Milk and Honey Are Under Your Tongue: Words Decide Destiny

Sermon outline

Your words are the fruit of your heart, and God does to you what you say in His hearing, so fill your heart with the Word and speak life over your future.

1. Locate your faith: pass the paddling pool test

   Everyone functions at a different level of faith, and you can only exercise faith according to the Word in you, so do not act on the inspiration of someone else's results. A salaried man who struggles to tithe on his salary is not ready for the faith of a businessman who tithes on half a million a month. Increase is often a test, as it was for Abraham, and many forget God once He has given them the baby, the business or the house. Be faithful at your level, and give, pray and come to church out of love, not compulsion.

   Illustration: If you can swim in a metre of water, don't dive into five metres; master the paddling pool, then the swimming pool, and only then the raging river or the sea. And at the end of each month, with bills on his desk, he still tithes on the church's whole income first, by faith.

   “Don't jump on a raging river lest you pass the paddling pool test.”

   • Romans 12:3
   • Genesis 22:12
   • Numbers 23:19

2. The eyes of the Lord are on your tongue

   Proverbs 15 is about the tongue: a soft answer turns away wrath, the wise use knowledge rightly, and the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching good and evil words. Christians should not have two languages, 'hallelujah' in church and doubt at home. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, and a fool despises his father's instruction, whether from his heavenly, spiritual or earthly father, so stay teachable at every age. Asking for counsel, rather than announcing what 'the Lord told you', stirs the anointing on spiritual authority.

   Illustration: A 79-year-old Japanese fencing master on television said that after all those years his 90-year-old grand master was still teaching him every day. And when he sits in another preacher's meeting, he says, he reverses roles and becomes the student.

   “Don't preach faith from the pulpit and live doubt at home.”

   • Proverbs 15:1-9
   • Ephesians 6:2-3

3. God says, 'Stick out your tongue'

   Doctors used to examine a patient's tongue to judge his physical health. God uses the same method for your spiritual condition: whether you ask for money, healing or prosperity, He says 'show me your tongue'. Going to church, dressing well and calling yourself born again do not replace a tongue examination.

   Illustration: 'Lord, I want riches and wealth.' 'Stick out your tongue.'

   “It's your tongue that indicates what's going on the inside of you.”

4. The tree is the heart and the fruit is your words

   Jesus said make the tree good and its fruit good, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The heart is the tree and the words are the fruit; treasure means deposit, so there can be no withdrawal on the outside without a deposit on the inside. That is why the same words bring results from one person and nothing from another. By your words you are justified, declared innocent, and by your words you are condemned, pronounced guilty, so the level of the Word in you determines the fruit you see.

   Illustration: You admire the fruit in another man's life, but that is only the decoration at the end of the process; the real process is the Word abiding in him.

   “There cannot be a withdrawal on the outside if there was not first a deposit on the inside.”

   • Matthew 12:33-37
   • Matthew 7:17-18
   • Isaiah 28:10

5. Your tongue is the pen of a ready writer

   Your tongue writes on the tablet of your heart, and your whole destiny is hooked to that one member of your body. 'I'm afraid', 'I'm sick' and 'I don't have money' are not the language of the Spirit; when a cold comes, grip it with the Word instead of letting it grip you. Grace is poured on the lips and therefore God blesses, and it was the grace on Jesus' lips that made the officers say, 'Never a man spoke like this man.'

   Illustration: Kenneth Hagin said you cannot stop the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest there. And to the man who said 'the flu gripped me': 'Why don't you grip the flu?'

   “Your whole destiny is hooked up just to that one member of your body, the tongue.”

   • Psalm 45:1-2
   • John 7:45-46

6. The voice comes through the veil

   In the Song of Solomon the bride's lips are like a thread of scarlet and her speech is lovely: the church's lips are sanctified by the blood, so every word should be lovely. Her face is hidden behind the veil, but her voice comes through it. God could not see Abel's face, yet He heard the voice of his blood crying from the ground, so He certainly hears your prayers, confessions and declarations.

   “That's all God's waiting for is what? A voice. Not a beautified face.”

   • Song of Solomon 4:1-3
   • Genesis 4:7-10

7. Milk and honey are under your tongue

   The spies said the promised land flowed with milk and honey but brought an evil report about the giants, while Caleb said 'we are well able'. The Song of Solomon says honey and milk are under the bride's tongue: the land of abundance is now a spiritual place you possess with your tongue. Today's giants are unbelief and doubt, and you can use your tongue either to dig a grave or to build a skyscraper.

   “The honey is not out there, honey. The honey and milk is under your tongue.”

   • Numbers 13:23-33
   • Song of Solomon 4:11

8. As you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you

   God pardoned Israel 'according to your word', but He told the complainers, 'As you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you'; the spies who brought the evil report died, while Joshua and Caleb lived. Caleb settled his destiny by his words, and so do you. Even an offering must be accompanied by the right words, and you should cancel a bad report instead of repeating it.

   Illustration: Someone sows an offering and then drives away saying 'I don't know how we'll manage', speaking death over the seed, instead of saying, 'I believe, therefore I have spoken: it's mine.'

   “Caleb settled his destiny by his words. Your destiny is settled, good or bad, just by your words.”

   • Numbers 14:19-38
   • 2 Corinthians 4:13
   • Ephesians 6:10

9. Watch how you speak about your car and your spouse

   Do not curse your car and then wonder why it stalls, and do not keep calling your husband or wife useless. Speak blessing: say your husband is saved and a man of God, and speak sweet words to one another. He says the church needs a 'word sermon' more than a marriage sermon, but every now and then it needs to be told how to talk.

   Illustration: Smith Wigglesworth once locked his wife out after she went to a meeting; in the morning she greeted him with a smile and cooked him a good breakfast, and he came back to God, was filled with the Spirit and 'shook the world'.

   “Nag him into the kingdom, not up the kingdom.”

   • Proverbs 14:1