PROVERBS 13:3
“He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
Remember that death and life is in the power of the tongue. If the mouth is shut, the tongue cannot come out.
So, you need to know how to keep your mouth shut. It is not every time that you need to bring out your tongue to speak. Allow the leadership of the Holy Spirit to tell you when to speak and when not to speak; ...
Don’t walk in your own wisdom; walk in the wisdom of God. Be in a position to know how to order your conversations aright.
Not everything you see that you need to speak.
Not everything you hear that you need to speak.
Speak based on the leadership of the Holy Spirit; for “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
Proverbs chapter 10 verse 19 says –
“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”
It is not every time you need to speak. Not when everybody is speaking, you want to identify yourself also by speaking. You need to receive instruction as a child of God, from the Holy Spirit, to know whether you ought to speak or not.
Even when people are prompting you or desiring you to speak: don’t allow their prompting or their desire to lead you. Let only the quickening of the Holy Spirit be what will make you to speak. For “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life.”
Because as long as you have accepted our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, ... you are walking in His Ways, in His Truth and the life in Him: allow the Holy Spirit; He knows when He will give you instruction to speak. Don’t allow anybody to lead you astray, by making you to speak when you ought not to speak.
Proverbs 17 verse 28 says this –
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
It is not every time that you will speak that people will count you to be wise. The Scripture says – Even fools, when they hold their peace, when they refuse to speak, people may not know what is in their heart, … they will consider them as somebody who is wise. “... he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.” Get wisdom! Get understanding!! Know when to speak and when not to speak!!!
KNOW THIS:
Too much words do not make you a wise person. That you can speak too many words because you are an orator, doesn’t show you are wise. Moses was not an orator; but he spoke what God told him to speak –
He spoke the wisdom of God;
He spoke the power of God;
He spoke life.
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ did not show Himself as an orator. He spoke what He needed to speak. Even when He was brought to be crucified; there was a time He answered, there was a time He kept silent.
Learn how to speak, and when to speak and when to keep silent. For “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
Proverbs 21 verse 23, it says –
“Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”
Many people talk themselves into trouble; they talk themselves into confusion; they talk themselves into destruction, because they do not know when to speak and when not to speak. “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”
When the Spirit of God desires you to keep silent: keep silent! It may be a way of escape for you. He knows when to give you wisdom to speak. And when you speak based on the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God that is profitable to direct will deliver you from every situation.
For Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God. So, don’t speak because others are speaking. Speak when it is right, as being led by the Spirit.
Remember what the Scripture says in Matthew chapter 12 from verse 36 –
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
Verse 37: “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
So, order your conversations aright. Speak things that are approved of God, because every idle word that you speak, you will give account of it in the day of judgment.
So, what you can’t give account of, don’t speak of it! ‘For by thy words you will be justified, and by thy words you will be condemned.’
Don’t put yourself into condemnation through what you speak.
Speak the word of faith!
Speak the word of life!!
As somebody who has been justified through the blood of Jesus Christ, speak faith!! Speak things that edify. Don’t speak things that will bring you into trouble.
That’s why you need to bridle your tongue. You need to learn to shut up your mouth. And don’t just speak because others are speaking. Don’t just talk because others are talking.
Look at what the Book of James says in James chapter 1 verse 26 –
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.”
CATCH THIS:
So, control of your tongue, control of what you say through the control of your emotions, will help you to be a true child of God.
If you do not bridle your tongue, you are deceiving your heart. The Scripture says– your religion is vain, your Christianity is vain; it is useless. Because by what you say in your mouth you shall be justified; by what you say in your mouth, you shall be condemned.
So, learn to bridle your mouth. Don’t speak everything you see; or don’t repeat everything you hear. Speak what is approved of God.
That Book of James chapter 3 continues in verse 1 – 2
Verse 1: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”
Verse 2: “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
Most of the times, what we say offend through what we speak. But if we speak things that are based on the word of God and it offends anybody, that is not our problem at all. But make sure that the words you speak edify. Let it be a word that will bring people to the saving knowledge of the word of God.
It says – “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
Let us continue to press unto perfection by watching what we say. Let our conduct and our conversation be as becometh saints. So, let’s bridle our tongues.
As the Scripture tells us in that James chapter 3 verse 5 –
“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”
Verse 6: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”
So, if you don’t bridle your tongue and only speak those things that are approved of God, you will end up in hellfire. The same tongue that sets fire in a situation or for people, that same tongue that will lead you to hellfire.
So,
Learn to bridle your tongue.
Learn to keep your mouth; for “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
Don’t open wide your lips to just say any thing you want to say, because by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
See the case of Nabal in 1 Samuel chapter 25 from verse 10 – 13
“And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.”
Verse 11: “Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?”
Verse 12: “So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.”
Verse 13: “And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.”
What did they go after?
They went after Nabal to destroy the entire family, and everything he owned. Because David had sent his men, asking for support, because he has kept and protected Nabal and all he had: but Nabal now, was saying–
‘who are you? I don’t know you. You are a breakaway servant, and you are now coming to give me instruction on what to do.’
And look at what happened in verse 32. When the information came to Abigail the wife of Nabal; Abigail stopped the destruction by coming forward with the support that David and his men needed.
So, in that 1 Samuel 25 verse 32, it says –
“And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:”
Verse 33: “And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.”
So, Abigail saved the situation both for the entire family, and also from David shedding blood and avenging himself, instead of allowing God to avenge for him.
So, we continue in 1 Samuel 25 verse 37. It says–
“But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.”
Verse 38: “And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.”
“He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”
May you know how to keep your mouth, and don’t speak anyhow!
May you know how not to open your mouth wide!!
Don’t open your lips wide to speak anyhow, so that you will not enter into destruction. Keep your mouth and keep your life.
As you do this, remain blessed in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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