Praise the Lord. Let's open our Bibles. I want to carry on where we were at and share with you, we're just talking about the tongue. Stick it out, let someone have a look at it. Very dangerous [laughs] and we're talking about Taming the Tongue, and where we're going to is this. Let me just say where we're leading towards, so we just know where we're going, and this is where we're heading towards. We're doing a series, we're in the church on being under cover, or positioning ourself under the authority of the Lord, in order that we can have authority to speak, and to begin to say words that release the power of God to flow. So what we're doing now is just looking at this area of the tongue, and I want to identify some of the diseases of the tongue, some of the ways we speak, and we often are not even aware of it, and they are totally counter-productive to us being able to advance the kingdom of God.
So we're just over these two or three sessions getting you aware of the power of the tongue, of the power that God has given to us to create with our tongue, and the impact of the words we speak. The Lord put something on my heart for today that really quite impacted me, as I've thought about it and dwelt on it, and I know it's going to impact you too, so let's just go back and just pick up where we were. We were sharing how God had spoken out of that verse in Joshua, Chapter 3, Verse 5; Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will work wonders among you. God has been speaking about getting our lives in order so that we can come to another level in Him, so we're looking at the tongue and in James, Chapter 3 it says this. It says Verse 2, we all stumble in many things, and if anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man. That's not bad - and able to bridle the whole body. So if you can control your tongue, you can control every part of your life. Indeed, we put a bit in a horse's mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn the whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and driven by very fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires it to go. Even so the tongue.
So notice what it's telling here, that the tongue is like a bridle on a horse. I remember one time when Joy had a go on a horse in Dannevirke. It was a great experience, and it was a spectacular experience, because she couldn't keep her feet in the stirrups, and didn't get the bridle in the horse's mouth properly, so the horse just got the bit between the teeth, and anyone who's ridden a horse knows if you haven't got the bridle in the right spot so you can pull on the mouth, you can't stop it, you can't steer it. You just are in for a ride of your life, and Joy had the ride of her life, and she couldn't do anything because she had no power to get the bridle into the back of the mouth to control the horse. If you want to steer a huge horse, you've only got to get the bridle in the mouth. You control the mouth, you steer the horse. Same with a ship; you can control the rudder, you steer the big ship. No matter how big it is the rudder will determine it's direction.
So the Bible uses these two things, a bridle for a horse, and a rudder for a ship, so the tongue for your life. Bridle for a horse, turns it. Rudder for a ship, turns it. So the tongue turns your life. You want to turn your life? Talk differently. Talk differently, if you want to turn your life, so we want to pick up a few things. I want to just go back to where I was, because there's something new I want to share today, about the tongue. In Proverbs 18:21, the Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue, so there is power in your words. Notice, death and life are in the power of the tongue, so your tongue has power. It's not just some empty little thing. It's not like your hands or anything else. There is power in the words we speak to shape atmospheres. There's power in the words we speak to create an environment. There's power in the words we speak to build relationships. Our words have power, they have an ability. When you think how God created, He didn't create by waving His hand.