Listen, if someone comes to you with the faults of another, you've got a choice in a moment to shut it down, and begin to speak something positive. If you don't, you lose your initiative. We've got to be empowered to actually create changes in relationships, by shutting down things which destroy them, and speaking in things that will build them. So gossip and slander are just horrendous ones. We get on the phone, in Proverbs 11:13, a tale bearer reveals secrets; but the one with a faithful spirit conceals a matter. So if you've got a faithful spirit, you don't go around blabbing other people's failures. You actually just keep them quiet. You don't advertise them, you don't shout them out. Even when Saul fell, David didn't rejoice over Saul falling. He actually mourned over it. He didn't go around gossiping. He didn't go round spreading stories, spreading rumours, all that kind of thing.
In Proverbs 6:19, the Lord hates a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. God actually hates it. If you start to talk about a person and negatively affect their attitude, you're sowing discord, and you'll reap something even greater in your own life - and God hates it. Just think about that. Every time you start to talk about someone negatively, and they're not present, you're saying things that God is recording, that's been listened to in heaven, and you're starting to set something in motion that can move you forward, or it can move you backward. You make the decision.
These are very, very powerful. Anyway, I'll just finish it with this thing here. An example of it's Miriam. Miriam thought she had every right to criticise Moses, because he married a black Ethiopian woman, so she got her tongue wagging, and started to gossip about - you see this woman he's marrying? Man, what kind of choice of a wife is that? An Ethiopian! How come he marries an Ethiopian? Isn't anyone around here good enough? She got gossiping and running him down - and God heard. God said this: I heard what you said. You should have had more respect for Moses than to speak about him behind his back like that. You've got Me upset now - so Miriam walked away covered in leprosy. Horrendous - that's a story for us to get a lesson from. Don't go bad-mouthing people, don't go bad-mouthing - if you can't say anything nice, just zip the lip. Just better to zip the lip, than to let it run away and get yourself into trouble.
The heart issues usually are bitterness and pride, bitterness and pride. When we're bitter in our heart, we will then start to run others down. When we've got pride in our heart, we'll speak, and run people down. We delight in their failures and their weaknesses and shortcomings. If there's envy of another person, you'll be caught up doing this kind of thing, so the common heart issues are envy, bitterness and pride. So if we're going to deal with gossip and slander, then what we've got to do is deal with those things in the heart; bring the Lord in place of repentance. See, the Holy Ghost will help us. You don't have to really sweat on this one; He is a spirit of truth, sent to lead us into truth, so all you've got to do is say Holy Ghost, begin to talk to me, if I've got a disease of lying, and I'm beginning to open the way for demons in relationships, and misrepresent things, and create a situation that's not real, or not true. Lies inherently must fail, because there's no substance in them. The truth inherently will stand, because it's the truth, it's got substance in it, see?
If I'm a gossip, if I get on the phone and yappety-yappety-yap about others; young people, guard your tongue, guard your mouth. Don't go running people down, don't go listening to the stories you - someone comes with a story, did you hear about so-and-so? No, I didn't, I don't want to hear if it's negative either. Why are you telling me this? Have you told it to them? Shall we go to talk to them and see if it's true? Just stand up and actually don't become a garbage can for someone else defiling you. Normally if someone comes with gossip, they'll test you out, how open you are to hear it, and when they start to test you out, that's the time to make a stand and say no. Just put your hand up and say no, I don't want you to speak about that person like that without them present. If you can't speak positively about them, please don't run them down to me.