Everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger

Chapter 1 James, beginning with verse 18. It says here: "... God, he, of his will, caused us to be born by the word of truth so that we might be the first fruits of his creatures..."

I was talking about that last time. We talked about every good gift, a generous God who gives us beyond what we sometimes expect, deserve or dare to believe that he can give us. And one of those things that God has done in our lives is precisely to make us be born by the word of truth.

I was saying that we are not spiritually born of ourselves. We talk about there being a new birth that takes place in the lives of those who receive Christ as Lord and savior. It is a change of nature and that only God does. We do not come to God because one day it dawns on us from our good will to repent and enter, but rather God himself initiates that process of repentance for us and of approaching him. And then he does a miraculous work in our hearts, in our nature and makes us born, and gives us a new nature, a new identity, that's why it's a new birth.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature so that we may be the first fruits of his creatures. So, from there he speaks, as a consequence of the fact that God is the one who does all things, God is the one who initiates the process of saving our lives. God is the origin of all good things in our lives, therefore, since he is so great, so powerful, so sovereign in everything he does, what is our role before that generous God, that God who takes the initiative, that sovereign God, what should our position be? How should we behave before that greatness, that almighty God? Says,

“… For this, for that reason, by the nature of God, beloved brothers, every man, every woman, must do the following, this must be our attitude, be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to get angry. What do you mean late? It means like slow, like waiting for the last moment, not throwing right away, not throwing right away.

I believe that one of the most important qualities of a mature person in the Gospel is sobriety. Everyone say sobriety. You know when one knows that a person is mature in spirit, when that person is sober and takes time to measure things. He is not with great enthusiasm nor is he with excessive skepticism and cynicism, but at the precise moment he does things.

When new news comes or a new revelation or a chance to do something comes, first take time and think things over. That person is in control of himself, he does not act on emotions. The opposite of a sober person is an impulsive person, is a person who shoots from the holster, does not even draw the revolver, like those cowboys of yesteryear.

I have always loved that concept of sobriety and we must all ask the Lord, 'Father, make me a sober person, make me a person who measures things and gives time to time before I move. The young, the inexperienced young person is a generally impulsive person. You see that young people always go from one place to another and do things quickly, without thinking.

God wants us to be restrained people, and sober people, before shooting ourselves, before saying things... many times in marriage it is one of the most damaging things, in friendship, when one speaks impulsively, and if there is anger inside you just drop it. If you have a thought you let it go right away. He knows that this type of person always walks around with black eyes, is always apologizing or someone always fell on him or had a fight with someone or an argument and is always in trouble, because he doesn't measure things.

We have to ask the Lord, 'Lord, help me always to meditate on things, meditate before speaking. I think that this comes from that sense that the world is a serious thing, the world is dangerous and the words with… the Bible says that the life of man is in the mouth, that is why one has to be very careful when one speaks.

There is a passage, I don't remember where it is, that says 'be careful before you make a promise', I'm sure it's in Ecclesiastes. It says like this, be very careful before you speak because God is in heaven and you are on earth, therefore, be few in your words. right yes? Amen.

You have to be very careful before you're saying to the Lord, "Oh Lord, I'm going to do this to you, get me out of this mess and I promise I'm going to walk all the way to Rome on my knees." Be very careful before you say things. Ecclesiastes 5:2, says here, “Do not be hasty with your mouth, nor be hasty with your heart to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth, therefore, let your words be few. Because from much occupation comes sleep and from the multitude of words the voice of the fool..."

Brethren, there is a direct relationship between many words and foolishness. Look at the old and very wise people, quiet, you talk and talk and they there measuring what you are saying, and they also thinking before saying anything. Because they have already seen a lot and have lived a lot.

So, one of the things that you always have to deal with in your life is to be a person... it's like in the economy, in finance there is a law called the law of supply and demand, of availability and demand. Why if you buy a handful of land is land cheap? Now, diamonds are expensive, right? A small diamond is worth a fortune but a handful of dirt is worth almost nothing, why? Because the earth is everywhere. You go to the street, anywhere, you're going to find a handful of dirt, but look for a diamond, because it's not much. And so it is with people.

Many times when we talk a lot, when we are always saying things and speaking and offering our opinion for everything, our words are so widely available they are worth little, people do not take them into account. But when one thinks things over, when one speaks, one's words carry weight. So, we have to try as much as possible in our lives to be sober people, people who measure their words and that our conversation is the product of a previous reflection and a time for what we are going to say to cook within us. . So when the word sprouts, it sprouts with force, it sprouts with meaning.

So, it is very important, the Lord calls us, as you see, in the light of greatness and says that because God is in heaven and you are on earth. So don't talk too much, don't be promising the Lord all things all the time, I'm going to do this to you, I'm going to do that…

It is also the same thing that Santiago says elsewhere, I don't know if it is Santiago, that we should not impose our hands lightly. Because? Because if you're imposing all the time on everybody and anointing everybody and declaring everybody, ordaining everybody to the Gospel and all that, you lose your value. Things have to be done at God's time, when God wants, when the Holy Spirit is there, when there is a move of God, then one enters into that move of God.

But sometimes people want it to be relaxing all the time, everyone's bow is falling all the time, and people on the floor, and all that, there comes a time when there is no difference. It becomes a cheap ritual like anything else. So, it is important that it be at God's moment, when God commands, when God speaks, then one moves. You have to be showing your anointing to everyone everywhere, that's nonsense. It is when God says things.

And that comes from an internal conviction, from a certainty that one has. When you are sure of yourself, you don't have to be testing people, or talking to them, or giving them your opinion on everything, but God does things at the right time.

I think that is why Santiago says, this God that is so powerful that we have, this God who makes us be born again with his power, this God who gives us so many good things in life, this God who has a character of silver and Pure gold, holy, before your greatness and majesty, we have to walk very low and be very careful in what we say and how we move.

So, he says, we have to be quick to hear. Someone has said that God has given us two ears and one mouth so that we can hear twice as much as we speak. And I think it's great advice. Listen. Always be collecting information. You are like a spy who is always taking intelligence, the intelligence services are always collecting information, that's why they have their spies all over the world. Ah, so and so they are going to elect him, look, this man who seems to be rising in politics, they send Washington a telegram or whatever, saying, "Here is such a person who seems to be going to have influence and already CIA is looking at him and taking information on who he is, where he comes from, what foot he limps on, etc. One always has to be taking intelligence and listening, less than talking. If you talk too much, you can't listen and then you don't know what you're talking about.

So, he says, you have to be quick to hear and slow to speak, and he also says, and slow to get angry. That is something else, brothers, if we suffer from anger, let us immediately ask the Lord to deal with our lives, because anger is one of the most terrible and harmful things. I would say we have to be slow to take offense, period.

There are people who are offended by anything. It has an ego that says it's like a glass from Bethlehem, they break from anything. Have you heard this expression? Like a glass of Bethlehem. People who are too sensitive cannot serve the Lord, it is because they will offend you so much, they will talk about you so many times that if you are offended by everything they say about you, forget it, you are useless . Sincerely.

If every time they told you that so-and-so said something about you, you don't talk to that person anymore, look, better go home and don't leave there because as soon as you leave, something will fall on you right away. And if you are doing something good for the Kingdom of God, someone will criticize you and someone will not be happy with you. Yes or no?

So, you have to have a lot of shoe polish, spread a lot of grease so that things slip continuously. You have to be sure of yourself, so sure that you don't care what people... if they want them to say, because what the heck, if they said it about Christ, how can they not say it about you?

All of that is there in that passage. I like it. I didn't finish reading. Says,

“It is better that you do not promise and not that you promise and do not comply, do not let your mouth make you sin, or say in front of anyone that it was ignorance. Why will you make God angry because of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?"

There is a passage that I was looking for right here, that I saw for a moment and then I forgot, where it says that we should not pay attention to everything that people are saying about us, because remember that you also said something about others. Yes or no?

The other days I saw a person who was telling me that so-and-so is a gossip, so I told him, why aren't you doing the same? Complaining that so-and-so mumbles and he's doing just that before two or three of us sitting there in a meeting.

We all, he says, remember when you said something about the others. Brethren, that is the nature of the world. I know that there are people who love me, and would give their lives for me, but they talk about me from behind. I know it. That doesn't bother me, because I know that I sometimes do the same to others too. So I let them talk and he loves them and they tell me that so-and-so said, amen. I know he loves me and I love him too. I don't take things very seriously, because you can't be constantly fighting and confronting everything you hear. One runs out, burns. That's what the devil wants, for one to always be, 'ah, you said I don't know what, someone told me that you said...' Leave that, let the water run.

Just yesterday I was in a place outside of Boston and a brother came to talk to me about another brother who was talking about me, about him, I told him, "Look, leave that man alone, let him talk as much as he wants, that person it has no power. Everyone knows who he is, so don't start fighting him." The man was completely bitter. I told him, “Don't be bitter, why are you going to be here… let him wear himself out, let him get tired. When he gets tired then stop talking and you'll be just the same. But if you start fighting with him all the time, you're going to exhaust yourself and that's what the devil wants."

So, we have to be slow to be offended, slow to get angry. We have to be sure of who we are in Christ Jesus. If you are well, no one can hurt you, my brother, my sister. Make sure you are well, solid in Christ. If the Lord is with me, who against me?

A lot of times when we're fragile, that's when we feel like we take offense at whatever people say. Let me tell you something, the weaker you are and the more fragile you are, the more you are going to fight. The person who is strong fights very little because he only fights when he has to fight and he chooses his battles 90 percent of the time, if he can walk through the crowd he does and he only fights when absolutely necessary, because he has confidence in himself. He doesn't have to be constantly... he identifies what is truly worth confronting and fighting about and what is not, he leaves it alone, why spend his energy because he is sure of who he is, he is confident in God and he knows that the Lord will watch your back, and that the truth always prevails.

There's nothing like when your enemy stumbles because of his wrong walk instead of you pushing or tripping him. Let him fall himself under his own weight. He will heap fiery embers on his head.

When you know that someone is acting in a wrong way about you and your life… now, if they are doing you really significant harm, then intervene. But while he's doing something there, leave him, pray and calm, coals of fire heap on his head. There's going to be so much coal burning on his head that it's going to burn his hair and his skin and his shirt and everything when it catches on fire. Let the Lord... there's nothing like when the Lord knocks down an enemy of yours, and when he falls, don't be happy, he says, so that the Lord doesn't bless him. Leave him there on the floor so that he stays a long time, because if you are very happy about his fall then maybe God will forgive him and bless him.

It is what the Bible says. We do not rejoice even when our enemies fall. God is very complex and the Christian life is very complex and mysterious. There is something beautiful in the wisdom of God, it is so important. We have to be slow to anger. If we are very delicate people, who are offended when they don't look at us or when they look at us, when they call us or don't call us, when they visit us or when they don't visit us, we have problems. We are going to run out. The devil is going to make of us what he wants. He is going to fight us like a bull is fought by a matador.

The devil uses those unaddressed emotions on us. And those emotions, he connects to them and then he makes us what he wants. That is why anger is one of the most terrible things in the world, because that is purely diabolical and when the devil detects anger in us, he throws out a connection line, like an electrician connects with a power cable. , and then through there he communicates with us and we with him. He cannot communicate with love, nor with truth, nor with justice, nor with forgiveness, nor mercy, nor grace, he communicates with anger, with hatred, with sensuality, with love for money, with all the passions that are equal to it, with that he can deal with us. He uses the concupiscence that is in us to connect and what we have to do is clean all that up, get all that out of us, so that he has nowhere to hold us.

That is why all this is involved in that question, that we are slow, quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to get angry, because the wrath of man can never work the justice of God.

I'm going to leave that to you. Go home calmly, sleep well tonight and think about it. We are going to ask the Lord, 'Lord, deal with my emotions, deal with my wounds, deal with those areas of my being that are not yours, that are not appropriate.'

Right now ask the Lord, if there is something in you that does not obey those principles of God's order, right now let's get rid of it in the name of Jesus. I get rid of, I get rid of those irredeemable emotions, of everything that does not come from the Father, everything that does not obey.

Sir, sometimes we have distortions and we don't know where they come from. A father who did not love us, a person who abused us and who harassed us, insulted us, took advantage of us, made us feel ashamed in front of our little friends. Father, we have been hurt all these years and we lash out when criticized and easily offended. We ask now, Father, that you help us.

We feel insecure and want to prove that we know what we are, so sometimes we brag and say too much. Help us, Lord, and cleanse us of all that, Father. We are impatient and we act fast and we don't think things through beforehand. Cleanse us, heal us, Lord, help us to be people like Christ, solid, planted in our relationship with you, anchored to our mighty God.

Oh Lord, heal all wounds from the past, Lord, heal all our tendency to take offense quickly, my God. Heals all insecurity that makes us watch what they said about us and what they did say about us. Lord, heal us from any tendency to get hurt too easily because someone looked at us the wrong way or made a comment in some way and then we blame it on you or the church, and we leave the church because we are offended.

Father, take that away right now in the name of Jesus. I declare on your people an anointing of wisdom, Lord, of understanding, of maturity, of being founded on you. If you are our God, you are our defender, Lord, help us, Father, make the character of Jesus, the fruit of the spirit manifest in our lives, Lord. Deal with my brothers and my sisters.

Father, if there's something right now, some offense that we're holding in our hearts against someone, we get rid of it, Father. We forgive our debtors, we forgive those who have offended us, Lord. if we resent a word someone said about us, we put it aside right now. Your anointing is here, Lord, anointing of maturity, anointing of Christ's character, anointing of changes, Father. In the name of Jesus I rebuke all the work of the devil in your life, I rebuke all immaturity in your life.

I declare the order of Christ in your heart and in your mind. I reconfigure your character in the name of Jesus according to the character of Christ. Father, we ask that you order and kill everything that is yours, Lord. Order our lives, Father, in the name of Jesus, order our life. We reject everything that is not like Jesus, we reject everything that does not obey the patterns of the Kingdom of God. Hallelujah!

Thank you for your word, Lord. Thanks for your word. You are my God, you are powerful. We want to humble ourselves in front of you. Oh Lord, we humble ourselves before your greatness. We humble ourselves before your justice. We humble ourselves before your great power and your lordship, Father.

Help us to walk short before you, with total humility, Father. We know who we are and we do not deserve to be in your presence, Father, we do not deserve to handle your word, we do not deserve to direct others, Lord, we do not deserve to be teachers in your church, Father, because only you speak and do not offend, Lord. We continually offend, forgive us, Father. Forgive pride, forgive arrogance, presumption, Lord, in us, begin with me, Father. Make us humble, make us simple at heart, Father.

We welcome the character of Christ into our lives tonight. Cleanse us and keep us from anger, keep us from violence, Lord. Keep us from offending others with our words, Father. Help us to be good people, let our mouth be to bless, Father, not as your word says, there are men whose mouth is like sword blows, Lord. May it not be so, Father, but may our mouth be to heal, bless, inspire, encourage, illuminate, anoint, proffer God's blessing. Make us meek and humble, Lord, like your son Jesus.

Thank you, father, thank you. Spirit of peace, we declare peace, Lord, over your people, over all my church, Lord. Peace, meekness, humility, grace. The love of God spreads, Lord, in this town. Any edge, beloved Lord, that is not convenient, we remove it right now, Lord, from this town, from those who are here and from those who are not here, Lord. May this church be a church where the love of Christ prevails, Father, where the meekness and character of Jesus are distinctive, beloved Lord.

We renounce every devilish, carnal, animal, earthly spirit, Lord. We welcome you to the spirit of Jesus tonight. Thank you Lord, thank you. You are here, Lord. Your presence is here. Take us to our homes, Lord, with your blessing. Father, a lot of damage that rancor has done to me, too much damage, Father, we want your people to be different, Father. On this night you have spoken to us, Lord, and we open our flesh so that you enter from the bottom of our being and do your work, Father.

We renounce everything that is not yours, Father, everything that does not please you. We declare our rejection, Father, our repudiation of everything that does not reflect the excellence of the character of your son Jesus Christ. Sir thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank my Lord.