. May we be honest, kind, and yet direct in the things we say and may our words be full or grace and life to all those around us…and by the way, that includes the things we say to our spouse and children behind closed doors.   Be blessed.

To believe God’s promises we must believe that he is good and good all the time. We must believe that he is merciful and grace-filled as well as faithful.  Anything less puts us on doubtful ground.  If God is not good then we cannot expect him to fulfill his promises or at best to be arbitrary in doing so. If he does not operate out of grace and mercy then we are left to earn his favor or obligate him to give us what we are asking for.  As soon as we step on that ground we are back to earning our own salvation by meritorious works which we know flies in the face of the gospel.

To have faith in God’s response to our needs and our prayers we must have confidence that he loves us, that he is always faithful to his promises, that he is consistent in answering our prayers, and that he is willing and ready to bless, heal, save, provide for and protect his children every day as any good father is ready to do.

So why is it hard to believe? Often, it is simply that His kind of heart and trustworthiness is simply outside the realm of our personal experience with relationships in this world.  It takes a while to begin to understand that our heavenly Father is not like our earthly father and friends

I think part of our struggle to believe is found in a misunderstanding of God as he is portrayed in the Old Testament.  Let’s face it, in the O.T. God often seems rigid, harsh, and punishing. We see entire tribes being destroyed at his command and seemingly well-meaning folks touching the Ark of the Covenant or making a mistake in rituals and dying for their trouble.  We often feel like the Hebrews who cried out to Moses that they didn’t want any part of the presence of God … he was too terrifying for them.

And yet, scripture tells us that both the Father and the Son and, by implication, the Holy Spirit are unchanging – the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  So how do we understand this God of the O.T. in light of the words of Jesus who clearly said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”  If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

We can’t look at every event in the Old Testament to see if we can view Jehovah through different eyes but maybe looking at some broad strokes of the brush can help us develop a different perspective on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

First of all, lets hear God speak about some of those things.

Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’(Ezek.33:11)

You have been concerned about this vine though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  But Nineveh has more that a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city? (Jonah 4:10-11)

Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12-13)

These verses reveal that the Lord’s heart was never glad to send destruction or judgment on a nation, even the enemies of Israel. The grace of God established restraints against sin from the very beginning, because without restraints sin itself would destroy the world. The restraints were judgments that would come in the face of persistent, rebellious, unrepented sin. God spelled out to Israel the consequences of rebellion and the blessings of obedience before Israel entered into a covenant with him. They were very clear about what their decisions would produce.

Without restraints (judgment, disasters, etc.) the fallen nature of man would destroy everything so we must see the judgments of God as not only a response of holiness but also of love and mercy.  How often did God send prophets to warn these nations and call them to repentance before judgment was released? At some point, even though is was not his desire, God was forced by the rebellious spirit of man to release the consequences and the judgments that he had held back until he was forced to honor the choices of men and nations.

Secondly, God had to protect the bloodline of the Messiah for the sake of the entire world. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” But to give his Son, the nation of Israel and the bloodline of Judah had to survive in the face of nations who were committed to wiping out all of Israel. Those nations are still bent on doing so.   The voice of Islam and especially nations such as Iran (ancient Persia) and organizations such as the PLO are still sworn to carry out the absolute destruction of Israel.

Before the cross, there was no remedy for the depraved heart set on destroying the bloodline that would deliver the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Those nations were under the dominion of Satan and there was as yet no payment for sin and no Holy Spirit to grant men a new heart.   For the sake of the world, then, some nations or cities had to be totally destroyed so that they could not be Satan’s weapons to extinguish the salvation of all men.

I believe the Flood that destroyed all but eight souls on Noah’s ark was the same expression of mercy for the thousands of generations to come. Genesis tells us that before the flood, every imagination of men had become wicked all the time. Noah preached repentance for 120 years without one response and, before wicked men either corrupted Noah and his family or murdered him and with him the bloodline of Messiah, judgment had to finally be released.

The coming of Messiah, the sacrifice for the sins of the world, and the coming of the Holy Spirit has given the Father more options for restraining sin in the world.  The bloodline no longer has to be protected at all costs; the gospel of God’s love and the Holy Spirit can enable men and nations to be born again; and the church has been given a clear mandate and power to make disciples of all nations.

This God is the same God yesterday, today and forever and he is good – all the time.  His heart is always to bless, to heal, to protect, and to provide.  He is long suffering and full of grace.  He is still holy and there are still limits that must trigger the restraints to sin God established long ago. But know that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father.  Pray with confidence. Pray with expectation. Destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus.  Don’t doubt it.  Your God is ready and willing to deliver, heal and set free.  He has always been willing.