Notice in Proverbs 21, Verse 23; Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue, keeps his own soul from troubles. So you keep your own soul - so the words you speak not only create an atmosphere around you, and affect the people around you. They actually affect your own life. Interesting isn't it, that when we got the Holy Ghost, we got the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues, when you begin to pray in tongues, it actually edifies or builds your spirit man. If you understand the power of words, and begin to start to speak into your own spirit, you begin to start to speak words in tongues, your whole spirit man becomes energised and full of life. So the words we speak have got tremendous power to change our life, affect us. You begin to speak words over your life - I'd never be able to do that. I can't do anything. I never get things right. You start to speak that kind of word over you, you then come into agreement in your heart with failure, and you make the way for demons to help you achieve your goal. It's very, very powerful. We need to understand this important principle.
However, in Proverbs 15, Verse 4, look at this one. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. The wholesome tongue; the tongue has the power to bring healing to people. You can actually speak words that bring healing to people, touch their spirit, encourage them, lift them up. Imagine having a life like this where everywhere you went, the words you spoke lifted people up, and gave them encouragement. Imagine deciding every day, that I will speak words that will minister grace to people. I'll actually empower people through the words I speak, and even if they speak negatively, I'm not going to be defiled by that. I'm actually going to be proactive in changing this environment, by speaking words that build. It's a choice. It's actually a lifestyle, a whole lifestyle.
The Bible tells us - I want to show you a Verse in a moment, a very, very powerful Verse about our relationship - there's a number of them, but our relationship with God is greatly affected by the kind of words we speak. God listens to the words you speak. I want to show you this, and have a look with me first of all in Proverbs 27 and Verse 19. The root of the issue is the heart, so if we're going to deal with the tongue, you've got to deal with the heart, what lies in the heart, but the tongue gives an indication of what's in the heart. So the tongue's like the flag waving [laughs] and it tells you what's going on. You listen to people talk. Within a very short time you know what's in their heart.
So in Proverbs, Chapter 27, Verse 19, look what it says here. It says as in water, face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. So he's using an illustration of a mirror. When you look in a mirror, you see yourself, you see exactly what you're like, you see the exact image, so you look at the mirror - oi, spots! Need a shave. Need some make-up. You actually see what you're like - and so the Bible says when you look into the person's heart, as the heart is, that's what the person's really like. So how are you going to look at the heart of a person? It's very simple. The way you look into the heart of a person is, you listen to the words they speak. If you want to see the heart of a person, listen to the words they speak.
Have a look in Matthew, Chapter 12. We'll read these Verses here - so if I want to know the state of a person, their condition, where they're at, what's going on in their heart, I've only got to listen to how they're talking, and the words they're speaking, and then the feeling of those words, what sensation or impression the words leave me. It's interesting with people, their words sound okay, but after you've been with them, you realise your spirit has been deeply affected. Something is wrong. You don't know what it is, you can't work out what it is, but actually what's happened is, you have picked up the flow from their inner man, their heart, and if you can identify what you feel, then you'll actually discover what's in their heart. See, because words have a spirit capacity, and so when we start to talk, we speak words, and some people carefully guard their words. Their words are very carefully shaped and spoken, and when you listen to the words, the words sound all correct, but when you feel what's in the words, you sense the person is hiding behind a wall of pretence.