Earnestly Desire That You Prophesy

 

What comes out of your mouth?  The verses in Matthew 15:18 tell us that what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.  It has the power to bring us and others life or death.  We eat of the fruit of the words we speak (Proverbs 18:21).    

We are responsible for our words.  We want to be slow to speak as we are also slow to become angry.  Someone once noted we have two ears and only one mouth for a reason.  How we manage our words matters. 

James 1:26 says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” 

If you do not have control over your tongue and speak hurtful things to others that cause them harm, it says here that your religion is worthless.  Don’t even try to be a Christian and work on other areas of your faith if you don’t have control over what you speak.

Yet we cannot control our tongue. James 3:8-10 says that “no human being can tame the tongue.  It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.   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.”

As sin enters the world, it flows through our tongues. We are always going to struggle to get control of our tongue.  And it literally can “corrupt the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6)

In Mathew 12:36, it says that there will be a time that we will give an account for every word we speak.  How heavy is that?  This means that we can control our tongues.  When we are angry and upset, we can listen and not speak.  And when we do speak, our words should be in bringing peace and not war.     

What comes from our heart has incredible power.  It can cause life and death in ourselves and others. Proverbs 12:18 says that the words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.   Have you ever thought about this?  When we speak the truth in love, we bring forth the Kingdom of God in a way that aligns the world and brings mercy, peace, and healing.    Our words have incredible power.

When we lie, gossip or cut others down, we bring forth the kingdom of darkness.   This is why Proverbs 12:20-21 goes on to say that deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil. And the Lord detests lying lips.  He utterly hates dishonesty. 

He also utterly hates gossip.   This is where you take your frustrations and bring others into it.   You vent to others thinking you will get relief only to find that you have tied yourself up in bondage and solidified lies about another person's worth with others. You may think it brings you closer to others you vent with, but as Steven Covey would say, "It is bad cement." 

It is a form of feasting on hate that sees the worst in whoever is its victim.  While it causes harm to the victim of it, it also harms those who feast on it.   It brings the Kingdom of darkness into the lives of those who open the door to it.   David says in Psalm 41:1 about people who had gossiped about him, "All who hate me whisper about me, imaging the worst."  

I know we have all been there with someone lying or gossiping about us. Or just having a misunderstanding and not feeling understood or seen.  We feel devalued and it is hard to process.  We have probably all been there too in gossiping about someone when frustrated with them or having a hard time showing someone honor and then it just got worse as we vented, speaking about them behind their back. 

This is why it is so important we keep our eyes on Jesus and not other people.  While people can be an encouragement, their emotions can fluctuate and they can make wrong assumptions that are hurtful.  When we keep our eyes on the Lord, situations like these hurt less.  And as our emotions can fluctuate, keeping our eyes on Him will keep us steady and walking in love. 

Our young people are especially vulnerable to what is spoken about them and to them.   Last night I had a dream about five young men wearing black and looking a little tough walking down the road.   They looked like a gang.  Then I heard a man drive by and encourage them.  They all smiled, laughed, and completely changed their demeanor.   From being a tough gang, they transformed into nice young teens from my church out to have fun.  All that to say, how we judge and what we speak over our youth can impact their entire future.  I felt God speak my voice was muffled and I needed to open it and speak more life and encouragement.

Besides young people, those who have had trauma in their lives more easily become stuck as they listen and more quickly receive the enemy's voice they have heard in the past through someone they loved.  So they sit down and quit, feel discouraged, beat themselves up, or become bitter in unforgiveness.   All that to say, it is important to listen to the voice of God when we are wounded.  To hear his voice of love and acceptance, encouraging you in the right way. 

It is also important to reach out to people who love you and let them speak life into you.   What helped me more than anything in my own times of feeling devalued is having someone I love and genuinely care about, speak life into my soul.  Those who genuinely know us and care about us bring healing as they speak life. I helped for many years on a suicide hotline.  I loved it.  What I realize is that sometimes, when people don’t have friends to call to pray for them and are hurting with wounds from life, they need the voice of love, mercy and compassion.   They need to feel love.   It matters.  

In one situation, a lady who didn’t have anyone in her life would call me every week.  She would just keep calling until she got ahold of me.   She would share everything going on in her life and I would listen.  Then at the end of our call, she would always say, “I love you, Twila” and hang up.  

Then suddenly I stopped hearing from her.   A week went by and then two, so by three weeks  I reached out to the supervisor to find out what was going on.  I found out she had ended her life.  Her sister had spoken horrible and hateful things over her and she committed suicide.  

How hard for the sister who spoke those harsh words.   She couldn’t take them back.  And if she hadn’t said them, her sister would be alive.  But also how important those words of life.  We were not allowed to give out our personal number but looking back, I wish I did.  I wonder if she might have called and allowed me to speak something of life and healing to her soul.  I wonder if some words of life would have overtaken the words of death.

This is why it is so important that we are speaking life to everyone around us.  We just don't know if it could change the direction of someone's life.  I once pointed out to our little neighbor boy who sleeps over occasionally, that he was great with conversations and I thought he could be a psychiatrist and help people someday if he wanted.   As he sometimes claims, "I am autistic",  his little face lit up and he comes and stays over every weekend hoping to hear more.  

There can literally be death and life in the power of our tongue.   With some of the prophets, like Jeremiah, God had so filled their words with power that there were occasions when someone died as they spoke their words.   That had to come with incredible discipline, dying to self, and using incredible care with their words that God entrusted them with such power.

As someone who has spoken harsh words at times in haste, anger, and judgment, I never say to myself after, “I am so glad I said that.”   I always feel regret and ask God to help me do better in the future.  The last thing I want is to speak something hurtful to another or gossip about them and cause them harm when God has spoken so much life and love over me.

So the point I am getting to is to hold back judgment, believe the best of others, and always take advantage of opportunities to speak life.  As we ask God for important work to do in life that has meaning, it may just be the most meaningful and important thing we do with our lives.

And as we speak life out of a position of God’s love, the Lord can use it in powerful ways.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 that we should make loving others our highest goal.  And in the same breath, he goes on to say that we should also desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially that you may prophesy. 

So why does he combine these two things together—love and prophecy?  He goes on to tell us a few verses later that the one who prophesies speaks to people for their edification, encouragement, and comfort.

Sometimes people think of prophecy as telling people what they do wrong, convicting them of sin, or pointing out their faults.  But this is not what it is.  It is a gift of the Spirit to strengthen people, lift them, encourage them, and even build their faith.  Who wouldn’t want this expression of love?!

It is a gift that often can manifest when praying for someone.  You just find that some things you start speaking of life from God begin to bring healing and tears start flowing down their eyes.  They are hearing God’s loving voice of prophecy.

Another example of this gift was once when I was at the grocery store at Walmart.  God spoke to me about the cashier that he especially loved video games.  So I asked him about this and it opened him up a little more to see that there could be a God that sees him. 

A few chapters earlier in Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12: 7-12), Paul tells us that just as the Holy Spirit gives the gift of healing, doing powerful works, and having faith for miracles, along with several other gifts, He gives the gift of prophecy.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul tells us to earnestly desire all the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. He says that we should cultivate this gift in our life.  We are to pursue love, desire the gifts, and especially prophesy—even more than miracles and healing. 

So why?  As I mentioned, prophesy is an expression of God’s love.  It helps people know they are seen and matter to God.  It encourages them and builds them up.  It also strengthens them in their spirit.  In addition to this, prophecy builds faith.  I can’t tell you how many times when the gift of prophesy was operating during prayer it strengthened the person’s faith for healing and miracles.

Speaking of prophecy, I hear God speaking to me, “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”  

Such piercing truth as I spend a great deal of time in my career giving people information.  It is my way of serving and loving them.  I will at times spend hours forming information in a way that helps others to see a point or make decisions.  I give them what I think I have to give, my knowledge, as a way of blessing them and helping them to succeed.  

I thought that I knew how to do things, but I didn’t.  Here God is speaking to me, rather than putting my energy into giving people knowledge, information, and tools to succeed, to put energy into what I speak over them.   If I put as much energy into speaking life and what God spoke about them, I could genuinely build them up and empower them to succeed. 

Lord, help me to move from focusing on giving people information to speaking life over people.   Help us to be bringers of life to every place we plant our feet.