Who Controls Your Mouth Ps.19: 14 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
David said, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer”. To be sure that your words are acceptable to the Lord, you must know who controls your mouth. Because if the wrong person or spirit is controlling your mouth, then what you say is not going to be acceptable to God. So, who controls your mouth?
You – Matt 12:36-37. You are accountable for everything you say. Ultimately, therefore, you are the one who controls your mouth. This is an impossible task. The reason is that no man can tame his tongue [Jas 3:8-9]. Before you speak to anyone about anything, therefore, you ought to spend a bit of time praying, even if briefly like Nehemiah [Neh 2:4-5], to make sure what you say is acceptable to the Lord [Prov 10:32]. If nothing else, you should keep your words few [Prov 17:27-28].
Your Heart – Matt 12:34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. This is very much like the first point. However, the difference is that what you say reveals your heart. When you listen to what you say you get a look at what that deceitful heart of yours is up to. A man who loves fishing is going to talk a lot about fishing. And a man who loves himself is going to talk a lot about himself. A man who loves God is going to talk about the Lord, and so forth. Furthermore, if you hesitate when you are speaking because you are carefully trying to figure out how to say what you want to say “just right” then chances are two things are true of you. You fear men [you want them to like you] and your heart is wicked [you don’t want them to know what’s really on the inside].
The Lord – Prov 16:1. “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord”. Balaam answered several times for the Lord when, in fact, he really wanted to give Balak some advantage over the Jews. God would not let him curse Israel with his mouth [Num 22:35; 23:7-10; 23:18-24; 24:5-9; 24:17-19; 24:20-24]. However, when Balaam was finally able to advise Balak, he gave him counsel that caused the death of 24,000 in Israel [Rev 2:14; Num 25:1-5, 9]. Jeremiah is a good example of a man in whose mouth the Lord put a word [Jer 1:9]. Often men will say something at just such a time and you will know that the Lord put that word in their mouth.
Someone else – 1 Cor 2:6. Today there are multitudes whose mouths just run off with foolishness. Their mouths feed on foolishness [Prov 15:14]. Their mouths pour out foolishness [Prov 15:2]. And in the end their words are mischievous madness [Ecc 10:13]. You’re not thinking when you simply repeat the foolishness you’ve been feeding on from your classroom, your television, the internet, your cell phone, your radio and so forth; that’s because you’ve lost your ability to think. Someone else has to do it for you.
An Evil Spirit. It is scary to think that your mouth could be controlled by an evil spirit. And don’t think that just because you go around blessing Jesus all the time you are filled with the Holy Ghost. Most professing Christians who are all the time magnifying the work of the Holy Spirit are likely some of the most demon possessed people around. For one thing, the Holy Spirit did not come to magnify his own work [Jn 16:13-14]. And for another thing, demon possessed people fell down before Jesus and cried [Mk 3:11] like those slain in the spirit. The damsel possessed with the spirit of divination professed that Paul and his men saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation,” [Acts 16:16-17]. Be careful following these folks that are always talking about the spirit!!
The Holy Spirit – 1 Cor 2:4-5. Paul preached in demonstration of the Spirit and power. He was filled with the Spirit of God when he spoke. When we speak, particularly to others about the Lord, we should be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he can speak through us in power [Acts 1:8], in boldness [Acts 4:31] and in truth [1 Pet 4:11; Jn 14:26]. To be effective witnesses for the Lord, the Holy Spirit must be able to direct our conversation. And remember that no man can say that Jesus is “the Lord” but by the Holy Ghost [1 Cor 12:3]. There are plenty of professing Christians who say that “Jesus is Lord,” but even the devil will do that when he is condemned [Phil 2:9-11], so be careful with believing they are Christians just because of their profession!
Conclusion: At anytime on any given day, your mouth could be under your control, or the Lord’s control, or someone else’s control or even an evil spirit’s control. Our mouths should be under the Lord’s control and we should be filled with the Spirit so that we can say those things that are acceptable to God and so that we can be excellent witnesses for him to the lost.