There is much said about the necessity of good speech in the Bible. Salvation, healing and other benefits in the Kingdom are received by believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. (Rom 10:10) However, the opposite is also always true with any law of faith. Strict directions can be found in Proverbs, as well as other verses, to be silent. If you are thinking evil, for goodness sake – don’t speak! Prov 30:32 “if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.” This advice is profound. We need to understand the value of not speaking any fear at all, predictions of demise, gossip, slander, sarcasm or curses of any kind. Take your words seriously. The spiritual realm is real. Bless and curse-not! (Rom 12:14) James Ch 3 is full of advice on the tongue. Believe it; your words have power.
Once you understand this, you are half way to the Promised Land. The only problem is our habit of negative speech. Satan will try to cause and provoke you to speak negative things about yourself and others in any way possible. The temptation to speak negatively, repeat bad reports and predict a negative future upon your own life is so strong, it’s like a gushing river. Use your hand like a dam and lay it upon your mouth to literally stop your heart from confessing, predicting and agreeing with sickness, poverty and demise of any kind. Until you are fluent in blessing yourself and others, lay your hand upon your mouth. Try to be conscious about your negative speech and see how quiet you become.
This act of stopping negative speech has really affected my family. My children are all aware of our “no-evil-speech” rule. They understand that we will shut them down as soon as we hear contention, gossip, rudeness, dark stories and communications of horror or fear. We will not allow horror movies, drama and death in our house. Still working on the cooperation here and there. But they are aware and because of the value we place on peace, we rarely experience contention or strife in our home. We practice blessing each other often and do a lot of laying our hands upon our mouths. Arguments have been at an amazingly low level for years. Health is high; peace is high. People enjoy our home.
When we are not bound by evil thoughts we should purpose to bless with our mouths. The best thing we can do for others is to bless them. Speak well of your family even if evidence dictates otherwise. Prophesy your family’s future through declarations of faith. “Our children are wise! They make good decisions. They are leaders; lovers of truth. They choose wisely all the days of their lives.” Declare it to be so until it is manifest. Speak life or nothing at all. Speak blessings or lay thy hand upon thy mouth.
