The Strife Of The Tongues

The Bible makes us to understand the techniques for cancelling them. I Kings 18:17 says, “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Are you the one that troubleth Israel?” What a bad name: troubler of Israel. Elijah quickly rejected it. Verse 18 says that he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house.” So he not only replied, he put an addition. Matthew Chapter 4, talks about the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil came and said, “Command these stones to become bread,” Jesus said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” But the devil did not give up, he tried again. He put Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “Jump down,” and then misquoted Psalm 91, “It is written, he shall give his angels charge over you, and their hand shall bear you up, lest at anytime thou dash thine foot against a stone.” Jesus said, “It is written, thou shall not tempt the Lord your God.” The devil did not give up. He again asked Jesus to fall down and worship him and he would give Him the whole world. Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shall worship the Lord Your God, and He only shall you serve.”

So, what do you do when you know there is a strife of tongue against you? I have seen a case where somebody jumped out of his car, he was happy, he was strong, but immediately he entered his office in his place of work, he became weak, tired and felt like sleeping. He drank coffee but it was like valium. He slept off even while drinking the coffee. But immediately he jumped out of the office, he was okay again. There was a strife of tongue against him.

When there is a stripe of tongue, there are three things to do:

1. Reject it.

2. Reverse it.

3. Return it.

Reject means that it does not belong to you. Reverse it, that is, return it back to the sender and decree that it will not come back again. It must always have somewhere to go. That is why Jesus said, “If any of you shall say to the mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea.” When you say the mountain should go, tell it where to go. “Be thou removed, and be cast into the sea” You reject it, you reverse it and return it to the sender.

The worst of all situations of the strife of tongue is self-directed type of tongue. Even if God wanted to hide you in His pavilion, but you are the one uttering evil words against your own life, there is nothing He will be able to do to help you until you take a padlock and shut your mouth. If you want to continue to talk, it is not your enemies that are harassing you now, it is you destroying yourself. The Bible says that the whole world was framed by the word of God, meaning that words are spiritual messengers. So you must think of what kind of words to speak.

Do you speak words of power or weakness, words of love or hatred, words of bondage or freedom, words of faith or unbelief, words of victory or defeat, words of life or death, words of health or disease, words of joy or sadness? If you do not make a quality decision to watch your tongue, you will certainly limit the miracles of God in your life. Consider the kinds of words you speak. Do I weigh my words? Am I chatting away my anointing? Are people accusing me of being talkative? If you study church history you will realise that the most powerful men of God are very quiet people. The enemies of our souls have learnt the secrets of the evil use of words. They issue curses. They chant incantations. And these curses and whatever they issue are so bad and powerful, that when they hired Ballam to go and curse the people of Israel, God Himself had to intervene quickly. If Ballam’s curse was not very serious, and was not going to function, God would not have intervened. But God knew that it was a serious thing, so He had to intervene. So you must be able to speak words that would neutralize evil words spoken against you. Also you must not support the devil in speaking words against your own life. Don’t speak words of doubt, condemnation or unbelief. Don’t speak about bad health. Don’t speak about disobedience. You must speak the words of deliverance. You must speak the words of healing, of love and of prosperity if you want to overcome poverty. When you ask some people, “How are you?" They say, “Not too bad, thank you,” meaning that it is bad, but that it is just not too bad. When you say what is happening in this company? They would say, “O my goodness, nothing is working, nothing, nothing is working." Whereas the fan is blowing, the air conditioner is there, the legs of the table are still standing, the human beings there are still talking and he says, “Nothing is working here.” And they have come for work. Instead of somebody saying, “I don’t know what I bought from the hand of headache,” let him return what he bought and stop saying so. Such statements as “I cannot allow one child to kill me,” is a statement against yourself. Even if you were in the secret place of the Most High and you are talking rubbish there, God cannot defend you. Some people would say, "Pastor, I am fed up with everything. Since the day I got married everything has gone hay-wire.” Or they look at their husbands and say, “You bastard,” Or, like a mother who used to call her daughter a bastard. Then the day the girl got pregnant and could not differentiate which of three men involved had the pregnancy, the mother began to beat her up. The man of God there said, “Don’t beat her. You have been calling her bastard, bastard, bastard, she had demonstrated the character of the bastard.” Or you look at your wife and say, “You call yourself a wife, you are as useless as your father, big leg, big hand, short ears, useless here, useless there, dunce.” If you have said these words to people, you must ask the Lord to help you today.