Do not say 1 Sam 17:34-37

Verse 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.

Last week we talked about our responsibility for the place the town, the city, the nation and we live in. We are responsible for the peace of that place for God said that he would forgive and heal the land if we humbled ourselves and turned from the things that we do wrong. We also discussed the need for us to focus on what we need to put right in our lives rather than pointing out what is wrong with others.

Isaiah 58:9 nkjv; Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.

We learned that if we are to move into a new season for our lives we have to be very carful about what we allow to come forth from our mouths. Our words must be seasoned with faith for it is faith that pleases God. One thing we do not want to do is to make the same mistakes with our mouth and get ourself right back into the old season. Remember the bible says that God has called us from glory to glory that means our best is yet to come and our best days are still ahead of us! “Do not say.”
So how do we avoid making the same mistakes in our new season?
Well the first thing that we need to agree on and settle in our hearts is that we will experience the future and the hope God has set out for us and before us. Our part in this equation of course is we must be willing to make any adjustments, corrections, and changes that the Holy Spirit leads us to make. One of those changes is to put a guard over our mouths and this is accomplished as we speak forth faith and testify to what God has done and is doing in our lives rather than being caught up with all the things that want to pull us down.
Note David’s confession;

1 Samuel 17:36; Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.

Words either free us, or they bind us. Words either build us up, or they tear us down. Words either encourage us or discourage us. Words declare a heart full of compliments or a heart full of complaints.
David did not get caught up with the words of fear that God’s people and king Saul got caught up with. Yes there was a giant to defeat and yes this giant was real but David was more concerned with testifying what God had done in and thru him then what was standing in front of him. This was just another opportunity for God to work in him and thru him.

Verse 37 Moreover David said, "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

David testifies to what had been and then declares what will be and the foundation of this declaration was what already had been.
We all at some time or other have had some run ins with the lions and the bears of life and some of us are still facing and still running into them but we as His people have seen God bring us through time after time and delivered us from the paw of the lion and the bear and it is these experiences we need to remember and it is these victories we need to declare as we press toward the new season before us.
We have to be careful about what comes out of our mouths and what we listen to that comes out of other mouths.

Heb 11:3 nkjv; by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Note Hebrews says that words frame worlds. The life or the world we live in has been framed has been created or formed by words - words that both others and we have spoken and then we have made these words a part of our life.
Words are absolutely vital and that is why we are encouraged to place a watch over our mouth.We have already learnt from scripture that words contain the power of life and of death.

Proverbs 18:21 njkv says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

The seed we sow with our mouth forms the fruit we eat. David framed his world with words of what God did and then releases the word of faith and slays the giant that stood before him.
When God called Jeremiah to be the prophet he wanted him to be Jeremiah was afraid of what was going to happen and so he begins to build a framework around his life to protect himself. He tries to create a world or a veneer that would insulate him from what he has to face and he does this by the words he speaks.
Listen to what he says;

Jeremiah 1:6 nkjv then said I Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.

Then in the next verse God corrects him and the world that Jeremiah was trying to create; Verse 7; But the Lord said to me: Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not say, why? Because worlds are formed by the words that you say.
It is so important to read and meditate and know what God says about us and what we have and can do in this life and stop listening to the voice of the enemy who is trying to get you to create a world that does not in any way line up with the world that God wants you to live in.
Proverbs 6:2 nkjv says we are snared by the words of our mouth; we are taken by the words of our mouth. So what this is saying is that it is possible to first be “snared” or caught in the trap and then “taken” away from the world God wants us to have by the negative words of our mouth!
Today to many wonderful people are living far beyond the level of life that they were created for because of words spoken by them or words received that were spoken by others. In some way they are snared in that circle of life because their confession has not changed. We need to dream of life in our hearts, we need to dream and vision our life in God and settle it in our hearts so that from the abundance of our heart let our mouth speak.
Having the choice in life to speak what ever we will and then knowing the power of our words it behooves us as believers to retrain our mouths to speak good things especially over our lives and loved ones. What we say can make the difference between success and failure. You will see that victory and defeat is found in the words we speak.
Pro 18:21 “...And those who love it will eat its fruit.”As we speak we enjoy the fruit of our speach whether good or bad. Good words bring a good harvest.

Proverbs 18:20 njkv says; A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled

This brings us to the second thought I would like to share; once we have decide that we want to live different then we have to give weight to that which we have conceived in our hearts by declaring the matter. Our declaration enforces and reinforces our decisions. Once we have decided to come out of our old season, we then need to declare that decision with the words of our mouth.
David faced the giant because his heart was full of the possibilities of God and despite the desire in his heart to see the giant destroyed, desire was never enough to get the job done. David had to give strength to his desires by declaring the matter. When we were confronted with the revelation that Jesus is Lord it was not enough for us to have the desire to be saved or even a belief that we need to be saved there had to be a declaration of that belief there had to be a world created where that belief could grow.

Romans 10:9-10 nkjv says; that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

There has to be a belief then a confession.
How often as believers have we been distracted away from believing that God heals and so we don’t confess it as much as we ought because we have settled with the thought that yes we know God heals for the bibles says that every one that came to Jesus was healed and Psalm 103:2-3 says; Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases. We have no trouble with this for the possibilities are all there in the bible, we know about but what we may struggle with is do we know that God wants to heal us.
Before we can change direction or cause something good to happen, we must first decide something and step into the belief of it, and then we must declare it to be so. If we believe that God heals then we have to conceive and release the belief of it into our hearts and don’t let go of it no matter what circumstance throw up at us and then begin to declare our belief in the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Job 22:28 nkjv you will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.

When we decide and declare something, it will be established in our life. Nothing happens until you declare it.
This new season do not say anything that will not produce life but instead Use our own mouth to speak into our future. Use the creative force that God has given us to speak into our goals, dreams, desires, and what we know God has for us according to His word. Use our mouth to speak deliverance use our mouth to speak perseverance, for life instead of death.
Let me close with this thought. We will eat the fruit of our lips and some times we can be led away by the fruit of others. When David is about to face the giant the promise to him or who ever slays the giant was to be part of the kings household and that seems to be a great offer in its self but the reality is that God did not want him to be part of the kings house God had destined David to be the king himself.
No matter how persuasive the words of another are or how great the offer or how persuasive this offer is to solve the problems of our lives we have to stop and ask our selves is this what God has called me into. Do I join another or do I become the king of the situation my self. There is a difference between what God offers and what a man may offer.  Too often on our way to our destiny there are opportunities to become side tracked. There is no doubt that this has be the ruin of a many a wonderful Christian. Some times in the midst of facing a giant it becomes more inviting to partake in the things that impress men instead of the things that impress God. 
David knew where his strength came from and this then enabled him to defeat the lion and the bear,he declared where his strength came form and this enabled him to be ready for the challenge of Giant. The difficulty for us on our road to destiny is to remember that our strength comes from His presence and it is God’s presence in our lives that causes us to have victories not our strength and if we remember this then the giant no matter how big will be defeated.
“Do not say”

Do not Say Isaiah 50:4

Isaiah 50:4 nkjv The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.

God gives us the tongue of the learned. I love this because we do not have to rely on what we do not know, we can rely on the Holy Sprit to guide us into our ministry in helping those who are in need. We are called by God to lead and help people out of the turmoil’s that they face and we have the answers and those answers can be found in Jesus Christ. One of the keys to helping people is to remove the focus from our selves and onto what is important and that is the kingdom of God. The whole strategy of the enemy is to get you to focus on you self and then you become the important issue not the kingdom of God.

Yes we know that God is mindful of us and He knows the very hairs on our head and all the promises of God are there for us but the reality is we are saved to be an example and a bridge a path for others to find the answers to life and living. The focus must be out to others and directed to the kingdom of God. Every thing we do must be or must have some redemptive purpose to it, where as the enemy all he does is to draw attention to himself and away from God and His purposes.

In (Exodus 7:12 NKJV) we have the confrontation between Moses and the magicians; Verse 12c says; for every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

The sorceress and the magicians threw their rods down and they turned into snakes the whole idea of this was to grab attention, to draw attention to themselves and to cause fear and intimidation to those gathered. I love the but of scriptures; but Aaron’s rod swallowed them up; all that Moses and Aaron were about was for redemptive value it was not about attention, it was about deliverance, it was redemptive for the people of God

The bible says in (2 Thessalonians 2:9 NKJV The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. He will in the last days try and draw attention around the world to himself and he will do it with lying signs and wonders.

When we stop and look at the decisions we make or our actions in life can we see what we do as having redemptive value or are the things we are involved in about bring attention to our selves? Jesus said we are the light, the salt and the yeast of the world. Light to show the way out of problems, salt to bring savour or flavour to peoples life and yeast to infiltrate every are of life with the glory of the kingdom. The kingdom of god is about life, love and light.

One important issues to have the tongue of the learned is to know how to implement the “do not says” in our life so that we are not snared by our own words and a good place to start this series is in 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles 7:14 nkjv if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

This is a very familiar passage of scripture that often is used to teach on intersession and to bring people back to the importance of prayer. The key for me is this part of the scripture which says ‘If my people would turn from their wicked ways.’ The first thing we notice is that we as the people of God are responsible for the well being of our towns, our cities and our nations and the turning first starts with us.

I want us to see if we will the focus when dealing in the kingdom is always away from our self and reaching out to others, but when it comes to issues that need to be resolved relational or others it is always pointing back and becomes personal. God does not say that we are to deal with what is wrong with others but to turn ourselves. We can so limit what can be achieve in our life when the focus we have is in the wrong direction.

It is hard to reach out to some one with words of life if we are snared by our own mouths, it is hard to demonstrate the kingdom if we are about pointing out some one else’s problems rather than turn away from what ails us. Isaiah the prophet put it this way;

Isaiah 58:9 nkjv Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am.’ ‘If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness;

Isaiah says put away the pointing of the finger, I would like to call this statement of Isaiah’s the “do not say.”
In Elijah’s darkest hour when he is hiding in a cave, when he as run from Jezebel who wanted to kill him, God comes in 1 kings 19 and challenges him with this question; what are you doing here? As you read the story you discover that instead of dealing what was wrong in his own heart, Elijah starts to point the finger at what was wrong with Israel and all that he had done for God and he declared that out of all that was in the nation he was the only one left who served God.
Even though he snared himself with his mouth, God gives him another chance and asked the same question again. Do not say what is wrong with others turn from what we need to turn from. Elijah missed the opportunity to renew his calling and the reason for his existence because he was snared by the confession of his own mouth and did not see what was really going on in his own life.
The moment we are fixed with what is wrong with others is the moment we loose our capacity to reach them or to minister to them with the tongue of the learned. We stop being light or salt or yeast in their situation. Jesus said do say it is three months until the harvest for the fields are white to harvest. What ever you put off till later is more than likely not to get done.

Elijah gave up his ministry the mount he was consumed with what was wrong with very body else rather than addressing what was wrong with himself; We are to be light so that we can show people a way out of there situation not so that we can high light what is wrong or what they are doing wrong. God says if my people who are called by my name will turn; Jesus never majored on the peoples being sinners he majored on showing them a way out of their sinful life. I am the way the truth and the life he said.
The turning has to be from us. Elijah found himself snared by his own mouth and I am not sure what brought him to that place maybe he was tired or just run down from giving out so much and the lesson to be learnt from this mans story besides do not say; is that at our greatest place of victory may also be the place of our greatest failure.

For instance we may have struggled with smoking for years and finally we have broken free from its grip and now after our victory we let our guard down and are hit with some thing else from out of left field which we thought we had victory over. Elijah who had just destroyed 500 false prophets of baal was now after this great victory intimidated by Jezebel who threatened to do the same to him as he did to her prophets. I wonder in his tiredness if he was just overcome with the enormity of the ministry and the problems that he saw before him. The bible does not say, God just asked the question, what are you doing here?

It is so important not to get caught up with pointing out other peoples problems no matter how justified you feel in doing it, the hardest thing to do some times especially when we feel justified is just keep the mouth closed. The psalmist understood this and cries out to God with this petition;

Psalms 141:3 nkjv Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

Moses faced the same problem and restricted his ministry to God’s people because of no watch on the door of his lips. Moses was overcome by the problems and issues of the people of God rather than see the solutions and that God would as he had done so much in the past provide a way out for them. When Israel were in trouble in the wilderness God instructed Moses to speak to the rock and his provision would flow out and bless his people but instead of just ministering as he was called to do he allows his mouth to run away from him and points out the problem of the people. God had instructed him to speak to the problem not about the problem.

He ends up striking the rock, which was ok to do in the past, but this was to be a time of glory that had no hand of man involved. It seems that the people problems stopped him from ministering the way that God wanted him to minister and so he reverted back to the way things were done rather than to what God wanted done. The light was used to reveal problems rather than God’s power and solution to their situation. “Do not say”

In the New Testament we are encouraged to not let any evil communication escape from our mouths for not only does it devastate people around us but it snares us and restricts what God wants us to achieve in our life time.
One way to address this issue is to implement in our lives what Paul instructed the church at Rome to do.

Rom 12:14-15nkjv bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

People do not want us to point out there sins they know exactly what is happening in their lives and they very often are not looking for answers to why they are weeping, more than likely as Paul said they are looking for support to weep with them and allow the light to show the way the salt to bring savour and the yeast to soften their lives and impregnate them with the kingdom of our God and saviour.

Ours is a ministry of reconciliation not separation.

Paul said weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice and quite often the very break through that we are looking for our lives may be hinged to this statement of Paul’s. Although you are facing a hard time you are aware of some one else’s break through and your mouth does not snare you instead you rejoice with them about their break through. On the other hand we who are living in the break through or the great blessing of God know how to sit with those who need a break threw and can weep with them when the weeping is required.

In Jer 1:11 God came to Jeremiah the prophet and asked him twice a question what do you see? The first response was that he saw a branch of an almond tree (I do not have time this day to explain what the almond branch meant to Israel but suffice for now it was very important to them) and God said to Jeremiah that he had seen well. The second response to the question was that he saw a boiling pot facing away from the north. He is what I want you to see, God said you have seen well, why? For you have not majored on the problems but your first response was to see the solutions that God would provide in the midst of the boiling pot that was yet to come.

Do not say. Even what we leave our children and our children’s children can often be established by what our mouths snare us with. The bible says that a wise man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children yet when you look at what is being left to our children is but a massive debt which will hold them in bondage for years to come despite all the rhetoric that is being put forward as good economic management. If you look through this nation there is not much left to sell to pay for what was already paid for by our for-fathers.
In the book of Isaiah we see a great insight into the modern leadership and how its mouth snares this leadership and how because of this snare their decision enslaves generation to come.

Is 39:6-8 nkjv Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.

There was no peace in the days of his children’s children; there is a message there that needs to be preached. We must face what is wrong in us and deal with it rather than be obsessed with what is wrong in some one else other wise we get enslaved and generations that follow after us.

Hebrews 12:15 nkjv looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled

;Moses, Elijah and many more great people of faith did not finish what they were asked to do because they did not put a guard on their mouths.
'Do not say.'