How to keep your ears open twice as much as your mouth
First, read the spiritual significance of eyes and ears to understand the spiritual weight they carry.
1) Refrain: from unwholesome talk ( unHolysome) (Ephesians 4:29)
2) Listen: (The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ) (Galatians 5:22-23)
3) Pause: reflect in solitude and prayer. This is renewal, this is rest. Selah
4) Re-evaluate: your consumption and company. What do you look at, watch, hear, and who speaks to you daily? If God isn’t first on the list, re-evaluate!
5) Obedience: is sacrifice, faith, trust, and the action to carry it out, putting it into practice. (Doing this unlocks blessings for you and others!)
God tells us how folly (foolishness) is proof of unrepentance and disobedience, which leads to death; this is due to not being fully surrendered to the Lord and the Holy Spirit to receive sanctification (No conviction, no repentance = no sanctification). This is the pivotal point of the gospel: carrying your cross and dying to your fleshy desires to live by the Spirit. In this case, you aren’t bearing the fruit of the Spirit but are operating in the world in your flesh still. Since we have power in our tongue, we have the opportunity to shift our lives. Our mindset, our emotions, and actions will then affect how we treat ourselves and others, and most importantly, affect our relationship with God, which is a testament to our faith in Jesus. What you say, when you say, who you say, and how you say it are important.
Gossip, cursing (profanity and word/thought curses), lying, mocking, joking, over-explaining/sharing, and engaging in negative thoughts. Understanding why this is unacceptable and then refraining from all immorality that comes from the tongue should be your first step. As followers of Christ, we are called to love (one of the fruits of the Spirit) and be a light in a broken world (Philippians 2:14-15, Ephesians 5:1-2) to spread the gospel in love and wisdom, correct in love and wisdom, and give in love and wisdom. This would not be applicable if your tongue is full of poison; therefore, if you can’t love others, whether they follow Jesus or not, you’re not a disciple.
This carries into listening, listening before speaking, listening in love, gentleness, and kindness, which looks like having a calm and gentle spirit, even if the conversation is heated or somebody is belligerent, persecuting you, Jesus, or somebody you love, which is contrary to your values. Not raising your voice, portraying body language that is offensive to yourself and the other person (showing disinterest or offense like eye-rolling, scoffing, arms crossing, aggression with objects), mocking the person, cursing, insulting, gossiping about them to others, even after the event has already ended. You continue to tell all your friends and family when you’re playing the situation over and over, fanning the flame to the root of anger, reigniting bitterness, malice, and unforgiveness, which is sin. Listening leads to the fruit of the Spirit because it is wisdom and self-control. Before you take it to a confidant (trusted peer), take it to the Lord first, surrender it at the altar, and let it go, even if you have to do this every day and make space to hear God.
Selah. This means pause and reflect. Society is busy. Something is constantly happening, constantly working, and the only time God speaks to you and keeps you up at night is because you never gave him time throughout your day to do so. Flooding your thoughts, allowing you to be anxious because you think you can do it on your own without him (Matthew 4:4), as Jesus said this in the heat of temptation during a fast in solitude. Fasting removes our comforts so we can replace them with what really matters. And if you don’t pause and reflect to listen and study his word, you would never know and understand the importance of this and why people do it. Is to pause and reflect to deny yourself of what you replaced God with to fill your spirit so that you can be sustained for longevity for eternal life.
In your time of reflection, you would then reevaluate your priorities. Your comforts, the company you keep around, invite into your space, and give them your time. Your time is precious, however, limited, seasonal, situational, and not everyone is meant to join the journey. Speaking to people who don’t feed your spirit is an invitation to an open door that you left open. How can you refrain from wholesome speech if the people you invite into your life practice unwholesome speech and indulge in activities that don’t feed the spirit but feed the flesh? The mind governed by the flesh’s death, and the mind governed by the spirit is life. How can you share things with others when their life is not an example of a follower of Christ, when you haven’t seen their faith move, when they are negative and spew negativity about themselves and others? This is not someone you want to share personal information with. Crucify your desires, reevaluate them, and give them to God. Pray that the desires of your heart will be aligned with his will, meaning his time. His plan, not yours.
To carry out everything that you’ve been practicing is obedience, which is a sacrifice because it is costly. It’s not getting tired of doing good when things get hard or when you fall back into sin, but trusting and knowing God that you will see the fruit of your repentance, the fruit of your obedience. Because your faith is not only for you, your destiny is tied to other people. Your unrepentance, your inability to reprove reproach (correction), and your word curses not only block your blessings and delay them, but also those around you, too.
Listen more, talk less
1) Acknowledge the sin of your tongue (James 3:7-11)
2) Repent and ask God to clean your heart, search your heart, your thoughts, and your ways (Matthew 12:34, Psalms 139:23-24), and crucify your desires
3) Study his word, speak life, and declare it over yourself and others! Write it down, say it out loud daily! Replace the lies, the gossip, the noise with God’s truth! (Proverbs 18:21)