Knitting Hearts Café
The Power of Your Words
Michelle Murray
Written by Sue Sanders
February 11, 2017
Joyce opened today’s gathering with prayer and then shared some directions the Lord has given her for this year. God guided her to John 3:3 and instructed that it is time to reach out. She shared from Luke 2 about John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of Jesus, and we are to be forerunners to the return of the King. Her words for 2017 are Fully Engaged. The Lord gave her the acronym CEO—the call of the Kingdom, fully Engaged, and walk in Obedience.
Shelika Daniels’s praise dance declared, “It’s not finished, it’s not the ending, it’s only the beginning.” We rejoiced with her that our stories have not ended. Since God is in them, there are no limits on what He can do in our lives. Shelika shared her own testimony of God’s supernatural strength. She has been battling debilitating weakness and pain throughout her body for the last four months. When she left home this morning, she could not even lift her arms. God gave her His healing so that she could dance for us this morning.
After Joyce led us in our declaration for this year, Geanie Paschal announced a special SOZO training session, and Diana Menzing told us about the morning and afternoon sessions next month with Trish Frost. Diana and her husband have worked alongside Trish for a number of years.
Bhavna Patel led us in an offering declaration and then prayed.
The first song the praise team sang rang out with authority and boldness. We joined in exclaiming, “I feel it in my bones. You’re about to move. I feel it in the wind. You’re about to ride in. You said You would pour your spirit out. You said You would fall on sons and daughters so like the rain, come and drench us in love. Let Your glory rush in like a flood.” We cried out for Him to blow on through and do what only He could do. Then we welcomed the Holy Spirit and His presence and declared there was no place we would rather be than in His love. We asked for more of Him: “Set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain and I can’t control. I want more of You, Jesus.” What a blessing it was to welcome in His presence with anointed music and singing!
Michelle Murray’s topic for today was “The Power of the Tongue–The Cure for Heart Disease.” Her message told her journey and her story. The opening focus Scripture, Matthew 7:16-20, tells us that we will be recognized by the fruit we produce. A good tree bears good fruit while a bad tree bears bad fruit. The image of the two different trees speaks a strong message to us. The good tree produces much fruit, healthy and large, while the diseased tree produces unhealthy, poisonous fruit. Those who eat this unhealthy fruit will be poisoned by it.
Michelle gave some background on leprosy. The physical disease is thought to have negativity as its root. If you spoke against others, criticizing them, you withdrew goodness. You would have to show yourself to the priest and then participate in seven days of prayer and repentance.
Michelle used Numbers 12 to further instruct us as she told Miriam’s story. Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses, but the Lord heard them and was very angry with them. The Lord said, “I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the LORD as He is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” Miriam’s skin became as white as snow from leprosy. Moses cried out to the Lord for Miriam, and God instructed them that Miriam be kept outside the camp for seven days. Miriam had been arrogant and prideful. The root of our sin is often pride. The fruit of a jealous heart is making comparisons. Miriam had put herself in the place of God.
Michelle suggested that many of the things that we say are really negative and sarcastic. Our words are so powerful. They release bad fruit into our children. Words become self-fulfilling prophecies. The words that we speak over our children or the children that we come into contact with can cause the children to walk the paths that we have spoken over them. She recalled a parent/teacher conference when the teacher said that her son was shy. She explained that her son is not shy, but “he chooses his words carefully.” She reminded us, “We need to be careful because fruit will be born out of what we speak.” We also need to be careful when we pray. Very often our prayer meetings become gossip sessions.
As women, we are very often like Miriam. We are critical and judgmental and speak negative words into the atmosphere causing spiritual leprosy. Instead we need to go to the feet of Jesus. In John 15 Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” We must abide in Him. Then we will bear the fruit of Jesus. Michelle declared, “I want to duplicate Jesus. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. The fruit I am eating is a direct reflection of what is in my heart.” Miriam moved to the place of repentance when she was put out of the camp for seven days. Her diseased heart healed, and she was restored. We need to examine ourselves, “Am I abiding at the feet of Jesus? Am I allowing transformation?”
Michelle explained that God had healed her. She had been severely depressed and suicidal. She often cried out, “I will never come out of this.” She also explained, “I was a product of what had been spoken over me.” Her family was a middle/lower level family, but the schools she and her siblings attended had more students from wealthy families. She was very small, thin and shy. Many negative words were spoken over her, and she accepted them as truth.
She testified: “I got bound. I could not be used by the Lord. I was very angry. I hated everybody. I didn’t let anyone get close to me. I stepped back. I pulled back. Then, I ran into the Gothic culture. I could hide everything. My face was stoic, expressionless. Finally, a secular professor was able to convince me that there was absolute truth. He opened my eyes so that I was able to see there was a Creator. I got saved. I threw away my dark clothes.”
In the next season of her life, she got married and had children. She was still negative and extremely depressed. She was convinced that she would always be depressed. She had high doses of medication. The panic attacks began, and she used medicine as a lifeline. The horrendous nightmares assaulted her at night, and insomnia became her bed partner. The more she received what had been spoken over her, the more she confessed and believed it herself. She accepted that she would never be free, but instead always depressed, suicidal, and terrorized. At this point she walked completely away from Christ. She said, “I did everything in my own strength. I was Miriam. I was empty. I had not heard the voice of the Lord for over three years.”
Three definite divine appointments convinced her that God still loved her and longed for her to return to Him. A pastor whose church services were on Saturdays committed to going with her to Dr. Peter Wyns’s church for three months. Finally, she realized that she had received everything that was spoken over her. She yelled out to God, “Where have You been?” God answered, “I have been here all the time. Abide in Me. I will abide in You. Without Me you can do nothing.”
God began to give her Scriptures as she devoured His Word, and she began decreeing and declaring the Word over herself. Within three days God told her to throw her panic medication away. She cried out to God, “Show me Your joy.” God simply responded, “You abide in Me.” She noted, “I ate the Word of God. I started singing songs over myself.” God slowly weaned her from her medication for depression. Peter Wyns and his daughter met with her, counseled her, and guided her into a fast. She fasted for fourteen days to get free from Trazadone. God guided her, and she flushed the pills down the toilet, one at a time, and with great intensity declared her freedom.
The LORD said, “I need you on the streets.” She shared, “I now realize that I went through so much so that I could minister and help others be set free. When people begin telling me their impossible and hopeless situations, I can stand as a testimony BUT GOD. . .and I can tell them my story. I ask them to submit to Him because He will do a new and effectual work in them.”
She spoke positives about herself, “The old is gone. I don’t even look the same. The old diseased heart is gone. Now I have the heart of Jesus. I am filled with the Holy Spirit.”
In closing she instructed us to put our names on a blank sheet of paper. Then we tore up the paper demonstrating that the old life is gone.
While ladies gathered for prayer, the praise team sang, “What a Beautiful Name It Is.” We sang of that beautiful, wonderful and powerful name of Jesus Christ, our King–the one who has no rival and no equal and who reigns forever.
Hearts United Women's Ministry 