Living Hope Fellowship Church

YOUR TONGUE (1)

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

YOUR TONGUE (1)

Preface

(words, lying, cursing, praying in the Holy Ghost)

          Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue. . . .”

          Many people have difficulty getting prayers answered.  We need to examine what we say when we pray.  Your mind and your heart are linked together.  Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “. . . for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

           Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.”

          The biggest battle that you will ever fight is to try to control your tongue, but Philippians 4:13 says we can do all things through Christ.  Be a yielded and clean vessel for God’s use.

YOUR TONGUE (1)

(words, lying, cursing, praying in the Holy Ghost)

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Many people have difficulty getting prayers answered, and they wonder why.  These wrestlings go on throughout the church.  Other than the fact that we are fighting the devil, we need to examine what we are saying when we pray. 

          As the gospel is preached it is spoken out.  That is how God confirms His Word.  Mark 16:20 says, “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”  Some will speak the Word of God, and find difficulty in seeing anything happen.  We wrestle this.  

          Recognize the importance of your words, your tongue, and your mouth.  Your mind and your heart are linked together.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “. . . for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”  Therefore, if there is an abundance of God in your heart as you begin to speak His Words of truth, the words will be anointed with the power of God. 

          The Bible says that the Pharisees sent forth guards to take Jesus.  John 7:32 says, “The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.”

          John 7:45-46 says, “Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?  The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.”!!  The words of Jesus came forth with power.

          John 14:23 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” 

          John 14:24 says, “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. . . .”  If you don’t obey God’s Word, you don’t love Jesus.  “. . . and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.”  Jesus spoke what God the Father told Him, and men wrote it down.  These words are anointed, and if you will pray it will become alive to you.  The Word of God will resurrect your life and those around you.

          The tongue is an unruly thing.  James 3:8 says, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”  Many people have trouble getting prayers answered, because they have not yielded their tongue to God.  I am convinced by the Spirit of God, that this is also the reason that certain ministries do not get off the ground.            Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue. . . .”  Some people “speak” everything, thinking that if they say it enough times it will come into existence, but that is the “little god syndrome”.  We are not creators; we are merely children of the most High God, so that is an error. 

          Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.”  It is a break in the spirit!  If you are living for God, but suddenly you use a curse word, immediately there is a breach in the Spirit of God in your life.  If this perpetuates, it will drive him away.  If you are going to live for God and be able to have your prayers answered, then keep yourself sanctified from this world, and clean up your words! 

          If your tongue is not wholesome, you will have a breach in your spirit.  It will be a crack and a wedge that will keep you away from the promises of God!  Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” 

          You can watch my tongue move, but that has really very little to do with the body.   It is merely performing a function.  What you would hear if you heard me speaking is actually my inner man speaking to you the things that are coming through my mind and soul, and we communicate one with another in this fashion. 

          When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, we took on the nature of the one they yielded to, Satan.  His tongue is forked, perverse, and profane, which is opposite from the things of God.  When we use the tongue in an ungodly fashion, it immediately goes against anything that God wants done, and you have a confused state.

          This is why it is important to watch our words.  Do not let your tongue take command of you, but rather take command of your own vessel.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:4 it says, “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;”  Part of the possessing of your vessel is the control of your tongue! 

          If you lust and make comments about it, you speak from what is in your heart.  Sooner or later you will say what is in your heart!  Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. . . .”

          God wants your tongue to be wholesome.  He wants to take the nastiest thing in the human body and use it for the glory of God.

          People tell lies with the tongue.  If you start telling lies, Satan begins to work to deliver what you said.  If someone tells a lie on a Christian, Satan will try to take that lie and make it manifest on that Christian.  If that Christian is prayed up, and you are lying against them, that lie will come back to you anointed of God for your hurt.  First, it went out anointed of the devil as a lie from the heart of wickedness.  It goes forth to knock on the door of the Christian’s heart to try to curse, but it bounces back on the devil.  It goes back to the one who told the lie, and “pow”, they get it! 

          Deuteronomy 28:7 says, “The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.” 

          It is good to know that Jesus gives us victory over lies and things that people say.  We have to have a strong voice for God.  I can recognize a religious devil; I can hear his tongue wag.  It sounds like a barking dog.  If you could see what God sees, you would find out what they use that tongue for at home, out in public, or in any other place.  It wags until they come into the church.  This is what we call a hypocritical tongue.  Yet, it comes back upon themselves continuously, and they get worse and worse. 

          Read all of James, Chapter three, about the tongue.  It can be worse than a breach in your spirit.  You can literally die when you perform acts of the devil with your tongue, so start yielding your body over to Jesus.         

          Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  When He fills you with the Holy Ghost and fire, the first thing that gets sacrificed is your tongue.  He wants you to praise and worship Him!

          When a person under conviction realizes that their life is not right before God, and they have a will to be right before God, they can kneel at an altar and repent.  They confess their sins with their tongue and say, God, I want to be saved and delivered.  I want to live for Jesus.  Then behold, the innermost part of the heart of that individual comes forth and rolls off of the end of the tongue, and that is seen as a sacrifice unto God!  It is pleasing in His sight. 

          The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  Too many people today have got it backwards.  They think if they just confess salvation that it will change their heart.          

          Some do the same thing when it comes to miracle working.  Some people do this continually.  Wickedness and deceit come out of that, because they try for financial gain, or fame, or for pre-immanence among the brethren.  Sooner or later that tongue will wag, and you will know what is in their heart.  You can hear a proud man.  The tongue brings a lot to light.  When that thing starts rattling and knocking at the sides of your mouth, pretty soon what is in the deep end of your soul will come out!

            Jesus says in Matthew 12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”  You can go to hell by just lying. You can go to hell by just gossiping.  You can go to hell by just telling tales on somebody.  If you did nothing else wrong in your whole lifetime, you would go to hell for that, because the tongue is a little member, but it defiles the whole body according to James, Chapter 3. 

          It is important to take control of our tongue.  James 3:2 says, “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”  Do you know that if you would control your tongue one hundred percent of the time, God would call you perfect?  You are given a command to do it, lest there be any breach in your spirit.  When you as a child of God fret and say, I just don’t know what I’m going to do, immediately you cut off any blessing that could possibly come to you, because it defiled the body.  Repent quickly and believe God to meet the need.

          James 3:3-5 says, “Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.  Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”

          Though small, I am convinced that the tongue is the most powerful member that we have.  Your tongue can do far more damage than your arm, or your leg, or your fist.  Wars are started with the tongue.  Agreements are made with the tongue and the spoken words that roll off of it.  Out of the hearts of men and women in this world words are manufactured and sent forth by a tongue of flesh.          

          You can burn down a whole forest with just one spark!  Verse 6 says, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”  One tongue in all the members of a congregation is enough to set it off, if you listen to it! 

          By perverseness of the tongue we have seen a great breach in the spirit.  That is why, I am convinced, that God desires greatly that one who comes to Jesus also gets filled with the Holy Ghost.  God can take over that tongue.  The first manifestation of the evidence of the Holy Ghost is talking in tongues.  That is the perfect prayer language without breach or flaw of any kind.  Satan cannot interpret it.  It goes right through his living room and goes straight to the throne of God. 

          That is why it is so necessary to be filled with the Holy Ghost.  Jude 1:20 says, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,” We are supposed to guard our mouths.  Matthew 15:11 says, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” 

          The tongue can defile the temple, so when you start to curse, or swear, or say something you ought not, you are immediately going to have a breach in the spirit.  It’s hard to get it back, and you don’t feel any victory for some time.

          James 3:7-8 says, “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” 

          It takes Jesus Christ to change the tongue and the heart so you can control what you say and do.  When you start swearing with the tongue, the body follows soon after.  If you say, I’m going to knock your teeth down your throat, then comes the fist!  Generally, someone will swear, or make a declaration of some sort, and then through pride they will usually try to back it up.  The tongue makes the initial impact, and the second impact is the fist in this case.           

          James 3:9-12 says, “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.  Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?  Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” 

          Look at Verse 13:  “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”  One who has a good conversation is one who is speaking with the Spirit of God in his life.

          Make a conscious effort to have a perfect tongue on your own sometime.  You will find out that we are very used to using “expressions”!  The English language is a conglomerate of many languages including French, Latin, and Spanish among others.  Some of the little remarks that we make are just not good.

          Christians are not always nice in what they say, and we use our tongue a lot of times for naught.  We should just listen for a while.  We have two ears and one mouth, so that should tell us something!

          It is important for you to understand that God wants total control of your tongue.  The Bible says if you control that, you can control the whole body.  Yield yourself and your tongue to God so that it does not curse, nor does it have demented expressions that come through our language.    

          We have to examine every thing that we say.  For example, the saying, “Knock on wood,” is witchcraft.  Did you know that many expressions that we use are actually ungodly?  The saying, “Third time’s a charm,” is witchcraft. 

          If you are filled with the Spirit of God, the Word of God should be coming out of your mouth!  You say, Well, then I wouldn’t be a very good conversation-alist.  We would be listening and getting more from God.  Then when we said something it would have some meat behind it! 

          Someone who just “rattles” has not yielded their tongue over to God!  They haven’t been praying as much as they have been speculating!  They haven’t been reading the Word, and fasting, and seeking God as much as they have been reading the magazine, or the newspaper, or working for a civic club somewhere!

          The Bible says in I Corinthians 6:19, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”         

          If there is any hidden sin in your life, sooner or later it will roll off of the tongue.  God knows ALL things, so watch what you do and say! 

          We grieve God when we make a remark like, Well, I think I’m healed, instead of I believe that I’m healed.  You can think a lot of things.  If you think that you are healed, then that means that you may or may not be healed.

          I am convinced that the tongue is the most powerful member in the body.  Jesus said that if a man loved Him, he would keep His words.  John 15:10 says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”  If you live for God, and your talk pleases God, then the anointing will come.

          Smiths Wigglesworth, an awesome man of God, wouldn’t talk over 15 minutes without praising Jesus!  If he was not talking about Jesus, then he was reading his Bible, or praying quietly.  When he spoke to a devil, it left, because he used his tongue perpetually for the praises of God and for the ministry!  He didn’t lay hands on them to cast out devils; he just said, Devil, Go!  And they went.

          He was asked to pray for a devil possessed 14-year-old girl.  It took four men just to hold her down.  (It sounds like something out of the Bible, doesn’t it?)  He told the devil, I came here to cast you out, so get out, in Jesus’ name!  It left without a hassle, an argument, or anything.  The girl was totally healed and restored to her right mind!

          All the man did was speak the Word in the name of Jesus, because his tongue was perfect; it was yielded over to God.  It is possible!  This has happened in our ministry occasionally.  As we are led by the Holy Ghost what to say, we have spoken the Word and God has moved.

          The Bible says that Jesus cast out devils with His Word.  He commanded them to go.  You don’t have to beat the devils out.  You don’t have to give somebody shots or shock treatments.  Jesus’ Word was with power!  However, He had to be a sanctified and yielded vessel to have that power.  This is where the church world is confused.  Some want the power, but they don’t care about sanctification.  Some want to know the Word, and speak the Word, but they don’t care about holiness.  They won’t live it. 

          You say, Well, it made me so mad that it just came out!  That is the devil’s job.  All of us have experienced that, but we must yield our tongues over to Jesus. 

          A lot of people believe if they continue to just speak the Word they get bigger in God, and that is false doctrine.  You have to have a commitment to the Word and act upon it.  You can say, I love you Jesus, but if you don’t listen and obey, anytime after that when you say, Oh, Lord, I love you, it is just vain talk.  Become a clean and obedient vessel for God to use.

CAN’T CLEAN IT UP YOURSELF

          The biggest battle that you will ever fight is to try to control your tongue.  I remember in 1977, before I came back to Jesus, I was under great conviction.  I used to have a nasty tongue, and I was trying to clean up my language.  I got maybe until noon one day, but I got aggravated.  I remember now the excruciating burden that it was to try to control the smallest member in my body!  I couldn’t do it.  That is why I am convinced that it is a supernatural act of God for you to get full control of your tongue.  Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

PRAYING TO the HOLY GHOST is WRONG doctrine!

          Don’t pray to the Holy Ghost.  John 16:13 says, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”

          Praying to the Holy Ghost is a good way to get a religious devil.          

          The Holy Spirit’s job is to manifest to you the presence of Jesus Christ!  The Bible says in Galatians 4:6, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”  This happens when you get saved.  You receive power after receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is another step.  We pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Ghost is a helper, a teacher, and a comforter, because he can bring forth the manifest presence of Jesus Christ. 

          Some try to put a guilt trip on people saying, Hey, you have been grieving the Holy Spirit by ignoring Him.  Jesus did not ever say anything like that.  He said in John 16:14, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”  You can ask the Holy Ghost to convict someone, because Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father and has sent forth the Holy Ghost in His stead.  There is no robbery in asking the Spirit of God to deal with someone.                                                      

PRAY IN THE HOLY GHOST

          After you get the Holy Ghost, you are supposed to pray in the Spirit, but the Holy Ghost does not pray for you until you yield your tongue to do it.  A lot of people believe that He is rattling all day for you.  No!  If He did then you wouldn’t need a tongue.

          Sometimes when we don’t know how to pray, will He make intercession for you?  Yes, but you have to pray in tongues for Him to do it.  There are groanings and utterings too wonderful to be understood.  Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  Why would Paul say to pray without ceasing if the Holy Ghost was already doing it?  You have to pray; it is not an option! 

          When you pray in the Holy Ghost the anointing of God is on your lips, and when you speak things can happen.

          Some say that they can get through with what they have in their mind and vocabulary really fast.  When that is over with, what should they do?  Pray in tongues.  If you haven’t got the Holy Ghost tongues, then get them!  That is how you pray without ceasing. 

ASK, SEEK, & KNOCK 

          When you have been in much prayer the Lord will start putting more people on your heart.  He will see if you are faithful first!  It is a sacrifice to pray all the time, isn’t it?  I get a lot of dirt in my mouth when I’m running the tractor or lawn mower, and I’m praying in tongues.  I just spit it out and keep praying!  Hallelujah! 

          Jesus told us how to pray.  There are three levels of prayer:  Ask.  Seek.  Knock.

          I’m going to give you an example.  You may have a son that is not saved.  Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you to save my son.  You just asked the Lord to save your son. 

          When you go to seeking then you start looking in the Bible.  Oh, God, I know that it says in your Word that you aren’t willing that any should perish.  You quote 2 Peter 3:9 to Him which says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us‑ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  You start saying, What is it that is binding him?  What is it that is holding him back?  You start seeking and praying.  You find out what devils are keeping him from the Spirit of God, because they do. 

          Then you go to knocking.  Devil, I’m telling you, in the name of Jesus, to loose my boy!  That is knocking in Jesus’ name.  Now, those are just examples.  Like I said, you ask, which is an entreating.  You seek; you search it out.  However, when you knock, you start beating the wall down between that individual and God.  You literally wrestle the devils off of their back.  That is the highest level.  Most Christians never make it past “Ask”.  Some know a lot of words and quote a lot of scripture, but they still don’t seek God in prayer. 

          Some don’t even know what knocking is, let alone do it!  Knocking in prayer is when you get on your face before God, and you stay there.  You scream at the devil, and you pray, and you believe God.  A lot of people don’t believe in that.  Knocking is doing whatever it takes even if it takes praying all night long.  Do whatever it takes until you get the victory.  You will actually feel the burden lift off, and then you know that you have broken through.  Then the window of heaven is open right up over your son or daughter who is lost, or whatever the need is.

          You need to yield your tongue over to God all the time to be able to do these things.  When you are praying you are asking for something that “is not”.  The problem is that some people believe that if you continue to speak something out, that it will literally manifest.  This is nothing more than incantation and witchcraft.  Our walk in God is not a “mental” thing, but a “heart” thing, for the Bible says in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. . . .” 

          A lot of people also think that Jesus sent all of it in one basket, and all you have to do is repeat it.  If that was so, then every devil in hell could do it.  You have to yield your body, and your tongue, and your life over to Christ in order to take on Christ.  The more you pray and yield to God, the more powerful your prayers are.  Then, when you ask, and speak, and command, you will see more results.  Jesus said not to have vain repetitions as the heathen do. 

          The seven sons of Sceva quoted the Word to the devil, and the devil just about killed them.  How can a devil cast out a devil?  There has been great deception on the television where one devil is pretending to cast out another one.  It makes the one look good and exalts him.  It gets really complicated, and most of the church world doesn’t know what is going on.

          If you start preaching on true holiness, you will stir up the devil.  If you preach on sanctification and about being apart from the world, you will stir up the devil.  That is okay.  As you pray, God will give victory.  (See Luke 10:19.)

          We are supposed to pray souls in.  Jesus prayed, and He is still making intercession, but He uses men and women who are sold out to Him to get the job done. 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghope@hughes.net

www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.