The words we speak are very important. Believers should not haphazardly say whatever comes to their minds. The Word of God has much to say about our words and how those words affect us. The words of your mouth have a lot to do with the meditation of your heart, and the meditation of your heart has a lot to do with the words of your mouth, and both of these can be either acceptable or unacceptable to God.

What about you? Do you want the words of your mouth to be acceptable to God? I do. And so did the psalmist, David: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." (Ps. 19:14) This verse references the "words of my mouth" and "the meditation of my heart." Meditation means the murmurings of the heart. David presented even the softest and gentlest utterances of his heart to the Lord. We should strive to have our meditations and words be acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

The words you speak affect your heart. But, first, let's talk about the heart. The Greek word for heart is "cardia." That's where we get the English word "cardiac." It means the thoughts or feelings, and it refers to the mind. Many times when the Bible talks about the heart, it's referring to thoughts, feelings, and the mind.

The Hebrew word for heart means the feelings, the will, and the intellect. It also means the center of something. For example, when someone refers to the heart of the tree, they are talking about the very center of the tree or the very core of the tree. In Psalm 19:14, David was saying, "Let the very core of me, let my thoughts, let my feelings, let my emotions, let my intellect let all these things be acceptable in Your sight Lord."

What You Say Affects Your Heart
Several things influence the heart. First, the heart is influenced by words. Words affect the heart of man, words affect the cardia, our thoughts. Words affect our feelings, desires, affections, perceptions, imagination, and our understanding. Words can cause grief or joy. Words even affect our conscience. You can understand why God keeps emphasizing in His Word so much about the words of our mouths. If the people you associate with are a negative or bad influence, they will not speak words in line with God's Word and, consequently, your heart will be affected.

The Heart of His Father
God gave to Solomon wisdom. Remember how Solomon came before the Lord and God said, "Ask what I shall give thee." (1 Kings 3:5). In other words, the Lord told Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted and it would be given to him. God told Solomon that for two reasons: Solomon loved God with all his heart, and he was David's son. Solomon became king because his father was the king; there was an anointing that came from David that was also upon Solomon. There is something called generational anointing. The anointing that is on me is on my children; you can hear it when they're teaching the Word. One of the blessings in the Word of God is that your seed shall be mighty. And so it was with Solomon. Solomon was elevated because of his father's heart. God put wisdom inside Solomon's will, his intellect, and in his very center. Because of God's wisdom, Solomon became the richest man on the earth.

Sadly, because Solomon associated with "strange women," he got into trouble. (1 Kings 11:1) Strange women will cause you to lose everything you have. Solomon, who had everything in the world, died prematurely, because his heart was turned away from God as a result of his associations. These strange women were not serving God. Let me tell you, your associations will have an affect on your heart. Who you hang around with will turn your heart. Those strange women turned Solomon's heart away from God. His heart was turned by their words.

David, Solomon's father, was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), but one day, King David stepped out onto the palace roof and saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing. He asked his men, "Who is that?" They found out and reported to David that this beautiful woman was the wife of one of David's captains, Uriah. David did not care and he sent for the woman. He prevailed upon Bathsheba and had sex with her. A little later, she came to David and told him she was pregnant. So, David instructed his generals to send her husband to the front line where David knew he would be killed. He sent Uriah on a suicide mission and Uriah was killed!

Sin Always has a Cost
Talk about bad behavior! First, David steals the wife of a man who works for him, then he has him killed. That's murder and adultery. Now, I know what most people would say: "I'm not going to have anything to do with that man, I can't receive from a man like that." Have you ever received anything from the Psalms? Well, God used David to write the Psalms. But as bad as David's sins were, God did not remove him as king. God did not remove His anointing from David. Instead, God sent the prophet to David who told him of his wrong actions and the punishment that would result because of those actions. The punishment: David would have trouble with his children, and his children would begin to kill each other. And it happened. There is always a price to pay for sin.

As we found, David was still used by God, because David got his heart right with God. How did he do it? By meditating on the Word of God. He realized that he had a weakness in himself and he put the Word of God in him. The Word gave him strength; the Word gave him firmness, so much so that David's heart became one that would do the will of God and not the will of his flesh. That's integrity of heart. Integrity of heart means that there is nothing that you will keep back from God. "God, you can have everything in my life, just don't say anything about my boyfriend, don't talk about my money, and please don't talk about me leaving this area of work." No! God wants completeness and innocence of heart. People who don't feed on the Word are people who have trouble following God. However, meditating on the Word of God daily will cause you to have integrity of heart.

Meditate the Word Daily
Meditation in the Word daily causes your heart to be acceptable to God. Your heart needs to be repaired every day with the Word and not just on Sundays. The Holy Ghost will lead you in the Word of God. The Word is anointed by itself, and it is supernatural. The key is daily mediation in the Word is in Proverbs 3:1-4: "My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man."

These Scriptures are talking about the will of man. The Word of God will do something with your will, but you have to decide that you want the Word. If you do, you'll have days that will be blessed, you'll have years of your life, you'll have peace added to you when you open your heart, your will, and your intellect, to the Word of God.

When people say, "I just can't help myself," it is a problem of the will. You can help yourself. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through the Anointed One and His anointing which strengthens me." You can keep your mouth shut; you can push the plate back. The issue is not can you? The issue is will you? You have to get in the Word everyday, because the Word will affect your will. Everyday, some thing affects your will. If it's not the Word, then what you see and hear everywhere else will be what touches your will. That's one reason why you can't afford to look at soap operas every day. You can't afford to hear or look at all those negative words and images, all that adultery, all that fornication, all that lying, all that cheating, and all that killing. Then you want to know why you're having a hard time staying saved or a hard time doing the Word. Your will has been affected, because what's coming into your heart is words, images, and actions that are contrary to God and is not acceptable to Him.

Unprotected Hearts at Columbine High
Why did those boys at Columbine High School kill all of those other students? The Word gives us insight into the answer. Proverbs 4:20-23 says "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

These Scriptures are not talking about your physical heart that pumps blood through the sinews of your veins; they're talking about your mind, your will. Don't let the Word depart from your heart. Keep God's Word in the middle of it. Why? Because they are life unto those that find them, and health to all your flesh. We have to keep and protect our hearts with all diligence. Unprotected hearts are what cause tragedy. This was the case with those boys who murdered and injured those students at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Parents, you have to watch those video games your kids have. Those kids watch all that stuff, and they watch all that killing. They listen to all that stuff against Blacks, against Jews, and against this group or that group. You see, you need to understand that children's hearts are extremely soft. If you allow a child's heart, day in and day out, to be open to things that are not acceptable to God, these things will get into their heart and will come out of their mouth, and then they will do it.

The Word of God tells us this to protect our children as we would ourself. Proverbs 4:23 tells us "to keep our heart, the mind, the will, the emotions with all diligence, because out of it comes the issues or forces of life." What forces? The force of faith and the force of love. The unprotected heart yields the force of hate and the force of fear. Your heart has a whole lot to do with what's driving the happenings in your life. Protect it diligently. That's why you can't expose yourself to everything. You've got to learn to say, "Sorry!" The forces of life are driven by this issue.

Confess It and Let God Fix It
Some of you have missed it in your lives, and you've had errors and failures since you've been saved. But, praise God, if you'll protect your heart now, if you'll get the Word of God in your heart, now, if you get the Word everyday, God will fix your heart. Consequently, God will still receive His perfect will for you, but it starts with a decision.

One of the things that made David a man after God's own heart was that he was quick to repent. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now confess doesn't mean to bury the sin under the rug, pretend like it doesn't exist, and wait until you're busted. This is the only time some folks get right. No, the time to repent is when you mess up.

Anyway, if you're saved and your heart is soft to God, you can't just sin against God and not let it bother you. When you sin, your heart condemns you. Well then, if your heart is touched, confess that sin and God will forgive you and cleanse your heart from all unrighteousness.

God of a Second Chance
"But Bishop Butler, you don't know what I did. I divorced my spouse." Yes, divorce is a sin, and it has repercussions. God is against it because it hurts everyone: the man, the woman, the children, if any. But that does not mean you cannot be used by God ever again. God is greater than your heart. If you confess that sin and you remarry, your position should be: "I'm staying in this marriage, no matter what happens." The Word of God will fix your heart and He will anoint you just like He did David. Then, you can go on and fulfill God's perfect will for your life. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only army that shoots its wounded. People may miss it, but if they learn their lesson, don't repeat the behavior, and get right with God, He will use them if they learn to do something with their heart.

Thank God our hearts can be fixed; thank God for the mercy of God, because I don't know anyone who hasn't failed God. There is no such thing as a little sin or a big sin with God. Sin is sin. The most grievous sins to God are spiritual sins and individuals who have sin in their hearts. Just because something happens doesn't mean that God can't fix it. Don't run away from God when you sin, run to Him. Satan wants you to run away from God, but if you run to God and repent, He will fix it.

The Words of My Mouth
That was what David said in Psalm 19:14: "O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you." Can you see the connection? What you say and say continually affects your heart. That is, your thoughts, your emotions, your intellect-your very center. We have to watch our associations, because they can affect our heart. The words of your mouth will have a lot to do with what will happen with the meditations of your heart and the meditations of your heart have a lot to do with what words come out of your mouth. The meditation of your heart and the words of your mouth can be acceptable or unacceptable to God. It's your choice.