Insight #20

This week we’ll be looking at a new topic titled, “Watch what you say”. As we may all know, God is a speaking spirit. He created earth by his words, and one thing we as Christians should understand is that when God made us in his image, he also gave us the power to use words. Haven’t you ever noticed that only man, amongst all living things has the power to use words? Well this week, you’re going to understand this privilege and how to use it in your favour.

Before we go on, there are some things you’ll need to understand first. Obviously, we know that we speak using our mouth (our tongue especially). So anytime in the scriptures where emphasis is being laid on the tongue, note that it also means the words you use. Also you must note this, its extremely important; The positive effect your words will have, will depend directly on how close you are to God and how strong your spiritual life is. The more unserious you are as a Christian, the weaker your words will be. So having said that we’re going to study two major points under this “gift” God has given us.

(i) The power of life and death.

Proverbs 18:21

21) Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (KJV)

In Prov. 18:21, the bible tells us that the power of life and death is in our tongue. Don’t think this means that it is physically in your tongue. NO!!! This means that the power of life and death lies in the words you use over yourself constantly, so if you’re used to saying negative things about yourself, then you must stop this very moment because you’re not helping yourself. Let me explain further because of how serious this issue is. You must watch what you say at every point in time and if you ever catch yourself saying something negative about yourself or anyone around you, cancel it by saying something good instead. The best w ay to maximise the power of life in your tongue is to quote the scriptures. There are many promises God has made to us in the bible which he intended for us to turn into our confession, such as “I’m head and not tail, on top only and not beneath” and others like that. These are tools that God has given us to sharpen the “life side” in us. You mustn’t forget that if the effect your words will have, depend on how close you are to God.

(ii) The Power to possess.

Mark 11:23

23) For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (KJV)

Here we see another key ingredient we need in using the power of the tongue rightly… which is FAITH. Faith is essential to confession because our confession is of little effect if we don’t believe in it. And to make things worse, a lot of teens have faith in their negative confessions especially when it comes to academics. They walk about saying, “That paper was too hard” or “That teacher is very wicked when he’s marking” or “No one has ever gotten up to 70 in this subject”. We all know these common negative confessions that teens make. The funny thing is that most of the time, it happens to them but we as Christians must rise up as a different set of people and use our tongue rightly. In the above scripture, Jesus used a mountain as an example to show us that the sky is not the limit when it comes to your confession. Always remember that no matter what you need as long as it agrees with God’s will for you, if you say it, you will have it.

Join us next week as we continue our powerful study on the effect of our words. God bless you.

PRAYER; Dear father, please help me to choose life by the words I say (say, “I choose life today”) and I cancel every negative word I’ve said over myself in the past. Lord help me to build a stronger relationship with you in Jesus’ name, Amen

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Insight #19

Habits You must AVOID for a great future (2)

This week, we’ll round up our lesson on negative habits. Before moving any further, I must reiterate the importance of this particular topic because no matter how great you become in the future, negative habits will bring you down.

The next habit is that of mistreating people. This becomes more of a problem as you increase in life. You must learn to treat everyone you meet properly no matter who. At this point I must point out that God requires that you should treat everyone with love as you would treat yourself. This includes gatemen, cleaners and teachers at your school. Remember everyone is still a person regardless of their jobs and you must treat them with respect because you don’t know the plans God has for their future. Most teens nowadays only treat rich people well or the people they know and they mistreat strangers. God wants you to be different. The most important people you must never mistreat are your parents and your pastor. If you mistreat any of them, you’ll be dishonouring them and as we saw 2 weeks ago, you’ll be unlocking a curse into your life. A good way to avoid this habit is to practice greeting everybody you come in contact with properly. For boys, you bow and for girls, you kneel gently (courtesy). This will help you to destroy any tendency you have to ever mistreat people and doing this will help you to maintain your place of greatness.

The fourth negative habit is the habit of getting angry when corrected. This habit has brought destruction to a lot of great men. This habit stems out of pride which we’ll be dealing with next month. God has designed us in such a way that we need advice from genuine friends. No man is an island and a lot of teens think that they know everything they need about life and when a friend or even their parents try to correct them, they react angrily and most of the time, they ignore what they have just been told. This is one of the reasons why a lot of teenagers end up miserable. They don’t receive good advice and they end up in shambles. Let’s look at the story of a guy named Seyi. Seyi was an intelligent teenager who felt because he was the best in his class; no one could contribute to his life. Right before he went to university, his mum sat him down and warned him of bad friends and told him to join a good fellowship. As usual, he got angry and walked away. When he got to school he did exactly what his mum warned him of and one night he went out to drink with his friends and had a fatal accident on his way back. If only he had listened. This point not only applies to advice, but to correction also. When your parents correct you, don’t get angry, in fact, develop a habit of saying “Thank you sir/ma” when you are corrected or given advice. This will help you greatly.

The last negative habit we’ll be looking at is the habit of taking spiritual things unserious. This is a rampant problem among teens. I’ll teach you a test to carry out on yourself to know whether you fall in this category. First is to watch your reaction when you are told to pray, fast or read your bible. Do you get angry or react negatively? Check yourself. Next, how often to you forget your quiet time daily? Thirdly, do you enjoy doing plain things such as gist, soccer e.t.c than attending fellowship? If you aren’t satisfied with any of your answers, then you need to ask God to cleanse your heart and also you must begin to take a more active role in spiritual things and once you are serious with them, over time your answers to the above questions will begin to get better.

Don’t forget that God wants you to spend time with him more than anything, and your life, health, academics and future will be better when you take your walk with God seriously. Don’t form the habit of forgetting your quiet time or misbehaving in church by making noise, talking to friends and not paying attention in general. GOD BLESS YOU

PRAYER; Lord, Help me to take myself seriously and to guard myself against negative habits that will hinder me from the great future you have for me. In Jesus name. Amen.

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