The spirit of the Amorites
The
word Amorite means: to speak against; to be bitter; talkative; to provoke or to boast of self, and it deals with what we say with our mouths.
The Scriptures give us many aspects of the influence of this spirit at work.
‘So from now on,
there must be no more lies: You must speak the truth to one another¾
even if you are angry you must not sin¾
never let the sun set on your anger¾or
else you will give the devil a foothold’. (Eph.4: 25-27).
God
spoke ‘Let there be’, and it came into being. When God speaks something, he
considers it to be already done. (Rm 4:17). The same applies to us whenever we
speak. ‘Do not let your own words bring
guilt upon you, nor tell your angel afterwards it was unintentional!’ (Ecl.5:
6)
What you say with your mouth releases spiritual forces. Those forces
will either be heavenly or satanic, working either for us or against us.
In
the book of Numbers chapter 12, there is the story of Miriam and Aaron who
spoke out against Moses because he had taken an Ethiopian as his wife. They
murmured against Moses with their mouths. Even though they had a right to speak
the truth, they only had a right to speak the truth in love. They spoke out in
anger and there was envy and jealousy behind their actions. When we speak like
that, then we bring ourselves in danger of God’s judgement. If you read the
story, you will notice that Moses does not try to justify himself, at this
point he had the Amorite spirit under control, but the Lord heard their
words. The anger of the Lord blazed out
against them. The repercussions of their speaking against Moses are a warning
for us (v.10-15). 1st the
Lord departed; 2nd the Cloud
departed; 3rd Miriam was covered in leprosy and 4th we
are told that the Congregation stood still. What does that mean for us?
When
people in the Church speak out of a wrong heart and attitude against the
leadership in the Church, then the Lord leaves; he gets up and goes. His
covering, that is, his hand of protection is removed from the congregation
because of the presence of sin. Leprosy is symbolic of sin, and until the sin
is repented of, there is no moving forward for that Church and if they are not
moving forward, then they are not growing and they are not going anywhere.
On
the other hand, when a congregation comes together and everyone is of the one
mind and heart, then all things are possible for that Church. ‘Yahweh came down
to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all
a single people with a single language!’¾ ‘There will be nothing too hard for them to do’.
(Gen.11: 6-7) Nothing can stop man from doing what he wants to do providing he
is speaking the same language.
‘They lifted up their voice to God all
together¾As they prayed, the house
where they were assembled rocked; they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
began to proclaim the word of God boldly’. (Acts.4: 24-32). God says that nothing is impossible to us,
when we speak the one language
‘All
you need to say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if you mean no; anything more
than this comes from the evil one’. (Matt.5: 37) “Yes/no”…Anything else is the Amorite spirit
The
Amorite spirit prevented the Israelites from entering the Promised Land.
They sent twelve spies to reconnoitre the land and they discovered that it
indeed was a land where milk and honey flowed. But ten of the spies gave a bad
report, they had taken their eyes off the bigness of their God and focused
their eyes on the bigness of the enemies who were in the land; so much so, that
they reduced themselves in their own eyes to the size of grasshoppers. Those
ten men turned a whole nation back into the wilderness by what they said with
their mouths. They said, “Oh that we
had died in the wilderness.” The Lord replied, “I will deal with you
according to the very words you have used in my hearing¾here in this wilderness, to the last man, they shall
die” (Nos 14:27-35). Apart from Joshua and Caleb, not one of them survived”.
If
you want to hear the Amorite spirit Listen to everyday street language.
It’s not too hard to place people in the Church. All you have to do is listen
to what they are saying and see how they are reacting to the circumstances of
life and it won’t be too long before you can place them. Our faith will never
rise above the words of our mouth.
In
taking Jericho the Lord put a fast of words upon them, and they had to march
around the city walls for seven days without saying anything. The Lord told
them ‘Do not utter even a word’ (Jos.6: 10). So for seven days they marched
in silence, never breaking rank, fasting their words and then at the precise
time they began to give a shout and the walls came tumbling down. Why! Because
there was unity in what they were saying with their mouths. This is what Jesus
meant when he said that ‘If any two of you on earth agree to ask anything at
all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven’. (Matt. 18: 19-20).
The emphasis is on unity in mind and heart and where there is unity there is
power.
There’s
wisdom in obedience to the lord even when we don’t understand how He’s going to
bring about the answer. After forty years they began to learn the lesson and
one of the greatest lessons that we need to get hold of is that ‘God watches
over his word to perform it’. (Jer. 1:12). God is able to do anything;
unfortunately our words can prevent him. Remember Zechariah, ‘since you have
not believed my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will
be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened’. (Lk.1:
20). We need to check out if anything we are doing or saying is making the word
of God null and void. (Matt.15: 7). has anyone ever provoked you and in doing
so has caused you to retaliate. That’s one of the characteristics of the
Amorite spirit. This Amorite spirit caused Moses to be provoked it also
caused him to “boast”.
‘They enraged him at the waters of Meribah; as a
result, things went wrong for Moses, since they had embittered his spirit and
he spoke without stopping to think’. (Ps.106: 32-33) That’s how this enemy
works, if he can succeed in provoking you, he will cause you to exalt yourself.
‘Listen now you rebels. Must we bring forth water from this
rock for you? And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice’. (Nos
20: 12-13).
Because of this incident Moses was told that he would not be
leading them into the Promised Land. Earlier Moses was told to strike the rock
once. The rock refers to Jesus and you don’t crucify him twice. Because this
enemy provoked Moses and caused him to say things that he should never ever
have said, he retaliated back at them. Here they were murmuring, they were
complaining and Moses allowed them to provoke his spirit. This enemy will try
to provoke our spirits and then we say things with our mouths that we shouldn’t
be saying.
Egypt
grew in might with earthly wisdom and the Lord sent a perverse spirit; and they
began to argue to speak against and criticise one another. The word perverse
means to say something in order to distort and to cast to the ground. ‘I
will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian, brother will fight against brother,
neighbour against neighbour, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. The
Egyptians will lose heart and their plans will come to nothing’. ¾The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness’
(Is.19: 1-3; 14) in a very short time
that great nation had been reduced to ashes, because of their perverse
speaking. When families and Churches speak evil against one another: THEY GO
INTO THE DUST; that’s the ‘Amorite spirit’.
In
the letter of James in chapter three he tells us that ‘a great forest is set
on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the
parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of life
on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell’. If you don’t control the
Amorite spirit it will control you.
James said that the tongue was like a
tiny rudder on a ship. The whole ship is controlled and guided by the rudder.
He is saying, a mature Christian is one who has control over his tongue. Let us
learn to speak creatively about ourselves and about those around us. Let us be
‘quick to listen, but slow to speak’. ‘
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet
to the soul and healing to the bones’.
(Pro 16:24).
This tells me that I
can have healing for my bones by the words that I say with my mouth.
‘My
son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them
out of your sight; keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who
find them and health for the whole body’. (Pro 4:20-22).
God’s words are
health for my whole body When I line my words up with the word of God, keeping
them in my heart and before my eyes, then God will watch over his word to bring
it to past. ‘The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love
it will eat its fruit’. (Pro 18:21). Scripture tells us that we reap what
we sow. in the parable of the sower the seeds that were sown were the seeds of
God’s word. Our words are likened unto seeds and they will either produce life
or they will produce death. ‘Zips’ are firelighters, we need to learn how to
‘zip’ the lip and take control over this spirit of the Amorite.
Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
Keep watch over the door of my lips. (Ps. 141:3).
May
the words of my mouth and the meditation
Of
my heart be pleasing in your sight. (Ps. 19:14).
Do
not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful
for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen. (Eph. 4:29).
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