Being a human planting of the Lord filled with the water of God’s Word, however, is only part of the process. The next emphasis includes taking the abundance of God’s Word, which is in our hearts, and declaring it with our mouths.
An undeniable connection between heart and mouth exists at various places in the Scriptures. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord”;[1] “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”;[2] “If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”[3]
With Biblical logic, you can conclude that what is in the heart is likely to come out the mouth. Therefore, a person filled with the Word of God is the same person who would be declaring it in prayer,[4] praise,[5] declaration,[6] confession,[7] proclamation,[8] singing,[9] witnessing,[10], etc.
Important to the theme of this chapter is to take note of what I perceive to be the Old Testament introduction of the New Testament practice of confession.
The Old Testament gives the incredible promise that prosperity and good success would be present in the life of one who embraces the practice of meditation. This is mentioned in two key verses, Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:1-3. Meditation is the practice, and the Word of God is the object of that meditation.
A thorough study of these Scriptures indicates that meditation is not just a mental practice, though mental capacities are truly active in the process. What I have discovered is that meditation is a verbal exercise.
Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
This verse might be better understood this way: “This book of the Law shall not stop coming out of your mouth, but you shall meditate…” It does not mean that the book of the Law, a term to indicate God’s Word, is not to ever come out of your mouth. Instead, it is the idea that the book of the Law never stops coming out of your mouth. Or, this book of the Law shall always be in your mouth.
This is how stomata operate in a plant.
The Hebrew word for meditate means to mutter, to murmur, or to growl. In some places, this same Hebrew word is translated to speak or talk.[11] All of this lends itself convincingly that this practice is truly something verbal at its core.
Probably one of the best practices I embraced as a young Christian was to memorize large portions of Scripture and use them for meditation and confession purposes in times of prayer and reflection. If I have had anything to offer my world, I would have to credit it to the presence of those memorized verses. Bringing them back up again from memory makes it convenient for meditation in verbal form.
Additionally, the verses of Psalm 1 also encourage meditation with the promise of success.[12] Here we have the botanical analogy present that tells us to see such verbal people as “trees, planted by the rivers of living water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither.”
Several years ago, I had a dream that I was playing basketball with Satan in a highly competitive contest. During the course of that game, I found myself totally frustrated because Satan acted his predictable self in that he constantly manipulated the rules of the game to get the upper hand. The more he did so, the more I found myself exasperated to the bone.
In the dream, my spirit reached out in the midst of my extreme irritation for an answer from God to the dilemma. It then became obvious to me that I must find a verse of Scripture to use in the situation if I was to overcome. My spirit and mind raced through my warehouse of familiar and memorized verses in an effort to locate the needed Word weapon to bring into play. I remember stopping on a particular verse, and as good as that verse was in content and truth, I knew it was not the one for this situation; so I kept searching. Soon, I realized that Revelation 12:11 was the key verse to apply to this situation in prayer and spiritual resistance. And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. In the dream, I began quoting the verse over and over. I confessed it verbatim and then would personalize it with my name and accompanying personal pronouns. I overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony, and I love not my life unto the death.
The truth of that verse helps establish my position in spiritual warfare and my place in Christ Jesus. And the oral confession of that verse in the spirit of faith[13] returns it to heaven where God watches over it to perform it,[14] undergirding me with strength for victorious spiritual engagement. As I came fully awake, I found myself quoting this verse out loud repeatedly. Since that day, that verse is, more than any other, the verse I begin quoting as I enter a time of prayer, whether during a private season of intercession or taking a leisurely walk as I fellowship with the Lord.
The stomata of plants are engaged in vital release of water. Doing so provides a message and model that we, too, should use our mouths to release God’s Word in prayer.
Plants can have as many as fifty to two hundred stomata per square millimeter on a leaf.[15] Stop to think about that. How large is a square millimeter? It is probably about half the size of the letter ‘o’ on this page. This makes our one mouth per person that much more essential toward the accomplishing of God’s purpose through our lives. Then when we consider the Greek word for mouth from the original language of the New Testament, we are even more excited to engage in these verbal dynamics.
Of the seventy-nine times that this Greek word is used in the New Testament, the King James Version translates it mouth seventy-three times. Four times it is translated face as in “face to face” when John is writing his subjects and is looking forward to speaking with them “face to face.”[16] The other two times the Greek word is translated as “edge” as it refers to the edge of a sword.[17] Of special interest here is the fact that the sword of Jesus in the book of Revelation, as He rides in victoriously on His white horse, is not strapped to His side, but proceeds from His mouth.[18]
The Greek word for mouth to which I am referring is stoma.[19]
This should not surprise us. After all, each of us is a planting of the Lord with a stoma, or mouth, which is to be dedicated to His purposes, both in delivering His Word to this world and returning it to God in faith-filled prayer.
This reinforces for me that I cannot get away from the vital importance of the mouth. Even if no Bible-based analogies exist between plants and humans, or between stomata and mouths, I still can’t get away from the obvious priority put on the mouth in the Bible.
From the book of James, we understand that the tongue is not a forest fire but is like a match that starts one.[20] The mouth is not a horse, but it is like a bridle in a horse’s mouth used to turn the entire body of this large animal.[21] The tongue is not a ship but is like a rudder that is used to turn huge sea vessels.[22] The message here is that you and I go where our mouths take us.
And though James is making an effort to communicate that the tongue and mouth cannot be tamed by man, and is commenting on related abuses, he is making clear that the tongue is an incredible force, setting us on a course.[23] We are going some place, and our mouth, what we say and proclaim over ourselves, is taking us there.
The actual terminology used in James is “course of nature.” The Greek word for nature is genesis.[24] I point you to the book of Genesis where God spoke to generate the beginning of life. James confirms the idea that spoken words are still powerful forces moving us down life’s path—for some, blazing in the wrong direction. Perhaps that is why James admonished his readers that there should not proceed from the same mouth both blessing and cursing.[25]
James did not bring up the subject of man’s inability to tame the tongue because the tongue is not to be tamed. A relationship with God and His empowering grace will be vital to capturing the purpose of tongue and mouth for the glory of God. During Peter’s sermon in Acts[26] he referenced Psalm 16 that says, “my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.”[27] However, it is translated in Acts as “my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad.”[28]
Not surprising in the scheme of things is a plant reference used in James to make the final point in this section, “Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?”[29]
In this same manner, Jesus referenced trees and fruit as the context of His comment when he said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.[30]
Those plants—they are everywhere!
[1] Psalm 19:14 Italics mine
[2] Matthew 12:34 Italics mine
[3] Romans 10:9-10 Italics mine
[4] Ephesians 6:18
[5] Psalm 119:171
[6] Job 22:28
[7] Hebrews 10:23
[8] Psalm 68:11
[9] Psalm 96:1-2
[10] 2 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 12:11
[11] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, number G1897
[12] Psalm 1:1-3
[13] 2 Corinthians 4:13
[14] Jeremiah 1:12
[15] http://bioweb.usa.edu/kmott/Complexity_Web_Page/Stomata.htm. Another resource indicated even more stomata per square millimeter and indicated that more stomata are made on plant surfaces under higher light, lower atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and moist environments. Yet, another resource said that stomata account for only one percent of the leaf’s surface but ninety percent of water transpired.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Stomata.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/botany/transpir.html.
[16] 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:14
[17] Luke 21:24; Hebrews 11:34
[18] Revelations 1:16; 19:15
[19] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, number G4750
[20] James 3:5
[21] James 3:3
[22] James 3:5
[23] James 3:6; Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, number G5164 is translated course, but means wheel.
[24] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, number G1078
[25] James 3:10
[26] Acts 2:14-39
[27] Psalm 16:9
[28] Acts 12:26
[29] James 3:12
[30] Luke 6:43-45
0 Comments