I remember a season in my life when I heard myself saying, “I’m so stressed out. Everything is so stressful.” I said this for several days, and then on the inside, I heard the Holy Spirit ask, “Is that what you want?”
I knew what He was talking about. I realized what I was saying, and I didn’t want that fruit. I immediately changed my tune. I asked the Lord for a phrase I could say that would produce the fruit I desired. As I pondered the busy season I was in, I remembered a phrase I had heard; it bubbled up in my heart, “Grace for the pace, grace for the pace!” That’s exactly what I needed, so I began to say, “Thank You, Lord, for grace for the pace. Thank You, Lord, for grace for the pace.” And guess what fruit I began to taste? Grace.
Fruit Inspection
Sometimes we’re eating the fruit of words we weren’t even aware we were saying. We mindlessly say things like, “Oh, this weather depresses me” or “my neighbor is driving me nuts” or “I hate my job,” and then we find ourselves depressed, frustrated and unhappy. It’s fruit.
A young couple that attends our church began to get a hold of these truths, and they made an agreement to hold each other accountable for their words. They wanted to eat good fruit, so they decided to be the “words police” for each other.
When they started, their ears were opened to their words. They heard themselves say, “That makes me sick,” and “I’m so sick of this.” Then they began to notice a pattern of sickness in their lives, so they made an adjustment with their words, and things turned around.
At another time, the wife noticed she was having a hard time standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for a table at a restaurant. Then she began to hear a pattern in her words, “I can’t stand such and such,” and “I can’t stand that”; suddenly the dots connected for her. She quit saying those things and found her ability to literally stand improved.
On another occasion, she noticed she was more tearful and crying more often than usual. She didn’t know if it was her hormones or what was going on. Then one day while she was at work, she heard herself say, “Oh, for crying out loud.” She realized this was a phrase she said often, so she began to connect some more dots.
Of course, someone might think these are extreme, insignificant or coincidental things that don’t make any difference, but then again if we end up eating the fruit of our words, perhaps these kinds of little phrases are worth considering.
We’ve all been guilty of saying phrases that seemed trivial—off the cuff comments like, “That just scares me to death”; “she drives me crazy”; “that kills me”; “that makes me sick to my stomach”; “you’re killing me”; “I’m petrified”; “I’m just a worry wart”; “I can’t remember anything anymore”; “I feel like nervous Nilly”; “that child of mine is gonna get himself killed”; “I’m losing my mind”; “she just about gave me a heart attack”; “I’m panic stricken”; “I’m so heartbroken” or “this economy is going to break me.” These may seem like insignificant words, but the real test of their significance is in the fruit they produce.
Have you done a fruit inspection lately? Are you pleased with the fruit? Do you see a connection between words you’ve been saying and the fruit you are eating?
As you get a grip on your lip and speak words that carry the power of life, in due time, you will be satisfied with the fruit of your lips.
Chapter 3: An Important Equation
Do you remember all those mathematical formulas and theorems you learned in high school and college? What about E=mc2? Or the mathematical-constant e, pi or the Pythagorean theorem (a2 + b2 = c2)? Mathematical formulas, equations and theorems work the same every time. There’s no second guessing, no hit or miss. You can count on it—E always equals mc2.
In the same way, God’s Word reveals spiritual constants as well—that is, things that are always true. Jesus gave us an example of this, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Matthew12:34. It’s a constant fact. Our mouths will always reveal what’s in our hearts. We can count on it. Our mouths cannot speak anything other than what is in our hearts. If we want to change what comes out of our mouths, we must change what’s in abundance in our hearts.
There is a huge heart and mouth constant we need to understand. If this were a mathematical formula, perhaps it would look like this: m = h + a. In other words, our mouth = our heart + its abundance. Our mouths are not independent—they are absolutely connected to our hearts.
When we understand this constant, we realize our ability to get a grip on our lip is actually a matter of the heart. To get a grip on our lip, we must start with our heart. So, before we go too much further in our study of words, let’s talk about our heart.
The Heart-Overflow Factor
Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Matthew 12:34. There is no question where words come from. Jesus said words come out of the abundance of the heart. In other words, our speech reveals what we really believe in our hearts. It’s easy to tell what’s in our hearts; we just need to listen to what we say.
For example, if you have an abundance of sports in your heart, then sports will come out of your mouth. No one has to pull it out of you. Sports will come out. Why? If sports fill your heart, sports will fill your mouth.
If you have abundant bitterness or self-pity in your heart, nobody has to pull it out of you. Everything you say is just going to sound bitter or pitiful because that is what fills your heart.
On the positive side, if you want kindness to come out of your mouth, you have to fill your heart with mercy, grace, love, patience and kindness. If you want godly wisdom to come out of your mouth, you have to fill your heart with God’s Word, godly knowledge, understanding, discernment and discretion. Whatever fills your heart in abundance is what will come out of your mouth. This is a constant.
Now, it gets even more interesting. Proverbs tells us the power of life and death is in our tongues. (Prov. 18:21.) That is, whatever comes out of our mouths has the power of life or death. So, if we want life to pour forth from our tongue, we must be certain that life fills our hearts. The only way to guarantee we experience life is to be certain life comes out of our mouths—and the only way to be certain this happens is to make sure life fills our hearts in abundance. Get the idea?
If we’re having trouble with our lips, the place to fix it is in our hearts. We have to load our hearts with the things we want to experience in life because our mouths will automatically speak from the abundance in our hearts, and the words we say will produce either life or death. Trying to exercise self-discipline with our tongues won’t do it. In fact, I am not suggesting people strain to have self-control over their mouths. It’s not possible to do unless there is a change of heart-content. We can’t discipline ourselves enough to tame the tongue; but if we will fill our hearts with the right things, our mouths will speak out of the abundance of our hearts.
The secret to controlling our mouths is our hearts.
More Than Positive Words
The idea of getting a grip on our lip is more than speaking positive words and using the power of positive thinking. Speaking faith-filled words is not just
