Utterance

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed if anyone first let him come to me and drink, he who believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart, shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:37-38

In all the teaching that goes on in this flock, the emphasis has been and will continue to be, that we are to live a life that matches our message.

We are to live our gospel.

We are to walk as children of light.

I am to be an embodiment of the gospel that I proclaim…and if I don't live toward my wife and children, the gospel that I proclaim to other people, then my message loses its edge, not just with my wife and children, but with people who never see my home life.

As long as we are in this body of flesh and blood, we continuously strive to bring our life along with our gospel ..so that even the most private and secret and hidden areas of our lives are lived as men and women who have in fact become new creatures in Christ Jesus.

But there is a problem at the other end of the picture, which we often miss, most of us are having difficulty not only living our Gospel, but we're also having trouble speaking it.

There are many of us who have, in fact, and in truth, coming to the kingdom, we know Jesus, he has become real to us. He has manifested himself. He has changed our lives. He lives within us.

And yet we have no utterance.

Somehow we find that we are not able to proclaim in words. The truth about Jesus, which is in our hearts, either the words just don't come, or when they do come, they simply lack authority.

They don't have power.

And so instead of telling people about Jesus, instead of speaking for the word of God, with the tongues that God gave us, we think we have to take people over here to listen to somebody who will have the words, we hope …“Come to our church and listen to our preacher, come to our fellowship. We have a wonderful teacher read this book by Watchman Nee or Oswald Chambers. Take this tract and read it. It explains everything.”

The word of the living God ought to find a way of uttering through our mouths, our mouths at that moment of opportunity, at that place of need, we don’t have to be dragging people around to hear the gospel from somebody else's mouth.

Is not the body of Christ, in fact, a nation of prophets, every man, woman and child who is indeed born of the Spirit … should have….. rivers of living water flowing out of his heart and across his mouth.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.                                                                   1 Peter 2:9

Notice that it does not say certain gifted ones of you are to do this. All of you, all of us are called to speak for the Gospel of Jesus Christ with living power.

Well, then why isn't this happening?

Why isn't the word of the living God just gushing forth in every single mouth in this assembly?

How is it that so often the words come but they're dead?

On the day of Pentecost, the first organ of the human body to manifest the power of the Spirit was the tongue.

Divine Utterance

Now, this door of utterance, this power to speak forth the word of God is one of the most holy mysteries in the life of the believer.

It's not some skill that you acquire by going to seminary or bible college or some kind of training program, not something that you acquire, like learning how to swim or ride a bicycle or become an artist or to become an after dinner speaker.

Nor is it some kind of gift that you're born with, like the gift of gab.

It's a spring of supernatural utterance, which God opens up in your heart, causing words to flow across your lips, which you know are not yours, but they are God's.

And you are dependent upon God, hour by hour and day by day to keep that spring flowing.

Don't be misled by these slick, glib testimonies that you sometimes will hear on so-called Christian programming or by the smooth flowing gospel that comes from the mouth of the professional Christian orators.

Divine utterance is not skill with words. Divine utterance is not being able to say these things fast and easy. Divine utterance is being able to speak for the witness to Jesus Christ, which God put in your heart, and to do this without worrying about how this sounds.

One of the reasons we don't have that liberty to speak is because we're all the time worried. How does it sound? How is it getting over? The apostle Paul, for instance, was a man who had absolutely no eloquence. He was unimpressive to look at. And his speech was of no account, yet the spirit of God opened up a spring in that man's heart. So that the words that poured across his mouth, even though they stumbled and fumbled, even though they came painfully and hesitatingly, those words that came across that man's mouth, for all the lack of eloquence and all his stuttering, were alive with the power of the living God. They accomplished that to which they were sent. They did not come back empty.

Next to Jesus, no words ever flowed across human lips to accomplish more than the words that came across the mouth of Paul. But Paul, of all people, was well aware of the fact that he was utterly dependent on God for this to happen. He never got to the place where he could save himself. “Now I know how to preach. Now I've acquired skill at speaking forth God's word”, Never.

All his life long in every situation, he had to be crying out to God for words of utterance.

And we read this in the epistles, how he's continuously asking the believers,

And pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel

Ephesians 6:19

For the servant of God... the source of our utterance, is Jesus himself. 

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.

 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:38-39

He who believes in me, as scripture has said, out of his heart, shall flow rivers of living water

If the words don't come.

It's because we're simply not going to the source.

We're not going and drinking of that river of utterance,

We're not trusting him to give us the message that he promised that he'd give us.

On the other hand, in some of our lives, we have no problem with words coming, we've got all kinds of words coming out… they come profusely… but they have no power because they are not coming from the source, the spring of Christ himself.

They're coming from our flesh.

Out of our flesh flows hardness, religious platitudes that have knowledge, but no life.

Jesus Gives all his People Utterance. 

Jesus gives his people utterance. Just as surely as he opened the mouth of the mute man. Jesus opened our eyes to see, our ears to hear and our mouth to speak.

All of our mouths, not the mouths of just some of us, all of us. But we have to learn how to depend upon him to do this the same way that Paul depended upon him to do this.

And every other man and woman of God who ever walked this earth depended upon him to do this. And the problem is that some of us think we can talk… and we talk, man, do we talk. But everything that comes out is death.

And some of us think, I can't talk. I have to leave that to my brother and sister because I just don't have that gift God. And we say nothing.

So nothing happens

Speak.

Open your mouth and I'll fill it.

Whether you have a gift for gab or whether you're shy and self-conscious about speaking. In both cases, we have to come to Jesus. Are we, in fact, coming to him for the message? Are we seeking from our father that door of utterance that he promises to give us, to open up that well of living water, to flow out of us?

Utterance in Prayer

Now, the place to begin, is not out there on the streets. First, begin in your room with the door shut and ask the father to give you utterance in prayer.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:26

And as he intercedes within us, deep down inside, something happens below the level of utterance entirely, which is the work of the Spirit.

And as this happens, we begin to experience liberty, fresh liberty from our sins, deliverance from guilt through the blood of the Lamb and then our own spirit takes off and begins to rise up toward the throne, clothed in the righteousness of the Lamb. And as this happens, our tongue is loosed., the string of our tongue is set free, and we find that we are able to speak to our Heavenly Father.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And that liberty includes a tongue that is set free from self-consciousness, and from the weight of its own worthiness and is able to speak simply and clearly to God.

Don't ever get the idea that prayer comes easy for some people.

Prayer comes easy for nobody.

Prayer flows by a miracle of the living God. And every time you pray, you need that miracle. And apart from the miracle of the living God working in his Spirit, in your hearts, you're not praying. You're talking to yourself.

Utterance in Praise

The four living creatures before the throne of God ceaselessly, never give up, praising God for his glory.

"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

And the elders, and the angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect… never get tired of praising God. And now that we have been made sons and daughters of the King, the chains that have made us mute and speechless before God's voice must break, so that we can indeed praise our Father

..…uninhibitedly.

I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be continuously in my mouth.

And by the way, that praise of God doesn't just go on in secret in your prayer closet.

Sing onto the Lord, a new song and his praise in the Congregation of the Saints.

If we're so bound up in ourselves and so tight and so self-conscious that we're not able to praise God in company with each other, where do you think we're going to get the authority and the power and the liberty to speak about Jesus out there in the world?

Recite the Psalms. It’s beautiful!

Praise ye the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power, Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

And then when you've gotten loosened up by the Spirit of the living God to praise him, then ask for a door of utterance to proclaim the gospel.

Utterance to Speak the Mystery of Christ

The only ones who can proclaim the gospel are those who have come from the throne of God. First you go to the throne, then you turn as ones who are sent and you go forth from the throne as one sent by the living God. And the same tongue which God set free to praise him in the holy of Holies, is now put at liberty and given an utterance to proclaim to the world the marvelous thing which he has done through the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus.

Now, God says, “open your mouth and I will fill it. Open it wide and I will fill it.”

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned

Isaiah 40:1-2

God will give you words, and you will know that those words came from God, even if you stutter and even if you have no eloquence at all, even if you think you ruined the whole thing, open your mouth and let God go with it, and he will. He will give you words and you will know that if your eyes are on the living God, that those words are God's and he watches over them and they will not come back void. They will accomplish that to which he sent them, and they will point men to Jesus Christ. They will glorify Jesus and they will by the power of the living God, create faith in Jesus in every heart where they are received.

Now for what other reason does God gather us together, all of us but to give us utterance in prayer and praise. And for what other reason does he send us forth from this place? Then to cause the gospel of Jesus Christ to flow from these hearts and these mouths, as rivers of living water, in a dry and thirsty land.

May God deliver every single one of us here from the idea that utterance belongs to somebody else.

Whoever you are, if you believe in Jesus, utterance is your portion.

God will give it to you and he will show you how to use it and you will answer to him if you don't.

Let's wait upon him in prayer.

Just asking, Father, that you will confirm the truth of the word and that you will fulfill it in the lives of those reading this today. Lord Jesus, even as you cast out the demon in the mute man, setting free that speechless man, loosening his tongue so that he could speak plainly. Grant the same to those reading this. May they experience liberty in their hearts and in their tongues to pray to you, to praise you, and to speak forth your glorious gospel out there to the world. this day, beginning this day… old and young, all of us, father may all of us come under the authority of the spirit as the spirit works this now in all our lives afresh, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.