Having a Voice in Destiny

Gtcotr/061009

Did you know that God can speak? He can communicate to anybody with anybody or anything He wants. He is God. Not little god, but God! I grew up different than some, well maybe most. You know all those stories my dad tells are not just stories to me, but it was my life. I have seen amazing things, miracles, healings, manifestations, signs and wonders. It was common to have something happening on a weekly basis. Revelation 2:7 says “Let him who has ears hear what the spirit is saying”. With that, I was taught that I could talk with God and even better, God would talk to me. It has served me well growing up. A couple of years ago, as I was in a season of growing, I got really close to God. I would wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and while the shower was heating up and I was making coffee, I would pray and tell God anything I wanted to, but when I got in the shower, that was God’s time. I know this will sound funny, but I would set down and say to God, “Good morning! What would you like to talk about?” After that, I would wait. At first, it seemed to be just a feeling, but by the end, He was waiting on me to get in and listen. You see God’s spirit is searching the world, looking for those who are seeking him. The word also says that we are to seek the Lord while He may be found. As a side note, get up early, find a quiet place and seek God. From David to Jesus, we see a pattern of characters in the bible praying early in the morning. I promise that one thing will change your life forever. Ok, back to my story. The shower became a place where God would share to me truths and give me something to meditate on through the day. Single statements that changed the way I looked at things.

Tonight, I’d like to share one of those truths with you. Maybe I should call all of these things God has shared with me “shower truths”, then again maybe not.

· Your Spirit should control your mind, your mind will control your tongue and your tongue will shape your destiny.

If you have your bibles open them to the book of Proverbs, chapter twelve and let’s look at our key scripture.

Proverbs 12:19 - The truthful lip shall be established forever, But a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Let us break this statement down into parts. “Your Spirit should control your mind”. Our spirit man is our connection to God. It is what should drive us once we are saved; a new creation, the place where Jesus dwells. When we our saved, we are reborn in spirit. It’s where we get the term “born again” out of John 3. The “Spirit” receives impressions of outward and material things through the mind (soul). The spiritual faculties of the ‘Spirit’ are ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ ‘Reverence,’ ‘Prayer’ and ‘Worship’ to name a few. The word “should” in this statement is important to note. You see, it denotes choice. “Should” represents our will to do whatever we will to do. It’s a balancing act. You have your body, mind, spirit and flesh all vying for your will. I will take a drink of water, I will read my bible, I will seek to understand, or I will do wrong. Do you see the picture? Left unchecked, the biggest voice will be the one in control. That’s why Paul said he “slays his flesh daily”. We should build up our spirit daily to be able to let God have control in our lives. We do this by praying, reading God’s word, worshiping, and listening. Building communication and strength in God’s will for our lives. We could talk all night about this one, but for the sake of time let us move on.

“Your mind will control your tongue.” The Gates to the ‘Mind’ are ‘Imagination,’ ‘Conscience,’ ‘Memory,’ ‘Reason’ and the ‘Affections.’ It is who we are, are personality. The mind is the gateway for our will. Every action must first pass through the thought of the mind. God designed us that way. Before sin there was no “flesh” or fourth man. Your body is different than your “flesh”. The Greek word for flesh is Sarx and the Greek word for body is Doma. Your body is not bad. You body needs things to survive like water, food and rest. Your body will fight for control of your will, like when you’re fasting. If the body is stronger than your spirit, you will find yourself in a ½ gallon of ice cream after about a day of fasting. How many have experienced that? You mind facilitates your action by whatever voice is the loudest in your life. Is it your Spirit, Mind, Body, or Flesh? Which one is your mind listening to? Which one are you feeding the most? I will not watch that. Body, get up and pray, read your bible. That comes from a strong spirit, telling the mind what to think, feel and say. Be careful to guard your mind. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not with flesh and blood” … Where does the devil attack us? With our thoughts just like Eve, “hath God said?” He planted a seed of doubt, a question filled with a lie mixed with truth and prayed a pone her Reason and Imagination. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” The knowledge of God is easy, it’s been written down for us. We have it in our hands and on our hearts. David said I hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against Thee. Once again, we find having a strong spirit is important. Let’s move on.

“Your tongue will shape your destiny.” By now we should have an idea of where this is going. It’s about confession. Proverbs 6:4 says “You are snared by the word of your mouth.” The power of God is His word. God made a confession in Genesis, “let there be light” and it was so. The power of God in us is one of believing and confessing it. Romans 10:9-10 states we must confess and believe if we are to be saved. What we say is our confession and our confessions will rule our lives. What are we confessing? How hard something is, defeat or failure? “Well, my marriage is never going to get better.” “This job is never going to go anywhere.” “My children are horrible.”

Some years ago, my wife and I had our first son, Boaz. Most of you know him as Luke, but that’s story for another time. He was the hardest baby we’d ever seen or even heard of. He would scream and cry for 18 to 20 hours a day. For 9 months of his life it was hell. During this, my poor wife almost went crazy. She couldn’t sleep, eat or even have a bath without a constant fear or reality of him screaming. If he was asleep, the whole house shutdown. No one in or out, no talking, no TV, no playing, the phones were turned off. It was horrible. He was horrible. But my wife after hearing a story from my grandmother about my dad, who was born addicted to valium and would scream until he passed out and how she never said anything but good things about him, and would tell him he was a good boy. Well, this changed the way TK thought and spoke about Luke. And do you know what, things changed! Today, ask anybody about our son Luke and they will tell you, he is a great boy. Sweat and soft spoken. He gets that from me of course.

You see, your tongue has the power to change things. One of my life’s confessions is Romans 8:39, I cannot be conquered, I cannot be defeated. The bible says you will have whatever you confess. In the beginning was the Word. Jesus was, is and will always be the Word of God. The Word rewrote destiny for us. We were heading for destruction and now we are bound for glory. Your words whether good or bad with shape your destiny. From salvation to promotions, from relationships to healing, life and death are in the power of the tongue. If we are going to be able to control what we say, we will have to go back to the source, our spirit. It needs to have the biggest voice to our will. How can we strengthen our spirit man, its simple?

· Read

· Pray

· Listen

· Worship

If you will do this, your spirit will grow stronger and stronger, your flesh will grow weaker, your thoughts will change, what you say will conform to the word and God will have His way in your life. You will have a voice in your destiny.