THERE IS BEAUTY IN SILENCE. BE WISE AND LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR TONGUE.
IF YOU ARE A TALKATIVE YOU ARE A FOOL. THE MAN WHO SHUTS HIS LIPS IS CONSIDERED A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING.
WHEN GOD SPEAKS AND YOU HEAR IT AND DECLARE IT ‘IMPOSSIBLE’, FOR YOU, IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE.
WHEN YOU KEEP TALKING, YOU MAY SAY SOMETHING THAT WILL BRING YOU IN CONFLICT WITH GOD
THE TONGUE IS VERY SMALL BUT EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. IT CAN MAKE ALIVE OR KILL.
STUDY TO BE QUIET. LEARN IT FROM GOD WHO IS NOT A TALKATIVE.
SILENCE CONFUSES YOUR ENEMY BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO.
GOD KEPT QUIET, WAITING FOR THE ENEMIES TO SURROUND SAMSON SO THAT THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO ESCAPE. SAMSON KILLED A THOUSAND OF THEM.
GOD WAS QUIET WHEN THE 3 HEBREW BOYS WERE THROWN INTO THE FIRE BUT WHEN HE DELIVERED THEM, THE KING ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THERE IS NO GOD WHO CAN DELIVER LIKE THEIR GOD.
DANIEL WAS THROWN INTO THE LION’S DEN BUT GOD WAS SILENT IN ORDER TO GIVE HIM COMPLETE VICTORY.
GOD SAID TO ME IN 1981, “SON, DON’T ASK FOR A HOUSE, I HAVE DECIDED TO BUILD YOU A CITY.”
MANY WHO LAUGHED AND DOUBTED ARE ALIVE TODAY BUT THEY ARE NOT ENJOYING IN REDEMPTION CITY.
IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ANY WORD OF PROPHECY, JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT BECAUSE GOD WILL DO WHATEVER HE SAYS HE WILL DO WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT
– Pastor E.A. Adeboye on ‘FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN’ Part 27 at RCCG Online Sunday Service || 22nd October, 2023 ||
Declaration: “My Father will reach out to you today.”
I will move on to part 27 in our study on ‘FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN’ and as you know we have been using Joshua as our case study for quite a while now…and our text today will still be Joshua 6:10.
Last week we discussed that silence precedes a shout, that we should be encouraged that weeping may endure for a night but joy will come in the morning. That at the very very beginning, darkness was there before light came. There was confusion before order. Church Gist. There was emptiness before fullness and so on and so forth.
But today we want to look at the same passage and talk about the beauty of silence because Joshua told the people “go round 6 days, don’t say a word, 7th day you are going to go round 7 times and you won’t say a word until I say shout then you shout.” Church Gist. There is beauty in silence.
The Bible teaches that probably, the most powerful member of our body is the tongue. It tells us that the tongue is extremely powerful…that the tongue is the steering of the entire body. That the tongue can cause a lot of damage even as it can do a lot of good. As a matter of fact, Proverbs 18:21 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue that means that the tongue can make alive and the tongue can kill…very small part of the body but it’s extremely dangerous. As a matter of fact Proverbs 10:14 says “the mouth of the foolish is near destruction” in other words, the mouth of the foolish can even bring destruction to the fool himself. James 1:26. Church Gist. The Bible made it clear in Ecclesiastes 3:1,7. The Bible made it clear that there is a time for everything and one of the things that the Bible said there is a time for is the time to keep silent. There is a time where you keep your mouth shut.
So there is a big advice I will want to give you today and that is “be wise.” Learn to control your tongue. Ecclesiastes 5:3…that if you are a talkative, we don’t have to search further if we are looking for a fool -we have already found one. So when you find that there are some people in any gathering, they won’t even let others talk, they just want to keep on talking, you know who you are dealing with. You are dealing with a fool. Proverbs 17:28 said something very very interesting. It said “if a fool keeps quiet, we won’t even know he is a fool.” You know if there is a gathering of professors and there is somebody there who never did WAEC…as long as he didn’t say a word, people will think he is one of the professors. It is when he opens his mouth that they will know – “what are you doing here, you don’t belong”…and the Bible says several other things. It said “the man who shuts his lips is considered a man of understanding.” If you know how to control your tongue, people will respect you.
Oh! But I have something I want to say. Well, look at Proverbs 29:11. Some people must ‘talk talk talk’. They must tell you everything they have in mind…they must say it all. When you have somebody like that, you know you are dealing with a fool and you should not befriend a fool. Proverbs 17:27. You know I have been quoting ‘Proverbs Proverbs Proverbs’ I have been quoting from a man who was considered one of the wisest ever to live (Solomon). A knowledgeable man doesn’t talk much. When you see somebody who is normally quiet, he is a man of knowledge. He is a man of understanding and you know what? In Proverbs 10:19, Solomon said something again very important. You keep talking, you keep talking, you are going to say something that will bring you in conflict with God because according to Matthew 12:36, Jesus Christ said “on the day of judgment you are going to give an account of every idle word.” Oh, I was just joking, well come and explain (every idle word). Proverbs 6:2. That you can be snared by the words of your mouth.
The reason you should be careful in ‘talking talking talking’ without control is that you might say something that God will hear and God will say “okay, as I have heard in my ears so will I do unto you.” Numbers 14:26-30. Remember the spies who were sent to spy the land, they came back and said “it cannot be done, we can’t take the land.” God said “fine, you won’t enter because you said so.” So whenever God is speaking and you hear what God is saying and you are one of those people who will jump up and say ‘impossible’. God will say, “Yes sir, for you it will be impossible.”
Oh! And Solomon said something ‘very very very heavy.’ Ecclesiastes 9:17…in other words, they haven’t said a word and because they haven’t said a word, they have spoken volumes. Church Gist. The Bible advises you beloveth children, “study to be quiet.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11. Study to be quiet – it’s a habit you have to acquire. Learn from God Himself. God is never a talkative. The Bible says “God has spoken once and twice have I heard this.” When you hear the second time, it is the echo you are hearing. God has spoken once and twice have I heard this, that power belongs to God. “Let there be light” – He said it only once…”and there was light.”
God is not a talkative. Study to be quiet. Follow the example of God and you will discover something ‘very very’ precious that silence confuses your enemy because your enemy does not know what you are about to do because you have kept your mouth shut. Church Gist. Take the example of what happened to Samson. In Judges 15:11-14, the relatives of Samson came to bind him with the intention of handing him over to the enemy. He said “well, promise me you won’t attack me yourself because I don’t want to kill you, you are my relatives.” They said “no, we will only bind you and hand you over to the enemy.” He said “fine.” They bound Samson, God said nothing. They brought him down from the hill, God said nothing. They brought him to the enemies, God said nothing. Why…because God was waiting for the enemies to surround him so that they won’t be able to escape.
God waited until the enemies began to rejoice before He moved. You know the story. Judges 15:14-17. When God came down all of a sudden, Samson took the jawbone of an ass – he killed a thousand of them. How come he was able to deal with a thousand? They were all surrounding somebody they thought “now is victory.” They were rejoicing over a victory they haven’t gotten. By the time they realized what was happening, before they could begin to scatter, a thousand were already gone. Learn from God. Learn to be quiet.
Let me give you another example. Daniel 3. You can read the whole of Daniel 3…it is a beautiful story. A King raised up an idol, God didn’t say anything. The King said “everybody must bow down to the idol,” God didn’t say a word. They discovered that Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego didn’t obey, God didn’t say anything. The King said “if you don’t obey, you are going to the fiery furnace”…God was watching. The King said “make the fiery furnace 7 times hotter than before,” God didn’t say a word. Church Gist. They bound Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God did not move. The mighty men threw them into the fire, the heat of the furnace killed the mighty men…God didn’t say a word.
Oh, so the enemies are thinking that they have won because they are about to throw you into the fire? (laughs). At the end of the day we will see who the fire will consume. Look at the end of the story. By the time Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego came out of the fiery furnace, what was is it that the King said? He said “there is no God like their God who can deliver like this” and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were promoted. Learn from God. He knows how to confuse the enemy by keeping quiet.
Look at Daniel 6. That is another example. Read the whole chapter. When the enemies of Daniel were planning how to get him into the den of lions, God said nothing. By the time they threw Daniel in, God said nothing. Church Gist. But you know the result. By the time they pulled out Daniel the following morning, all the enemies of Daniel ended up in the den of lions. Who was laughing at the end of the story? God was silent in order to give his son complete victory. Nobody ever bothered Daniel after that.
Learn to be quiet. I know it is very difficult for many of us. We want to talk. Church Gist. We want to defend ourselves. We want to tell the whole world “this is my own side of the story.” Why don’t you just keep your mouth shut and let God be God?
But the one that I am sure that you will find most interesting is in the case of God the Father versus God the Son. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ cried “Almighty God all things are possible for you, take this cup away from me”… Daddy said nothing. On the cross He cried “my Father, my Father, where are you?” God didn’t say a word. He didn’t say a word until the resurrection morning. He allowed them to kill his ‘boy’, He allowed them to bury Him. He allowed them to roll a huge stone at the mouth of the graveyard but then He spoke in Matthew 28:1-6. On the resurrection morning (laughs), an angel came, rolled away the stone, sat on the stone. “Anybody who wants to roll this stone back will have to get me up from here first.” Why? Why was God quiet? So that according to Revelation 1:18, His Son can proudly say “I am the Alpha and Omega, I was the one who was alive and who was dead, now I am alive forevermore and now I have the keys of death and of hell.”
Learn from God. Learn to be quiet. Many of us still talk too much. We need to learn to be quiet and I have tried as much as I could to demonstrate this to my children but they still haven’t learnt the lesson. You need to learn the lesson and probably one more important point, “don’t let your mouth destroy you” because if you read the story in 2 Kings 7:1 to the end, a man of God gave a word of prophecy. He said “within 24 hours, there will be abundance” and a chief said “even if God were to open windows in Heaven, can this thing be?” The man of God turned to him and said, “alright, you will see it with your eyes but you will not partake of it.”
My beloveth children from time to time, God has spoken. He has said things that are difficult to believe. I beg you if you don’t believe the word of prophecy just keep your mouth shut because God will do whatever He says He will do whether you believe it or not. The Bible says, “let all men be liars but God will be true.” Church Gist. If everybody denies Him, He can’t deny Himself. It is very important particularly for those of us in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. We should learn by now from the track record of God that when He says “this is what I want to do, that is what He wants to do” and if you don’t believe, just keep your mouth shut. Stop saying “it can’t be, it cannot be done” because He will do what you say, “it cannot be done” and He will allow you to see it but you might not partake of it.
There are several people who didn’t believe me when I told them that God said (oh) way back in 1981, “son, don’t ask me for a house, I have decided to build you a city.” Those who laughed then, many of them are alive today but they are not enjoying in Redemption City.
There are several things God promised us (those of us in the Redeemed Christian Church of God), some of them are difficult to believe. If you don’t believe, just keep your mouth shut.
PRAYER: God, please set a watch over my mouth. Don’t let my mouth destroy me. God, I might not be able to control my mouth correctly, help me. Set a watch over my mouth so I will never say what I shouldn’t say.
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