when spoken through

when i was a kid, we would go to my grandparents' house. they were lovely people, very fun, but also expected that at the dinner table the children were quiet. we learned that we should only speak when spoken to. it is a wonderful discipline for children to learn.

so recently, i have wondered, wouldn't it be so wonderful if the children of God took a similar approach? how much sin, pain, and destruction of God's glory could be avoided if we just simply spoke when spoken [i]through[/i]?

wow.

if our minds are set on things above, then perhaps our ears will be too, and so with our mouths. let us honor our Father and Husband in this way...

love you all, hope this blesses.

2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

Eccl. 5

growingholly wrote:
if we just simply spoke when spoken [i]through[/i]?

Count me in. I like the thought.

Holly,

What a wonderful post. I dig right into the Book of Proverbs and so much speaks about the words of our mouths and Jesus Himself said that we would be judged by every idle word we speak. EVERY! Wow. It made me examine myself and what issued from my mouth continually.

We are also admonished to be swift to hear and slow to speak. How many are harmed by words that flow from an unbridled tongue!

So every morning I ask for the Lord to set a guard at the door of my lips and keep the door of my mouth.

Dear Sister, I am blessed as I know you are seeking the Lord with all your heart. I know that the Lord will strengthen, stablish and settle you and your humility is an asset here on this sight.

God BLess, Kathleen

Oh Holly, this blessed me so much. Just this week I had one of those incidents that makes you want to vow to never speak again. I shared some information with a friend that I didn’t realize had been told to me in confidence. I was absolutely horrified when I found out what I had done and apologized profusely. And to God, all I could say was “please help me shut up.”

What a tremendous thing it would be to speak only when spoken through. Thank you for this wonderfully encouraging thought.

Apparently the Lord wanted to emphasize this point today. My reading this morning included Jeremiah 15. In included the following lines - one from Jeremiah and one from God. Jeremiah to God, 'When Your words came I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight'. God to Jeremiah, 'If you utter worthy and not worthless words, you will be my spokesman'.

Lord, help me to hear [b]Your words[/b] that I might speak worthy and not worthless words. Help me in this so that when I speak, I might be spoken through.

wow, what encouragement you all have spoken here! i am truly very grateful to see us share each other's struggles...i have been convicted deeply and looking back lately at a trail of destroyed/damaged relationships in my life that would not have not been that way had i "just shut up", as one of you put it...oh, how i have grieved God, and myself, and many around me, because i tried too hard and didn't just shut my mouth!! how many days i have cried to God, saying, "why can't i stop? why can't i ever just shut up?" but God is so good to change all His people. it's hard not to hate ourselves when we sin...but He uses even that to bring Himself glory by changing us. be encouraged, all of you! He has blessed you all richly with these insights and those who read this thread can now be blessed by God using you.

Holly, I have learned that my words can not only damage others, they can damage me.

Each year my company has a crawfish boil on April 15th to celebrate the end of tax season. It marks the end of a very stressful couple of months for all of us, so we enjoy this time that we can talk and laugh and share our “near meltdown” stories. 2 years ago I was at this party and I was doing much more talking that usual. (I am normally pretty quiet, preferring to listen more than talk.) After an hour or so of this, I noticed that I began feeling unsettled. I excused myself from the group, and as soon as I was alone I asked the Lord what this feeling was. The answer came immediately – “you have been defiled by your own mouth.”

My words themselves had not been vulgar or inappropriate. But it was that “idle speaking” that Kathleen mentioned and it left me with a deeper understanding that such frivolous speech is not fitting for a follower of Jesus.

BUT, when we speak to Him and of Him…..what joy! May God grant that our speech would be with grace always, to the edification of the hearers and the glory of His great name.

Can't seem to get away from the subject of the importance of both hearing and speaking His words. Again in my reading in Jeremiah, 'But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear His word'? And again, 'But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways'.

I have not done well. The church has not done well. I think we are seeing the result of it.

'But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways'.

And herein lies a great part of our problem – IF they had stood in my council.

If we do not stand in His council as we should or do not seek Him earnestly as we should then when we speak, there is no life, there is no depth.

This is burning in my heart recently, my desperate need to seek God like never before. All around me I see people beginning to open to the things of God. And what do I have to offer them if I have not been with Him? One word that is spoken through us from heaven contains more power than our well meaning advice could ever possibly hope to.

For many years I would have argued that I was standing in His council and to a certain extent I was. But, where before He was part of my life (and a fairly big part) now, relatively speaking, He is all of it. I was a poor representation of the life that is possible to have in God; you cannot give more than you have.

I have found that as I have taken the time to stand more in His council - to fill myself more with Him - there is that life for Him to draw on when appropriate in my conversation with others. I find that I talk more about Him incidentally than I ever did on purpose.

I can only hope that as now I have experienced His fullness, that He will somehow use it to help others see what is available in Him. You cannot force people to drink, as I have found, but I at least plan to keep my trough full for when anyone comes thirsty.

As Danielle points out, we must first stand in His council ourselves; we must first make sure that we possess this life, that we might in turn have it to offer others.