Bill Johnson - Your Words Carry Weight
Words of life, words of strength that bring health to our bodies, that bring health to our relationships, and we determine to eat from its fruit. So I bless you with that. I pray that your words would be sweet, filled with life, and the people around you truly would flock to you, not because those words are flattery, but because you’ve tapped into the life of the kingdom in all that you say. Well, hello there, welcome back once again. We’re in Proverbs chapter 18 in our quest for wisdom, and I do pray that each of us would become infectious in our passion and desire for divine wisdom.
Chapter 18 actually starts with this verse: he who isolates himself—in another translation, he who separates himself—seeks his own desire. Sometimes we withdraw from people simply because of selfish desires, and that’s what is being spoken of. We need alone time; we need rest, we need all those things, but as a lifestyle, we need people, and it’s not good for man to live alone. So there’s this overall theme that we are actually members of one another, and that has to be a regular part of our lives. In fact, Hebrews 13 says, with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Chapter 13, sacrifices plural. One of the sacrifices mentioned in that verse is the sacrifice of fellowship. Fellowship, the connection with other believers, has to cost me; it has to be sacrificial for it to have its full impact in my life.
All right, let’s go down to kind of an unusual verse, one that I really like but is somewhat annoying, perhaps to some. It says in verse 9, he who is slothful in his work is brother to him who is a great destroyer. It’s an interesting verse. He who is slothful in his work is brother to him who is a great destroyer. All right, there are two kinds of people mentioned in this verse, and there’s a third one that’s mentioned by implication. All right, there’s the destroyer, there’s the slothful in his work, and by implication, there’s the person who is diligent. All right, so we’ve got the diligent in their work, we have the slothful, and we have the destroyer. Who are the two that are most alike? The slothful and the destroyer. So let’s take this into the things of God. We have the passionate lover of God, we have the complacent believer, and we have the opponent to the gospel. Who are the two that are most alike? The complacent believer and the opponent to the gospel. Yep, the compromised life does more to invalidate the gospel than it does to validate.
All right, verse 14: the spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit? If you’ve been watching week after week, we’ve been touching on this thing of health and the internal world, the health of this internal world, and the effect it has on our physical health. And here it is again: the spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness. So what does that say? This internal world that remains healthy will actually be a source of strength, of life, of all that it takes to endure a difficulty in sickness. But who can bear—who can survive—if the spirit is broken? So you have a person who is hit with this sickness—not from the Lord. This sickness comes. They’re healthy inside. What happens? They make it through. Another person, the same disease, they’re hit, and they don’t survive. Why? Because oftentimes there’s brokenness inside that never gets fixed. Don’t take that as an accusation if you know of a relative or something that died of a problem; it’s not an accusation that they didn’t take care of their inner world—it’s a challenge. Make sure that you take care of yours.
All right, let’s move on. I love this verse here; it’s in verse 20. It says a man’s stomach will be satisfied by the fruit of his mouth. From the produce of his lips, he will be filled. That’s interesting, isn’t it? A man’s stomach will be satisfied by the fruit of his mouth. Here’s just a question: I wonder if some of the digestive issues are actually created by what comes out of our mouths. Just a thought. I think the Lord is going to help us in this area of divine health. Here’s my challenge to you: there’s one generation that has lived in all of history that experienced divine health—only one. As a generation, as many individuals, but only one generation. It was Israel in the wilderness, in rebellion against God, and they lived with divine health. Superior covenants provide superior blessings. When Jesus atoned for and paid for sin, sickness, and torment, he was setting the stage for us to discover something, and I believe the New Testament provides us with access to divine health at a level that not even Israel in the wilderness could experience.
All right, a man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth. From the produce of his lips, he shall be filled. He shall be filled. All right, then one more verse—maybe two; we’ll see how we’re doing for time. Two, we can do two. Verse 21: death and life are in the power of the tongue. Those who love it will eat its fruit. That’s interesting. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Death and life, I can speak words of death; I can speak words of life. Those who love that reality will eat its fruit. In other words, those who love that reality will determine to speak words of life so that what I fill my soul with literally is the fruit of life-giving words.
One more thing: verse 23, the poor man uses entreaties, the rich answers roughly. That’s a scary verse, actually, to me. The poor live with the humility that the wealthy don’t usually live with, and that’s why Jesus emphasized being poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit helps you to speak, live, and interact with people in a way of entreaty. Paul talked about this; he said, 'Don’t receive an accusation against an elder; let young men entreat, appeal, ' and that’s really the way we do life: we make appeals to one another. We don’t come with accusations and harsh words, and sometimes people use harshness, anger in their speech because of their own puffed-up sense of significance, and we’ve got to make sure that we don’t do anything out of that kingdom.
So, all right—words of life, words of strength that bring health to our bodies, that bring health to our relationships, and we determine to eat from its fruit. So I bless you with that. I pray that your words would be sweet, filled with life, and the people around you truly would flock to you, not because those words are flattery, but because you’ve tapped into the life of the kingdom in all that you say. Amen.