Joyce Meyer - Watch Your Mouth

Words are like containers for power. Just like this glass can contain many different types of things to drink, our words can contain and carry many different kinds of things. They carry creative power. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God created everything that we see with words, so words have creative power. The Bible doesn't say that God thought, "Let there be light," and there was light. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. So, we see in the very beginning of the Bible what I think we can say is a pattern for how to get things done.

So, your mouth can be filled with creative power that you speak out over your own life, the life of the people you love, your city, the world. With your mouth, you can speak against the enemy. You can stop his action in your life by speaking the word of God. The devil talked to Jesus, and the Bible says in Luke 4, "The devil said to Jesus, and Jesus said to the devil," and he would quote a scripture back to him. I don't know how many of you talk back to the devil, but if nobody's ever told you to do that, you should begin to talk back. He talks to you. Talk back. Just like your kids talk back to you, start talking back to the enemy.

I don't want you to forget what I'm saying. You have the ability to speak creative, powerful words over your life, over the lives of your loved ones. But you can also speak destructive words, things that will hurt you over yourself, your future. Be careful what you say about your future. Prophesy your future. Declare what you want to see happen and what God says can happen rather than just talking about being afraid that you're going to have more of what you've always had, amen? All right, proverbs 10:19. "With many words, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent".

Now, we've been talking this weekend about discipline and self-control. So, this says that if you restrain or discipline or control your words, then you are a prudent person. And that means you're a good manager of the power that God has given you in words. I can go at this a number of different ways, but I have a specific way that I want to teach this this afternoon, and it's about how your words affect the anointing of God on your life. Now, when I first became a serious student of the Bible, and I'd been in church a long time before that happened, I went to church regularly for probably, oh, seven, eight, nine years before I really... I loved God and I was born again. I was saved by grace, I know I would have gone to heaven. But I wasn't real serious about my relationship with God.

You know, I think for a lot of people, they want God in their life, they want to make sure that they don't go to hell, but they're not living for God. That's not what their life is all about. And Paul said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain. In him I live, and move, and have my being". In Matthew, it says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else in your life will be taken care of". So, God is not a sideline. He's not an insurance policy. He should be the main thing in our lives. And so, I had God, but let's just say he didn't have me. How many of you know what I mean by that? Okay, I had him, I wanted to go to heaven. I wanted to pray and get help when I had problems. But I had not surrendered my life to him.

And so, when I began to really, seriously study the word of God, one of the things that was happening at that time back in the '70s was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit all around the earth. It wasn't just in one place, or one denomination, or happening in one little group, but it was actually happening all over the world. And God does that at different times throughout history, they're called revivals. It's times when God just shows up and shows out for a period of time, and it revives the church.

Now, we don't live in that all the time, but I'm thankful that I got to be part of that because my life was touched in a very deep way. And it was also a time when the Holy Spirit seemed was giving a special grace for people to just love, love, love, love, love the word. I mean, it was nothing at all to have a three, three and a half hour church service. I mean, today, you know, you move them in, you move them out. You have three or four services in one morning, and everything is ten minutes of this and five minutes of that. And you know, I understand that we have different eras and different times in life. But I tell you, there's not too many people today that would ensure a three and a half hour church service.

And so, it was a special time, and I believe there was a special anointing. And it was nothing to go to a week-long what we called camp meetings, where you might go to church three times a day for seven days in a row. And sometimes even a whole month of revival, and we just didn't get tired of it. I mean, we just loved the word, the word, the word, the word, the word. Well, one of the things that we heard a lot of teaching about then that we don't hear as much about today, and I think that it's something we should hear more about, is the anointing. Just the anointing.

Now, when I say the anointing, there might be some people here that don't even know what I'm talking about. So, what is the anointing? The anointing is the presence and the power of God in and on your life. And many times, we are anointed for certain things. So, there's the general anointing that's on our life as believers, but then God can anoint us for special things. I'm anointed as a Bible teacher. That means that God has called me and equipped me to do this. Now, the anointing is very, very important. And we know that everything that God gives us comes to us free, Jesus paid for it. But in some ways, it's not free. I believe that there are certain things that we can do that will hinder the anointing, and there are certain things that we can do that will increase the anointing.

I heard one minister say if he wanted to increase the anointing on his life before he got up to speak if he felt like maybe he wasn't sensing God's presence real strong, he would just spend some extra time reading the word, and the anointing on his life would increase. Maybe a little extra prayer and the anointing on your life will increase. But if you don't know what the anointing is and if you don't know how important it is, then you could actually be doing things that are hindering the anointing on your life and not even realizing that you're doing it. And one of the things that you will find out very definitely, and I'll back it up scripturally, is that speaking wrong words will hinder the anointing on your life. Another thing that will hinder the anointing on your life is mistreating people. God is very picky about how we treat his children. He doesn't like it when we mistreat people. He doesn't like it when we talk bad about people, or spread rumors, or gossip, or slander them.

Actually, I think it's probably one of the more dangerous things that we can do. And we need to get a little bit wiser and have a little more reverential fear of how we treat people, and how we talk to them, and how we talk about them. Can anybody act like they agree? So, it took me a long time to get here, but I can tell you that I have a reverential fear of mistreating people. And if I do have an off day and I mistreat somebody, it only takes about five seconds for the Holy Spirit to spank my little spiritual bottom, and I will quickly go back and apologize. For example, I would not get up in this pulpit and try to preach if I was mad at anybody. I absolutely would not do it because I believe that it would affect and hinder the anointing on my life. And I feel like that that's the main thing that I have is God's anointing. Thousands of people are not going to gather together in a building on a weekend, take a weekend of their life to listen to somebody talk if they're not saying anything that really has an influence or an effect on their life.

Now, you may not really know what the anointing is, but it means I'm up here speaking, but it's actually God using me to speak to you, so therefore the words that I'm speaking have an effect on you that sometimes you don't even comprehend and understand. Now, two people can get up and speak the same message. I mean, it could be word for word. And if one of them is not anointed, or maybe they're trying to do that and they've got all kinds of junky stuff going on in their life, and so there's no anointing there, it can almost put you to sleep. And you won't have any interest in hearing them. You don't really get anything out of it. You don't remember what they said. But somebody who has a close walk with God, they're not perfect, nobody's perfect, but I mean they're repenting when they do things wrong, they're trying to be careful how they live, they're living to please God. I mean, how many of you know there's a difference in just doing it and being serious about it?

Well, then that person can carry a very strong anointing on their life. And what they say can literally, it just like penetrates beyond your brain and goes into your heart. And you get not information, but revelation. There's a difference in somebody just giving you information and somebody giving you something, it's like, "I get it. I get it". How can you possibly have somebody accidentally turn the television on in the middle of the night when they're trying to turn it off, and get some certain preacher that says just some certain something, and then them say, "It changed my life"? How do you change a life with a sentence? Well, God can do anything he wants to, and he's looking for people to use that will live their lives in a way where they can carry a very strong anointing on their lives. It's interesting to listen to people try to talk about the anointing who really don't understand what it is.

We've had people say things like, "I came to that meeting and I don't know what it was, but there was something in the room that just was like nothing I've ever felt before". Well, you know, it's great to have one anointed person. But when you get in the middle of a whole room full of anointed people, come on now, because here's the fact. As a believer, we are all anointed by God, come on. There is an anointing that abides on you. That's why the Bible says, for example, "Lay hands on the sick and they shall recover". Well, what would you laying your hands on somebody and praying for them have to do with anything? Well, the anointing actually is tangible, and can be felt and transferred. So, I think we need to be doing more of what the Bible says than what we are. Hello. What are you talking about? Well, first of all, Jesus is the anointed one.

So, he was anointed by his Father. There's Father God, and there's Jesus who's God, and there's the Holy Spirit who's God. We don't understand that kind of math, but one God, three persons. I don't understand it in my head, but I get it. And we can fellowship with and have relationship with all three persons of the Godhead. And they each do something specific for us. When Jesus left, ascended on high, he didn't leave us alone. He said, "I'll be with you always". Well, what he did was he sent the Holy Spirit, the anointing, the presence of God. The spirit of God is the presence of God. He sent the Holy Spirit to represent him, to act in his behalf. And he said, "He has been with you, but now he will be in you". Come on, get ahold of that. Now he will be in you. So, he told the believers to go wait in the upper room until the promise from on high came to them. And that promise from on high was when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. This is recorded in acts chapter 2.

Now, I don't know why it is that religion tries to hide all those wonderful things that happened in acts chapter 2, but I mean, as they waited in the upper room, suddenly... I don't know about you, but I could use a suddenly in my life. Come on, suddenly, like a mighty wind. And it said there appeared unto them tongues of fire and settled on each one of them, and they all began to speak in tongues, or different tongues, or foreign languages as the spirit gave them utterance. Now, I'm not going to do a big, long teaching on speaking in tongues and just freak out a bunch of you who already think that's from the devil, which it's not by the way. But let me tell you, just because you have not experienced something doesn't mean that it's not real. And we're being very foolish if we take what any denomination says over what the word of God says. Amen?

Now, so bottom line is: the first thing that God did was touch their tongues. Is anybody in the building today? I said the first thing that God did was touch their mouth. He set their mouth on fire. Well, they were obviously acting a bit strange because it was 10 a.M. In the morning and everybody thought they were drunk, which tells me that a really Holy Ghost filled, on fire Christian may act a little bit odd from time to time. Now, I don't think we just have to get out in the world and see how weird we can be. I think we need to use common sense and constraint, and pay attention to who we're around. But the bottom line is Jesus didn't die so we could just continue to be miserable believers. He died for us so we could have I mean a vibrant, powerful, spirit-filled, on fire, victorious, overcoming life. And if you really know God the way he wants you to know him, you cannot be bored with Christianity.

And one of the things that God did was when he sent the Holy Spirit, when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, was he brought gifts with him. He brought powerful gifts with him. There's nine of them specifically. There's nine fruit of the spirit, there's nine gifts of the spirit. And I believe that they're both equally important. I don't advocate putting the gifts above the fruit because, to be honest, I know people with gifts that have no fruit that are just as flaky as a cornflake, you know? And that's not what we want. But God gives us a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, discernment of spirit. And that is so important. Man, should you ever pray for discernment. The Bible says that we are to pray for and seek and pursue the gifts of the spirit. So, if you don't do anything else at all with what I say this afternoon, please go home and start praying, "God, please fill me, fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit". Pray every day for God to fill you with the Holy Spirit because we need to be ever filled with the Holy Spirit.

I don't want a one-time touch from God that's supposed to last me the rest of my life. I need a fresh touch every day. That's why I get myself out of bed in the morning and go spend time with God. Let me tell you, if we would act like we were desperate for God, then we wouldn't be so desperate in our circumstances all the time. And at least we can crawl out of bed 15 minutes early and go say, "God, I am not gonna make it through this day if I don't have a touch from you. And so, I need you to touch me today". You want to carry an anointing on your life? An anointing is just gonna... Well, people are just gonna know there's just something about you. I don't know what it is, but there's just something. And they're just going to like being around you. You're going to have favor. You're going to know things that you don't know how you know them. You're going to have the right answer at the right time.

If somebody has got an evil spirit in them and they're trying to be friends with you and they've got a wrong motive, there comes that gift of discernment. You're going to say, "I don't know what it is, but I just got a check about that person". And then there's other things that, you know, gift of faith, working of miracles. The gift of faith is a kind of faith that goes beyond anything. We all have faith. Unto every man is given the measure of faith, but the gift of faith is something that goes beyond that. It's like a faith that you don't even understand why you have it. And I believe that God gave Dave and I a gift of faith to step out and do what we did when we started this ministry. I don't have time to tell you that story, but what I am doing makes absolutely no sense at all if you knew where I came from, my level of education, and the condition I was in when God called me to do this. I want to tell you what, if God can speak to a prophet through a donkey, he can use you and he can use me. Amen?

Well, how do you expect God to use your mouth to change other people's lives if you're going to try to use it the other half of the time to cut people down, to slander people, to gossip about people, to be negative? Come on. And so, our words have a lot to do with the anointing on our life. And there's other gifts: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Man, we get to tongues and everybody starts... And I plan sometime next year to do a couple of teachings on the gifts of the spirit. I've got to pick my right place because, you know, I don't have that one today. You know, a ministry like mine, I mean, we have people from every denomination that come, and so I try to use wisdom. I don't want to scare you before I can help you. And so, but I speak in tongues, I have for over 40 years. Maybe it's time the world knows, so there, I just told everybody, amen.

You say, "Well, I don't understand that". Well, I don't either, but the Bible says that when you speak in tongues, you edify yourself and you build yourself up in faith, amen? And so, it's a supernatural gift. You can't explain supernatural things. And so, there are certain people who try to say that those gifts went away with the early church. Well, if they needed them, what in the world do we need today? I mean, my goodness. And there's nothing in the Bible that says that they went away with the early church to start with. The Bible does say in 1 Corinthians 13 that when the perfect comes, mike's coaching me down here. When the perfect comes, then we'll no longer need these gifts. Well, the only perfect I know is Jesus, and he hasn't come back yet. And so, we need all the help that we can get until then. I need supernatural, Holy Ghost power to live above the corruption that's in the world and keep my joy, amen?

So, when you're anointed by the Holy Ghost, you find yourself doing things that doesn't even make any sense to you. You know, it's like, I'm not 40, I am 75 years old, amen, seven five. I've live three quarters of a century. You know, your body can get old but inside you can be renewed day after day after day. And your latter years are gonna be better than your former years, so, just get off the old thing. Nobody's too young or too old to let God use them. I started the ministry when I had three teenagers and a baby on my hip. Don't tell me you've got too many kids to do anything for God. When God anoints you to do something, you can do things that you will not even begin to understand how you can do them. So there. I didn't really intend to say any of that, but there you go. Gosh, we need God's anointing poured out on us today, amen? And how are you even gonna know how to ask for it if you don't even know what it is?

We need God's presence in our life. We need his power in our lives. I am so tired of unhappy, miserable, murmuring, grumpy, complaining Christians, amen? So, your mouth. So, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, one of the first things that he did was he touched their mouths. And so, I think we need to pay some attention to that, you know, there's some reason for that. And Paul said, just to go on a little bit here, Paul said, "Do not forbid anybody to speak in tongues". So, if anybody tells you, "Oh, you can't do that," say, "The apostle Paul said I could". And Paul said, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all". But yet he said, "I would rather speak a few words with understanding than to speak in tongues all day long, unless there's somebody to interpret and tell people what's being said".

So, let's don't make too much out of it, but let's don't ignore it. You know, it's about the Holy Spirit, not tongues. When I go buy a pair of tennis shoes, I don't go in and ask for a pair of tongues. I get tennis shoes and the tongues come with it. Oh, my gosh, I am getting myself in so much trouble up here. When you seek the Holy Spirit, he will give you the gifts to use for the good and the profit of all as he determines and desires, amen? And so, you really don't have to make too much out of any of the gifts, you just seek the Holy Spirit. You seek God and before you know it, you're gonna be walking in this supernatural power and have everything that you need to do anything that God asks you to do, amen? All right so, let me just say this. If you're sitting there and you're like, "I wish I knew what you're talking about, lady, but I don't have a clue, I feel about as lost as I can be". I've got a book. And if we don't have it with us, it's called "Knowing God intimately" and it talks about all the gifts of the spirit, all the fruit of the spirit. And I've got another book on being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

So, you get those and study them, study, study, study. If you want to know something, don't just wait for somebody else to come and tell you everything. Get hungry for God and dig until you know. If you want to know more about what I'm talking about, go home and get out a concordance. And I mean my gosh, today you can ask Google anything and it'll point you in the right direction. Just "Gifts of the spirit," put it in Google and see what comes up. And then look up all the scriptures yourself. You'll find that it's in the Bible. You don't have to live without power. You do not have to live without power. "And when the Holy Ghost comes upon you," Acts 1:8, you shall receive power, power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth". When the Holy Ghost comes upon us, we are to have power, power to be able to control ourselves, and to discipline ourselves, and to do what God wants us to do.

All right, I am gonna make some effort here to calm down just a tad. All right, I'm gonna tell you a story. See, I've done this long enough. I can sense when the anointing is real strong on me and when it's maybe not quite as strong. I'm always anointed to do what I'm doing, but there are times when the anointing is so strong, or the presence of God is so strong, that I just feel like I'm flying up here. I mean it's like, I mean, I have no idea what the next thing is gonna be that's gonna come out of my mouth, but it just keeps coming out, and coming out, and coming out. It seems to help people so that's just the way we go with it. We just do it that way. And so, if I'm missing that, because I'm not like a polished public speaker that's gone to a bunch of public speaking classes, I just had a big mouth and God decided to use it, amen? I was, I mean, I was always a fairly good communicator. I can get my point across. And that really is the main and probably the only real strong gift that I have. I've got a lot of common sense, but I mainly just have this gift to communicate God's word.

And since I don't do a bunch of other fancy stuff, you know, if this isn't working, I can't stop and sing a great song and just, you know, amaze everybody. I am telling you that I have to have God's anointing or I'm in serious trouble, okay? So, when I don't have that, if I feel that the anointing is not strong, then I can't wait until I get done. And if I'm watching the clock, not being able to wait until I get done, I know that I'm in trouble. So, that happens to me almost never, but occasionally, if God's trying to get my attention about something, it will. You don't know it, but I know it. So, many years ago, I went through a little period of time where I was teaching, just like I always do, but I just felt like there was no anointing at all, and I hated it, hated it. I felt like that everything I was saying made no sense at all.

So, I would say to Dave, "I just feel like there's no anointing". He would say, "What are you talking about? It was good, everything was fine". I'm at least glad God hides it from other people. And so, this went on for a few times when I'd go out and speak. And I finally just I told him, I said, "I don't know what's wrong with me, but I am not going to bed tonight until I find out". So, I went in my office and he went to bed, and I was just crying out to God, just show me what was wrong, what was wrong, and he never showed me anything. Well, the next day Dave said, "I think God showed me what's wrong". Don't you absolutely hate it when God does that? "I don't want you to tell him what's wrong, I want you to tell me what's wrong and keep it between me and you". Well, the minute he said that, I just already got all my, "Oh yeah, like you know what's wrong, you're gonna tell me what's wrong". And so, I'm like, "Okay, what is it"?

And he said, "Well, you remember the other day when you were talking about so and so"? And it was actually a preacher that I know. "And you said" and I had said some not so good things about his preaching like I thought he just, you know, kind of rambled and went off in a bunch of different directions and never really finished his point. Well, Dave agreed with me, but God wasn't dealing with him. And then not only did he not deal with Dave about it, he tells Dave that's my problem. Now, I know that this sounds funny now, but it was not funny when it was happening. And so, I just, I actually got madder so I just went back to my room decided I was gonna stay up some more. And so, took a few days but God led me to the scriptures in James 3:1 through 10 that I'm getting ready to read you. "Not many of you should become teachers for you know, that we who teach will will be judged with a greater strictness".

So, I'm gonna read you the rest of this in a minute for another purpose, but the bottom line is is I had actually done a very bad thing as a teacher of God's word in saying something downgrading about another person teaching God's word. We don't need to be judging anybody but if you want to get in trouble, you just go judge somebody that's doing the same thing you are. Maybe you're a lead vocalist in the church choir, and you have a great voice, and somebody else that they let do specials once in a while, you say, "Ah, they couldn't sing their way out of a paper bag. I don't know why they let them sing". Well, you better start repenting fast. All y'all understand what I'm saying? I know a doctor who talks bad about other doctors and I'm like, "Ooh, you don't know what you're doing. You need to be careful". See, I want to put a little bit of reverential fear and awe in you today that God does not like it when we gossip and slander other people, amen?

So, I got it. I mean, I heard God. I only did that one other time in my life and it was a couple of years after that same type of situation, same result. Sometimes God has to teach us things a couple of times. "Not many of us should become teachers because we who teach will be judged with a greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able to bridle his whole body". So wow, what a statement. If anybody can control their mouth, they can control every other thing in their life. "If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well".

Two examples here, a bit in the horse's mouth is just a little tiny piece of metal, but that horse that can weigh as much as 1500, 1600 pounds can be controlled with that one little tiny piece of metal. So, he's saying that your whole life, the direction of your whole life, can be controlled by this one tiny little thing, which is your tongue and the words that you speak. Hmm, does anybody need this today? Secondly, "Look at the ships. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs". So, the captain of the ship can stand at one part of the ship and with a wheel, give direction to this gigantic ship by one little rudder that nobody can even see. I don't think we have any idea. And I believe, I'll say for me, I don't think that I have any idea still, as much as I've studied it, talked about it, the real power of words because I can tell you if we really did, we would be a lot more careful about what we say. Amen?

Now, get out a concordance and look up every... Just do proverbs. Just read through proverbs, and highlight every scripture about the mouth and words. There's nothing more important than the way we think and the way we talk, amen? Verse 5, "So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and it's set on fire by hell". Well, so how do you like that? "For every kind of beast and bird of reptile, a sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being contained the tongue. It's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and father and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God".

So, do you get that? We come here, we sing our songs of praise. I love that song, "Our defender, all we do is bow down, all we do is praise him, all we do is worship". And we love that song. But then if you hadn't heard this message, you won't do this now but if you wouldn't have heard this message, there's a possibility that somebody here would have left and you would have driven home with somebody and talked about, "Well, I think she talked too long". Or, "I think she talked too loud. You know, you know, whatever". I mean, we used to go to church and then we'd go out to lunch with our friends and have the pastor for lunch. You know, it was like lunch fun to gossip about everybody in church. We didn't know any better. Nobody had ever told me what I'm telling you here today. Does anybody believe what I'm saying? Amen? And because the tongue is so, it's so hard to control, why is it that we just can't hardly stand not to tell the thing we heard, especially if it's a bad thing?

Let me read you this. I thought this was really good. "In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, 'do you know what I just heard about your friend?' 'hold on a minute,' Socrates replied. Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. I call it the triple filter test.' 'triple filter?' 'that's right,' Socrates continued. 'before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you're about to tell me is true?' 'No,' the man said, 'actually it was just something I heard.'

'All right,' said Socrates, 'so you don't really even know if it's true or not. Now, let's try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you're about to tell me about my friend something good?' 'No, it's actually on the contrary.' 'So,' Socrates continued, 'You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not even sure that it's true? Well, you may still pass the test though because there's one filter left, the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend gonna be useful to me?' 'Well, no, not really.' 'Well,' concluded Socrates, if you want to tell me is not true, not good, and not even useful, then why bother telling me at all?'"

Let's think about James 3:2 again. "For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body". Matthew 12:34 and 35, "Out of the heart, the mouth speaks". "Oh, I didn't mean to say that". Well, it had to be in there for it to come out, amen? And the more you think about something, the more likely you are to say it. "You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil". So, he's saying that if you listen to yourself or you listen to other people, you can quickly find out what kind of person they are. Listen to yourself and you'll get to know yourself.

Yeah, wow, that's about all you can say about that, isn't it? I mean, if you gossip, you're a gossiper. If you complain, you're a complainer. If you lie, you're a liar. I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I have to apply the same thing to myself. I don't want to live in this dream world that I'm this great Christian if really, I've got some blaring problems that I'm not even paying any attention to. But it's so important who you hang around with. Let me tell you something, the people that you spend time with have a real influence on your life because like I talked about the anointing, I believe it's transferable. And I believe that you start getting some of whatever you're around. Amen?

This would happened with your pastor or anybody that you listen to a lot, and certainly not just me, but people who listen to me a lot, like maybe every morning while they're driving to worker or they've done it for years, it won't be long and you'll hear somebody say, "You sound just like Joyce Meyer". Or your husband might say, "You're starting to act like that lady on TV". Well, it's true. Whatever you're around a lot, you start becoming like that. So, you need to be careful who you're spending time with because they are influencing you. Don't hang out with negative, grouchy, grumbling, gossiping, slandering people, amen? Get around somebody that's got something good to say, somebody that's positive. And let me tell you, if they're telling you other people's secrets, they're telling somebody else yours.

Oh, God, we pray that you would touch our tongues with that holy fire. Cleanse our mouths, oh God, and use us for your glory. Help us not to think that we can praise you in church and then go talk about each other in a bad way the rest of the week and still carry your presence and your anointing on our life.

If we want to experience more power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we need to understand the importance of our words. Speaking wrong or negative words can hinder his full power from operating in our lives, but learning to say what God says about ourselves and others will increase his power in our lives and we get to choose. You know, you can choose your words and you need to do so carefully.