Today, we are examining How to Wrestle either with or by the word of Mouth. That is what we will be studying today and I want us to start our study from the book of Psalms 8, and I will read the first two verses there. We will also examine that text in Amplified version of the Bible, Classic Amplified version for better and clearer understanding of what we will be talking about.
Listen To Podcast: HOW TO WRESTLE WITH THE WORD OF YOUR MOUTH
O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.Psalms 8:1-2 (NKJV)
I am sure we still remember that we are looking at "How To Wrestle By The Word of Mouth." So, there is a word "wrestle." You don't have to wrestle if there is no enemy, if there is no opposition, if there is no avenger. Let us examine verse 2 of that passage in Amplified version, classic edition. The Bible says: "Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have established strength because of Your foes, that You might silence the enemy and the avenger." Your foes, your enemies, out of the mouth of babes and unweaned infants, one version says "God has ordained strength", another one says "you have established strength."
So, those that look like the weakest among us, those that look like they can tell to do things and enforce obedience, Bible says out of their mouths God has established strength. If there is strength in the mouth of babes, I think we should start thinking twice before we utter anything. You remember, this Scripture is so important that even Jesus quoted it. When they were saying "Hosanna Hosanna" and some people said to Jesus; "tell these people to keep quiet." You remember Jesus also reminded them what the Lord had said "out of the mouth of babes the Lord has ordained strength." So, what is it that the Lord has established and ordained in your own mouth? There is another Scripture I also want us to read before we go to, perhaps, out texts.
Revelation 12:10-11 – "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." Now, if we stop here, there is something that we should notice and consider. It says "the accuser of our brethren." Who is an accuser and how does an accuser does the work of accusing? By speaking! So, somebody is accusing and the Bible says he accuses them before our God day and night. It then means that is his preoccupation. In fact, if you ask an accuser "What do you do for a living?" The accuser will say "I accuse for a living." How do I do it? I Speak against them!
Now, since the accuser does his business by speaking, verse 11 now says: "And they overcame him (the accuser) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." By the word of their testimony. Now, there is another word in verse 15 that will show us a bit more of how power can be released through the mouth. Let us see verse 15. Don't forget I said that the dragon who was the accuser of the brethren was accusing the brethren day and night by speaking. Then verse 15 again says "So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood." Do we see that? Let us continue.
"But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." Does it not look like this is a battle of mouths? I am sure many of us have been reading that passage but we have not been giving attention to the word "mouth." The accuser does his work of bringing us down by speaking against us, not just alone, and even those who had belong to God even before we were born. He has been accusing even before all of us were born. And now, those who have ever succeeded against him; they did not do it by just doing all manner of things; but by speaking against him. Bible says "they overcame him, they defeated him, they had victory over him" by the blood of the lamb, which comes in the name of their salvation and redemption and by the word of their testimony.
They did not do anything about the blood of the lamb, that is a gift from God, that is grace. So, it is showing us that even though the victory that is in God over the enemy for your life is not what you have worked for, but it has come to you in the form of grace or what God is doing. There is the God responsibility. This is what God does. God gives grace. You are being opposed, God keeps making His grace to be sufficient for you. So, the blood of the lamb is God's gift unto them. I am sure the Lord is showing us this so that we will stop folding our hands and stop destroying ourselves in ignorance. Bible says "they overcame him" and we have been reading this. But it is not just by us doing that, let us sit down and dissect what it says, let us meditate.
The blood of the lamb was not what they did. The blood of the lamb has been settled before we were born actually. We did not do anything for Jesus to sacrifice Himself. Do we understand? But there is a responsibility that we have right now for our victory to become a reality. Jesus died for you, but if you must walk in victory, there is something that you must do now. Bible says "By the word of their testimony." What is your own testimony today? What is it that you are going through and what testimony are you having? What are the things that you are confessing or concurring with or agreeing with? Because a testimony is like this: somebody said something is true and I am testifying that is it true. Why are you testifying? Because you are an eye witness. Or somebody said "this product will make you wise." And then you used it, and say "my testimony is that this product can make wise because it has made me wise." Do we understand that? When the Bible says "let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich." Alright! So, what is the word of your own testimony?
It is like the work of Christ is something that that has been established. What will establish your own victory is what you are saying now that you have come into Christ. This is very important. The one who accuses you before God does not keep quiet. He is always speaking against you and the reason why is because he wants to bring you down. Now, we are given a picture of what he did again in verse 15 and 16. The dragon, the serpent, the devil, Satan, wants to destroy a woman and even the child that she plans to deliver. And so, because the woman was running away, moving away from the serpent, the serpent spewed water out of his own mouth.
Have you not heard that the world is also water? So, the dragon spewed water, and the essence is not so that the water can be of good use to the woman but that the water can carry her away and destroy her. So, when the devil is accusing and speaking against your life, it is not so that your life can be built up. Acts 20:32 says "So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace…" It is only the word of God's grace that builds you up. Any other word does not have capacity to build you up. It is a word that will either make you to stagnate or to bring you down. And so, if you must wrestle against the word that is set to bring you down, then you must speak words that will build you up. What is it that God has said concerning your life that you are speaking out of your mouth? And so, when the dragon released water to destroy her, the earth opened its own mouth and then received the water so that the woman will be preserved. So, if the enemy is speaking against your life, you must never keep quiet. You are indeed in a battle, and I want us to go to 2 Corinthians. This is the battle over your destiny, your progress and your growth and you must never be seen doing Mr. nice man or Mrs. nice woman.
2 Corinthians 10:3 –"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments (Do we still remember arguments? You know when people are arguing, they don't keep quiet, they speak) and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge (and you know when you are talking about knowledge, you must not forget the implication of spoken word, something that has been spoken or written; do we remember? When we are talking about knowledge, it is a collection of spoken, a collection of written words) of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."
Now, verse 3 and 4 makes us to understand that we are actually living in the flesh and blood so to say, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, but the kind of battles we fight and the enemies we have, it is not carnal, it is not flesh and blood. And so, you cannot overcome that enemy by using fleshy things or bloody things. It will not work. Why? Because your enemy is not flesh and blood. While we keep this place very close to our heart, in Ephesians 6, there is something that we have also read that we will note today. Ephesians 6:17. You know verse 11 already says: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." That already shows us this thing is about battle. Do we remember that? Verse 17 now says "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;"
And the helmet of salvation is what we already saw in Revelation chapter 12:11 when the Bible says they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. Do we remember that? The helmet of salvation there is the criteria for you to ever have victory over this enemy that we are talking about. The enemy is not flesh and blood; you require the special work of grace of Christ Jesus to be at work in your life. In addition to that, it says "and the sword of the Spirit." Now, we said don't hold a cutlass against your enemies. Because this enemy that is bringing accusation against your life is not flesh and blood. Then what should you hold? Since the enemy is a spirit, then you also hold the sword of the Spirit. That shows us that there are certain times that your opposition will determine the kind of weapon you use. You don't just carry a weapon simply because that is the only weapon available. You must know whom you are fighting against.
Imagine David and Goliath, David tried to use the weapons of Saul but he could not. The question is how will a seventeen year old boy go to meet a man that was very tall, and then try to use the same sword to kill someone who is very tall. isn't that failure? Before he moves close, he will have use his leg to kick him away. What is it that David did? He used stone and catapult. He didn't have to come close to Goliath; he shot the stone from afar. The enemy defined the weapon that he used. Now, since we are wrestling against spirits, we must never use cutlasses in the flesh, cutlasses of earthen materials; we must used sword of the Spirit to destroy spirits. The sword of the Spirit in that context we were told was the word of God.
Now, the word of God could either be the spoken word of God or a written word of God. How does that spoken word of God and the written word of God translate into a sword in your hand? How can a word come to your hand? You know, the sword of the Spirit is not something you weigh with your hand but with your mouth. The sword of the flesh is held in the hand, the sword of the Spirit is held in the mouth. When the spirit wants to destroy you, they don't need to touch you, they use the mouth. So, you cannot hold the sword of the Spirit with your hand, it is with your mouth, what you are saying is the word of God, but it must come out of your mouth. You are wresting against spirits, and if you will have victory over them, then you must speak words against them. You don't need to be physically with them, even from where you are you can send the sword of the Spirit against a demonic spirit, you can send it against any enemy of your progress even from wherever you are.
What is it that God has said concerning your life, use it against them. They are accusing you before God, you must speak the word of God against them. When the angel wanted to do something and Satan came, he says "the Lord rebuke you Satan." What is that? Satan has been rebuked by God. That is a written or a spoken word. But the angel had to say it. He did not rebuke Satan with his own word. He says "the Lord, even the Lord Most High Rebuke you Satan." So, it means whatever the Lord has said concerning the devil, say it to the devil when the devil comes to oppose you. When the enemy shall come against me like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise a standard against them. How? It is through the words that you speak.
So, when you keep quiet in the days of your adversity, then the enemies will ride over you. You are saying where is God to come to your rescue but the question is where is your own mouth that you cannot use it to speak against them? Bible says "strangers shall hear His voice and they shall flee out of their secret places." So, what is the voice of the Lord that is coming from your mouth? And you see, as much as you can use the word that is coming from your mouth to wrestle, you can also use the word that comes from your mouth to build your future. What is it that you are saying? What is it that God has said concerning your life that you are agreeing with? Because every time you speak with your mouth, then you are agreeing with what God has said. The word of God is so big and it is what is available to the whole universe. But which of it is applicable in your life. It is that one that you confess with your mouth. Let us even see a place in Romans.
Romans 10:8-10 – "But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess (another word for confess is to speak) with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes (you know we believe different things. In fact, you believe that you should be the head and not the tail, it is your belief. But if all you do is just believing and you don't speak, you may not become that head) unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
So, if your circumstance will ever change, and you know, that change, that progress, that growth is salvation. You are salvaged out of whatever state that is not good to a state that is good, you are being salvaged; maybe from poverty to riches, you are being salvaged from oppressions to the point that you are now ruling, you are being salvaged from every thought that is evil, from corruption into incorruption; it is going to take place, not just because you are a believer, but because you are one who confesses with your mouth. Don't just believe great things, you must speak great things. Don't just believe that you are safe, speak. The word will do two things for you: It will attack your enemies and it will defend your life. Your words will build an hedge around you and something that the enemies cannot penetrate. Why? What is coming from your mouth is what you believe in your earth, and that is the word of God for your life.
Why was Satan eager to hear Job curse God? Satan knew that if only Job can speak against God, the real edge around him would be removed. So, instead of Job cursing God, he confessed "I know My redeemer lives." So because he confessed this, even though certain things were dead around him and in him, they became alive. By the kind of words he was speaking, he sustained his serious stronghold, the edge of the Lord around him were sustained by the manner of words he was speaking. Even in your own oppression and adversity, what are the kinds of words that you are saying? Are you saying "God does not love you, God hates you" is that what you are saying? Is the devil giving you the impression that God is not the one that loves you? Now if the devil is giving you the impression that God does not love you, then whose words will you use against your enemies when it becomes clear to you that God has nothing against you?
Was God the one that was spewing water against the woman that was running away? No! So imagine the woman speaking against God and cursing Him. Will the earth come to the rescue? No! Know your enemies, that is the word! Don't assume that God is against you. Because things are not rosy for you right now does not mean that God is against you. In fact, things are not rosy because the devil wants you to curse God and speak bad things. What are the things you are speaking that has made it difficult for you to even rise up in life? Because you think you are in trouble and you are speaking trouble, how do you then get out of trouble? So, if you are in trouble, you speak safety, you speak security, you speak progress, you speak words that will get you out of the current dungeon that you are and so that you can be translated into the best place that God has for you.
The enemy that is fighting against you is using words of mouth, you must learn to engage your mouth as well to defeat the enemy. When the enemies come like a flood, Bible says the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against them. Engage the word of mouth to have victory in the place of adversity.
Hallelujah!
