Bill Johnson - The Power of Your Words
Our mouths are to be wellsprings 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 covered in this book, and if there’s anything we should take away from this series, it’s the conviction that we must be careful what we say. Well, hello there! Welcome back. Today, we get to take a look at Proverbs chapter 10. There are a couple of themes I want to address: number one is desire, and number two is what the blessing of the Lord looks like. Alright, so we’re going to look at those two things.
Number one is desire. We’ll start with verse 3, which says, «The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked.» I’m fascinated by the contrast Solomon makes in his Proverbs. He juxtaposes themes that don’t always seem to fit together. Here, he states that He will not allow the righteous soul—the emotional part of our lives, the soul, the intellectual part of our lives—to famish, to experience drought, or to be unfit. He wants every part of our internal world to be nourished. In contrast, He casts away the desires of the wicked.
The Lord finds, and I wish I had better language for this, so let me 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.» 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 or control us. The management of the heart has taken place. Well, here, I can 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.
Here it says that the Lord will not allow the internal workings of the righteous person to be famished. That encourages me because it means He has made abundant resources available for my internal world to be healthy, for my emotions to be healthy, for my intellect to be healthy. Do you know why people lose the ability to think creatively? It’s because they carry so many anxieties in their minds—so many details to remember, so many problems to fix, so many fears. That’s the enemy’s attempt to disengage us from our assignment and privilege to create, to represent Him well with creative, fresh ideas. It’s anxiety and fear that stifle that in us.
So here, the Lord says, «Alright, here’s the righteous soul; I’m going to ensure that the righteous soul never fishes, never experiences a drought, and instead I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to make sure the desires of the wicked have no place, but I’m going to 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.»
Alright, 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.» Taking the first phrase, it would be interesting for all of us to go through the Book of Proverbs when it talks about our speech, what we have to say. Our mouths are to be wellsprings 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 in this book, and if there’s anything we should take away from this series, it’s the conviction that we must be careful what we say. We must be careful what we pronounce over people. We must be careful about the kinds of things that we declare because we can be angry, upset, offended, or whatever, and say things that have a lasting effect on people. We’ve got to ensure that we speak words of life.
Here it is: the mouth of the righteous is a well of life; it constantly replenishes. A well isn’t filled with water just once; it has a spring that keeps it filled with water. We have the spring of life within us that makes it possible for us to always have words that encourage and strengthen others.
Alright, let’s move on to verse 13. Verse 13 says, «Wisdom is found on the lips of those who have understanding.» I love this statement. Verse 16 states, «The labor of the righteous leads to life.» That’s interesting! The labor—the hard work, working in your yard or the job you have, the 9 to 5—there’s something about that labor that brings life into your life, provided what we do, we actually do as unto the Lord. I want to encourage you to take what you do and give it as unto the Lord, and it will actually replenish your soul. It is part of the tool, the program God has created to bring refreshing and strength to us.
Let’s move 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 speak abundance of nourishment for the soul.
Let’s move on to verse 22: «The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.» Let me end with this verse today. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. All over the world, we have business people, athletes, actors, actresses, and CEOs who seem to have unlimited resources, but all that wealth comes with great sorrow. They lost their families in the process; they sacrificed the well-being of their relatives for their occupations or positions. They sacrificed friends; they sacrificed their personal standards and morals. When God blesses, there’s no sorrow attached; there are no balloon payments.
I pray that everyone watching would taste of the blessing of the Lord in such a way that there’s no sorrow attached to it. When you work and your labor improves your city, you’re providing a service, providing goods, growing wheat in this example, pumping gas, whatever it might be. You’re providing a service for your city. God considers that to be generosity. This doesn’t say, «Blessed will be on the head of the person who grows wheat and gives it away.» That’s fine, but that’s not the lesson.
Hello there! Welcome back. I’m glad you could join us. We’re looking at chapter 11, and there’s a portion at the end of chapter 11 that excites me; I’ll explain it to you when we get there. This is a chapter where we once again look at the role of wisdom in city life. I want to start with verse 2: «When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.» It’s important that we think in terms of how humility and wisdom are connected. If we learn what is connected in the Kingdom, we’ll learn to value the right things. It’s not just wisdom; it’s valuing humility. It’s not just wisdom; I value understanding, insight, and favor. All these other things are important.
Now let’s jump down to verse 10: «When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices.» Think with me for a minute. We all live in cities, and when it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. That’s why you should pray for your righteous friends, the ones who own businesses, have medical practices, or are accountants. It doesn’t matter where they are in life. We should pray for them to be visibly blessed of the Lord in their places.
Why? Because it says that when it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices! I don’t know how this works, but somehow, everyone seems to celebrate somebody else’s victory when they know that person lives a righteous lifestyle. It’s harder to celebrate someone’s victory when we know they are deceptive, dishonest, or steal—it’s just harder to rejoice for them. But when we see that person has been so faithful for so long and look at what has happened in their life, it brings joy to a whole city. So it’s a really good reason to pray for the righteous to be honored, blessed, and increased.
Verse 11 says: «By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted.» So not only does the city have access to Kingdom joy; it is also promoted. Think about it: when the righteous are blessed of the Lord in a community, the entire community experiences promotion. That’s amazing to me because I love to think in terms of city transformation.
So how does it happen? There are a lot of great things we could do. We serve, we love, we care, we feed the poor, and we do all these things. Those are important. But here’s another one: when you drive by a gas station owned by a brother or sister in the Lord, pray for them to prosper. Why? It’s the way God wants to promote your city. It’s the way He wants to release another level of joy to your entire city because the righteous are doing well. The righteous will use their favor for good purpose.
Alright, it says, «By the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.» That’s just scary to me because there are so many destructive things said by the wicked in our cities day after day. We must counter that with the favor and blessing of the Lord on the upright.
Now, go to the end of the chapter. This is a personal favorite of mine, a set of three verses I love to talk to our students about. Go to verse 24: «There is one who scatters yet increases all the more.» First of all, understand this is talking about generosity—having a generous heart. We scatter yet increase all the more.
There is one who withholds more than what is right, and you can see that withholding is contrasted with scattering. So the concept is generosity. «There is one who withholds more than what is right, but it leads to poverty.»
Next verse, verse 25: «The generous soul will be made rich.» Again, it’s the soul. It’s not talking about money. The internal world gets healthy, and that brings the external blessing. The generous soul will be made rich; he who waters will himself be watered.
What is the theme here? The theme is generosity; it is a heart posture of generosity. Here’s what’s fascinating to me: verse 26 says, «The people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.» I love this verse!
Cursed will be the one who withholds grain. Let’s say we’re in a farming community and I grow wheat and harvest it, but I don’t want to sell it to you. The Bible says I’m cursed for that. But then it says, «I’m blessed if I sell it.»
Now, what’s the context here? The context is generosity. Here’s what I want you to see: when you work and your labor improves your city, you’re providing a service for your city. God considers that to be generosity. This doesn’t say, «Blessed will be on the head of the guy who grows wheat and gives it away.» That’s fine, but that’s not the lesson. God is actually interested in a person producing in this case a crop and being appropriately rewarded for their labor.
That is God’s design. This nonsense of everything coming to us from the government is actually from the pit of Hell! It weakens the identity of people and the assignment God has given us to work and to be rewarded from our labor. That’s the design of the Lord. God actually considers the person who gives themselves to grow a crop and then sell it at a fair price as being generous, and He says they will be rewarded for it. That’s amazing to me that God views productivity in that way along with generosity.
It doesn’t mean if I grow a crop and make an income, I don’t have to give because I’ve provided a service for the community. It’s just part of the generous nature of my lifestyle. I want to do something with my life that benefits my city.
So I pray for you; I pray that this message would resonate. That each of us could delight in the beauty of earning an honest income, having it be the reward of the Lord—with no shame involved—and delighting in it because God has honored you.
Chapter 12 is fascinating because it talks once again about our speech. Join us for that one! Every one of us is designed to have hearts that are happy and filled with life, overflowing with joy—that’s the design of the Lord for us. Part of that is staying away from anxiety and learning to deal with fear effectively. You deal with fear by coming to the word of God to find out what He says, and then the good word makes the heart glad.
Well, hello there! Welcome back! I’m glad you could join us. Chapter 12 is a rich chapter; they all are! But it particularly stands out to me because of how often it talks about the impact of our speech. We’ve been tampering with this subject a bit in the last few chapters, but we hit strongly with a couple of rich verses here.
Let’s start with verse 2 of chapter 12: «A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions He will condemn.» A good man obtains favor from the Lord. Why is this significant? I think many people fail to reach their destiny and purpose in life because they do not realize they need to increase in their favor with God.
It says of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, that He increased in favor with God and man. If Jesus, who is perfect, needed to increase in favor with God and man, then we certainly do! Many people never reach their potential or assignment in life because they didn’t realize their need for favor.
Now, let’s be clear—God loves us all the same—but not all of us have the same measure of favor. That’s not punishment; that’s the mercy of God. Favor creates opportunity, and He only wants to create opportunities in the measure that we can handle responsibly.
The inviting thing is that every person’s favor can increase by using what they have well. So this verse states that a good man obtains favor, and it’s contrasted with a man of evil motives and intentions. A good person is defined here as someone with pure motives who wants to do the right things. That person attracts the favor of God.
It might be worthwhile to highlight the word «favor» and just look at every time it’s mentioned in Proverbs; it’s a rich lesson.
Now, let’s move over to verse 14: «A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man’s hands will be rendered to him.» A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about that. I’ve pondered that verse before—it describes like eating a meal. At the end of a wonderful meal, you’re so thankful and satisfied with what you just had.
Here it’s saying that satisfaction can come from the words that come out of your mouth! Your speech determines what you’re going to be eating. What you and I say to one another, what we say to someone who looks like they are not doing well in life, those words determine our meal. They determine what we’re going to be feeding on! Often, we miss the opportunity or speak incorrectly toward a person just to vent instead of really saying what the Lord is saying to them. When we do that, we end up with a dissatisfied soul because we have to eat from the table we just spread.
So there’s encouragement for you: look for people who need words of strength and encouragement, and speak that to them.
Let’s move down to verse 17: «He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness deceit.» There’s one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. That’s an interesting phrase: «the tongue of the wise promotes health.»
I can’t fully grasp this yet; all I know is that month after month, I go through the Book of Proverbs, and it always stands out to me how our speech affects health. We should understand that life and death are in the power of the tongue. How often have we said, «Oh, I’m so dumb! Why did I do that?» Our body doesn’t recognize when we’re joking. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and the tongue promotes health. That is the word of God.
Elsewhere, it talks about how life actually flows from our speech. So I encourage you here: the tongue of the wise, with words of wisdom, promotes health! My goodness! Every family member in a household that is determined to speak words of wisdom increases the level of health experienced in that family, in that business, and in that church.
Let’s move down to verse 24. I like whenever I see the word diligence because there’s extra effort involved. It says, «The hand of the diligent will rule.» That’s true—those who put in the extra effort are always the ones who are promoted.
Let’s get down to verse 25—it’s a scary one: «Anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression.» So many people, so many believers, are just struggling painfully with depression and discouragement. I used to battle this all the time; I’d compare myself and would never come out well. Anxiety is what weighs the heart down and gives way to depression.
So here it is: anxiety in the heart causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. Sometimes that good word is spoken by us to ourselves. You know the Bible says, «Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'»
What does that mean? In this moment where I feel weak, I’m declaring over myself that I am strong! Sometimes the good word we need to hear actually needs to come out of our own mouths.
I want to encourage you: anxiety in the heart causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. Each of us was designed to have hearts filled with happiness and life, overflowing with joy. That’s God’s design for us. Part of that is staying away from anxiety and learning to effectively deal with fear. You conquer fear by coming into the word of God to find out what He says, and then the good word makes the heart glad.
I bless you with that, and I pray that would be your experience in the coming week. We’re going to keep talking about the mouth in chapter 13, so join us! Every person has abundant resources within reach to make their life fulfilling. I don’t care what continent, nation, or economy they live in; there is a relative abundance available to every person.
However, the problem is that there is much injustice, which keeps people from accessing what God has made available to them. Well, hello again! Welcome, glad you could join us. We’re looking at chapter 13 of Proverbs. Again, we are on this quest for wisdom, learning how to reign in life in a way that brings glory to God and establishes family lines for multiple generations that openly testify of God’s goodness.
Chapter 13 starts with: «A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth.» We ended the last session with this same concept that our speech determines what we feed on. So here it is: «A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth.» The soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence. «He who guards his mouth preserves his life.»
I love the verse that says, «Even a fool, when he’s kept silent, is thought to be wise.» So when in doubt, just don’t say anything. It keeps us from overspeaking and bringing calamity into our own lives.
Let’s move down to verse 13, one of the most important verses for me over the last 30 years. It says, «Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.» A New American Standard Version says, «When desire is realized, it is a tree of life.»
Think through this! This one is worthy of a whole session easily. «Hope deferred makes the heart sick.» What does that mean? It doesn’t mean that when you face disappointment, you’re automatically thrust into emotional calamity. It just means you’re vulnerable. In that place of vulnerability, you must make the right choices because mourning can lead you in one of two directions. Mourning will either take you to the Comforter—"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"—or mourning will take you to unbelief.
We must be careful when there’s disappointment and a sense of loss. Things didn’t work out the way we expected them to, and we are vulnerable in those positions. That’s why it says, «It makes the heart sick.» It opens you to a vulnerability spiritually that’s not healthy.
So realize what’s going on and take charge of your own heart, your thoughts, your prayer life, and your confessions. Make sure you’re saying the things that will nourish your soul.
«Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire realized is a tree of life.» The tree of life is found in three books of the Bible: Genesis, Proverbs, and Revelation. One way to look at it is that Genesis talks about what was; Revelation talks about what will be, but Proverbs talks about the tree of life that’s here and now.
The tree of life helps to establish and define our eternal purpose here in this life. So when it talks about a tree of life, it’s not just some random fruit; it’s something that in the Garden of Eden, the angel actually protected Adam and Eve from eating after they sinned because it would mark their lives of sin as their eternal condition.
So that’s interesting because it says the tree of life is connected to a desire realized. What does that say? It says that you and I are designed to be dreamers. Our assignment is to be so completely yielded to Him that He could trust us with our dreams and watch those dreams get fulfilled because that is our connection to our eternal purpose.
You and I will reign with Christ for all eternity; we’re not going to be sitting on clouds playing harps. Heaven is a very industrious place, and we have responsibilities there. «Desire realized» is actually training for eternity.
Let’s move on to verse 17: «A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful ambassador brings health.» There it is again: health is connected to a faithful messenger. A faithful messenger has a message, a decree, a proclamation. One of the best things you and I can do is to continuously listen to the words of truth as they impact our souls and minds, which in turn affect our entire physical bodies and health.
I encourage you in that. Now let’s go down to the last verse for today, verse 23: «Much food is in the foul ground of the poor, and the lack of justice is waste.» I think the New American Standard Version says, «Injustice keeps the wealth separate from the sinner.»
Let’s go through it again: «Much food is in the foul ground of the poor.» What is that telling us? Every person has abundant resources within reach to make their life fulfilling. I don’t care what continent or nation they live in or what economy they live in; there is a relative abundance within reach of every person.
But the problem is there’s a lot of injustice, and injustice keeps people from accessing what God has made available to them. Now, here’s where you and I come in: Jesus gave us authority, and one of the primary purposes of that authority is to deal with injustice. It’s to speak on behalf of those who have little to no voice.
For example, abortion is a classic example; an infant has no voice. Someone has to speak for that child in the womb, who desires life and length of days. They already have emotions; their minds are working, and they are being prepared to live on this planet in a purposeful way. Yet abortion kills them, and somebody needs to speak on behalf of those who have no voice. That’s what authority does—it addresses issues of injustice.
Sometimes we find people who have been locked in poverty for multiple generations; it seems almost impossible for them to get out. Somebody has to come alongside them to help. Let me say this about poverty: money alone will not fix poverty, but poverty cannot be fixed without money.
If you throw money at a problem, it doesn’t truly resolve it because there are other factors involved. True biblical justice restores a person to God’s original intent and design. I believe the Lord will give us wisdom in this season to help our beloved members of our cities who have been locked in poverty for so long. We must come alongside them, nurture their desires, disciple, develop, challenge, and provide opportunities to see that injustice broken so they can tap into the abundant resources God designed for them.
That’s my prayer—that together, we would be a people who care correctly about the injustices of this world and, with divine authority, bring solutions.
I bless you with that, and I pray that you and I will thrive with creative ideas on how to serve people who are locked in poverty, that they would taste God’s abundance. Amen. Bless you!