Speak Plainly Series

SPEAK PLAINLY

"And straightway, his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly"

(Mark 7: 35).

All the words that come out of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understands, and right to those that find knowledge "(Proverbs 8: 8–9).

We have discussed the case of this mute man (Mark 7:35) in four series topics—"Spiritual deafness," "Spiritual dumbness," "The gates must be opened" and "Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". We learnt that we must hear God clearly, speak his words, and pass-through certain gates to serve him effectively; then Heaven will assist us to lose whatever we lose on earth. All glory be to Almighty God for the understanding of His words.

He looked up to heaven, sighed, and said unto him, "EPHPHATHA," (Mark 7:34); immediately his ears were opened and his tongue, which was tied by unseen forces, got loosed, and he spoke plainly. He could not utter a word before. He lived in a "wordless" world. But with God’s command, he was transferred by an unseen chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) to a "WORD" world- the world where words are majorly used for communication. Ordinarily, we would expect him to start babbling like a small child, but instead he spoke like a linguistic expert.

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His grammar was perfect, and he had a clear and soothing voice. His vocabulary was succinct, and he had good communication skills. His words flowed into people’s ears like the "stream from Lebanon" (Song of Solomon 4:15). He was forsaken before; no man went through him, but he became an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations (Isaiah 60:15). What a great miracle!

Can this kind of miracle occur in our age and time? Can a dumb man speak plainly? Medically, there is no cure for stammering, but the scripture says, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)", "With men, this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)". Brethren, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (John 6:29)"; "the dumb shall sing (Isaiah 35:6)" and "the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly (Isaiah 32:4)".

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he will beautify the meek with salvation (Psalm 149:4).

We were created by God to speak plainly, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (Genesis 1:31)"; man was created on the sixth day, and the Lord rejoiced in his perfect work on man (Psalm 104:31). Sin came to distort God’s plan for mankind, but Jesus has redeemed us from this disruption by the power of his blood (Galatians 3:13).

The word of God is plain, simple, pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times (Psalm 12:6), so we should speak and teach this clear truth in an easy language that our hearers can understand. There are different categories of hearers. Some are quick to assimilate the message, while it may take others some time to digest the truth. Some people are smarter than others, some have more opportunities because they were born with them, and some are born with gifts beyond the normal scope of men" (Harper Lee quote).

The design of speaking is for the refreshing of listeners rather than of the speaker. Our speech will be in vain if it does not refresh others but only gives us applause and commendation for eloquent speaking. Unless we speak that others may be informed, converted, comforted, edified, and saved, we are as good as to hold our peace and say nothing.

As ministers of God, when we speak, our doctrine should drop like the rain, our speech should distil like the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon their grass (Deuteronomy 32:1-2).

THE BENEFITS OF SPEAKING PLAINLY

• People will hear God’s word through us and be blessed accordingly. "Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors" (Proverbs 8:34).

• "Our lips will drop like a honeycomb" (Songs 4:11). When Jesus Christ was preaching, the people were attentive to hear him (Luke 19:48). They hung upon him hearing, as bees upon a flower, to suck out all the sweetness and the honey of his holy and heavenly counsels. Grace was poured into his lips (Psalm 45:2).

• People will remain silent at our words, acknowledging their acceptance of our speech, and will have no objections, especially if what we said is already to the point.