Many followed Him, and He healed them all. Matthew 12:15.
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. Matthew 12:22.
“But I tell you that every idle word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
You can live a life of days of Heaven on earth or you can live a life of days of hell on earth. It is up to you. When you are grateful for things they look far better than when you are not. When you are grateful you see blessings, when you are ungrateful you see curses. As long as Hagar cried and fretted, thinking her life over and that her son would die of thirst, she did not see the spring of water that was before her. But when I got her attention and told her to raise her eyes and take the boy by the hand, she saw it, and that was the beginning of a prosperous life filled with days of adventure for her. She was no longer a slave but a free woman with a son well able to provide for them. And I blessed them. Genesis 21:15-21.
She thought she was out with nothing and found out with Me she had everything.
You can see the people in your life, especially family members, as burdens or as blessings. In them you have someone to serve and save, to lead to Me and take them from darkness into My marvelous light. Or you can see them as a burden of evil that you can barely tolerate to have around.
“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and the enemy will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.” Deuteronomy 28:47-48.
Life and death are in the hand of your tongue. Do not bemoan and curse where you are with grumbling and complaining, crying and blaming, bitterness and resentment that these people are in your life. Instead go forward from where you are. When Lot took the best of the land and shut Abraham out of his life after Abraham had done so much for him and given him all he had so that he prospered exceedingly, Abraham did not get bitter about it, instead I told him to look up from where he was and I would give his descendants the entire land. Genesis 13:14-15.
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14.
Use your words as tools of faith, use them to edify, exhort, and encourage, to give grace to those who hear, including yourself. And when you are serious about this you are going to arrive at days of Heaven on earth. “Come, you children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34:12-14.
Today’s Life Lesson in bringing days of Heaven to earth, that is, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven near you, is the next miracle in the gospel account of Matthew. It is the brief account of the healing of a man who was blind and mute. But it brought about an encounter with the Pharisees that gave Jesus an opportunity to give one of the most important teachings on how to have days of Heaven on earth. It all depends on the words you are saying. And I had already shared this truth with Moses for the instruction of My people in the desert and with Joshua so he would be empowered to conquer the Promised Land. The problem was Joshua and those leaders close to him followed this teaching and had great success but most of the people did not and that became their downfall. And it all starts in the heart for your words cannot go against what is filling your heart, it will come out.
So we need to do a heart checkup on each one of you today to see if you are ready for Kingdom living or not.
When we left off in our last Life Lesson, Jesus had cured the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day and instead of rejoicing and stepping forward for their own miracle of healing the Pharisees went out to band with the Sadducees, who that did not agree with on doctrinal points, to figure out a plan to destroy Jesus. No gratitude for My gift of Jesus for Satan had blinded their minds to the gift before their eyes. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. And that was written by the inspiration of My Spirit by the apostle Paul, who at one time was a Pharisee and his mind was blinded beyond all the rest. But I did not let him stay that way because I saw a heart that truly loved Me but was misguided. And when I revealed Jesus to him, he underwent a complete renewal of his mind and became overflowing with gratitude for the unfathomable riches of Christ that he had the privilege of sharing with all those still in darkness to bring them into the light. He then counted everything as pure joy because no matter what came against Him he had taken hold of Jesus Christ. And in Him he was complete. And so are you.
“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete.” Colossians 2:6-10.
Jesus aware of their plots to kill him, knowing it was not the hour for that yet, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all.” Matthew 12:15. The fact that they all got healed tells you that they all had faith in Jesus. Despite the Pharisees rejection of Him as a violator of the Shabbat they knew they had someone wonderful here that had authority over unclean spirits and brought them closer to Me than they had ever thought possible. This was at the time when the Holy of Holies was still closed behind the veil with the cherubim embroidered up it. But Jesus would tear that veil in two as He died upon the Cross for He had stepped out of the shadows from behind the veil and set My Light for all the world to see. The power was about to be released into every believer to access My true heavenly throne by the One Spirit through Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and the only way to Me.
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. Matthew 12:22. Jesus did not waste time with demons, He cast them out and then healed the damage the devil had done to the person’s physical organs and mind. Luke 11:14. You see here that there was a demon behind this man’s physical infirmities. Don’t ever count this out and look at ailments and disabilities only at the flesh level. There is an unclean spirit behind them. And do you see what the devil does? He makes you blind and mute with respect to My Word.
When Jesus healed this man, all the crowds were amazed, and were saying about Jesus, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” The people were thinking Jesus was the Messiah, for the signs of the Messiah would be the blind given sight, the mute speaking, and the lame walking. And Jesus qualified exactly. But when the Pharisees heard this kind of talk, they refuted it saying, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” Matthew 23-24.
Jesus knew their hearts, that they were hardened against Him, and as we saw yesterday their continuous malicious accusations and disrespect for the Holy Spirit that was upon and in Jesus was inexcusable. Jesus would never permit anyone to blaspheme the purity and holiness of My Spirit. To align My Spirit with a demon spirit is very dangerous territory to tread on with Jesus. Matthew 12:31-32.
And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 12:25-28. Here Jesus again tells you that one of the signs of the Kingdom coming upon you here on earth is the casting out of demons. Remember, I sent Him to undo the work of the devil that had bound and oppressed people since Adam gave in to his lies and ushered the curse into the earth. But Jesus redeemed you from the curse so you now can deny it entrance in your life even now. And that is the first instruction Jesus tells believers to do in the authority of His Name, i.e., cast out demons. Mark 16:17. NEVER permit them to stay in you or anywhere around you.
And Jesus added another rule of how you recover the years and goods the devil has stolen from you by deceit and unclean influences—you have to bind his activity. “Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” Matthew 12:29. You bind him and the things he sends, such as storms, illness, pain, fear, depression. Jesus told you to do that, “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:18-20. You can bind and loose things wherever you are, so get used to doing that, but if you join together with other believers who are full of faith and the Holy Spirit you can take much more territory in My Name back from Satan.
And then Jesus gave the Pharisees and the crowd present a teaching that they should have been familiar with from My instructions to Moses and the proverbs penned by Solomon about your words, that is, what is filling your heart and what you are saying with your mouth. I instructed the Israelites who had come out of Egypt with a mentality of the world to renew their minds by keeping My Word before their eyes day and night and speaking it to their children and themselves when they arose in the morning, in going about their day, and when they went to bed in the evening. In other words, all the time. Jesus knew this and practiced it continually and it made His life amazing, He never spoke anything but My Word. And you see the results in the mighty miracles He performed and the authority He had over the devil and demons. You would be wise to learn from this and take care about what you are saying if you want to live days of Heaven on earth.
So Jesus taught them, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every idle word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:33-37.
Pay attention to this. My Words are not idle (inoperative or evil words) but are your very life. They are Words of eternal life. They are living and working. They are Spirit and life, they contain within them, when released by faith, the power to do what they promise. Like seed you plant will grow the harvest of that kind of seed, it cannot produce anything else than the type of seed it is. And with you it is the same. If you speak evil, idle words you will get a harvest of days filled with evil and idle things. If you speak My Words you will have days filled with blessing and abundant life.
And it is by your own words you are judged or acquited. And that standard of judgment is how well they line up with Mine and what they produced in you and those who heard them. You pass the verdict on your life by what you say. Do not speak what you do not want, as the majority of the Israelites in the desert did, and when they got what they spoke, they hated it and blamed Me, but that was in their control, not Mine. But Joshua and Caleb had a different spirit, the spirit of faith, and they believed My promises in their hearts and spoke them with their mouths and they had beautiful lives that they loved where they saw all My promises come to pass just as I had spoken.
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-14. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20.
I see your hearts, and if I see that your heart is toward Me and you love Me and the one I sent, Jesus, but I see that you are not watching over the words of your mouth, I will correct you. In fact, I will discipline you. For those I love I discipline. Hebrews 12:6. It is better you judge yourself and see where you are lacking in this area and correct it with the help of My grace, but it will take diligence on your part to consider your thoughts and your words and cast out wrong ones if you have not been making any efforts in this area. Believers should not have undisciplined mouths, but many of you do, and this is not acceptable to Me nor does it please Me.
You will never grow into My mature children if you do not watch your words. Paul called the members of the church at Corinth infants that were not prepared for solid food because they were all arguing and causing divisions among themselves. Even if you cast out a demon if you do not fill your heart with My Word and My Spirit but instead talk in the same angry, bitter, complaining way you were used to doing, the demon will come back with seven others more wicked than itself and really get you talking evil until they take over your emotions and your destiny.
“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” Matthew 12:43-45. It is a very dangerous thing NOT to watch your mouth and your words and this all comes from monitoring what you are hearing, seeing, reading, speaking, and giving place to in your life. Jesus gave the devil NO place in Him.
Be serious about this. If you do not stop evil speaking, and evil speaking is anything contrary to My Words and My promises, I will discipline you as one does when training up a child to be a strong, mature adult for I know your heart’s desire is to live a beautiful blessed fruitful life. And don’t excuse yourself by saying it is just too hard to keep such a watch on your thoughts and words, that means you are not really committed to doing this. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline (paideia: the rearing of a child, training, discipline) of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” Hebrews 12:4-6; Proverbs 3:11-12.
“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen (anorthoó: make upright (straight) again, rear again, restore) the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” Hebrews 12:7-15.
So you see the answer, if you want to stop the need for My discipline then judge yourself and “make straight paths for your feet,” pursue peace and holiness, and let no root of bitterness rise up in your heart. But this is not new advice, I gave the same to Joshua:
“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” Joshua 1:7-8.
And even stronger:
“My son, give attention to My Words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.” Proverbs 4:20-27.
Do this and you shall have days of Heaven on earth. Learn from the Pharisees what not to do, for they were very religious people but they had no love in their hearts. Be careful about that. If you have not love, it means nothing. Faith, hope and love, these three remain, and the greatest of these is love. I have faith and hope but I AM LOVE. And you are in My image and according to My likeness, that is why you are not happy except when you are walking, living, and abiding in Love. Match your words with who you are and whose you are. It will show in your life whether you belong to Me or to the devil.
“Cease from anger and forsake wrath, do not fret it only leads to evildoing.” Psalm 37:8.
I love you. Work on yourself for now to become a polished arrow in My quiver and then I will shoot you forth. Get rid of unrighteousness, all malice, all evil, learn to serve as onto Me and not men. Do not look at the flesh only but see Me in the Spirit. It is Me whom you serve. And that makes all that you do important.
Pray without ceasing and I will part the Red Sea for you.
But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32.