The Power of Our Words Part 2 :Gossip

I took a little detour with my last post, because I just HAD to tell y'all about my vacation. Now on the tale end of one weird post, comes another. My gossip post starts with a "prophetic" dream, so if any of you are leery of my Charismatic ways, now would be a good time to bolt.

Is anyone still here?

A few weeks ago I had a dream. Not just my typical chased by a giant Twinkie dream, but the kind where you wake up and think. hmm, I wonder if God is trying to tell me something.

In my dream I was surrounded by my friends, and every time I opened my mouth to talk, these big black bugs would crawl out. Gross huh. I would go around telling everyone that it was the enemy attacking, but all my friends would just laugh and say "oh it's nothing don't worry about it". Hmm, big black bugs in my mouth is nothing? Whatever, it was a dream.

When I woke up, I could remember the dream so vividly. All day long it bothered me. It really had the flavor of a prophetic dream (which I have had on RARE occasions). I prayed that God would reveal the meaning if it was from him, then tried to dismiss it when I didn't quickly hear an answer.

Last week while I was at the gym, a woman from my old church was on the stairmaster (aka butt cheek torture device) next to me. I turned to make small talk and after a few minutes she started to open up about the pain she was experiencing at church. She was being gossiped about in a BIG way, and was suffering at the mouths of a few busy bodies. Her sadness effected me, but what affected me more was the fact she stuck around out of obedience to God. She got all of her strength to show up each Sunday and face her offnders by her complete and desperate reliance on God.

Now here is the "ouch" part. I will admit in front of all of you, that I too participated in her slander. A friend of mine has an intense hatred of her, and after awhile I fell pray to the malicious venom of Gossip, and got sucked in.

As this poor woman spoke about the gossip being spread, I suddenly flashed back to my dream, and at that moment, God revealed my dream. The bugs were Gossip. I was allowing the enemy to attack others through my own mouth. At that very moment I repented silently in my heart. I want to repent ... I WILL repent to her face, but I'm going to need prayer and courage first. Would YOU pray for that for me?

My drive home was filled with epiphany as I realized how I have allowed the enemy to use my words over this last year. I once took pride in the fact I didn't participate in Gossip, and now here I was repenting for a YEAR of "foul" words. A YEAR!

I now recommit to stand up strong against gossip. No more does the enemy have free access to my mouth. I pray that the Lord will build back up the relationships I have torn down, and I pray that my conviction helps those around me turn from this spirit of criticism.


They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows. Psalm 64:3


With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. Psalm 109:3

you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth. Proverbs 6:2


The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. Proverbs 12:6


Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18


The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts. Proverbs 18:8


Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. Ecclesiastes 10:12


Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. Romans 1:29