Don't Attract Trouble With Your Voice

I heard a really interesting message on controlling what we say as believers. There is power in the spoken word. So as believers we have to be keen to not only listening for the voice of our Shepherd among the many voices out there but also the sound of our own. Jesus told us in John 10 that He is our Shepherd and we are like sheep; we hear his voice and follow him. We are told that there will be false prophets...other voices in our lives, that are thieves and robbers. They will have all kinds of things to say about you, to you, and if you let them in...in you. They will shout you're not good enough, holy enough, changed enough... you fill in the blank, to ever be useful or treasured by God.  Whatever it is that has injured your heart in the past, they will echo it.  They seek only to steal, kill, and destroy. Steal what? Your joy. The crazy thing is that the very sounds of your voice can attract that kind of trouble. Matthew 7 tells us these false voices "come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." They attack the flock and scatter it. (John 10:12).
We don't have lots of wolves around these parts. We do have lots of coyotes though. Coyotes can be just as dangerous as wolves; I saw one in our neighborhood once chasing a fox. The fox got away...interestingly Jesus told us "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as inoffensive as a dove." (Matt 10:16) Don't give the coyotes a reason to look your direction! I just learned about this one.  Foxes are known to be pretty cunning creatures; after the fox got away, that neighborhood coyote stood and stared directly at me. Fortunately I was with Greg, who encouraged me to keep walking briskly.
Coyote, as do most similar creatures, hunt in packs. A victim is chosen and the group works together to expose and prey on a perceived weakness. I have found this approach to be true of most of the 'voices' who will seek to steal your joy; it won't come from a lone attacker. Have you noticed how quickly a pack mentality forms around negative voices? How can you recognize the wolves? "By their fruit you will recognize them." Matt 7:16. They will lack love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self control.
If you want to hunt coyotes, guess what type of animal call you would use? The sound of an injured rabbit. Yep, that's right. An injured animal making sounds of distress attracts it predators. So let's draw an analogy between us as sheep and the wolves seeking to destroy us.
When something happens that injures our pride or our hearts, we have a choice regarding the words we choose to speak about it. I'm not suggesting not being able to verbalize your hurts; rather it is how we speak about them OUT LOUD  that makes all the difference. To God, cry out all your hurts. But to each other, we should offer voices of faith. When we don't, we are not a unified voice as believers and we allow the enemy into our flock. Doubt, dissension, gossip, bitterness...they focus on our injury and they attract wolves who will attack us and keep us separated. As believers we should speak about what God is going to do in our situation; a voice of Faith. We have to declare out loud what God's truth/his word speaks over our current situation. This was a good reminder for me. Don't underestimate the spoken word. God's words are sharper than any double edged sword...(Hebrews 4:12)...pretty good for scaring off coyotes.