Prayer & The Fruit of our Lips

I believe that what I live today is what I spoke out yesterday. What I will live tomorrow is what I speak over my life today. If I speak defeat over my life today then tomorrow I will battle a negative state in my life. However, if I speak the Word of God into my life today, tomorrow I will enjoy the blessings of that Word!

In the first chapter of Genesis there are ten occurrences of "God said" within thirty-one verses and we all know that the start of Genesis is about the creation of the world. What God said was, is and will be until He comes in glory. He does not have to keep on repeating "let there be light" etc. When he spoke "light", light came into existence and stayed in existence! That is the power of God's creative word.

"A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the harvest of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" - Proverbs 18:20-21

Please note that it is called a harvest. God is talking about the harvest that we speak; He is talking about the fulfilment, the blessings, the over-running abundance of that which we speak, whether that is positive or negative.

When we have a harvest we do not just have one or two things that we bring in. Farmers talk about a bumper harvest, they talk about a harvest that is overflowing - this is the harvest that God is talking about that will come out of our lips.

Verse 21 points out that it is our choice how we fill our stomachs; we can fill it with life or with death. If we are filling our stomach with the Word of God, our harvest will be the blessings and the fruit of the Word, but if we fill our stomach with negatives, defeat or criticism, that will be the harvest.

We also have the choice to live in the power of words that are spoken over us. When I have my life to Jesus many years ago, there were people who told me, "You will never make it as a preacher; you have come out of the drug scene and you just don't have it in you to do what God has told you to do."

At that point I had a choice. I could have said, "They are so spiritual and have been serving God longer than I have, they know what is best for me so I will listen to what they say because I am good for nothing". I could have been one of the people who sit in Church and warm the pew Sunday after Sunday and do nothing for God. I could have chosen to live within the boundaries of what those people had spoken over my life.

However, when I gave my life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit spoke in to my heart and said, "I have anointed you to preach the Gospel." From then on, even though people told me, "You won't make it", I know that God had anointed me to preach the Gospel.

I did not fail because God read s the heart and I chose to live in what the Word of God has said. I only knew one thing - God wanted me to preach the Gospel and that was what I was going to do.

I did not need to have a pulpit; I could preach the Gospel on the street. So, one night I went to the red light district in Frankfurt with two friends.

We went down a very dark alley and suddenly a tall man stood in front of me. I did not know much German then but I said to him, "You know, Jesus loves you". At that he became very angry, grabbed hold of me and shouted, "I hate Christians! You all say that Jesus loves me but no one has told me how to receive the love of God".

I was so nervous that all I could stammer was, "Jesus loves you!" He became angrier, pulled a knife out of his boot and held it against my throat.

I had recently seen the film "The Cross and the Switchblade", and the words of Nicky Cruz came right into my mind and I said, "You know, you can cut me into a thousand pieces and put me on the pavement here but one thing will never change - when you turn back and walk away, the voice of God will still tell you that Jesus loves you".

The silence felt like eternity. I looked up in to his face as big tears ran down his cheeks. He put the knife away, we both knelt down at 2 o'clock in the morning and he said, "Jesus, help me!" He gave his life to the Lord that morning.

So many prayer meetings pray negative things. "Oh God, this city is so hard. Lord, my area is so difficult. Jesus, my neighbour is so hard to save. Oh Lord, it is so difficult to work for you here". Have you ever prayer anything like the following: "Lord, my problem is so big; either take my problem away from me or take me away from my problem". Neither solution will happen. Your problems are there to be overcome so that your faith is strengthened in what the Lord can do for you.

What comes out of your mouth prepares your future. What we say must agree with the Word of God. Whatever we proclaim over our lives must not become some fantasy; some dream or desire that is outside of the realm of God.

Let us speak over our lives what God has already spoken over us. His Word will never come back empty!

Sources: www.voiceinthecity.org