Architecture of the Human Spirit
The way we are made requires many parts. However, a small rudder guides a large ship. So it is with the tongue. We have a large heart, but a small tongue expresses life or death. James, the brother of Jesus, tells us it cannot be true that we curse and bless with the same tongue, from the same heart. Jesus said that whatever comes out of us, that is what is in our heart.
So, this describes the architecture: a heart full of something, and a tongue that speaks what is in it-like a trap door for the flow of curse or blessing. This is a summary of James chapter 3 on the tongue:
- Bridling the tongue bridles the entire body. A large horse is controlled by a small bit on the bridle; a large ship is directed by a small rudder.
- The tongue is small but boasts of great things
- The tongue is a fire, able to cause great and powerful movements of destruction, and also of building.
- Man cannot tame the tongue (I infer that only God can tame tongues.)
- Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. This should not be! Does a spring have fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree bear olives? Can a grapevine produce figs?
My previous Reflection, Two Keys Open a Bank Box, spoke of the 40 day fast of a group of people, and I challenged you to consider what it would be in your life. Some of you said you wanted to do this. It is simple, we do not speak any destructive word from our mouth. This requires the Holy Spirit to guide our tongue, since we cannot control it otherwise.
I was severely tested this week on this. Not giving in to the temptation to speak against others, people whom I feel “deserve it,” I was also greatly rewarded for not doing so. A man noticed this and said he was greatly pleased that I did not speak evil against someone who had hurt him deeply, even betrayed him, and me too. He said it helped him to understand what maturity looks like, to be able to love those we do not like. Anyone can love those we like, Jesus said. Love your enemy, He said, bless those that curse you and do good to those who despitefully use you and persecute you, He said.
So, I am giving an update. If anyone else has a story, please comment!!
I wanted to share in this challenge to not speak negatively because it is so prevelent all around us. According to the scriptures you have quoted and as we are taught by the WORD, what comes out of our mouth is what is in our heart. It expresses the ‘life we live inside our heads’.
This was my challenge this first week: Some one that I care about & a sister in the Lord sent me an email that seemed to be very critical & and hurtful toward myself. It was a shock, but beyond the shock was the hurt and sense of failure & loss. It felt devastating and even though I tried to excuse what I felt was unfair and very hurtful, I felt wounded. I tried to get it fixed in my heart so that no one knew or suspected that I felt injured. It’s called the mask, in most cases, and we do it to protect others we think, but most times to our own harm.
So lying under the surface, are these thoughts running through your mind. You can lash out or you can love. If you allow your mind to lash out and dwell on a matter in this way, it will finally manifest itself in some way and it will eventually be spoken from your lips. Death and cursing is the end result.
The conclusion of the challenge? I re-read the email the next day and could clearly see that my sister in the Lord was trying to help me. Trying to suggest ways of making my load a little lighter….She would have been devastated if I had responded to her with my first reaction.
It is of the utmost importance that we be quick to hear but slow to speak. It is not always what it looks like and if it is what it looks like, someone needs a word of life and blessing, not curses and death.
Bob,
I was reading James for the past 3 days after reading Two Keys Open a Bank Box. Chewing on it in the TransLine. :) Didn’t know exactly why God brought me to James after your post (duh-so blind at times). Obviously it’s acute teaching led by the Spirit through your work.
-nathan
Thank you Katherine. This is what we need in the Body. This happens all the time but when we have a mask over the entire Body of Christ, we cannot process this negative “think.” Someone sent out on Twitter this week, “It is not what it is, it is what we perceive…” Not an exact quote, but our perceptions do us harm. That is why God gave us the gift of love. We are able to cover a multitude of sins with love: our sins and all the other people’s sins! It is interesting, isn’t it, that in the midst of my writing this, and your attention to it, that God would give us these exact examples.
The words “Architecture of the Soul” first came to me this week in thinking about the topic. Why? Because I feel God plans events for us like this according to the architecture of our soul. Life brings its hurts no matter what, but God plans “special” challenges made just for us. Some things that bother me would not bother 98 out of 100 people. God knows this. So, He schemes to bring the one thing that I need, so I can recognize any ballast in my heart. Then I just need to let Him do surgery. Then what comes out of me is blessing! And blessing to you!
Today I said on Twitter to show the link for this article, “With words, we decide which crew: wrecking crew; construction crew? Choose only one, plz: http://bit.ly/loDMT ” That idea came from years of working in high rise buildings. Every day I saw destruction crews and construction crews in the same building. They were never the same people. I came to recognize the carpenters, painters, welders and builders-the men preparing offices for the newest tenants. I also came to recognize the ones who tore down the old office space before construction began. There was a stark difference. We get to choose whether we carry a crowbar and take someone’s heart apart, or whether we take bricks and mortar and build. It really matters, and over time, as we speak life, it multiplies with amazing velocity and dynamic power among many. In fact Twitter is a place I see more blessing given than almost anywhere I have been in my life. The design of Twitter promotes agreement and goodwill. The Body of Christ should observe this, the ones NOT on the social networks. Bob
Greetings Bob,
I sincerly appreciate your reflections on speech,as this has ministered to me greatly in lieu of recent encounters with various family members & acquaintances along the bumpy road called life.
I constantly have to remind myself that I am surrounded by so many different types of people every single day. I have people that are ahead of me spiritually, I have people that are behind me spiritually, I have people that are difficult, and I have people that just simply need to be ministered to in some capacity.
In God’s spirit of architecture:”God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love & of self-discipline” 2Tim 1:7
I encounter people quite frequently that are being torn & ripped apart by the world’s system. Their speech is not always that pleasant to hear. However, again reminding myself in the midst of those encounters, Paul wrote from prison: “Let your speech ALWAYS be with grace, seasoned with salt.” Col.4:6
Thank You for opening up a dialogue on a topic that is so important and meaningfull to Christ followers. I pray that we may use as you mentioned, “bricks & mortar” to reach hearts & build people up. Bless You!
Melinda
Meilinda, I hope someday you will have your own blog. You are an articulate and lyrical writer: “…people being torn and ripped apart by the world’s system.” That is it. We can be pulled into their dialog, their desperate interpretation of events, or we can, as you say, season it, learning how to respond to each situation by the Spirit. Thank you for joining in the blog flow and in the comment flow. This dialog is one of the powerful elements of this social network enterprise! Bob
Bob,
Another great post by a Man of God! Thank you!
Sometimes I find myself cursing quite a bit, when trying to express myself. I have used the excuse, “I was in the Navy…sailors are supposed to curse.” However, what comes out of my mouth has always been something I’ve wanted to work on, because I realize that it is unlikely Jesus used a lot of profanity when he was here on Earth.
You are accurate when you say that “Jesus said that whatever comes out of us, that is what is in our heart.” I consider myself a bad man, poisoned by the world, so it makes sense that I would use coarse language.
My question is this: Even though my heart is not healed, and there in fact is a lot of “bad” in me, should I “fake it til I make it”? In other words, I feel sometimes that my language, while negative, is still ultimately The Truth. Thoughts?
Hi Jake, You ask a very important question, and thank you for it. We are never to “fake it.” I tried that for many years. It is exhausting, and although they pay people fortunes for acting in Hollywood, I never got a cent. Rather, when I am tempted to swear or any other ugly emergence from the heart, I see it as a sign that I need to go to God and deal with the uglies. Ultimately, a broken heart is one that believes lies and harbors them, acting on untruth as if it were true. That damages us, the world and hurts God also. Anger is a sentiment from the soul that expresses lies from the heart, and if we believe we are wronged or get treatement we don’t deserve, or don’t get treatment we do deserve, we get angry. That is a temptation to swear for example. Yet, when we get rid of residual anger, stored there for years because we think we are wronged, it does great damage.
So, I suggest asking God each time you want to express anger harshly if you have a residue that is giving your anger fuel it does not need? That is only an entree to healing anger, but it is a start. The short answer is this: do not sit on it, deal with it. It is the poison that kills slowly but does not go away, like mercury, lead or arsenic in the body. God is able to remove it. We cannot. Ask Him to take it and he will. Bob
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