Speak Life or Death - You Choose | Lessons From the Lord's Brother Season 2

If you begin to complain and speak negatively, your whole spirit, your whole soul, is gonna be brought into darkness. On the other hand, when you speak light, your soul is gonna move into the trajectory of light more and more. Now we've had some really great times of teaching and ministry as we've worked through the book of James, and I left off last time in verse number two of chapter three. So by way of quick review, hear the word of God. James said, for we all stumble in many ways. It's interesting to point out that James recognized that everybody stumbles. Listen again. He said, we all stumble in many ways. And I like this because it recognizes that, again, although our aim is to walk in perfection, Yeshua said, be perfect, even as your heavenly father is perfect. Although that's our aim, we also realize God has grace and realizes that even when we're trying our best, none of us are perfect. So James says, once again, for we all stumble in many ways. And then he continues, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well.

So James, first of all, once again, has compassion on us as human beings, just as father does. Father said, he realized that you and I were but dust and realizing that he has compassion on us. This doesn't give us an excuse to live in sin or to live in unrighteousness, but it just means God sympathizes with us in our weakness as we struggle to overcome and to reach perfection in him. And we won't reach perfection until we see him face to face. When we see him as he is, we become like him, but we should be going from one degree of glory to another degree of glory every month that goes by. Our life should be taking on a new level of holiness. There should be a new divine strength that's being released from our life, new releasing of the color of God's rainbow spirit that's around his throne through our life. So we're growing in grace, we're growing in maturity, we're growing in holiness, we're growing in our emanation of God's light through our lives, but we're still growing. Okay, and James realizes we all stumble in many ways. And he says, if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. You know what that says to us? If we can keep our tongue in order, James says, if any man does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man.

So I wanna encourage us today to focus on what is coming out of our mouths. Listen as James continues about this. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. If you can get control over the words that you're speaking, it's gonna create the trajectory of your life. As you speak, your whole being goes in that direction. If you begin to complain and speak negatively, your whole spirit, your whole soul is gonna be brought into darkness. On the other hand, when you speak light, when you speak faith, when you speak goodness, when you speak goodwill, your soul is gonna move into the trajectory of light more and more. And James says, if you speak perfectly, you're gonna be complete. So I wanna encourage us today to not give ourself excuses about the way we talk. Now, this doesn't have to do with just talking ill of someone. We're gonna get to talking ill of people in a moment, but I wanna make the point now of it even means what is the spirit behind our words? Sometimes we talk just because we're nervous. And when we're talking just because we're nervous, we're not abiding in God's peace. And we're not abiding in God's will or spirit. So we have to get control over what we say,

not only in the words, but in the energy that's behind the words. What is motivating the words? What's the motive behind what we're saying? And I said on the previous broadcast, whenever I say something, like if I'm asking somebody else about somebody, I always try to check my heart and ask myself before the Lord, why am I asking about this person? Do I really care about this person? Is there a good spirit behind why I'm asking? Am I wanting the best for that person? Or am I asking about that? that person because I secretly don't want them to be doing well. We need to examine our heart under the light of God's holiness. And if our motive for speaking isn't right, then we shouldn't speak at all. I want you to really get that. We have to be so aware of the energy that's coming out from us that we restrain ourselves to be sealed in the Holy Spirit and not let ourself act or speak unless it's coming from the right spirit. But now that we've covered that, I want to move on to the specific words that we say because James gets into this a little more. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. So he's making the analogy obviously between putting a bit in a horse's mouth and thereby we can steer what direction the horse is going to go. He's making that comparison to being able to control our tongue because if we control our tongue, as I said earlier, we control the entire momentum and movement of the journey of our soul. Look at the ships also. Though they are great and driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So in other words, the ship is huge and yet this huge ship is controlled by this relatively very small rudder. So James says it's the same way with the tongue. Your body's big compared to how big your tongue is, just a little member of your body. Yet

your entire body, the entire trajectory of your life is controlled by this little tongue in your mouth. So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. So how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, the very world of inequity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and sets on fire by hell. So this is very serious if we want to live sanctified lives to begin by focusing on the words that are proceeding from our mouth. If our words are not life-giving, we shouldn't be speaking them. If there's not a good intention behind what we say, we should just keep our mouth shut. And if we can discipline ourselves, beloved children of God, if we can discipline ourselves to control our tongue, to not speak what we shouldn't speak, and to only be speaking things that bring life to the ear, we will then be able to move deeper and deeper at a quicker and quicker speed into the light and into experiencing the very presence of God. Verse number seven, James continues, for every species of the beast and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed. It has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless, I want you to hear that word, restless. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. So monitor your heart, pay attention to the movements of your soul, and ask yourself under the light of Hashem, when you speak, are you speaking out of restlessness? In other words, many of us are not comfortable when there's silence in the room. If we're sitting down with family or friends, even sometimes our close loved ones, if silence begins to drop into the room, people feel they have to speak, they're afraid of the silence, they're restless. The natural human tendency is to be restless in the silence. But if we allow ourselves to be driven by the spirit of restlessness and anxiety, we won't be able to tame the tongue. And the result is going to be that things are going to come out of our mouth that are not going to be helpful, they're going to be destructive, both to ourselves and to the hearers. So I want you to monitor your energy, I want you to monitor your soul. I want you to be aware of your soul in the light of God's spirit. And ask yourself when you begin to speak, or when you're thinking about speaking, am I being driven by anxiety and a spirit of restlessness? Or am I being led and filled with the Holy Spirit to speak? And James says if we can get a hold of ourselves...

and tame our tongue, and not allow ourselves to be driven by the spirit of anxiety and restlessness, we are then going to be able to bring our whole body, our whole being, spirit, soul, mind, and body into the light of God, into His presence. And so continuing on, James says, with our tongue, when we're driven by the spirit of restlessness, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? And so you think about how many times, I'm asking myself as well, how many times have we gossiped about other people because we were driven by a spirit of restlessness? And talking about somebody else made us more comfortable than we were just keeping silent, but the Bible says, let every man be quick to hear and slow to speak. If you're constantly talking, you have no power. If you want to walk in power, you have to control your tongue. If we want the words that we speak to have impact, our words need to be measured. We need to be thinking before we're speaking rather than being driven by evil, and as a result speaking incessantly, which is the case of so many. I know this is a challenge. What I'm speaking of takes hard work. It takes discipline, but living a godly life takes discipline. Paul makes a comparison between bodily discipline and spiritual discipline, and Paul says bodily discipline is profitable, but spiritual discipline is much more profitable because it brings forth fruit not only in this life, but also in the age to come. So this is like a challenge that needs to go deep into our heart today because I know that so many of you today struggle in this area. God wants to help us, and as you control your tongue, you're gonna feel better. You will feel better. As you control your tongue, you're gonna lift the people up around you to a new level in God's light because the tongue has the ability to bless somebody and empower somebody or curse somebody, and I'm not speaking of just cursing a person point-blank, but if you're criticizing somebody else, not the person that you're talking to, but you're criticizing somebody else to the person that you're talking to, without you knowing it, it brings down the person

that you're talking to as well. When my daughter was just a little girl, I noticed something, that if I ever criticized somebody in her presence, it changed her mood. She got into a bad mood if I ever said anything bad about somebody, and it made me recognize that when I speak ill of somebody, it brings everybody around me down into darkness. So the Scripture says, whatever is pure, whatever is good, whatever is beautiful, dwell on these things. We should speak only that, the Scripture says, which edifies the hearer. So when you and I criticize somebody else, we're not edifying the person that is listening to our criticism. We're actually hurting them, even though they might join in in the gossip, and here's something that's important to realize. When you criticize somebody else, the person that you're gossiping about won't trust you either, because subconsciously they'll be thinking, if he's talking about so-and-so behind their back, how can I trust them that they're not talking about me behind my back? So there's nothing good that comes from speaking ill of people, and this is what James is talking about. He says, with our tongue, we bless the Lord, but with the same tongue, we curse man that's created in God's image, and he says, beloved ones, this ought not to be. So I want to encourage you today to keep a tight guard over your lips, and as you do this, as you begin to restrict yourself, as you begin to restrict the words that come out of your mouth, you build up spiritual energy and And what happens is the next level of sanctification is you begin to be able to better control your thoughts. Many of us wish we could control our thoughts better. But the first way to get better control over our thoughts is to get control over our words. Because until we get control over our words, we're not going to be able to get control over our thoughts. All of us want to be happier. All of us want to have more peace of mind. So the first step into greater happiness

and greater peace of mind is to control what comes out of our mouth. And when our tongue becomes sealed by the Holy Spirit, when our behavior, the words that we speak, becomes sealed by the Ruach HaKadosh, when only what is giving life proceeds from our lips, what's going to happen is our soul is going to ascend into the light of Hashem, into God's presence, into God's glory, into the upper realms of His Spirit. And as that happens, we begin to get control of our thoughts and we gain more and more of Hashem's peace in our life. Beloved, our Creator loves us. He wants us to be happy. This is what He wants for us. This is not a prescription of condemnation or accusation. This is a prescription for holiness, for pleasing Him and for us entering in to what the Bible describes as the peaceful fruit of righteousness. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over His people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over My people, I will place My name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Yeh Vah Recheche Yahweh Vah Yishma Reche Ya'er Yahweh Hnav Eylecha Vihuneche Yissa Yahweh Hnav Eylecha Ve'asem Lecha

Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.