Today I am sharing part one of my communion time with the Holy Spirit on guarding our tongues by offering the sacrifice of praise to the Lord.

This morning, during my communion time with the Holy Spirit, He reminded me again of the importance of us speaking only the things we want to see happen in our lives. He emphasized the need for us to guard our tongues carefully and ensure that the fruit of our lips is continually full of praise to the Lord. This is a vital spiritual principle that we must never take lightly, because the words we speak matter, and we must be intentional about what proceeds from our mouths.

We must not allow careless speech, negative declarations, complaints, or words of unbelief to become part of our daily conversation, because they can produce negative consequences that may show up in our lives when we least need them. Jesus warned us about the seriousness of our words in Matthew.12:36, by showing us that we will have to give an account for all the idle words we speak.

This fact means that the cost of us speaking carelessly can be much greater than we sometimes realize. Therefore, we must learn to watch our mouths and refuse to speak words that contradict the truth of the Lord concerning us. The Holy Spirit is calling us to a life in which praise is not merely an occasional response we make to a blessing received but a continual offering we make to the Lord.

In Hebrews.13:15, we read these words: “15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” What a beautiful truth to know that the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, helps us keep our mouths full of praise. He teaches us how to respond to every situation in a way that honours the Lord and agrees with His truth. We must therefore make a deliberate decision to guard our tongues and ensure that our words continually express praise, thanksgiving, and confidence in the Lord.

Most of the time, when we think about offering something to the Lord, we think about financial giving. We seem to understand the importance of us bringing our financial offerings to Him, but we may overlook the fact that our mouths are also meant to be presented to the Lord as a continual offering. We must remember that our words are an offering, and the fruit of our lips are a sacrifice of service that we are called to bring to the Lord continually.

The Lord does not want us to honour Him with one kind of offering while using our mouths to contradict His Word. We must understand that praise and thanksgiving are not optional additions to our spiritual lives, but they are expressions of our trust, devotion, and honour towards the Lord.

Consider this example that you may give a financial offering to the Lord, as you ought to do, but immediately afterwards speak words that contradict His promises. In doing so, you may undermine your expectation of the harvest you desire to receive.

This is what happens when you use your mouth to oppose the very process through which you expect to receive the harvest to manifest on your behalf. We must therefore recognize the importance of aligning our words with our faith and our actions of obedience. We cannot honour the Lord through giving and then dishonour Him through our speech that questions His goodness, faithfulness, or the value of serving Him.

Our mouths must not become the instrument through which we cancel out our own confession of trust in the Lord. Instead, we must continually offer Him praise and thanksgiving, by trusting Him to fulfil His Word in His way and in His time.

In Malachi.3:13-15, the Lord confronts His people concerning their words: “Your words have been harsh against Me,” Says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? 15 So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.’ ”

This passage provides a clear example of what we must avoid doing. The people had spoken harshly against the Lord, yet they did not recognize the seriousness of their words. They questioned the benefit of serving the Lord and keeping His ordinances, by suggesting that their devotion had brought them no profit. Their words were an insult to the Lord and His Word, particularly in view of all the good He had done for them according to His covenant promises.

The writer of Hebrews teaches us to offer the sacrifice of praise continually. We must not do the opposite by allowing our mouths to become filled with complaints, accusations, and declarations that serving the Lord is useless. We are to be firm in our words against the enemy, by rebuking him and resisting his works, but we must never direct that harshness against the Lord, who is our only true help and aid.

We must never accuse the Lord of failing us simply because we are passing through a difficult season. We must never allow our temporary negative circumstances to determine our understanding of His faithfulness. Jesus cannot affirm and bring to pass a lie as though it were His truth.

So we must therefore ensure that the offering of our mouths is not a contradiction of what He has spoken. The truth remains that no one who trusts in the Lord needs to surrender to shame or disgrace as though they have the final authority over their lives.

In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I declare that, by the grace and help of the Holy Spirit, my mouth shall continually offer the sacrifice of praise to the Lord. I declare that my lips shall be filled with thanksgiving, and my words shall honour the Lord and agree with His truth. I receive the grace to guard my tongue and to speak with wisdom, faith, and reverence.

I will not allow idle words, complaints, accusations, or negative declarations to govern my life. I will not speak words against the Lord or question the value of serving Him because of my temporary difficulties, because my confidence remains in His faithfulness and the truth of His Word.

I declare that the Holy Spirit, who is also the Spirit of Truth, is helping me to align my words with the Lord’s promises. So that no matter what I see happening around me, I will not allow the enemy to dictate the fruit of my lips. I will praise the Lord in favourable seasons and difficult seasons, in times of abundance and in times of waiting, because He is worthy of continual praise in Jesus name. Amen.