Death or Life

When you stand before the mirror and look at yourself, do you ever wonder what the Creator had in mind when He made you? Have you ever thought about how delicately He crafted you, and filled ever cell of your being with the forces of life?

Take a look at your head. Have you noticed that you have seven openings (entrances)? The number seven is said to represent completeness. In scripture, it is the number of a perfect God.

It is interesting that God gave us two eyes, two ears and two nostrils. That way, if one should get weak, damaged or stop working, the other can step in and help out. A look at the body proves that it is always God’s will for members to help one another.

But when it comes to the mouth, God only gave us one. Do you have an idea why? Most of us have all we can do to use our mouth properly. It causes us more problems than the other six put together. That one mouth has brought more hurt, ruin and bondage then we can ever compute.

There is no area in our personality more directly related to our total well being than the mouth and tongue. It can build us up and bring us to a place of favor in the sight of men, or it can make us the most pitiful people alive. All it takes is one mouth to determine whether we walk in life or stumble in death.

Psalms 34:11-13 teaches us to "Fear the Lord". If we are to love life and desire to see many days, we must keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking lies. Life is not necessarily determined by how many years we walk on this earth, but by how many days we are able to control the direction in which our mouth takes us.

Proverbs 13:3 says, "He who guards his lips guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." That scripture is speaking of someone who speaks out without thinking. They talk boldly but really haven’t thought out the end result of their words. Unfortunately, this person usually brings hurt to himself and others, mostly himself.

Our soul is the real us. This is the area in which weakness will first manifest itself. Our soul is the target of the enemy’s attack. The only way to guard your soul is by guarding your mouth. If you speak rashly, you will eventually come to ruin. If you control the tongue, you will have the protection of a fortress. One tongue is enough to either keep your life, or bring you down to the very pits of despair.

Proverbs 21:23 says, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue, keeps himself from calamity." When calamity presents itself, the destruction is so widespread, it affects every aspect of your life. Can you imagine a situation where all you see is distress? That’s a calamity. A desire to stay away from calamity is just sensible. We must protect our mouth and tongue. The alternatives are pretty much "black and white". Guard your mouth, keep your soul. Do not guard your tongue, walk into calamity. It only takes one mouth.

Proverbs 15:4 says, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit." There is a close connection between life and the correct use of the tongue. The wrong use of the tongue (perverseness) will cause life to leak out of your spirit.

We must keep a tight rein on our tongue if we are to contain the blessings of the Lord. It is one thing to be blessed and another to contain the blessing. The healing of the tongue of like a tree of life growing in us and bringing God’s life to us and others. It works both inwardly and outwardly.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit Proverbs 18:21. It all comes down to two things, "Death" or "Life". One tongue controls them both. The issue is whether you use your mouth to eat the sweet fruit of life, or whether you use it to eat the bitter fruit of death. Which will you choose to eat?