Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
James 1 ... 26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
Two main problems in controlling tongue. First, if you have strife in your hearts your tongue will at some point rise up to show what is in your heart. Second, the devil whispers evil things in your ear and if you give place to devil your tongue will at some point speak words of devil.
Concerning that which is in your heart ... People say things which offend us. If we fail to take those issues to God in prayer and deal with them in spiritual ways a root of bitterness will grow inside our heart and it will at some point come out our mouth.
Prov. 4:23 ... Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Mt. 15 ... Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man:
So how do we deal with this?
If you are being tempted, stop and turn to God in prayer and ask God to help you with the temptation. If you then hear what to do, do it. God can certainly overcome anything that comes to us and when we turn to Him for help in the matter, and really desire help, HE will help us.
Often I pray for God to deliver me from evil. The evil is sometimes in the form of other people who come around us. Or the evil can be in the form of TV or books.
Jesus taught HIS disciples to pray ... Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil ... Lk. 11:4
Recently an acquaintance of mind made a negative judgment concerning the house that I live in. I knew her words were a problem to me like a cancer that would eat away at me and finally explode by my tongue. I began to talk to God about what she said. A few days later, we were talking and the subject of the house I live in came up and I mentioned I designed this house and gave the builder the outline for the rooms. She was shocked. For some reason this silenced her criticism and put the fire of her words out. God knows exactly what will work. I would never have thought of this being the way to stop the fire.
The more you are around people, the more opportunities there will be for problems like this. For most people are not controlled by God and they just say what they think. And their words can be very hurtful. The answer when hurt is always turning to God with the matter and allowing HIM to establish your heart in the issue. Otherwise at some point their evil will fester in your own heart and you will erupt through a poison from your own lips.
So we must be diligent to take such things to God in prayer to keep our heart straight.
Sometimes the devil whispers negative things in our ears. I've had the devil bring negative thoughts to me concerning others in the body of Christ. But I know these thoughts are from devil to try to divide the body of Christ. When we know another person has the Holy Spirit in them we work at keeping a unity of the Spirit. And we recognize the devil would like to divide those who belong to God. But in this, too, I turn to God in prayer asking Him to help me.
We must diligently deal with every thing through God to keep our hearts.
When I feel I'm about to respond to a person in a wrong way, I often cry out to God, "Please don't let me say that." And each time I cry out this way to God, my tongue is silenced.
If we fail to control our tongue, James says our religion is in vain. James 1:26