In ancient warfare, whenever an enemy took over a territory and did not want that land or its people to survive, the enemy would sow the fields with salt and throw dead carcasses in the wells. We read in Genesis how Isaac dug again the wells which his father Abraham had dug, because the Philistines had filled them up (Genesis 26:18).
Today the enemy follows the same tactics. He is concerned with defiling the fountains—the people of God who are trying to minister and speak forth God’s Word. He is concerned that these vessels be defiled.
The enemy does his most effective work, not through vessels who are wholly dedicated to him, but through vessels who at one time were dedicated to the Lord and later were defiled in the purity of the flow of their words.
For instance, Baalam was once a true prophet, but his own covetousness and greed led him to become a false prophet. Korah also was a true prophet of God, but in a moment of rebellion against Moses he usurped a place that he did not spiritually have. Korah and Baalam are named among the foremost of all false prophets.
The word “Cain” means “obtained from the Lord.” Because of the prophecies over Eve, she believed that her firstborn son would be the Christ, the Savior of the world, that her seed her first born would bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Instead, he became the first murderer, because his own heart could not bear the blessing upon his brother Abel.
The problem began when Cain’s sacrifice was found to be unacceptable before the Lord. The New Testament gives us an example of someone who became defiled and betrayed the Lord. He was not one of the Pharisees or one of the chief priests; he was Judas, one of the apostles, one sent forth by the Lord. In Acts 1:15–26 we read about the choosing of Matthias to take Judas’s place. At that time, Peter quoted a prophecy of David (Psalm 109:8) concerning Judas: “His bishopric let another take.”
It is difficult for us to understand Satan’s tactics unless we see the reason behind them. We understand that he can do more harm if he is able to defile a vessel that normally has a righteous and pure flow from God.
In II Timothy 2:19–22 we read what Paul wrote to Timothy about the importance of being a vessel of honor, a person who is cleansed and sanctified and useful for the Masters use: Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.” Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Everyone in the house of God must seek to have an inward purity, or they will not achieve outward effectiveness. There can be only one standard of righteousness for everyone. Leaders who are moving with real authority and effectiveness must not choose a way of life for themselves different from that which the Lord has set before all. If the Lord teaches the people to sacrifice, it is right that the leaders sacrifice as well.
There cannot be a hierarchy of people who do not walk in the ways that are laid before everyone else. If the Lord teaches us to be humble, then everyone must be humble. If He teaches submission, the leaders, as well as the people, must be submissive. If He teaches us to be pure, then everyone must be pure. There cannot be one standard by which the people are judged to make sure that they walk uprightly, and another standard which excuses the actions of a leader in authority.
A leader has a great deal of authority and influence in what they do as an example before the flock. If they have a wrong spirit, it does not take long for the entire Body to be defiled. God’s people should seek for His purity with fasting and prayer, or they will not be effective in reaching the world with the gospel of the Kingdom. The vessels of the Lord must be clean. We have to cleanse ourselves so that we are a vessel of honor and not dishonor in the house of the Lord.
In II Timothy, Paul mentioned frequently the problem of worthless words. In chapter 2 he said: “They wrangle about words, which is useless” (verse 14); “Avoid worldly and empty chatter” (verse 16); “Their talk will spread like gangrene” (verse 17); “Refuse foolish and ignorant speculations” (verse 23). The time has come that the Word which we speak must not be contaminated or empty; it must be a pure living Word that comes from the Lord to each one of our hearts.
The only way to be able to speak a pure Word is to have no wrong things in our spirit. Whatever is in our spirit becomes the sum and substance of the words that we speak
Someone may be simply talking about the weather, yet we discern that there is something wrong with that individual. Nothing in the words that they speak or in the inflection of their voice would indicate it, but something of the quality of their spirit will come through it.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18:21. If we speak a blessing to someone, we can minister health to them; but if we speak with unbelief, we can minister sickness to them.
Through this same principle, someone who is very pessimistic and bitter can affect us when they talk to us, telling why they are bitter. Although we may want to help them by talking with them about it, soon we may become bitter and discouraged too. Oppression can be conveyed to us through words which channel negative attitudes. Words can become a lifeline, or a death-line, from one person to another.
Many Scriptures in the New Testament teach about purifying the flow of what we speak. They can help us to realize, more than we have ever before, the importance of guarding what we say, the way we say it, and what we actually bring forth out of our spirit in it.
We should watch over our spirit; and when we have a bad spirit, we should not speak. James 3:2 says, For we all stumble in many ways. If any one does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Anyone who does not stumble because of their words is marked by the Scriptures as a perfect man.
Wrong things can war against our spirit, against our mind, and against our emotions; and yet we may not be responsible for them. But the minute we open our mouth and speak something negative, we become responsible for it. We activate it and give it force.
A person may say, “I think my father loved God very very much because he read the Bible; but as far as I know, he never went to church, he never prayed, and he never made a confession of Jesus as Lord. That person’s father may have died with a potential, but he did not die with reality.
With the heart a man believes, and with his mouth confession is made unto salvation. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you will be delivered (Romans 10:9–10).
The confession with our mouth activates what is in our heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Matthew 12:34b. Although we may be going through many difficulties, we do not speak bitterness or criticism or rebellion. If we do not open our mouth, God will still consider us a perfect man in the time realm.
“We cannot stop the birds of the air from nesting in the trees.” We cannot stop evil thoughts from coming to our mind. But we can disconnect from them. We do not have to dwell on them. James 1:15 tells us what to expect if we do: Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Our mind may be assaulted persistently with thoughts that the enemy throws at us—thoughts of lust, anger, greed, criticism, bitterness, rebellion, withdrawal, or any other thought that we know is wrong. However, if we do not focus on them and voice them, they will never have the force that they would have otherwise. Most of our difficulties come from what we speak. What we are talking about today is what we will be doing tomorrow.
Have you ever thought, “How strange that this would happen to me! I was just thinking about that last week.” Most likely you were also talking about it last week.
The entire third chapter of James is directly related to the tongue, and it describes how the tongue operates. We read in verse 6: And the tongue is afire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. Verses 8 through 12 further tell us: But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh.
We want to be vessels of honor. There are two kinds of vessels—gold and silver, earth and wood—but we want to be pure vessels into which the Lord can put His pure treasure.
II Corinthians 4:7 says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the power may be of God and not of ourselves. Therefore, we want to be sure that the vessel is clean. We want to be sure that there is something within us that has been in-worked by God and has purged out the iniquity.
This is a simple secret that can help our spiritual life greatly. We must speak positively. Whatever God speaks, that is what we speak. We do not speak the lies of the enemy.
We do not voice our own opinions. They can actually create a force of judgment against another person. If our spirit is bad, people will know it; but if our spirit is right, they will feel the blessing coming through it, they will experience God in our words.
There is a familiar saying, “What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying”. When we speak, what we are speaks so loudly that often the words themselves cannot be heard. We need to learn how to maintain a right spirit, so that out of our spirit comes forth the presence of God.
God spoke this Word to Jeremiah: Therefore, thus says the Lord, “If you return, then I will restore you—before Me you will stand; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become My spokesman.” (The King James Version reads: if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth—literally, “become as My mouth.”) Jeremiah 15:19a.
We want to be able to speak so that our mouth is like the mouth of God? We want to be able to speak so that nothing comes through but God? But first we must separate the precious from the vile. We are the ones who must separate the precious from the vile. We are the ones who determine what is right and what is not right in our life; we must eliminate that which is wrong in our life.
An evil, unclean heart and a bitterness of spirit can come through what people say and do. Those who would speak a living Word to change the world must have the gateways of their spirit and soul and body cleansed and purified so that the Holy Spirit can flow through them
Depart, depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean; go out of the midst of her (out of the oppressive area), purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. Isaiah 52:11. People will grow if they are fed a pure and living Word. If they do not receive a pure and living Word from the Lord, they will not grow.
We may not think that it is very important for us to get rid of bitterness, but a root of bitterness springing up will defile many (Hebrews 12:15). It will spread through a congregation of people. Even when we greet a person or shake hands with them, whatever is in our spirit is conveyed. I Corinthians 14:26 encourages each person in the congregation to sing and speak forth, with one rule: Let all things be done for edification. Everything must build up; everything must help. Everything must counteract the poison, the roots that will defile the entire assembly.
We do not withdraw from one another because we feel so unworthy that we think we will be a corrupting influence. If we learn how to maintain a right spirit toward God and we continually seek the Lord, no weakness of our flesh will come through.
The repentance of our own spirit will block the poison. What we condone, what we allow to fester, what we do nothing about, that will cause the problem.
A person can transgress seventy times seven in one day and be forgiven, and nothing but life and health will come forth to the Body. But if they sin once and are unrepentant, the whole church will be affected.
We must have a repentant heart, a repentant spirit. If we do that, we will constantly maintain a right spirit before the lord, so that he will be able to flow through.
We need to learn to be an instant repenter. Then every incident of self in our life has no force because it was removed before it could take root in our being. When we are not repentant, when we are not really seeking God with deep repentance, our defilement seems to fester and defile everyone with whom we come in contact.
The following Scripture (a denunciation of the Pharisees by Jesus) is a passage well worth remembering and meditating on frequently: “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree rotten, and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. And I say to you, that every careless” (useless) “word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” Matthew 12:33–37.
It is not only what we say that ultimately brings judgment back on us, but also what is in our words. If we speak a useless word, a word with no blessing, a word with no anointing, it can cause harm.
On the other hand, it is amazing what can happen when we speak words that are anointed and filled with God.
In the New Testament we read that Stephen was stoned by the hearers who were not able to resist the words which he spoke (Acts 6:10). In the Old Testament we read that Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, wanted the prophet Amos to leave the country immediately because the land was not able to bear his words (Amos 7:10–13). The words of these men were filled with God and anointed with God.
We must remove the flesh from our words and put the Spirit into them. That can be accomplished only when the vessel is pure, when we learn how to maintain a right spirit before the Lord.
It involves more than preaching eloquently with a fluent flow; we must speak God’s words into a situation. A few words with God in them can change people’s lives. But God will not be in those words if problems and sins and attitudes and a wrong spirit are filling them. We must make sure that the Holy Spirit fills those words.
The following Scripture tells us why we cannot have a mixture of the bitter and the sweet, the poison and the life, all in the same flow. Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
We want to speak what God is speaking, so that when we stand up and pray it will be God who is anointing the prayer through us.
“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. II Corinthians 6:14–7:1. God will walk in us. He will do all that He has promised in these verses, but He commands that we first cleanse ourselves from any defilement of the flesh and spirit.
We need to make sure that our heart and our spirit are really right with God before we speak in the house of God. If we have done something wrong, we do not come to a service and try to prophesy, believing that if we come on strong we can throw ourselves into the Spirit and minister effectively in God.
Actually, God will not come through at all, because whatever may be of God will be completely overwhelmed by the wrong thing in our own spirit. It is reasonable to assume that we do not have a right to prophesy until our spirit is right. We do not come to the house of God as a defiled vessel and think that we will be a blessing to the church. Rather, we let the other brothers and sisters minister to us.
In Old Testament times, if someone became ill the Jews were very careful to invoke the laws of quarantine, listed in Leviticus 12. After a woman gave birth to a child, she was required to remain home a certain number of days, called days of uncleanness, while her body purified itself. During her menstrual period, a woman was not allowed to come into the house of God.
A person who had touched a corpse had to wash with running water and be quarantined for a certain number of days, so that any sickness which rested upon them would not be given to others as they came into the house of God.
Quarantines prevented the spreading of disease long before germs were discovered under a microscope. Laws prohibited bathing in standing water; the people were told to use running water. There were laws regarding touching the defiled, the dead, or any article contaminated with sickness, as well as laws concerning the leper. All of those laws were very wise in their day and provide us with good spiritual wisdom.
If we have a bad spirit, do not sit down with someone and try to help them. We will not be able to help another until we take care of our own spirit first; then we can begin to minister effectively.
Galatians 6:1 tells us that only those who are spiritual should bear the infirmities of the weak, considering themselves, lest they also be tempted.
We are created by God to be living fountains, vessels who walk before God and speak a pure living Word that will be creative to those who hear.