Fathering Filtering Speech-Selah107-CMAW211

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit “ Prov 18:21

“a fool’s voice is known by his many words.”

Ecclesiastes 5:3

“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise” - Prov 10:19

James 1:19 says " let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;"

In corporate prayer my Pastor Julio Calderon challenged us to make sure that anything we say that day be more beautiful than silence

I've talked in the past many times about the power of our speech, particularly in our work.

One thing I don't I have discussed, however, is the power of the Father Filter in reverse.  Not only should we filter what we are about to say, we should also filter what we hear.

If someone speaks something to you and your instinct, your fleshly response, it to be offended by it, try to instead filter what they've said through Your Father and His Word.

If what someone is saying is true based on what God has to say about, even if it's paintful your correct response very well may be to say "I'm sorry, please forgive me, please pray for me, I'll try not to do that again".

if what someone has said is NOT true, or only half a truth, filter out the portion that is not true and, if possibly try not to let it bother.  Don't defend yourself or react negatively, just let it roll off your back.  I realize that it's easier said than done especially when you've conditioned to react to certain negative things spoke over you, but I believe this is so important that it's worth us trying to intentionally change the way we filter what we hear about ourselves and others.
Here are my three challenges I have for you this week in your work to apply Father Filtering with your speech, and if you want you can simplify by just picking one of the 3 to make it easier to apply:

1. Try to apply active listening technique with at least one person, specifically do not interrupt the person who's talking, and if you do, only repeat back to them what you think you heard they just said to you and them to confirm it's correct.   Resist the urge to share your wisdom, limit your speech to questions

2. Check in with your self lunch time every day and ask your self, did I speak more life or death with my words that morning?  Was what I said more beautiful than silence?

3. Next time someone says something to you at work our outside of work that is painful and that you want to react to defending yourself, ask the Father to show you what is true and what is not true.  If it's true, apologize, if it's not true don't react and let it go.  You may need some time in-between when you hear these words and your response and that may be best.