Have you ever said something you wished you could take back?

Have you ever wondered what it is that you truly believe?

2 Corinthians 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,

We often speak things that identify what is happening in our hearts regarding what we believe about a situation or circumstance.  If we listen to what we speak attentively, it can reveal the condition of our hearts.

Scripture proves this by example. Israel had been brought out of 400 years of cruel bondage to the Egyptians and was brought to the edge of the Promised Land that God had promised them. After listening to ten spies who brought a negative report, they began to speak and reveal the unbelief that was in their hearts.  That generation had to wander in the wilderness till they all died.  They were constantly speaking in ways that suspected God’s good intentions as being for their demise.  They accused Moses of bringing them out into the desert to die of thirst or starvation.

Many have simply referred to it as unbelief, as though it was harmless.  God refers to it as something way more dark and sinister when the writer of Hebrews tells their story and then offers the following statement.

Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;

What oozed from their mouths in the form of speech exposed what was in their hearts. This is also true based on what Jesus said.

Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I want my speech about life, circumstances, situations, hardships, and trials to be one of faith in a good God and an expectation of receiving His promises, which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus.  For that to be my reality, I must allow the Holy Spirit to condition my heart with the water of the Word.  I need to hear from Him and allow Him to plant the seed of the word of revelation in my heart.

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (Rhema, which means living) of God.

This is not to say that merely intellectually reading the Bible will produce faith. Faith is activated in the heart by the revelation that comes to us through the Holy Spirit in a relationship.  Faith is a by-product of a relationship that involves hearing Jesus speak and replying to Him just as we do in all other real relationships.  Faith is not saying something in an attitude that if it manifests, I will believe it.  It is saying it is done even though it cannot yet be seen because it is grounded in who God is and what He has spoken to you.  Faith affects what we say, and our words matter.