Sonlight Devotional

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Scripture reading: James 3:8-12

Have you ever thought about prophecy? What it really is? We all know that the prophets prophesy. You get used to a prophet, and when you come to a meeting, you say, “Oh God, I want a Word from You tonight!” And you are looking for the prophet to come over to you and say unto you, “The Lord would say unto you, brother/sister, so and so and so and so.” However, that is only one little-bitty part of prophecy. The prophetic ministry is preaching, but prophecy can be anything you say.

I went up to someone and said, “Hi. How are you? I haven’t seen you in a long time. You must be misbehaving.” I just intended for it to be funny. It was not funny. The person was badly hurt because I made light of a situation that I didn’t know about.

Let me tell you another situation like that – a famous one. We went into service, and I was preaching restitution. A sister was sitting down right in the front. I said, “If you steal a man’s cow, and you say you repented, why don’t you give back his cow?” She got up and left and half of the congregation walked out with her. I had no idea what was happening. Then another dear sister came to my wife and said, “Sister duCille, Brother duCille is a fine brother, a good preacher and everything like that, but why does he have to be so explicit at times?” My wife responded, “What? What do you mean? What did he do?” She said, “He must have known that the sister’s brother stole the cow.” I had no idea of any cow business.

I found out I could not make a joke. To this day, I dare not make a joke with you, or else I’ll get into trouble, because I’m going to speak your business. I met a brother, shook his hand, and said, “Man, you are a beast.” Oh God! I am glad that he forgave me, because he was dealing with that situation. He got up in a meeting and testified, “I am just a beast!” He had done something wrong and his own conscience was against God.

That is prophecy in the church! Prophecy from your lips! If you curse somebody, they are cursed. If you bless somebody, they are blessed. Do you hear me? THEREFORE, BLESS EVERYBODY! That is prophetic power and ministry in the Body. The spirits take the words that you speak from your mouth! If you speak a good word, the spirits of God take it and bless the person. If you speak a bad word, the devils take it and slam the person.

A dear sister that was a friend of ours was driving one day down the street in Fort Lauderdale. About six boys came with their bicycles and began to slowly ride in front of her. You know that the boys can sometimes be very rude and terrible. She tried to go to the left and they went left; she tried to go to the right and they went right. They backed her all around and were just laughing at her. She got so mad. She said to one boy, “I hope that someone will come, knock you down and kill you!” Then she went down to the store. When she was coming back, she was just in time to see them putting the same boy in an ambulance. A car with an impatient driver had come and as the boy tried the trick with him, he stepped on the gas and knocked the boy to pieces. She never forgot it for she felt that she did it because she commanded it.

The Spirit of God talks about commanding the blessing. You have the power to command the blessing and to command the curse. That is the reason why we have to get rid of our bad thinking, our evil thinking. Somebody hurts you and you start to think evil. Just get rid of that thought immediately. Ask God to help you. Tell somebody to pray with you to get rid of it, because your mind, your thinking will motivate every spirit in hell to go out there and do what you tell it to do. You have the power of life and death in your tongue (James 3:8-12).

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 10)

Thought for today: If you curse somebody, they are cursed. If you bless somebody, they are blessed. THEREFORE, BLESS EVERYBODY!