Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit will be good, or make the tree evil and its fruit will be evil; in fact, the tree is known by its fruit. 34 Race of vipers! How can you say good things while being wicked? For the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good treasure of the heart; but the wicked man from his wicked treasure draws wicked things. 36 Now I say that on the day of judgment men will give an account of every idle word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. “
When he said these things, Jesus was referring to the Pharisees, whose hearts were far from God and used to utter evil words. He called them ‘Race of vipers’ and said to them , ‘How can you say good things by being wicked?’,Clearly relating their speech to their heart.
Even our mouth always speaks on the basis of what we have in the heart and utters words of blessing if it is full of the Word of God, destructive words if instead it is full of bitterness, anger, resentment, disappointment. It is not in church, in fact, that the true believer is recognized, but by how he speaks in daily life.
Since our speaking activates a spiritual world, which will be the divine or the diabolical one depending on what we say, God urges us to nourish with His Word the new heart He has given us, so that good words will come out of our mouth that will confer grace,.
The apostle Paul reveals to us how decisive our speaking is in our life of faith.
Romans 10: 8-10 “The word is with you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the word of faith, which we preach; for if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. In fact, with the heart one believes to obtain justice and with the mouth one makes confession to obtain salvation. “
The apostle explains that to work, faith needs two things: to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth. It is not enough just to believe with the heart just as it is not enough to just confess with the mouth, both are necessary.
Faith always works like this, both to obtain salvation and to appropriate every other promise of God.
In the Old Testament the Lord required animal sacrifices, today he accepts only spiritual sacrifices.
Let us read it in the epistle to the Hebrews: Through him, therefore, we continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise , that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name – (13:15).
What are the sacrifices of praise? They are spiritual sacrifices we make when circumstances disprove God’s Word and we make a sacrifice to declare it. For example, when we are ill, it is a sacrifice for us to affirm: ‘ by His bruises I have been healed’ and to praise God by saying ‘ You are the Eternal who heals me’ ; or when we find ourselves in need to say: ‘Lord I thank you because You are my Shepherd and I will lack nothing ”, or praise Him because we are sure that He will get us out of the difficulties we are going through. Praising God and trusting Him when situations say the opposite of His Word is a sacrifice He welcomes, such as when we declare victory as we go through difficult situations and seemingly find ourselves in defeat.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and effective , sharper than any two-edged sword and penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is able to judge thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Greek word distòmos, generally translated with the expression ‘two-edged’, being associated with the sword, can literally be translated ‘with two mouths’, one of which is the mouth of God, from which the Word comes living, the other is ours when he repeats, making it effective, what He says. The Word spoken by God, in fact, is alive, but it is we who, by declaring it, make it effective and able to change our life and that of the others.
Proverbs 18:20 Man satisfies the belly with the fruit of his mouth, he is satisfied with the product of his lips. 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
These verses state that in the same way that we nourish our body through the mouth, through the mouth we nourish our spirit when we declare the Word of God; but if, instead of declaring the truth of God’s Word, we utter words with our mouth that accord with the circumstances, we do harm.
What is written in the book of Proverbs (12:18) the language of the wise brings healing, confirms the creative power of the word. Our words can generate life or death, because they also affect our body, and many get sick precisely because of the words they speak.
The book of Acts refers to a healing that took place through the apostle Peter, similar to that performed by Jesus when he healed the paralytic and restored his strength.
Acts 9:32 Now it came to pass that while Peter was traveling all over the country, he also came to the saints who lived in Lydda. 33 Here he found a man named Aeneas who had already been lying in a bed for eight years because he was paralyzed. 34 Peter said to him , “Aeneas, Jesus, the Christ, heals you; get up and make your bed. ‘ And he immediately got up. 35 And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord.
Peter had learned from the Master how to speak and when he spoke a word of faith: ‘ Aeneas, Jesus, the Christ, heals you’ he stimulated the faith of that man, who believed and obeyed the command ‘get up and make your bed’. That event gave rise to an awakening, in fact all the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron were converted to the Lord. The same thing will happen in the awakening that has just begun in Italy and of which the signs are also seen in the cold North (spiritually speaking), where many so far very small churches are beginning to explode.
It is very singular what we read in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, who claims to have been transported by God to a valley full of the bones of the dead.
