Bill Johnson - The Power of Your Words and the Health of Your Soul
Our mouths are to be wells of life; our words are supposed to bring health and healing. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. All these things are through this book, and if there’s anything that we should take away from this series, it’s the conviction that we must be careful with what we say. Well, hello there! Welcome back. Today, we get to take a look at Proverbs chapter 10, and there are a couple of themes here that I want to address. Number one is desire, and number two is what the blessing of the Lord looks like. All right, so we’ll examine those two things.
First is desire. We’ll start with verse three: «The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked.» I am fascinated by the contrast that Solomon makes in his Proverbs—he contrasts themes that don’t always seem to fit together. Here, he states that He won’t allow the righteous soul, the emotional part of our lives, to famish, to dry up, or to be unfit. He wants every part of our internal world to be nourished. Then he contrasts it by saying He casts away the desire of the wicked. The Lord finds—I wish I had better language for this. Let me just quote 3 John verse 2: «I pray, beloved, that you may be in health and that you may prosper in all things, even as your soul prospers.» So, the Scripture focuses on the health of our internal world, and the health of our internal world makes it possible for us to be trustworthy with an abundant external world because they don’t own us; they don’t control us. The management of the heart has taken place.
Here, I thrive with or without because my life is not derived from what I own or the position or title that I have. I hope that makes sense. The Lord will not allow the internal workings of the righteous person to famish. That encourages me because it means that He has made available abundant resources necessary for my internal world to be healthy, for my emotions to be stable. Do you know why people lose the ability to think creatively? It’s because they carry so many anxious thoughts in their minds—so many details to remember, so many problems to fix, so many fears. That is the enemy’s attempt to disengage us from our assignment and privilege to create and represent Him well with creative, fresh ideas. Anxiety and fear kill that in us.
So here, the Lord says, «All right, here’s the righteous soul. I’m going to make sure that it never famishes, never experiences a drought, never experiences starving. Instead, I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to make sure the desires of the wicked have no place, but I will feed this one.» The New Testament equivalent of that is: «I pray that you would prosper and be in good health, even as your soul is healthy. I pray it shows up on the outside.»
Let’s move over to verse 11. Verse 11 says, «The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.» Take the first phrase; it would be interesting for all of us just to go through the Book of Proverbs, especially when it talks about our speech, about our mouths, about what we have to say. Our mouths are to be wells of life; our words are supposed to bring health and healing. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. All these themes are woven throughout this book. If there’s anything we should take from this series, it’s the conviction that we must be cautious about what we say; we must be careful about what we pronounce over others.
We need to be mindful of the kinds of things that we declare because we can be so angry, upset, or offended that we say things with lasting effects on people. We must ensure that we speak words of life. Here it is: «The mouth of the righteous is a well of life.» It’s constantly replenished. A well is not just filled once; it has a spring that keeps it filled with water. We have a spring of life within us that allows us to have words that encourage and strengthen others.
Now let’s move down to verse 13. Verse 13 says, «Wisdom is found on the lips of those who have understanding,» which I love. Verse 16 states, «The labor of the righteous leads to life.» That’s interesting: the labor, the hard work—whether you are working in your yard or at your job or doing a 9-to-5—there’s something about that labor that brings life. If what we do, we actually do unto the Lord, I want to encourage you to take what you do and give it as unto the Lord, as it actually replenishes your soul. It is a part of the program that God has created to bring refreshing and strength to us.
Moving on to verse 21: «The lips of the righteous feed many.» There we are again! «But fools die for lack of wisdom.» The lips of the righteous feed many. From the mouths of righteous people, there is an abundance of nourishment for the soul. Let’s move down to verse 22. It says, «The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.»
I think I’ll end this today with this verse: «The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.» All over this world, we have business people, athletes, actors, actresses, CEOs—people who seem to have unlimited resources, but all that wealth comes with great sorrow. They often lose their families in the process; they sacrifice the well-being of their families for their occupations or positions. They sacrifice friends and their personal standards. When God blesses, there is no sorrow attached; there is no balloon payment.
I pray that for you—that everyone watching would experience the blessing of the Lord in such a way that there is no sorrow attached to it. Amen.
Hey, this is Bill Johnson from Bethel Church here in Redding, California. About a year ago, my oldest son Eric strongly encouraged me to create a video series on the subject of wisdom and present it to the broader audience of the body of Christ. It’s one of the mandates I feel the Lord has for the body of Christ right now, which is to learn to grow in wisdom because it is truly the way to have longevity in the move of God. It’s the way we can have a great impact on culture itself. My prayer is that together we could grow in supernatural wisdom so that we really become problem-solvers—people who are salt and light, effectively influencing culture and society to bring about the changes that Jesus has in His heart. That’s my cry for you. That’s my cry for me. Bless you as you join us in this series!