TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 24TH FEBRUARY 2025)
“For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” Titus 1:10-11 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 55TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
We bless the LORD GOD almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth, for giving us this day. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night showed knowledge.
Daily the LORD has been loading us with benefits. Our lives are a proof. He is amazing and gracious. His faithfulness is beyond words, and His grace beyond comprehension. There is no end to the depth of His wisdom. His love is beyond what words can describe.
That is the GOD we serve, creator of Heaven and Earth.
Our devotional text today is an apostolic scripture. I feel led by the LORD through it, to talk to us about the mouth. Yes, the text spoke about certain mouths that must be stopped. It was originally referring to the mouths of some Jewish teachers, who were trying to return believers in Christ to the ways of Moses.
Today, we still have such teachers in some local Churches, practicing and teaching things that are eternally destructive.
In as much as God wants those mouths to be stopped, one of the mouths that might need to be controlled or stopped could be yours. Maybe not because of some heretic things you say, but because of the possible unpleasant future that your mouth is creating for you.
Destinies are either made or destroyed by mouths. Recently I heard a reporter saying the former president of the United States, Joe Biden, got pissed off with the president of Ukraine at one time and even cursed because of the things the man said.
SUCH THINGS ARE ONLY HEARD IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER.
The difference between war and peace lies in what comes out of the mouth. For instance, your mouth played a major role in creating where you are today in life, whether you believe it or not. You are not what you weigh. You are what you say.
Your future is not what you weigh. Your future is in what you say.
That is why, if God has prepared a glorious future for you, one thing the Holy Spirit will teach you to do is how to use your tongue rightly. God will want our mouths stop if things that will ruin His plan for our lives start coming out of them.
The Bible says,
“Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.” Psalm 34:11-13 NKJV
If the Holy Spirit you have, is not restraining your lips from saying what is harmful to God’s plans for your life, it is either you have quenched Him, or you are having the wrong spirit in your heart. The Holy Spirit will always control what we say.
Yes, He will be more interested in what you say than what you weigh.
Sadly, most people are concerned about what they weigh not what they say. What they are saying is destructive, but they do not care. They just focus on what they weigh and work tirelessly to control it. Some control what they weigh by controlling what they eat, which is good and instructive.
But if they had taken what they say seriously, their lives would have been brighter.
Just as what we weigh is controlled by what we eat, so is what we say; it is usually controlled by what we allow our hearts to eat. Yes, the information that gets into our hearts. If you want to be saying the right things, then you must be allowing your heart to eat only the right things.
You must be allowing your heart to feed only on what is true, noble, just, pure, or lovely, or of good report, praiseworthy or virtuous.
THE BIBLE SAYS WE ARE TO THINK ON SUCH THINGS, BECAUSE IT IS WHAT YOU THINK ON THAT YOUR HEART FEEDS ON.
Yes, it is what we think about that our hearts feeds on. If you think about things that are pure and holy, there is no way that your heart will feed on something else. It will feed on the very things you are thinking of, leading to the release of pure and holy things out of your mouth.
Let me show you four of the many things I have come to learn about the mouth. I hope we are ready.
1st |. If you do not guard or control what comes out of your mouth, you will live a miserable life on earth. Most people we say are cursed are not really cursed by the external but the internal. Their mouth is their ruin, that is why they live lives that look like they are cursed.
2nd |. Your mouth will be responsible for either your success or failure in God’s plans for your life. Sometimes it is important to stop your own mouth if you want to succeed in the will of God, not the mouth of others. If you do not stop your mouth from causing you ruin, it will stop your destiny from being fulfilled.
The psalmist said, “…I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” (Psalm 17:3 AMPC). That is one thing that most people of destiny must do today. It is one thing we must all learn to do. To make sure our mouths do not transgress. The transgression of the mouth is the reason for the backwardness of many people today, but we all blame it on dark powers or close relatives.
3rd |. The difference between peaceful homes and trouble ones lies in what comes out of the mouth. 90 percent of what we call domestic violence is precipitated by what comes out of the mouth. One spouse does not know how to keep quiet when the other is upset, sometimes justly so.
IN SOME CASES, BOTH SPOUSES DO NOT KNOW WHAT NOT TO SAY TO EACH OTHER.
When it comes to the ruin of marriage by what comes out of the mouth, the blame is mostly on married women. They Bible says it is better to dwell on the roof top than with a home shared with a nagging woman. There are women who destroy their homes with their own mouth and blame it on demons or some side chicks.
I tell you without bias that the ruin of most married women is in their mouths.
I have seen women blessed with great husbands, but their mouth will not let them enjoy the gift of God in their lives. They are always saying things they should not say. They do not know how to stop their own mouths from ruining them.
Sadly, majority do not see their mouths as their marital problems, they blame demons, evil altars, monitoring spirits, evil patterns, or women within the living or working space of their husbands as their problems, even if the women are blood relatives.
The Pentecostal ones, who are ruining their marriages with their mouths, will spend time praying against everyone who is against their marriages, but forgetting that they are praying against themselves, because they are the ones against their marriages.
The Bible teaches that a foolish woman pulls down her home with her own hands.
Recently I was looking at what Esther must be spending three days praying and fasting about when she needed to meet her husband, the king. I believe she was, among other things, seeking God on the right use of the tongue.
SHE NEVER WANTED HER TONGUE TO BE CONTROLLED BY EMOTIONS BUT BY WISDOM.
Most women do not know that if your husband is a great man or someone with a great responsibility from the LORD, you must be careful what you say to him. You must not ruin your marriage with your mouth, like Vashti did. Esther must have learned that.
Vashti must have thought that her beauty was enough, but she latter found out that no matter how beautiful a woman is, if her mouth says ugly things, she will no longer look beautiful in the sight of her husband. Her life teaches that, in as much as beauty and curvy bodies are good in spicing a marriage, a woman must make sure she does not have a filthy mouth also. It will destroy her beauty if she does.
Most women think that they must work on they weight to keep their husbands at home. But they forget that it is what they say that is driving their men away not what they weigh. If every married woman will begin to work on what they say, they will allow God to bless their homes with marital bliss.
If we cultivate a peaceful mouth, we will have a peaceful life.
4th |. As earlier stated, there are preachers whose mouths must be stopped. That is what our devotional text tells us. The mouth of an erroneous preacher or prophet will destroy you, and that is where we will be closing the devotional for today.
In the book of Revelation 16:13 we are told that unclean spirits, in the form of frogs, do come out of the mouth of false prophets whenever they speak. That is why it is dangerous to listen to false prophets and teachers. If you give your attention to the mouth of a preacher that is speaking what may be working miracles in your life but not rooted in the Spirit of truth, you will be consumed by unclean spirits.
As you pass through this day, take note of the mouths that must be stopped and avoid them. Submit to the Spirit of Truth to guide your heart so that your mouth will not be one of the mouths that must be stopped.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
“Deliver my life from the sword, my dear life [my only one] from the power of the dog [the agent of execution].
Save me from the lion’s mouth; for you have answered me [kindly] from the horns of the wild oxen. I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise you. Psalm 22:20-22 AMP