Guard Your Words
April 2024
“I was just kidding.” “I was only joking.” How many times have you heard that or said it yourself?
What better way for satan to deceive people into speaking words they don’t mean than to disguise it in a joke, or laughing matter?
The Holy Spirit recently pointed out to me that sarcasm, or using words in a joking, hostile manner carries not only “crooked speech,” but also looses an energy of hostility. After all, when someone teases or berates you, do you leave feeling blessed, edified, or built up? I don’t! I ask myself if that really was a joke or is that person speaking what they truly think and covering it up with a laugh.
This is just one example of crooked, perverse speech, and it is one of the reasons my dad, Charles Capps, was so heavily criticized. “I didn’t really mean it. God knows I was just joking when I said I would probably be hit by a train on the way home.” You knew you were joking, but your words give authority and by saying you didn’t mean it, you are saying you don’t believe in your words. You have no faith in the power of your own words.
“Turn aside a contrary mouth from you, And put perverse lips far from you.” Proverbs 4:24 (LSV)
“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
Perverse or crooked speech is saying the opposite of what you mean. I have done it myself trying to be funny. Unfortunately, I did so after being highly developed in the Word of God and believed in the power of my words. I jokingly said, “I love my big truck because I am above the other cars and can see everything. When I feel a bump, I know I have just run over a little sports car! Ha ha!” Everyone laughed. I left about 30 minutes later and backed over one of the teenager’s sports cars in the street. Wow! I learned my lesson!
I now guard my words and find something funny to share that doesn’t involve crooked or perverse speech. I urge you to study this subject and see if you have given any open door to the enemy through your words.
In Christ,
Annette Capps
Click Here to view this month's teaching by Annette Capps, The Power of the Spoken Word
- Annette Capps