 Dear Friend, How are you? Hope you had or are having a good day, today? Is your tongue well? I mean it by whether your tongue is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Do you agree with what James wrote in the Bible? “Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” (James 3:4~6) I do agree and I think it’s not difficult to experience and see it in our lives. In my previous blog, The Word of God, I shared a dream that led me to realizing the Word of God, Jesus is the center. The night before I had a dream, I was reading what Pastor Joe Sweet in Lancaster, California wrote in Shekinah Worship Center website. I still remember his writing spoke too much, penetrating my heart and I couldn’t help repenting before going to bed. Then, the Lord gave me that dream after. In Pastor Joe’s writing, An Essential Key to Living in His Presence, he wrote about holiness, sanctifying our tongue and so on. And he listed out ways we sin with our tongue: “Repeating things, Criticism, Passing judgment, Opinion, Debate, Gossip, Slander, Complaining” and explained each element. My heart was poked as I still criticize, pass judgement and so on. And I felt the issue on tongue is not limited to verbally saying something, but it includes texting on our phones and emailing one another. I believe and experience both our verbal and written words could harm one another. If I should cut my tongue not to go to hell, I think I should cut my thumbs I text with too. In the earlier times of the pandemic, I spent quite a lot of time on exchanging texts with my friends. But I thought that our texts did not build up one another as they were many times complaining about our government and others. And sometimes, I wanted to prove I’m right on the faith matter. Later, I chose not to spend much time on texting to chat, but rather spend more time on reading His Words and listening to sermons and others. Yet friendship is not built-up by frequency or amount of time we chat, but by quality time and life-giving talk to one another. In a Derek Prince’ book, The Coming Revival, he explained holiness as reaction, not as action. I was stunned by his definition on holy living or godliness. My definition of godliness is having a temperament controlled by the Holy Spirit. A godly person’s reactions proceed from the Spirit. What really tells the world around us what we are like is not our actions—it is our reactions. Our actions can be premeditated. But our reactions reveal what kind of person we really are because they are spontaneous. Godliness reacts in the way the Holy Spirit would react. When a godly person walks into a room, the presence of God walks in with them. Prince Derek, The Coming Revival (p. 209). Whitaker House. Kindle Edition. Isn’t this so true? It is very enlightening, and I believe much of our reaction includes our tongue. Are our tongues controlled by the Holy Spirit? In a Neville Johnson’s book, Secrets of the Kingdom, he wrote, “God is love, and as we become love, we start to be conformed to His likeness, for that’s what God is – love. It is not the circumstances of life that change us, but how we react to them.” He also wrote about our reaction. Dear Friend, Do you like to prove yourself to be right and end up with debate, sometimes feeling you won? Do you criticize your leaders in your workplace, government or church? Or you just walk away or nod your head, smiling but not talking back when you don’t agree with someone? No matter what circumstances we are in, I pray that we react by the love of Jesus and we give life-giving speech in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord, I pray that we repent of any sins that we committed through our verbal and written words, in Jesus’ name. Father, please sanctify our hearts and tongues and make us represent Jesus in any circumstance. Have a bliss! Yunee A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; Comments are closed.
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