Can you imagine being under a leader who is full of evil speaking? What is evil speaking?

Evil speaking is all forms of speech that are sinful. It includes things like criticizing, murmuring, flattering, maligning, backbiting, lying and slandering, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and EVIL SPEAKING, be put away from you, with all malice (Ephesians 4:31).

Three Things A Leader Should Know about Evil Speaking

1. Evil speaking is a very common negative trait that affects the outcome of your life.

For HE THAT WILL LOVE LIFE, and see good days, LET HIM REFRAIN HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL, and his lips that they speak no guile:

1 Peter 3:10 People do not realize how their lives are destroyed by the negative things they say.

All through the Bible you will see God responding to things that people say. When Miriam criticized Moses, the Bible says, 'And the Lord heard it…' (Numbers 12:2). It looks like God listens to our conversations.

Also, when Jesus ministered to the Syro-Phoenician woman, He responded to her very words. She had said to him that she did not mind if He considered her to be a dog. Even the dogs would get the crumbs from the table! Jesus said to her, '…For this saying go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter.' She received her healing because of the things she said (Mark 7:29).

Even the things we say in our hearts are noted by the Lord. The woman with the issue of blood who received her healing said within herself, 'If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole' (Mark 5:28). Jesus affirmed that it was her faith that had made her whole.

Faith is what you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth.

2. Evil speaking is a negative personal trait that can shorten your life. All forms of evil speaking can minister death to you. Lies will kill you. Murmuring will kill you.

Murmuring killed all the Jews in the wilderness. Flattery will be exposed for the hypocrisy that it is and the flatterer will be eliminated.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Proverbs 18:21 3. Evil speaking is a product of evil thoughts. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you keep thinking evil things you will soon speak them forth. Is there anything good? Is there anything praiseworthy? Is there anything nice? Is there anything lovely? Think on these things. What you think about will eventually come out through your mouth.

'…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.'

Matthew 12:34 The Praying Old Lady A man worked in a post office. His job was to process all mail that had illegible addresses.

One day a letter came to his desk, addressed in shaky handwriting to God. He thought, 'I better open this one and see what it's all about.'

So he opened it and it read: 'Dear God, I am an 83-year-old widow living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had a hundred dollars. In it was all the money I had until my next pension check.'

'Next Sunday is Mother's Day, and I had invited my last two friends over for dinner.

Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?'

The postal worker was touched, and went around showing the letter to all the others. Each of them dug into his wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected 96 dollars, which they put into an envelope and sent over to her. The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow, thinking of the nice thing they had done. Mother's Day came and went, and a few days later came another letter from the old lady to God.

All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read, 'Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you have done for me? Because of your generosity, I was able to fix a lovely dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day, and I told my friends of your wonderful gift. By the way, there was 4 dollars missing. It was no doubt those thieving bastards at the post office who took it!'

This old lady had bad thoughts about the people at the post office. Her instinct was to see them as thieves and cheats instead of kind-hearted people who bent over to help an old lady.

How wrong she was with her evil thoughts. May evil speaking not be your lot as a leader! theaol@ymail.com By Dag Heward-Mills