Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God; for to draw nigh to hear is better than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they know not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh with a multitude of business, and a fool’s voice with a multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou vowest. Better is it that thou shoudest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities, and in many words: but fear thou God. Ecclesiastes 5:1–7.
Ministry should be very much restrained in its flow of words. The level of the prophetic ministry God is raising up in the end time will rise immediately when the anointed utterances and psalms, the sermons and the messages are cut in half, and the whole of the Body finds a restraint upon it as far as utterance is concerned.
One of the first things I noted at the beginning of this walk in the Spirit, was the tendency of God to place a restraint on speech. The beginning of the liberty of the Spirit is the restraint of the Spirit. The beginning of the sons of God being led by the Spirit is in the hindrances and checks which the Spirit gives. A restraint is placed upon the flesh and upon the loquaciousness of those who have the gift of gab. We are left silent before the Lord until God gives a word to be uttered, and after that we begin to move.
But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. Habakkuk 2:20. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah; for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice. Zephaniah 1:7a. Be silent, O all flesh before the Lord. Zechariah 2:13a. As a prelude to the Lord pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh when your sons and daughters shall prophesy on the level that God intends, there is a restraint that He places on our loquaciousness until our words are few.
I am not preaching to you something which I have not followed. It takes six months for people who come into this revelation and sit under this ministry to learn how to listen to a sermon. Because the word is so concentrated, many use tape recorders. They feel they cannot absorb it all the first time and they need to listen to it again and again. It is better for a word to be too concentrated than that it be too repetitious. Repetition is a dangerous tool; it can destroy the truth it is designed to emphasize. If a truth is repeated a few times, it is effective. But too much repetition eliminates the very emphasis one is trying to give. Let our words be few.
The early Church was dedicated to carefulness of speech. Paul was a brilliant man, capable of expressing himself on almost any subject. Yet he said, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I Corinthians 2:1–5.
Paul was saying in effect, “Oh, how careful I was not to be an orator, not to follow the rules of public speaking, but to simply declare to you the testimony of God. What God had to say was all I wanted to say—nothing more.” He made no attempt to convince men by persuasive words or eloquent oratory. New Testament preaching was not a glorified form of salesmanship; it was speaking a word from the Lord—a pure simple word in power, that would be effective in reaching the hearts of men. In spite of that Scriptural precedent, seminaries have proceeded to teach the principles of public speaking and oratory, salesmanship and promotion, none of which has been effective.
If there is anyone we could look to as an example of ourselves, it is Peter. I Peter 3:10 is an unusual verse, a quotation of Psalm 34:12,13. For he that would love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Peter had probably memorized that verse so that it readily came to mind, and no doubt he had learned the truth of it the hard way. The New Testament records many instances when Peter “put his foot in his mouth.” He had an impulsive way of speaking. On the Mount of Transfiguration he said, “Let’s build three tabernacles” (Matthew 17:4), because he did not know what else to say. It was just a remark; there was no wisdom behind it. No doubt Peter has endeared himself to the heart of many a blabbermouth, who has also opened his mouth many times and spoken hastily and then wished he had not.
Poor Peter had a problem with talking too much, but no one had a clearer view of the apostolic ministry and church than Peter expresses in the next chapter. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. I Peter 4:10,11. We are not interested in human opinion; we are interested in what God says. If you speak, be God’s oracle; be His mouthpiece and nothing more. If you minister, minister in the strength of God. That is what counts.
No wonder the believers in the early Church, with their dedication to be instruments of God speaking only His word, were such perfect prophetic communities. Their services were led by prophecy. Every season we are coming closer to such services.
We ought to be ready always to give an answer to those who ask of us, yet I notice that the solid ministries of the church are restrained in their speaking. When you talk to them, you get an honest answer; however, they do not volunteer any more than is needed. Many times even the Lord restrained people from running down the street, telling what had happened. We need to use the negative approach of salesmanship: get people to coax you to tell them about it. When Jesus instructed someone after healing him, “Go and tell no man,” no doubt the man’s friends were twisting his arm halfway down the road, “Tell us all about it.”
A new type of evangelism is coming. I am not at all convinced that the methods of evangelism that have been used, in which Christians go out and proclaim the Word everywhere, is exactly what the Lord intended. Instead of the approach which encourages everyone to open his mouth and talk, we should rather be concerned about speaking under the anointing with demonstration and power of the Spirit. First bind the strong man; then speak the word of the Lord, and it will reach them.
I am a person of few words. At the beginning of my ministry I heard a man say, “I do not care how long a man talks as long as he says something in a few words.” I took that as one of the guiding principles in my ministry. I think people are usually grateful to get a ten-minute sermon, when they know that another preacher could have continued speaking for an hour and said less. Something begins to drain out of their spirits as the word continues past the anointing and the expression of what God says. Let your words be few; that is an important key of every successful ministry.
I knew one pastor who never preached over twenty minutes. He was a master of the short sermon. He did not have too much to say, and he determined not to say it very long. Many a man could preach longer than he, yet few had the successful ministry he had. I am convinced it is not the depth or profundity of a message, but the simplicity and brevity that reaches the hearts of the people.
Before you speak, find out what God has to say and say it under the anointing of the Spirit. Recently a man who was in serious trouble asked me for counsel. Although I knew the answer at once, I found myself checked in giving it to him and I said, “Let me pray about it.” I wanted that word to be a flow from God when it was voiced. I waited all day, and when I did give him the word, it was a word from God, spoken under the anointing of the Spirit, briefly and to the point; and it transformed his spirit.
Everyone should preach as though he were speaking long distance at the rate of a dollar a minute. If we were to charge our young ministers (in their state of poverty) fifty cents a minute for the time they are in the pulpit, they would soon learn to weigh their words carefully and speak only that which God has laid upon their hearts.
When the flow in the word comes and you flow on and on, you are tempted to keep sailing right on into the wild blue yonder. However, before long there is no more up-current and you soon crash. Glide while you can, but be sure that you always preach on the upward flow. When you reach the peak, stop. There is no greater compliment to sermons I preach than when someone says, “I felt as if the message was only half-preached; there was so much more you could have said.” When I have concluded a sermon, I know it is successful if people feel anointed of the Lord to add a point here and there. Until you learn this key about preaching and it becomes a part of your nature, you will never be able to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Shortly before going to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to His disciples I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me. John 14:30. Nearing the very end, Jesus had no more to say.
The longest prayers and the most vociferous mourning come from the people who did not do what they should have done beforehand. I am reminded of a story that a professor in Bible school told our Greek class. One of the students who always neglected doing his homework asked the professor for prayer just before an examination. After refusing to pray, the professor told this story about a ship caught in a storm. All the sailors cursed and swore, except the spiritual captain. Finally when it looked as if the ship was going down, the sailors asked their captain to lead them in prayer. He told them, “Men, I was praying while you were swearing. I’ve done my praying.” And he would not pray with them. There is a kind of prayer that is long and loud, and there is another kind which comes in due season and then it trusts and rests. The Lord Jesus said the same thing: “The prince of this world comes, and I have nothing more to say to you now; everything has been said.”
I am not nearly as impressed with the words Christ spoke as I am with His silence when He stood before Herod and Pilate. He answered not a word (Luke 23:9), just as Isaiah prophesied: and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Isaiah 53:7b. The Lord Jesus was so restrained that He knew when to speak and when not to speak, when to hold His peace and counsel.
I wish we could all have lived a day in the life of Christ, for many details are not revealed in the Word, and we must look behind the scenes to see what was really happening. When the Syrophenician woman came crying for mercy, asking Jesus to heal her devil-possessed daughter, Jesus and His disciples walked on in silence. The Lord spoke not a word; nothing was said. Can you picture the personality of the Lord and the restraint which was upon Him? The disciples finally begged Him to send her away. He then turned to her and said, “We don’t give the children’s bread to dogs.”
“No, but the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.”
“Your faith has saved you” (Matthew 15:21–28). It was not a long conversation.
I wonder if any of us could have said the things the Lord said in the same amount of time. The Sermon on the Mount violates every existing homiletic principle. We do not preach or teach that way.
It takes us a lifetime to understand the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew. The greatest sermon on the grace of God, found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, can be read in two minutes. The Lord’s Prayer can be said in a minute. You can read the Sermon on the Mount in less than fifteen minutes, yet St. Augustine required forty volumes to expound this simple teaching of the Lord and Calvin’s exposition comprises sixty volumes; and neither has exhausted its truths. How can we understand the wisdom that comes from God which in turn helps us to be what God wants us to be and to speak as the oracles of God.
If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man’s religion is vain. James 1:26. In the multitude of words there wanteth not transgression; but he that refraineth his lips doeth wisely. Proverbs 10:19. In too many words there is sin. There is bound to be because the flesh with its insecurity, its ego and desire to impress will come forth out of the tongue. The longer you speak, the more you fill yourself with something. If you are speaking in tongues, you are being filled with the Spirit. When the early Christians spoke in tongues, it was a sign of an inflow. God was filling them and the reaction was a multitude of words coming forth by the Holy Spirit. However, if you are not in the Spirit and you speak a multitude of words, you are giving vent to the flesh, and when you have finished you will find that you are filled with the flesh. You will be filled either with the Spirit or you will be filled with the spirit of the flesh by the multitude of words. It is important that you be very careful to speak in the Spirit with a restraint upon you continually. We must be careful lest we exceed the anointing and continue on into pure human inspiration. That is dangerous. Be filled with the Spirit.
Does this take away your liberty? Definitely not. It just takes away the tendency toward idle words. The Lord warns us in Matthew 12:34–37 that we will be judged for every idle word we speak. The problem with idle words is that the words that are spoken idly are never idle; they continue to work in our lives.
One man, discussing the seduction of women, said, “If I can just get a woman to listen to me, I can have my way with her.” It is true, a man responds to the sight of his eyes, to physical beauty, while a woman is not so moved. It is surprising what odd lumps and shapes women can fall in love with. They do not look so much at the face or figure of a man, but they listen to what he says. It was so with Eve. After the serpent got her to listen, he had it made. For the woman to listen long is to fall from grace. Young women should remember this and put up their guard to words spoken to them. One of the things at which Solomon wondered was the way of a man with a maid (Proverbs 30:19).
The Scriptures give us many admonitions to keep silent. In the multitude of words there wanteth not transgression. Proverbs 10:19a. Never trust a man who talks too glibly, and think, “Oh he would make a fine minister; he has a good gift of gab.” That is not necessarily a gift of the Spirit. Another man, faltering and trembling in fear lest his words be in the wisdom of man and not in the demonstration of the power of God, is the one who will bless the church. The old-order system of voting for a pastor and electing him on the basis of a trial sermon, saying, “After we listen to him preach we will decide whether we want him as our pastor or not,” often proves disappointing. Invariably, to their regret, they get the man with the flash and the flow of words, meanwhile bypassing some gentle shepherd who could have blessed them so richly.
He that spareth his words hath knowledge; and he that is of a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Proverbs 17:27. Use your words sparingly. For several years I knew a pastor who was reputed to be of great wisdom. It was not until I became involved in a conversation with him that I realized it was not so; he just was not that bright. He had paraded as an impressive man of great wisdom because he was a good listener.
I have a reputation for giving wise counsel, yet nine times out of ten those seeking advice persuade themselves. I let them start talking, ask them several questions, and before long they have come up with the solution and I confirm it. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. Proverbs 13:3. You should pray, “Lord, shut my big mouth.”
Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18:21a. These Scriptures teach that you can create problems by talking too much. Many instances are recorded in the gospels where Jesus ministered and then gave the admonition, “Go and tell no man.” Often you are guilty of talking away the blessing. The Bible warns against idle talk.
This probe is digging down into your life. Problems can cause people in the average church to gossip and criticize constantly, but you shall speak constructively and edifyingly. You shall not be a part of gossip, of murmuring and complaining.
Cry again for the Lord to restrain your lips and tongue in the house of God, that you may boldly, yet carefully, speak the words of the Lord. I say this, not to take away your liberty, but to channel it. It is beautiful to see a young stallion, snorting and prancing, with all his strength under the restraint of his master and the bridle. The steam in the boiler is not just to blow a whistle, but to turn a turbine that drives the load.
Prophesy the word of the Lord. There must be a restraint on human wisdom and human utterance in order that the divine wisdom and utterance may come forth. A free flow of restrained utterance that is of the Lord will elevate the level of the prophetic community God is bringing forth.