Powers In a Silver Tongue

There are incredible powers in the human tongue. We can walk in a gutter and spew the language of filth and sorrow; or we can walk on the Milky White Way and talk the language of angels. Of all our physical abilities and God-given creativities, the power of the tongue is the grandest. The language of the human tongue is one of our likenesses to God Himself. He can speak and things that do not exist are immediately created.

There is Divine creation in the language of our God, and there is great human power in the language of His created sons and daughters. We best learn this great truth because it will usher us into His world of grace and beauty or lead us into despair and ruin.

Solomon warned us about our tongue. He stated, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverb 18:21). He enlarged on the positive side by promising, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverb 15:4). He added, “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom” (Proverb 10:20-21). There is power to kill or power to give life in this great gift of our Creator.

James, our Lord’s half-brother, became the writer of the New Testament proverb, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 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. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:5-6, 8, 10). There is no doubt that the human tongue is truly a gift of God or a trap for wreckage. With the majority of our world and even the church, it is a door to hell.

It is also a door into a spiritual world right here on earth. The wicked person has been promised, “If we confess our sins (regardless of how evil or perverted), he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). Apostle Paul said, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Every sinner has but to confess their sins and confess the Lord Jesus Himself and they will be a new creation in righteousness. Both our own heart and the Lord of grace and mercy respond to the power of a true confession.

Righteousness is the most joyous characteristic in a person’s life. You can seek happiness with unlimited riches, but lasting joy will never materialize. You can visit the most exquisite sites on earth; but, if your heart is wicked, it will all be in vain. But, change courses and use your thought life to consider the God of the Holy Book until your lips begin to echo what that Book has promised. You will be at the door of a life so superior to this carnal world that there is no comparison. When you start talking God-talk, you will chase gloom and doubt completely out of your mind.

Many good people within the church world have never learned the power of a pure confession. They talk about their pains and heartbreaks until they are miserable to themselves and everyone else. The faith of the Bible is so supernatural that when a pure soul begins to constantly claim and confess its promises, powerful changes occur. You cannot confess God’s promises with absolute determination and faith without results. It may start slow, but, if you persist you will chase the doubts away.

In the past the church world was a place of great celebration. Methodist churches were some of the most excited congregations of the Great Awakening. Reading the life of the Methodist, Peter Cartwright, is like reading the New Testament. The Presbyterian evangelist, Charles Finney, stated in his biography that when he was filled with the Spirit, “He literally bellowed out the unutterable gushes of his heart.” The sounds of praise and the exclamation of faith and exceeding joy drew the sinners to watch the saints rejoicing. Most often, the sinners were smitten with conviction and filled the altar with tears and repentance. The tongues of the redeemed were like angels singing their glad refrains.

On the Day of Pentecost the sanctified tongues of the one hundred and twenty saints became the sounds of the Spirit’s arrival. The unruly instruments of human flesh were God’s initial manifestation that the human tongue can be tamed for His glory. Every language present in Jerusalem found one of the one hundred and twenty speaking God’s glory to them.

Bodily healing is almost nonexistent in today’s churches because we have not learned to confess the promises. We wait to be accosted by healing powers, when healing powers are waiting to be confessed and possessed. In fact, confession of Biblical promises is the first step to possessing all of God’s Biblical promises.

No confession that is not thoroughly rooted in the Holy Bible is valuable to the saints. Biblical Confession is not a greedy desire for things but a passionate hunger for God and His Word. Fill your mind with the Bible and then fill your mouth and tongue with simple rest and confession of every truth. Talk of them in your home, your vehicle, and during your every waking moment. If you awake at night, drive your insomnia away with your Biblical confession. There is power in your sanctified tongue, so walk with angels the rest of your life.